Rubenerd

I didn't think ABP was necessary to make the web usable until I went to a machine that didn't have it!

It's another case of someone else saying exactly what I've been thinking for a very long time, but because they're not Ruben Schade they're able to articulate what they mean in a few words instead of a bloated paragraph such as the one you're reading now. In fact this whole paragraph could have been condensed into one simple line: "look at what this person said on Twitter".

“monetization” is an evil, ugly word that has infested the internet with hollow promises and broken dreams

~BrainDouche

The way I see it, when people start thinking they need to monitise their weblog, their podcast, their time-shifted programming (I agree Jim, it's a silly name), their cat, the cold water tap on their kitchen sink and so on, except in a few select cases they inevitably cause more damage and in the long run hurt their chances of making money.

You know what most people appreciate online? Being treated line an adult, and being treated with respect. Huge flashy banner advertisements to me are a glowing sign that states they're more interested in making a quick buck than respecting you.

Common sense, we hardly knew thee…

Obviously if a site isn't interesting people won't go to it, so the chances for them to make money is reduced. Therefore even if we're just talking about the narrow view of making money, it's in their interest (I love pointless puns) to make their sites engaging and… not irritating!

I'd be interested to see the before and stats on sites that have put up splash screen advertisements you need to click before going to the rest of the site (I hate those!) and sites that have replaced discreet Google AdWords or something similar with huge banner ads. I'd hedge (another horrible financial pun) my bet that they've done themselves a disservice.

The extent of the advertising on my own site

As a real world example, since last year my site has had a silly "Buy Ruben a Cup of Coffee" button on the side for those to contribute to if they like something they've read here or if they've found something useful. I've had more than a dozen cups bought for me, which is far more money than I made from having text advertisements on my pages for a couple of years. The former is far less intrusive, and I like to think it means I treats my visitors like adults rather than just drones to market stuff to.

I also display a couple of banners gratis at the bottom of my page here for RichardDawkins.net and for FreeBSD, but that's because I appreciate their causes and want to help. Given the search queries people enter into Google to get here a large percentage of my readers would be interested in them anyway.

In a round about way, what I'm saying is: people like honesty. I guess despite my age group being one of the the "target demographics" I'm old fashioned in that regard.