Forum Moderators: martinibuster
So... why are people like this? I just can't understand it. Where does this "ads are evil" attitude come from? If I could get my hands on this site... I'd add a little adsense and.... oooh, the possibilities!
ads are evil
Ads are biased; and being biased they do a disservice to the reputation of any well written content.
Evil, yes; but there is always a balance to be struck between avoiding all evil and being able to sustain your website.
As a side note, I do not think that "ads are evil" per se. But the implementation of Adsense that admits bad advertisers (and publishers!) into the system - that's evil. Sending users to cr*p pages on parked pages - that's evil. Blending ads so much that users are tricked into clicking ads - that's evil.
In my case if I wasn't running ads I would be working while going to school and not running a site due to lack of time.
Money can (and should) motivate you to produce higher quality services and give you more credibility... why would I add crap which will lower my income when adding quality will make visitors happy and thus increase income?
Look at hosting as an example... free vs paid hosts. I'm much more comfortable working with people who have something to loose-- that helps ensure quality.
I don't have ads on every one of my websites, and NONE of my sites have ads on every single page. I could probably make a few extra bucks that way, but it wouldn't be life-changing and the bottom line for me is that I don't want them there so I don't put them there.
I know a lady who runs a very nice, large, quality website. She refuses to run ads because she wants to keep it "pure". She also refuses link exchanges because she won't link to any sites that are commercial in any way.
How does this woman earn her living? What sort of work does she do?
FarmBoy
So... why are people like this?
If you have enough money you can afford to be snobby.
Enough being what that person thinks is enough and not what another person thinks is enough.
Time was that a business was a serious undertaking which started with a business plan and a trip to the bank to withdraw one's life savings.
Time was that people informed the tax office when they started self employment and went through the enormous accounting mess that entails.
Time was when hobbies were for fun.
If I was not doing this full time, I would have loved to have no ads on my site too, that's how it all started anyway, and that's how I advise people to start.
It sounds like it's more of an outlet for her or some kind of blog that is more self-fulfilling.
to each their own, i guess... I can understand not doing something for money, but for me, adsense motivates me to add original, quality content to my site. I couldn't afford to do that if I wasn't making a profit. It has nothing to do with greed, just realism... living and going to school cost money.
sometimes 'smart' people are dumb.
I don't know, why are you too dumb to understand why she doesn't want to run ads or do link exchanges?
I don't do link exchanges on any of my websites. Every request goes right into /dev/null
I also don't have ads on my highest traffic review site, just to keep it from seeming like there was any hint of impropriety. And before you say it doesn't make any difference, it is actually mentioned in a lot of the links to the site when people call it "the Consumer Reports of ...".
That said, I also have review sites that have ads on them, and I accept that they will never have the same reputation (or the traffic) of the "pure" site.
She does her thing, you do your's. It's best not to stress about it.
she doesn't get many visitors...
they tend to think "this guy is making money by getting us to view his page, why should we give him money?" that's how "ads are evil" theory mite have started.
Oh I doubt that very much. Ads can only blame themselves for acquiring that "evil" reputation, no need for shaky speculations. You have to remember that Adsense is actually one of the most appreciated type of ads out there, because it is textual and on topic.
For most of the world, ads equals constant annoyance, loud tackiness and profound stupidity with a message of materialist lifestyle and artificial needs. Just turn on your TV or the radio and you'll see what I mean.
As a finance source, ads can also be blamed for corrupting many things and influencing what can be said or not.
There's no need to be rude, BigDave.
If you read my posts you'd see how I can understand it. I started the topic to get other people's opinions and (hopefully) some intelligent insight instead of insults.
But looks like we started an interesting conversation here... :)
Most ads are annoying and obnoxious, I agree. But just deciding to not run ads doesn't make a site more "pure" or reliable, I think that is a common misconception. Yes, plenty of people make crap just to run ads, but I have seen many ad-free sites that are poor quality too.
At least my inner voice says so.
Most creative ads, as much as I love to see them, has got nothing much to do with what is being sold. And that in reality is a creative way of deceiving others.
Now if you excuse me, I have a few ads to write.
[edited by: Habtom at 9:04 am (utc) on Nov. 4, 2007]
Nothing wrong with advertising. It is what drives the American and the worlds economies. Without it all of us web entrepreneurs would be working at the post office or down at Starbucks.
If you treat your web site as a hobby and a way to kill some extra time, ok you
can be despairing about advertising.
For all the rest of us we should be thankful for the advertsing and the life
style we derive from it...KF
There's no need to be rude, BigDave.
Yo dude, you were the one that started calling someone dumb, and simply because you "just can't understand" their reasons for doing what they do. So let me just say to you:
There's no need to be rude, uhwebs.
Don't call people dumb when *you* are the one that is saying that *you* don't understand them.
I don't think "ads are evil", I make a fair amount of money from them, but I also understand and accept why she thinks the way she does about sites full of ads.
I'm not saying she is dumb, she's a nice lady and knowledgeable. Its just that sometimes "smart people are dumb" which is an accurate statement. I have seen people who are very smart do dumb things on the internet and off... and I'm curious about the attitude I see and hoping to get some input. Looks like I started a lively conversation :)
Fourdeg-- I started the same way. I never thought about runnin ads until my site was a few years old. Now the site is a lot more popular...
King, I feel the same way; if not for my site's ads I wouldn't have a site, I'd be working somewhere in my free time.
Yes, ads are very deceptive. I think that is wrong. But at the same time in a captialistic system, its the consumer that chooses who will and won't be successful by voting with their $$$.
There are few absolutes in life and that certainly isn't one of them!
I find most ads are informative and yes even entertaining. They are selling a
product and that's OK. Ads dont actually "sell" a product, you have to get
off the couch and go out to buy the product.
If you find the product doesnt live up to the hype, you pass. This is whats called an informed decision.
For the ten percent of the ads that are deceptive or dishonest (read EVIL)
they normally dont produce and die a natural death.
Bottom line? Most of us recognize truth in advertsing when we see it. The rest of us soon will!...KF
Its just that sometimes "smart people are dumb" which is an accurate statement.
It may be an accurate statement, but the decision on whether to put ads on sites is more of a personal value judgement than an IQ issue. Not everyone tries to make money from their hobbies and your friend with the website sounds like her site is a hobby site.
I'm always confounded that people who believe advertising is evil bother to invest time in an AdSense forum. I'm sorry for being so dense, but where's the connection?
My main site gets a fair bit of traffic (about 1000-1500 uniques per day, judging by the image hits, not the html). Number one in the serps for various searches that have 10-20 million results. Those aren't the ones we really want, but we accept the traffic load because it boosts the important pages on the more obscure traffic that we're after.
On those high-traffic pages (10 out of about 500), we could do adsense but it would make us look cheap and money-grubbing, rather than the very cool NGO we are. Bad form.
Any of you want to go that route, fine, but I'd rather hang myself than do it. And the big plus is that when all the MFA's and link-exhange sites get hammered in the latest algo change, it makes no difference to us. We just keep doing better and better.
2) There are lots of sites for which Adsense, promoting the site etc. are not worth the effort. All the more so if you feel you should monitor the site for bad ads and filter them.
3) If you turn a hobby into a business, it might stop being fun (depending on the hobby, and your personality).
