I blocked Ad-Blockers.

Running a test

[eek2121]

I recently decided to block ad-blockers from accessing content on my site. I was initially worried that users were going to bounce off my site, but so far the results have been VERY encouraging. Nearly all of the users turned off their ad-blocker to view my content. I've also received no negative feedback thus far. That being said, I will monitor over the next week or so and let everyone know how it turns out.

[bakedjake]

hey eek2121 I'm curious - how are you detecting ad blockers?

[james007]

I've turned my blocker back on. And, in the spirit of sharing, here's the code, assuming WW allows this through. It's at the bottom of the page.

By way of explaining - the main "large rectangle" is surrounded by a DIV with an ID of "minfo-mpu-responsive", and it has no set height in the CSS. So, this is checking that the DIV exists, that it's been set as a height of zero (i.e. hasn't got an ad in it), and it then rewrites the DIV to have a little message in it.

<script type="text/javascript">
window.onload = function () {
if (document.getElementById("minfo-mpu-responsive")!=null) {
if (document.getElementById("minfo-mpu-responsive").offsetHeight < 1) {
document.getElementById("minfo-mpu-responsive").innerHTML = decodeURIComponent("Please%20turn%20off%20your%20ad-blocker.%20Thanks!");
}
}
}
</script>

The actual message that I put in there is bright red, and says something like...

Hello, adblock user!
We're an ad-funded website, but you've chosen to block the ads that pay for this website.

That's fine; become a pro user and we'll remove the ads for you.

Or, you can send a donation of any size to [email] via PayPal. Drop us an email and we'll then give you a Pro account free of charge to thank you for your support.

Or, whitelist us. That's cool, too.

We know you want to do the right thing and support the websites you enjoy using. Thank you for your support: we really appreciate it.

Becoming a Pro user costs US$8.99 for a year, incidentally - I'm not talking about loads of money!

[keyplyr]

I posted almost identical code a year ago only used a child window to deliver the message.

I just asked the user to disable the adblocker or add my site to their whitelist. I wasn't offering an ad-free subscription.

It had only moderate success. Probably depends on niche. I removed my code after a week.

[james007]

I've offered "pro" for a few years now. It's had very limited success (it offers more than just no advertising).

I did run a version of this code before and know that it resulted in at least one sale (I don't use PayPal for payments normally) so that was interesting. I think if you ask nicely, it might help. And I don't think it hurts to educate.

I wouldn't want to run a child window or get in the way of content, which is why it just puts a piece of text in there. It's relatively easy to block as well...

[JS_Harris]

I've felt it was time to retake control of my websites for some time. The ad blockers are helping themselves to my content without respecting my decision to display ads and earn an income from my writing efforts.

It's not just ad blockers however that I feel disrespected by. Google and the whole AMP movement where I have to add the code to create an ugly version of my site for speed purposes when doing so is actually SLOWER for my setup(static html without database on a heavily optimized site). Being lowered in rankings for not using something that slows down my site is backwards, but I've dug in, I won't do it.

I'm in control of my content, everyone can ask for permission to alter it before doing so, period. If some new iteration of a panda-like creature comes about in the near future and hands me a -50 penalty I am at a point where I will add a -100% content access on it for whatever engine smacks it too. Enough is enough.

Whoever wants my content, search engine or otherwise, can start taking it as is or not at all. I waste more creative hours running in circles for things my visitors don't ultimately see that there really is no option anymore.

[james007]

I'm in control of my content, everyone can ask for permission to alter it before doing so, period.

Problem is: you're not in control of your content, and nobody need ask for any permission to alter it.

Digging your heels in is, I think, precisely the wrong thing to do: it's unrealistic, and treats your visitors poorly.

I completely get your reservations about AMP - though my own, personal, website is entirely in AMP, and I serve news stories from my main website in AMP as well. Your problem will be that you lack the AMP badge in search results, which might mean that some more tech-savvy users gravitate towards a competitor with AMP. But AMP isn't just about that; it's about speed of layout rather than simply speed of HTTP; your site may be heavily optimised for file transfer and file size, but it might not be optimised for layout speed.

[blend27]

I am looking at this screen now, yes this screen. There is a OPTIONS button for NoScript to allow and/or not to allow. WebmasterWorld is allowed, goog APIs script too(cause I was looking for some known/reported server farm IP Ranges). I know there are 3 other JS scripts that I would never allow.

I've been searching for something the other day(desktop) and came across a site that showed me a gently bouncing, almost 3D, Yellow Arrow. It was bouncing right above the NoScript Button.

Maid me unblock JS the site and its assets from CDN.

It was a design/marketing company.

Very unobtrusive.

There were some server side ads that showed up on the page as well. But it seems they were in control of them and the page as I was looking at it..

[james007]

I don't think the issue is JS blocking but ad-blocking which is quite different. My guess is that blocking JS would produce such a poor experience on most sites that people would quickly tolerate ads rather than break most of the websites they visit.

My website is functional, I guess, without JS. I suspect there are many things that don't work, and I've no interest in making them work without JS.

[james007]

PS: If of interest, I'm seeing an increase in RPM after adding the ad-blocker code.