Do ads put people off?

I don't think so myself

[Automotive site]

I honestly believe ads on sites make finding information a richer experience. If you are looking for information on a given topic, I believe a very informative article goes well with ads that are highly on topic as far as the visitor (reader) is concerned. He/she has extra options. I actually find sites that only have content (not too many I must say) a rather dull experience. I don't mind seeing ads as long as they are not intrusive.

[dougwilson]

That one that pops up in front of the page that I have to close to read? Bugs me...

[tbear]

Sadly, most of the ads I see relate to my browsing history and not so much the site I'm on....

[dougwilson]

Find and use Opt-out or add cookies to preferences (not sure where, been a long time)

[lucy24]

I honestly believe ads on sites make finding information a richer experience.

Gosh. All that wasted time, adding popup blockers and ad blockers to browsers when people really don't even want them :(

[Automotive site]

"Gosh. All that wasted time, adding popup blockers and ad blockers to browsers when people really don't even want them"

You are probably being sarcastic, but I think there was a time a few years ago when people really overwhelmed their visitors with ads (lots of in your face ad blocks, pops up, etc) and that was annoying even though the visitors didn't mind seeing ads on some other sites that had them in the sidebar or at the end of content. But site owners have realized the error of their ways, and on most content sites I see ads that are quite discreet but still visible enough to generate revenue. Let's just say people have become better at ad placements.

[Andy Langton]

Clearly ads won't annoy everybody - but if you look at the most popular extensions for both Chrome and Firefox, Adblock is consistently in the top 5 in each - more than 15 million downloads in each "store". So there is clearly a significant percentage of people that dislike ads to the point of taking action against them.

[Automotive site]

Well, I think I am right in thinking ad blockers allow different permissions to be set. I think lot of ad blockers are used specifically for pop up types.

[nomis5]

Personally, I think ads, one or two blocks per page, do improve the look of the page in many cases. They certainly look good on my mobile sites, nicely breaking up the content.

Adblockers may be popular but loads more people click on the ads.

[lucy24]

They certainly look good on my mobile sites, nicely breaking up the content.

Some people use illustrations for this purpose. Visually the effect is the same and it doesn't draw the reader's attention away from the page content. They also, of course, don't make you any money.

<ot>
I'm reminded of the first time I saw the limited-run TV series {name omitted}. It was originally made for broadcast TV, with commercial breaks at set intervals. I saw it on a cable network without advertising. You could see where the breaks were supposed to be; the original producers clearly hadn't envisioned a direct cut from one scene to the next. They would have done better to put up "Intermission" cards for at least 15 seconds to preserve the gaps.
</ot>

[tbear]

Find and use Opt-out or add cookies to preferences

Yeah, I could, but I doubt many of my visitors do that.
Which makes the ads irrelevant to the page they are on.