Adblock - A good thing or a bad thing?

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I just came across the Adblock plug-in for Firefox today when browsing the recommended plug-in page. I thought id give it a shot and see if it worked (having recently had a site i wanted to read with about a billon ads), and it does... very well.

But i also caught wind of the backlash against it, and rightfully so.

The general feeling is that the honest blogger with a few ads on his site won’t get any exposure for their ads and thus make no money which will affect them and I can totally understand this. Unfortunately it’s not them that’s the problem, it’s the websites that have 75% adverts and 25% content. Now whilst you can argue just don’t use the site, sometimes either the content is not available elsewhere or a good and reputable site simply has too many ads making it hard to read actual content.

I came across a site like this yesterday, i thought i could avoid them by using RSS but turned out to be a truncated feed which then sent me back to the site full of ads that made it hard to read, so in this case i would probably turn a plug-in like this on so I can actually read the content then switch off.

As i see it i would rather the plug-in would reverse its way of working, whereby it defaults to being off, but in the case of a problem site you can switch it on. That way the site adverts will at least get a chance to load once before you block on a problem site, but normal sites and blogs that rely on the income wont have their unobtrusive ads blocked automatically.

I would be interested to hear your views on this. So please leave a comment.

Thanks

(FYI I am not pimping this plug-in nor flaming it, interested in your views)

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Nov 10, 2009

jamesbrobinson said...

You mean similar to the way we can toggle iPhone settings on and off within SBSettings, but on a per-tab / per-site basis?

I despise the sites that show 75% ads, especially the in-line stuff and then they make you click through several pages to basically see an article that should have been on one page!

I see your point regarding smaller time people not getting any exposure; however how many small time people actually make money off of adverts anyway? You need thousands of clicks to make a couple of quid. It's the key reason I will never have ads on any of my sites (plus it turns people off). I feel a better system for bloggers wanting to make a bit of money is to have a chip-in or donate area on their site. If people find stuff useful and return, they'll support a site. None of my mates click ads. We identify the item and do our own search to find it instead.

Ben Gillam said...

maybe its the ad networks that are the problem, for example if i wanted to put an advert on for your site, even a standard 125x125 ad, i wouldnt want it blocked. Some sites also will put more ads on if you came from a search engine instead of just direct, which is just lame.

mikecj said...

Interesting, Ben. I disagree with James - it depends on your niche, but on our travel blog for instance, adverts generate a full time income for my wife, so I'd hate the thought of them being "turned off" and no, we don't have loads of ads on there, they are well targeted.

I also hate the sites that fill your face with ads, and also those "hover-over" sign up forms, so I can see the benefit of using a blocker, although I personally would vote with my feet rather than install the blocker.

I think the online advertising industry is still pretty new and we're all learning. Maybe we should start by feeding back to those sites where we find the ads overpowering?

Interesting you should say that, I contacted the owner of the site I talked about above and they have agreed to looking into changeing ad placement for the better. I believe that sometimes its easy (especially for beginners) to just stick an ad-sense or other ad network plug in on your site and just let go. A good site should use ads sensibly and place them so as to not drive people away when it becomes a chore reading content around the ads.

ben said...

Interesting you should say that, i contacted the owner of the site I talk about above and they are looking into what could be changed. I do believe that sometimes and especially for beginers it's easy to just stick an adsense plugin on your site and let go but a good site should use ads sensibly so as to not drive people away

Christine Morris said...

Interesting discussion, I hadn't thought of it that way myself, and my initial thinking was actually, they don't make much cash unless you ARE big time so I never bothered to put them on any sites I have / had. I find the majority ugly and more of an annoyance. Also I have stopped going to some sites because of that.

Personally, if I use a plug in or theme or something, if the creator has put a little paypal link I do donate a few pennies their way. But I would never click an ad, as a coincidence they don't usually have ads and maybe that's why I find myself more likely to donate.

Mike also raises an interesting point cause his blog is friendly and very targeted.... the folks reading it probably find the ads useful so there seems to be no right or wrong answer. Sorry that's no help at all!

Jan 16, 2010

yonyz said...

You can always use bookmarklets such as Readable and Readability to remove the crap that surrounds the real content. They work even better than ad-blockers.

Ben Gillam’s posterous

Personal musings (or rants) by Ben Gillam

Adblock - A good thing or a bad thing?

Ben Gillam