A while ago I started displaying ads on this site using Google AdSense. To be perfectly honest, this was done to make a little more money from this site. All the work that is available on this site is free and open-source and while many people are generous enough to donate I certainly will not be quitting my job anytime soon! By putting ads on the site I figured I could generate some extra revenue which might cover my hosting costs, subsidize a DVD purchase every now and again, and allow me to continue my development work.
Ads On My Site
The ads have worked out pretty much as I expected them to. I am sure I could increase my earnings by serving up graphical banner ads or making the text ads more invasive, but the idea was to generate a little money rather than pimp out my site. I always try to put myself in a visitor’s position and think: would I be annoyed by the use of ads on this site?
Due to the nature of my work the majority of visitors to this site are using Firefox and have at their disposal the AdBlock extension which, as the name suggests, allows the user to quickly and easily block ads. However, not everyone chooses to use this extension — I personally find a combination of the Flashblock extension and disabling image animations to be an effective way of hiding the most invasive ads, for example — and some of those who do use AdBlock choose not to block text ads.
I feel that this leaves the user in control. If you do not mind the text ads you can still read my site without being overrun by them and if you do find them annoying you have the ability to hide them. This seems to be a common approach taken by other sites similar to mine that also display text ads. However, two announcements came out recently that could affect this and they are both related specifically to Google AdSense.
Google Announcements
First came the announcement that Google will start allowing animated banner ads. Originally Google only displayed text ads, but last year they started to allow graphical ads. Google still does not display graphical ads on its own site and AdSense allows you to choose not to display graphical ads on your site. Now I will only display text ads on this site, but I wonder if people will see graphical and animated banner ads as a way to generate more revenue than from pure text ads and graphical ads will become more prevalent on sites displaying ads from AdSense.
Secondly, and more importantly in my opinion, is the news that Google is readying AdSense support for feeds. Placing ads in feeds is already possible with services such as FeedBurner and Kanoodle’s BrightAds, but Google entering the space will undoubtedly increase the amount of ads in feeds.
Ads In Feeds
Ads in feeds seems like a touchy issue — people are generally either appalled by the concept or resigned to the inevitable. Those who are not happy about the idea of ads in feeds are probably having the same feelings that people did when ads began to appear in any other media for the first time. There are often claims of immediate unsubscribing of any feeds that contain ads, but I wonder how realistic this is as ads in feeds become more commonplace.
Clearly, I am resigned to the inevitable appearance of ads in feeds, but I have no immediate plans to start placing ads in my own feeds using either FeedBurner or AdSense for the following reasons:
- The services that display the ads are still immature and the targeted nature of the ads is not always accurate.
- I do not want to alienate my readers who may be opposed to ads in feeds.
- I do not need the revenue enough to justify the use of ads in feeds given the two previous concerns.
However, as the first two reasons become less of an issue with time — which I believe they will — I am not opposed to placing the text ads in my feeds. One compromise solution I have heard is to offer an ad-free, summary-only feed alongside a full content feed with ads and this may also be something I consider in the future. This is not something I plan on doing in the short term, if at all, but with Google entering the space expect to see ads appearing in more and more feeds and ad blocking features appearing in feed readers.
Therefore, I open this up to you. How do you feel about ads in general? Are you opposed to ads in feeds or will you accept ads in feeds as long as they are unobtrusive?
I wonder if services like Bloglines will begin offering features to strip out ads from feeds. Then the fun begins.
Although with Bloglines I wonder if they themselves will start displaying ads. I assume that Ask Jeeves is going to want to start generating some money from Bloglines.
funny you should talk about this. I considered placing AdSense on my site and even went as far as signing up. Then it occurred to me that I have no right / reason to do so as my hosting is free (kind mates) and I don’t contribute any free software to the world. I can understand ads on your site though and think its fair enough as you’ve contributed to the community
To be honest, I can barely remember the days of the net without ads, I sort of blank them out anyway these days, with or without the ad blockers …
The debate can go on and on but what concern’s me more is not the ethics behind placing ads in feeds or blogs but the eventual effects on advertising.
With ads filling every nook and corner of the web, isnt it a matter of time when they start losing their effectiveness?
I am all for people who contribute (like yourself
) to the Web community and else, to be able to generate some extra revenue through targeted advertising but please excuse me if I claim that I have *NOT* clicked on a single ad since my script kiddie days. (err wait! I’m still one!)
I have always been curious about the amount of money one could earn by placing ads. I simply haven’t got a clue. Are you willing to share just the order of magnitude a site that popular as your’s could expect to earn by placing unintrusive ads?
I am aware that there might be contract conditions or other legal / ethical concerns which would inhibit ypu from exposing any numbers… But, ancient wisdom says: “Non olet”.
I’ll just say that the ads on this site generate very little money. Just about enough to cover my hosting costs and allow me to buy a DVD or two a month.
I’m sure I could generate more money if I really worked at it, but they were never really added to be a major source of income but really just a way for me to cover my costs of the web site and the free work I produce.