I’ve mentioned before that I don’t use any ad blocking software and perhaps hold a refreshing perspective that I don’t begrudge others who do. I want to learn more from people that use ad blockers on site(s) that they enjoy. If a site like this one is ad-supported and you enjoy the content, why would you continue to block our primary source of revenue?

That’s not meant in a critical or confrontational way, but a serious question that confuses me. It doesn’t make sense to block a part of something that produces joy in your life. Maybe it’s only a tiny part of joy in your life, but if there is any value why cut off the source’s oxygen supply?

My polite request for those using ad blockers at MakeYouGoHmm.com is: please don’t. If you ignore this request, that’s fine. I’d still like to have you as a reader and maybe if I do a good job, someday a subscriber.

These advertisements help pay for my ever dwindling time to create content to share freely here. As readers might expect, I make more money doing programming and working in our offline business than writing for this blog. However the joy and excitement I receive from writing and the ensuing conversations is more than our other two businesses put together. Not saying I don’t enjoy programming or our offline business or our many clients (some of which have become good friends) because I do, but those businesses are jobs, this is my lifelong passion. Ever since I’ve been old enough to put pen to paper, I’ve wanted to be a writer.

I have a dream …
My dream is to increase the income from writing-related projects so that I can someday cut back on my other work and focus even more on writing and other creative-related projects. The last few years through this blog I’ve been able to experience some of this dream and I’m very, very thankful, but how can I continue to realize this dream if the primary revenue stream at this site is under assault by ad blocking tools?

I’m certainly not going to resort to extremes like fellow blogger Danny Carlton who is redirecting all Firefox traffic to whyfirefoxisblocked.com. I have little desire or energy to fight against technology and the desires of readers. If they find something distracting to their reading experience who am I to tell them differently?

If we want to grow our readership, especially if readers tend to be more tech-savvy, we shouldn’t beat folks down for doing something they want to do. As publishers we need to better understand those who regularly use ad blocking programs. Who want to use them. And why.

Too many sites have become ad-laden and intrusive to reading and I understand — generally — why people want to use ad blocking tools to visit these type sites. But what about sites like this one where the advertising is not intrusive? We don’t use popups or popunders, flyovers, ads with sound, cut up the articles into multiple pages to pimp page views or any of that other nonsense. Why are some readers of a site like this using ad blocking programs?

The interview
This morning I interviewed a long time Hmm reader and subscriber, darkmoon, who indicated to me he uses a popular ad blocking program. He’s also become a friend through this blog and somebody I would likely never have met if not for this blog. While asking friends to critique what you’re doing is not always the wisest thing, I think the information he shares below is valuable to other publishers who rely primarily on ad revenue to support their sites. Darkmoon gave permission to share our interview conducted in IRC this morning in this blog post.

Darkmoon is a blogger too and can be read and subscribed at life.firelace.com. He’s not a blogger given to a large number of words, but he finds and shares some cool tools and the occasional pensive post. He also is one of the people behind the scenes for the upcoming ConvergeSouth 2007 conference.

What adblocking tool do you use specifically?
Adblocker Plus. I think that’s the one that comes with Firefox. BonEcho.

BonEcho?
Optimized Firefox for Mac.

How often do you use this tool? Is it only for certain sites? Or do you leave it enabled for all sites?
I just leave it enabled all the time, unless it prevents me from viewing things on a site. Then I turn it off for which ever sites that it doesn’t work well on.

What types of sites doesn’t it work well on?
Such as… most video sites… I disable it on Google sites (gmail, finance, etc).. anything else that comes to mind mainly is flash enabled pieces. Basically, at least for Mac… (I don’t think the Windows side does this, but I haven’t messed with it in a bit…)

It makes it so that the refresh on the flash embedded is messed up. So you see partial video, or partial screen… and it’s all white or whatever. If you disable it Adblocker plus on that site… then it works fine

You prefer Firefox over Safari, no good ad blocking tools for Safari?
Used to Firefox. in actuality, I use Safari for a couple of things, but I’m not sure what blockers there are on it. It has automatic pop up blocking.. but not sure what else.

In fact… let me boot it up real quick to see if there is a blocker on it (darkmoon boot Safari). Nope… nothing on the Safari.

The million dollar question: are you blocking ads at MakeYouGoHmm? And if so, why? Or why not? (be honest now!)
Let me look at makeyougohmm. I don’t even know. Oh… nope. not blocking. I believe I turned it off due to the hmmcasts.

Ahh, so just show video and you have to see ads, interesting. Another benefit of the Hmmcasts! It doesn’t sound like you’ve ever visited any of the advertisers here? Have you?
I don’t click on ads. never have really. If I need something, I go and buy it. or find it online.

You’ve been a reader of Hmm for quite some time now. How long, do you know? We’ve become friends as a result of the blog, wouldn’t you say?
Yeah… friends from the blog, definitely… and I don’t remember. lol. have to search your archives to see when my first comment was about. Looks like at least April of 2005. I was reading it earlier than that though.

Now it would be a violation of Google Adsense for me to ask you to click any of the ads, so I’m naturally NOT going to ask you or any other person reading to do that. But you do realize these ads help finance the site and help pay for my time, of course?
Well that explains it… I was just wondering where exactly your ads were. cuz I don’t remember seeing them. and the reason for that is…. I usually just go to the main page. I don’t see ads if any there.. they’re on the individual page, thus…. I read everything I need to read… and never actually see an ad. If I comment though, I would… but then I’m focused on commenting, and not reading.

There used to be ads in the header at the top of the main, category and archive pages. Those were taken down recently. You never saw those ads? What do you think should be put there instead?
I never paid attention to the headers… heck… I didn’t even know you had the 9/11 names there until JohnnyRS [a fellow author in a group blog we contribute to] mentioned that he didn’t see it until he read the post. So I don’t even remember if they were flashy and rotating or not.

I doubt it. personally, I hate rotating banner ads. I’d probably much more be likely to click text links than rotating banner ads or flashing things.

Do you think that’s a good or bad thing that you don’t remember these ads?
Good on the design. Bad for advertising. I think that it might be better if it was integrated into the posts… or between the posts or what not. But really depends on the goal of it. I probably wouldn’t be your typical surfer either. Been around the block and know all the tricks of trying to get out of seeing an ad.

You don’t have a problem with ads integrated within the editorial section? As long as they are clearly marked? Or does it matter?
I don’t even care if it’s integrated direct between posts. as long as it’s clean.

Clean?
If it catches my attention, I might click it. Reason I don’t usually click stuff? Malware. viruses. etc. Habit. Flows together. So…. like those that design their websites with content in middle.. and banners down the sides? Not clean. it’s really messy, and easy to do. doesn’t look good at all.

Yet, if people had text ads, with text links… or had permanent picture placements, and when they didn’t have pictures in the layout, they put an ad there… From my perspective, that’s clean. You’re used to looking towards one particular area for a picture, there’s an ad. Basically like magazine style layouts. It’s non-intrusive, looks good on the whole, but if you want to look for an ad, you would see it

What about these PayPerPost and ReviewMe type paid posts, how do your feel about them? Would you rather see those than banner ads and text link ads outside the editorial?
Paid posts are fine, as long as it’s clearly marked as a “paid post”. Most people don’t mark them… and it’s tough to be objective when you’re getting paid to write it.

I personally think that most readers don’t mind reading it if it’s marked. They know that you might be leaning one way or the other… but they’re warned right off the bat.

I’ve passed on PayPerPost to date because it seems kind of cheap, especially with blogs with those gigantic buttons in the sidebar. I haven’t really tried donations either, what do you think of donations?
I think donations depend a lot on the content. If it’s controversial topics that you hit on all the time, like…. religion and politics ….the chance of donation is a lot greater.

However, the blogs that you and I write? I don’t think they’d do as well. Just a personal opinion. You have a lot more experience in advertising online than I do. Heck, I learned most of my blog advertising from you.

You could always put a little gold chest in at the top of makeyougohmm and see. I suppose it might work for you. wouldn’t for me. Just like in SL, some people get tips, some don’t. Same industry too.

I’ve been considering offering an optional paid subscriber side to MakeYouGoHmm, but paid subscriber areas with blogs haven’t really been a proven model yet. This possible future subscriber area might include things like a 100% complete ad-free site experience, access to the 200+ posts that haven’t been published (yet), access to content I plan to charge separately for in the future (think tangible material), seeing more of the editorial side of what gets to the site, getting to read and comment and perhaps even help shape posts before non-subscribers get to see them (a la slashdot), etc. Do you think if the price for something like this was nominal (say $5-25/year or something) you’d possibly be interested (not intended as a pitch, just curious) Or would you rather see better placement of ads to support these features with no subscription?
With your current type of content? Or more focused?

Reason I ask is because… more focused on particular topics.. I could see the paid scenario. Much like.. hmm.. I think Kos does that now, don’t read him anymore.

Of course… for $5/yr… that’s not terrible on the pocket, If you start breaking double digits though, I’ll come looking for ya. haha.

I think you’d actually be better off in writing the paid model for a multitude of blogs. So if you had say… 10 or so blogs together…. and paid could get you all of them. it might work out. depends on what type of content they are.

In getting me to shell out money, it really just depends. like I watched a whole bunch of short films by Wong Fu Productions just recently…. and I went and bought their first feature film for like $20.

I’d much rather pay for something tangible though, than donate. just me.

I just signed up for Consumer Reports online. $25 a year. The only thing that really gives you access to is their reports. Subscriber sites still work but the challenge is figuring out what people will be willing to pay for versus what they can get anywhere else. With a zillion blogs out there, it has to be more than just blog content, I think. I’m still working out the specifics, but it sounds like you’d be open to the concept. The possibility anyway.
Yup, depends on how it’s flushed out, Also realize that I’m not your everyday surfer though. that needs consideration.

Let’s finish by revisiting your comment about how you “never” click on ads. It isn’t really never, is it? It seems from some of your comments here that you do, in fact, sometimes click on ads and don’t have a huge problem with it assuming it’s tastefully done and not intrusive. You said you would be “much more likely to click text links than rotating banner ads.” You don’t have a problem with ads inside editorial or in clearly marked spaces.
Right… okay… it’s not “never”… that’s more like a… very seldom if at all. :p It depends on if it’s something I need or want.. and the advertiser is someone reputable.

That makes a huge difference. just like if I don’t know your company… first thing I do is look up the website. If it doesn’t look good, forget doing business. it’s a calling card these days. Same thing with ads.

Well hopefully if you trust the publisher, you trust that they are choosing trustworthy advertising. I mean, you seem to indicate you didn’t even really “feel” the ads around Hmm.
I know better. lol. If you had to clean certain computers from certain members of your family every time cuz it has like 200-500+ malware… you’d be hesistant too.

Yeah.. don’t really pay attention to it. But like I said… been around the web for a long long time. My eyes tend to track just content as it is. Ignores a lot of other stuff. That’s why I can skim fast. lol

Thanks for your time and feedback, darkmoon, it’s been enlightening on the subject of why you are blocking ads.
yw.

Hmm, a lot to think about
As I read back through this interview a number of things occured to me, but I’d rather read more about what you think on the subject and add to what I’m learning about this subject. Those of you that read and enjoy MakeYouGoHmm.com or perhaps are just passing through for this one post — especially those who regularly use ad blocking tool(s) — what advice can you offer me going forward? What do you recommend I do? Just don’t worry about ad blocking? Business as usual?

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