I visit a variety of web-developer type blogs and news sites over the course of my average week, and there's a repeated theme (which ties into all this ACTA and digital economy furore over the last couple of months) which goes like this:
"Ad-blocking is bad. I make my living off you seeing my ads."
Pardon me, internet guy, but I don't owe you anything. Not one red cent. If I want to improve my browsing experience by refusing to download your adverts, that's my business and my business alone.
If you don't want me to see your content, don't publish it on the internet.
If you don't want me visiting your site because the traffic costs are too expensive for you, then put in a paywall. You will immediately benefit in the reduction of traffic costs because chances are very high I'll not be back.
If you want to publish content, and attempt to make a living off that (and it's possible, I've seen many people who do) then great - go for your life. Don't think that gives you a right to dictate how I use the internet. If you can't make a living because people are not clicking on your adverts, that is your problem not mine. If putting your content out there is too expensive for you or is not making you the money you want ... change your business model.
The whole 'surfing with an ad blocker is like stealing from content producers' argument is just as moronic as the 'fast forwarding through the adverts is stealing from TV companies'. Ads suck, anybody with a working brain will filter them out (actively or passively) - get over it.
ReplyDeleteAnybody writing stuff that's attracting people smart enough to use an ad blocker must realise what's going on here, and how hopeless their cause is. If they want ad $ then write about American Idol and milk the sheeple.