When ads go wrong

The original title was a bit misleading. I didn’t mean the Internet should actually be free. I mean that the Internet is not a place for excessive advertising. It isn’t the classifieds in a newspaper.

Ok I guess some clarification is in order (ie “you’re an idiot” down in the comments):

First, from the struggling new product department: Products do need a marketing push. I agree with that. But don’t push it too hard. Ads showing nonskippably before a video are plain wrong. Heck I see them as the mortal sin of advertising, next to pop-ups.  I can deal with text ads or graphics, just please no popups or anything that gets in the way (ahem I’m looking at you “Content Link”, “Intellitxt”, etc.)

Also, from the siteowner’s standpoint, people need money. Websites aren’t free to keep up. I can understand that, and I respect that. But once again ads should never degrade your site’s appearance or content. I don’t want to go to a page with ads on the left right top and bottom of it, along with pop-ups and “2 new crush requests!”. They clutter your page. They’re annoying to use. And I think some siteowners do this on purpose because they know they’re the only choice for a particular task. They can plaster ads everywhere and people will still use it because it’s the most common choice (or the only one). Thus, profit!!!$

Indeed it is a hard balancing act. Get them noticed but don’t deface your page.

Ads need to get noticed not hated. Most importantly they need to be relevant. RELEVANT. And I know for sure that having them obstruct my online experience makes me grumpy toward the product (and to some extent the site as well)

PS: Just for the record no I don’t use ad-blocking software because I understand people need the money. I dislike them but I do put up with them. Heck sometimes they are genuinely useful and relevant.

I may be an idiot but at least now you know from an idiot’s point of view. Of course I’m not an expert in either advertising or webpage management. No obviously I don’t pay for webhosting. I’m completely aware I’m unqualified to discuss this. This is simply a little rant in a little section of a little blog in a little corner of the huge Web. I don’t expect it to change the world, I only expect it to help me write better

Original rant straight ahead:

No. Ads. Ever. By free I don’t mean not paying for your ISP, rather that by paying for your ISP, you’re already paying for the Internet and thus you don’t need to see no fucking ads. Websites should not pay for themselves, people should pay for them. Get the maintainers to monetize it. And only through donations.

I don’t WANT TO FUCKING SEE A NONSKIPPABLE AD IN THE MIDDLE OF MY FUCKING VIDEO. Honestly this makes me hate the product advertised.

The only sites that should have ads are the sites specifically dedicated to shopping. No pop-ups either. Strictly inline text or graphic ads that showcase a special. Or, company sites that produce a product can advertise that product on their site. BUT ONLY ON THAT SITE.

Same thing goes for TV. The service is paid for, so why do we still get ads? Over-the-air, free channels I might could give lenience to, but this is ridiculous.

Hell DirecTV has like 10 channels showing 24 hours of infomercials. WHAT THE HELL.

Thus any and all websites I ever create will never have a single ad on them.

Case in point: Paint.net. Great app, sucky as hell decision. They cut out the help files from the download so they could get more revenue by posting them online next to Google Ads…(Source) Ok they do provide a download for the files separately, but this is still a very snarky decision.

Never ever put ads in your help files. Never ever put ads or endorsements on your personal websites (unless they’re non-monetized or advertising yourself), and never ever place an ad anywhere that obtrudes vision to your page (ie AT THE MAIN TOP OF THE PAGE, between content, etc)

No graphic ads that flash, no flash game ads, no stupid crush request ads, NO ADS. If you want to get your brand spanking new product out there, make a website and let the search engines crawl it, people will find it by word-of-mouth eventually.