Ads Don’t Work

There has been a lot of hubbub on the internets today about web ad/tracker/content blocking. It seems that 36hrs of full on iOS9 content blocking was enough to cause every single ad-supported publication to collectively loss their shit. Imagine how abysmal ad numbers must have been for Marco Arment to pull his highly successful iOS9 content blocker.

I started blocking ads over a month ago (based largely on Marco’s advice) and I’m not going back!

I don’t feel bad about it.

Banner ads do not work.
Showing me ads for a product I just bought on amazon… on every website… for the next month… is a dumb waste of everyone’s bandwidth, resources and money; Nobody has clicked on a banner ad in at least 10 years, at least not by choice; And haven’t publishers been complaining about not making any money off of banner ads since the beginning of internet time?

Make up your mind publishers. Are you making any money off shitty low-quality, data stealing, phone crashing ads? Or are ad blockers THE END OF THE INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT?! OMG!1!1!11

Do you know what works?

  1. Native advertising. (except native advertising is generally bad)
  2. Getting content consumers to pay for stuff.

That’s right, I am suggesting that people would pay for ad free web experiences. Why not have an ad-free version for a small monthly payment? It’s worked for services like Livejournal, Flickr, Reddit, for years.

I am surprised that in 2015 we still haven’t cracked the micropayment promise of 2005. The promise of a world where sites load unencumbered by 33 javascript includes, where publishers make decent money without selling out their readers. Hell, in a world where I pay $8 to Netflix, instead of $70+ to a cable provider for video entertainment. I have a few extra dollars to spend on the sites I value the most.


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