Aaron Lerch

A few days ago I signed up for Google Adsense and put a few ads on my blog. I figured there’s enough traffic coming in that maybe it’ll pay for the hosting fees and “break even”, which is all I wanted. But I had one problem - I hate ads.  Actually let me qualify that. I hate obtrusive, annoying, in-your-face-can’t-tell-the-content-from-the-ads ads. (Like those ads that use javascript to change content into links that display popups when you hover over them - argh, don’t get me started! If you put those on your site, and I meet you in person, there’s a good chance I won’t say hello.) I can tolerate ads that are subtle and not eye catching. Google Adsense makes it easy to put ads on your site, and you can even make them very non-intrusive, but the problem is that you don’t know what’s being shown. They are “relevant” in that keywords specified by the ad supplier match keywords in the page content, and who knows what results will show up.

So I struggled with the decision from the start, but went ahead anyway.

But today I slapped my forehead and remembered that I don’t need ads. My hosting fees are extremely affordable and I don’t even come close to my bandwidth limit. So until I need ads, I won’t use them. And when the time comes that I need them (yes, I’m foolishly optimistic, sue me) I will first seek out “sponsors” that really are relevant to software development.

Until then, sayonara ads.