The point of advertisements is to occupy your brain-space with their product, so that you think about them the next time you're trying to buy xyz. I don't know

The point of advertisements is to occupy your brain-space with their product, so that you think about them the next time you're trying to buy xyz. I don't know what kind of money they give to websites, but the goal is the replace some of it. Potential methods I see: - Offering users something that's actually worth viewing ads for, such as not only original words, but original artwork (I'd enjoy seeing a Paint rendition created by the writer, even if it's no-good). - Making ads more subtle and less offensive (thoughtful artwork, interesting games that describe the product, other valuable media) ----- - Could create a third party 'guild' of sorts, where members would offer simple but free assistance to the webpage clients. Within the guild you could say members earn points based on the work they do, and points are rewarded with things like stickers (more advertising), moderator access and controls, easy or less impacting content creation, etc. - Allowing the website to accept donations in other forms besides money, as in a trade offer of some kind. Such as content creation, editorial help, comment moderating help, or something even less impacting such as general tips to the real employees. - Here's something fun: imagine an Ars/other article printed out on real paper and posted on bulletin boards. Coupled with a ref.number, the poster could get online points. - If I got a personal phone call from someone working at a website like this, and they said "Hey friend, thanks for viewing, would you mind telling someone about our website?", I'd probably tell many people about it.