4 ms·

> The alternative to ads alongside my content is ads inside my content. I love ads "inside" my content when they are done right. The most effective advertisin

> The alternative to ads alongside my content is ads inside my content. I love ads "inside" my content when they are done right. The most effective advertising for me is when an author I like to read recommends a product by directly writing about it because they were paid to do so and they like to use the product. Ad blockers don't block these because they aren't ads, they show up inline with the rest of the author's content (and the author acknowledges it was a sponsored posting). I am completely happy with this model. The whole reason I read an author is because I like her style and opinion. So a recommendation from her, as long as she genuinely likes the product, is actually interesting to me. The same goes for video: algorithmically determined video ads at the start or within video content are rubbish and I will block them. But the presenters themselves recommending something in-line I am totally open to watching.

ads_are_crap 11y ago
Goodbye ads. We won't miss you. If you have content, and it is worth it, people may pay for it. Otherwise, natural selection, survival of the fittest etc. Excellent move by Apple. They managed to kill Flash, and now Ads.. fantastic!
- cookiecaper 11y ago
  People won't pay for anything but highly specialized content. First-class integration of ad blockers will eventually just drive down the amount of actual content available; people will put fluff content that is actually an ad or they'll have to go do something else with their time. Maybe this is a good thing or maybe it's a bad thing, but one thing is for sure: people are not going to be taking special action to pay for content that isn't highly specialized. One potential non-ad route for monetization would be an extension for the browser that opens your bitcoin wallet and sends a tip to a page's creator based on how much of your time was spent on that site that day. That'd be better than ads if we could get widespread adoption, as the site's owners wouldn't feel compelled to make deals with entities that may force them to compromise their content. Maybe Firefox can integrate it to counteract Safari.
  - mercer 11y ago
    But why is that a bad thing? The already bad, native-ad-infested content would get worse, and people will actually start paying for the good content. The state of publishing is already pretty bad as it is, and any void left behind will be and is being filled up by better alternatives. It's like arguing for big music labels because otherwise music would disappear. It won't, and it didn't!
    - mike_hearn 11y ago
      I read lots of great ad supported content every day.
- jfoutz 11y ago
  I hope you realize the frustration and consternation of the gp poster. It's really hard to identify where the monitization happens. Right now, i sort of default to comments like this as well meaning at worst. Now, i sort of wonder, did you get paid for this? That's not necessarily bad. I can imagine a scheme were advertisers do sentiment analysis on comments, and reimburse users for positive emotions in response to a brand. I think it would be hard to sustain discourse int that environment, but i'd hope you at least got paid. Everyone is an astroturfer would be a strange world. Real communication would be to subtle for the SA to detect. Interesting indeed.
wutbrodo 11y ago
> The most effective advertising for me is when an author I like to read recommends a product by directly writing about it because they were paid to do so and they like to use the product. You're very careful to specify that the author must genuinely like the product. How do you know that they like to use the product? There's a reason that the responsible disclosure and the distinction between content and advertising has existed as an ethical guideline for decades longer than the Web has, and that's because "content creators should get paid by the subject of their content but be uninfluenced by the money" is a horrendously childish view of the world.
- mst 11y ago
  Trust. When I see Daring Fireball advertise something, I know it's approved by Gruber. And he makes it clear that it's a paid advert anyway. Works great for me; it'd never occur to me to even want to block those adverts.
  - coldtea 11y ago
    >Trust. When I see Daring Fireball advertise something, I know it's approved by Gruber. It's very easy to convince yourself you "approve" something if money coming your way depends on that approval.
- interpol_p 11y ago
  Generally if you like the author you get a good feeling of what they like. You read them because you have similar taste to them, you have used and enjoyed their recommendations in the past. If they start recommending bad products just for the money, I imagine they will very soon lose their integrity and your trust.

ads_are_crap 11y ago

Goodbye ads. We won't miss you. If you have content, and it is worth it, people may pay for it. Otherwise, natural selection, survival of the fittest etc. Excellent move by Apple. They managed to kill Flash, and now Ads.. fantastic!

cookiecaper 11y ago
People won't pay for anything but highly specialized content. First-class integration of ad blockers will eventually just drive down the amount of actual content available; people will put fluff content that is actually an ad or they'll have to go do something else with their time. Maybe this is a good thing or maybe it's a bad thing, but one thing is for sure: people are not going to be taking special action to pay for content that isn't highly specialized. One potential non-ad route for monetization would be an extension for the browser that opens your bitcoin wallet and sends a tip to a page's creator based on how much of your time was spent on that site that day. That'd be better than ads if we could get widespread adoption, as the site's owners wouldn't feel compelled to make deals with entities that may force them to compromise their content. Maybe Firefox can integrate it to counteract Safari.
- mercer 11y ago
  But why is that a bad thing? The already bad, native-ad-infested content would get worse, and people will actually start paying for the good content. The state of publishing is already pretty bad as it is, and any void left behind will be and is being filled up by better alternatives. It's like arguing for big music labels because otherwise music would disappear. It won't, and it didn't!
  - mike_hearn 11y ago
    I read lots of great ad supported content every day.
jfoutz 11y ago
I hope you realize the frustration and consternation of the gp poster. It's really hard to identify where the monitization happens. Right now, i sort of default to comments like this as well meaning at worst. Now, i sort of wonder, did you get paid for this? That's not necessarily bad. I can imagine a scheme were advertisers do sentiment analysis on comments, and reimburse users for positive emotions in response to a brand. I think it would be hard to sustain discourse int that environment, but i'd hope you at least got paid. Everyone is an astroturfer would be a strange world. Real communication would be to subtle for the SA to detect. Interesting indeed.

wutbrodo 11y ago

> The most effective advertising for me is when an author I like to read recommends a product by directly writing about it because they were paid to do so and they like to use the product. You're very careful to specify that the author must genuinely like the product. How do you know that they like to use the product? There's a reason that the responsible disclosure and the distinction between content and advertising has existed as an ethical guideline for decades longer than the Web has, and that's because "content creators should get paid by the subject of their content but be uninfluenced by the money" is a horrendously childish view of the world.

mst 11y ago
Trust. When I see Daring Fireball advertise something, I know it's approved by Gruber. And he makes it clear that it's a paid advert anyway. Works great for me; it'd never occur to me to even want to block those adverts.
- coldtea 11y ago
  >Trust. When I see Daring Fireball advertise something, I know it's approved by Gruber. It's very easy to convince yourself you "approve" something if money coming your way depends on that approval.
interpol_p 11y ago
Generally if you like the author you get a good feeling of what they like. You read them because you have similar taste to them, you have used and enjoyed their recommendations in the past. If they start recommending bad products just for the money, I imagine they will very soon lose their integrity and your trust.