Re: ad-blocking software

From: wayne browning <info_at_homepagers.com>
Date: Thu 23 Mar 2000 00:40:39 +0500

JOHN WHITESIDE WROTE:
> Ad-blocking software has never taken off -- not because
> it's wrong, or illegal, or immoral, or anything of the
> sort. It hasn't taken off because people don't like to
> install and download software.
>
> Advertising supports our free television and cheap
> newspapers and free web content, but (at least in the
> US) we are rather ambivalent about them. We don't like
> them, because they are so often stupid, but we do get
> information from them. When they are very well done we
> enjoy them, whether we care about the products or not.
> If someone offered to take them all away we'd probably
> say yes, and then be annoyed when the free content went
> away as well.
>
> A small number of people will continue to install ad
> blocking software because they hate ads and want the
> Internet to be non-commercial. Most people are leery of
> upgrading their browser, never mind installing some
> software that is going to mess around with its
> workings. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I would take the same view as John here.

As a publisher of content , quite honestly we could not
do what we do without advertiser's support. And the
more sought after or popular the content the more
bandwidth consumption it consumes at the delivery end
producing a greater and greater operation cost as
traffic increases. Are we to publish to the point we
can no longer afford to and tell advertisers to get
lost. The Internet would be a pretty barren space.

I can't understand how a site, if laden with highly
sought after content, and bombarded by traffic and page
requests, but barren of advertising can exist. Do
people think there's someone's rich uncle running the
show:-)

if they did indeed have a web site themselves and see
millions of visitors daily themselves would need to
re-think their positions , wouldn't they?

While I'll agree banners can become an eyesore, within
the correct and matching demographics they can do well.
We know this as we have had advertisers running ads
with our sites , in some cases better than a year's
duration. There ROI has been acceptable enough. What we
have seen is that for every advertiser that does poorly
there is another that does well. Not all advertisers
have reached their on-line goals but then again many
have, it really is an individual and case to case type
scenario.

To hear the statement " banner's do not work" makes us
think, if the view was any more narrow, there would not
be a view at all:-) Surely those that speak this way
are limited to their own experiences, we as publisher's
do have the luxury of hearing about all out
advertiser's experiences. We have found that on-line,
just like off-line in traditional business, there are
successes and failures.

Wayne Browning
Homepagers E-Publishing





Received on Wed Mar 22 2000 - 13:40:39 CST