Paul asks: Have you changed your advert settings? They're now appearing in the post as well as on the right. A bit too intrusive for my liking.
No, I haven't. It seems that Google (Moto: Don't be Evil) has decided my blog needs more adverts. When I look at it, there is an anoying slide up advert at the bottom. Paul's seeing adverts in the posts. I don't have control over either of these.
And, I don't make any money from them either. The only remuneration I get is if you click on the sidebar advert.
I assume that this is Google looking for payback for hosting Blogger for free. Unfortunatly, they don't offer a paid-for ad-free version (Wordpress do). If they did, I'd probably take it up. But they don't. Odd really, as this would be a more reliable source of income. Perhaps the joy of being evil and forcing adverts onto people's content is more fun. It's not like they need the money.
Anyway, apologies for the adverts. Ill do a bit of digging to see if there is a way to calm them down. If not, I'll have to think about a bigger move to my own webspace, but that's a massive technical challenge as I'd need to move the photos currenlty hosted in Blogger too. And it needs to be automated. With 4600+ posts, I'm not doing it manually!
I'm the last person to answer technical questions but I swapped from Google to duck duck go, never even seen an advert. Hope this may help.
ReplyDeleteWhat adverts?
ReplyDeleteI run UBlock Origin as a Firefox browser add on & rarely see any - and I have never seen one here.
Agreed. DuckDuckGo is much better for privacy and ad blocking.
ReplyDeleteAs someone with a technical background I've just had a quick poke around, and the big slide up advert at the bottom does seem to include the same Google AdSense (or whatever they call it these days) ID as the one in the side bar. So I think it is appearing because you have the small adverts on the blog, but on the plus side you would also get paid if someone clicks it. Also if you look at any other blogs on Blogger which don't have adverts you won't see the big one at the bottom either. So this isn't Google trying to monetise blogger, just that they've started adding new kinds of adverts on blogs where people have opted in. I guess you have to weigh up how annoying they are versus how much (if anything) you make from the adverts. Maybe it's time to remove them altogether?
ReplyDeleteMark - Interesting. The blog is set for the sidebar advert only, and there isn't an option for anything else (I've switched off top adverts and between post adverts). I added the sidebar advert to offset the costs of running the blog, with no expectation it would make me rich! Maybe it's time to switch it off and just pay the bills myself.
ReplyDeleteWider reply - I use Firefox and see adverts. I have an aversion to ad-blockers as (pretty much alone on the web) I believe that content creators should be able to earn an income, even a tiny one, from their efforts. The more common approach "People should pay to be allowed to entertain/inform me" doesn't sit well with me. I know people who sink massive amounts of cash into producing YouTube content for example, and it's basically an expensive hobby for them. Fine if that's your thing, but shouldn't they get a little recompense for their efforts?
Phil - thanks for sorting it out. I'm in two minds still about having advertising on my own blog, this is another reason not to. I don't mind the sidebar, which is what I would opt for if I went down the advert route, the topbar was a little annoying but could be lived with, what bothered me was adverts in the text. Those I found very intrusive and made reading your blog difficult. If I were you I'd leave the sidebar in place but keep a close eye out for extras popping up. Or maybe take the 'buy me a coffee' approach, although that doesn't sit quite right with me for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on ad-blockers, seeing adverts is a small price to pay considering that we use the 'net for free.
Ahhh! they're back!
ReplyDeleteThe ads in text were gone when I typed the above comment, now they have returned!!
Don't look at me. I've been too busy today to fiddle with anything!
ReplyDeleteOK. I've found more controls, and am trying to switch stuff off. It seems Google "experiments" with the web page to try to increase income. I'm trying to tell it to stop. Or at least ask first.
ReplyDelete