A few months ago, I added the cute little Ad-Free Blog banner to our sidebar.
Don't get me wrong. It doesn't bother me at all that people who write for a living, and whose posts and pictures are clever and entertaining enough to make me want to go back include ads on their blogs. Garden Rant does it, and I'm enjoying the blog enough to read most of their posts.
Then again, many blogs, even really wonderful blogs with a lot of great information, beautiful photos, inspiration, such as Gardening Gone Wild or Clay and Limestone are ad free. Come to think of it, almost all of the blogs I really cherish are free, and it's a sweet, heart-warming feeling that someone has given the gift of their time, and doesn't want anything in return.
Ad-free also applies to comments. If someone takes the time to leave a comment, I'm always excited and have a look at their site. If the site belongs to a business, especially in cases where the English in the comment is so bad that I'm sure someone got paid by the hour to leave the comment, the comment is marked as Spam. If the site belongs to a business and includes a URL, I might mark it as Spam or, for thoughtful comments, just delete it. After all, that's what having an Ad-Free Blog is all about.
Meanwhile, thank you to Google for hosting so many blogs and offering clever ways to load pictures, change templates and all that. Thank you to all our fellow bloggers who are resisting the urge to Monetize (is that even a word?). Thank you to all of you who are leaving comments even without a comment-provoking question at the end.
Don't you want to comment on that?
Comments
That said, there are ads and there are just-too-dang-many ads. I get around not having to look at their messy, messy page o' ads by just setting up a feed and looking ONLY at the test and photos of the blog. Yes, I miss out on their lovely banner art (such as yours), but I also don't see the ads. Basically, they have driven away ANY possibility to monetize by overdoing the process. (Yes, Town Mouse, it is a word. :-)
No, one small exception... Years ago, I hosted a mailinglist about herbs parallel to my website that was exclusively herb-related at that time.
One day I got an email from one of the members of that mailinglist, offering me free hosting for my website, because he really liked my site, and had noticed that I was having problems with my hosting provider.
We had a mail-exchange, and he paid us a visit, and I moved my site to his server... He has een hosting my site for free, so I created a small banner, advertising his green hosting-company. (No, he didn't ask for it, but it is a small thing I can give in return for those years of free hosting, free support... )
I love the ad freeness(not a word?) of your blog and many others Im attracted to for the 2nd reason, is the design is simpler and easy to read.
I cannot say fore sure that if I was approached to try out some product for FREE, I would decline..
I do freelance work for a number of non-profit groups. And, they are struggling in these economic times.
I do just a few ads on my blog and I donate all the money to that NWF backyard wildlife habitat movement they've got going on. I donated $480 in 2009, the revenue from those ads. So, sometimes the ad thing is okay. I mean, if it's for a good cause...
I just prefer not having ads, and appreciate the generosity and time of everyone who does offer their blogs ad free.
Kate, I'm impressed you offer the money you make as a donation. And you have so very few ads on your blog, it almost counts as ad free ;->
That slides into the why blog? question. If not for money, what? I really hate to call it a hobby. Somehow it feels like a higher calling, just like gardening thoughtfully.
Still, for the person who chooses to monetize, why not? Computers aren't free. Internet connections aren't cheap. The readers can decide whether they want to visit.
My huge bramble patch in our backyard shelters many a wild critter.
On the topic of ads, I don't care about ads because the blog's content and personality of the blogger are what gain my attention. My own blog doesn't have ads.
http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/declare-independence-how-tomake-money-online/
I agree with Jean I won't hang around waiting for ads to load. And I won't be back if the content is a thin smear in a sandwich of ads.
Then if you write an e-book about gardening with natives in California, you too can ...
http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/the-simple-way-to-generate-income-to-quit-your-day-job/