Advertising. A fact of life on the internet. At first it wasn’t too intrusive…then came popups. Popunders. Auto-play videos that can’t be muted or dismissed. Drive-by downloads. “Malvertising.” It’s gotton so bad that now about half the people using the internet browse with some kind of ad-blocking software running. I may not be able to do anything about the ethics of some types of advertising across the ‘web…but I can do something about it on Sharpologist.
Ad Networks
You may have seen ads here for shaving brands and vendors over the years. They can be completely useful and relevant. But advertisers may not buy every page load–they’ll buy chunks of 1,000, or 10,000, or 100,000 page loads (“impressions”). What do you do with the unused “inventory?” You fill it in with things like Google ads (Adsense) or some other advertising network. They pay a fraction of what a regular ad gets but it’s better than nothing and it’s easy to implement.
And therein lies the problem…you have little or no control over what’s shown from the ad network. Some (like Adsense) give you some control over the types of ads (you can block specific ads or ads from specific companies) while others give you little or no control. And you’re trusting the network to review ad submissions: again, some do it pretty well (Adsense) while others…do not. Unreviewed ads can contain all sorts of nasty things. Some web surfers have taken back control over the problem by installing browser ad-on functionality that blocks advertisements (AdBlock Plus for instance) or even Javascript (NoScript).
Sharpologist has used ad networks: mostly Adsense but once in a while experiments with others. The experiments have usually been disappointing–inevitably there are shenanigans like auto-play, non-mutable video or shady ad content.
So What’s The Solution?
Since the problem is a lack of control, the solution is…more control over what is shown. To that end Sharpologist controls all ads shown by using a professional “ad server.” The ad server can link to an ad network but that functionality has been turned off. No ads will be shown that have not been vetted. And the ads will be relevant to the readers, concentrating on traditional men’s shaving and grooming.
So if you are using an adblocker you can “whitelist” Sharpologist with confidence. Don’t miss highly targeted and relevant ads and deals!
Bravo, Mark. Adblocker disabled for your site.
I’ve had this discussion with several website hosts, and my position has always been, “I’ll disable my adblocker if/when you guarantee me I will never be served with an ad that autoplays/flashes/blocks web content and/or leads to malware. Most are not willing to do this, because they care more about the money, than their readers.
Oh, and I always prefer “relevant” advertising to “targeted advertising.
Thanks for this. Done.
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