Will adblockers bring the end of free websites?
They are add-ons / plug-ins people can download to their web browsers. They block anything written with javascript and flash. This means they automatically block ads and in many cases interactive activities. One of these add-ons is Firefox’s biggest download. Millions more people are using adblockers every week.
The bad news
Many English language teaching websites that make materials available for free rely on ads (from Google or elsewhere) to keep going. These include sites like mine (BreakingNewsEnglish.com, Listen A Minute.com, ESL Discussions.com, etc).
Adblocking software is effectively strangling the revenue streams from these sites.
Many webmasters and materials creators are deciding to call it a day.
The bottom line is that many more sites will go offline because of the damage adblockers are doing.
What can you do?
If you have adblocking software, please “whitelist” the sites you do not want to go out of business. There are filters within the menu of the add-on / plug-in for you to allow ads on those sites. You will be really helping their survival.
What can free websites do?
Be responsible and filter the ads on your site. Below is a site that perhaps needs to think a lot more about who will potentially see these ads, and less about maximizing ad revenue from absolutely minimal content.
This particular graphic shows why many people, justifiably, have got fed up with ads and are turning to adblockers. This website page shows the famous diet and IMVU ads encircling just EIGHT words of content.
I teach young Arab women in the Middle East. Any “fleshy” ads can cause offense to them, even in cartoon / avatar-like format. I block them from appearing on all of my sites.
The future of my sites
I really don’t know what to do. I wouldn’t really be exaggerating to say the bottom fell out of my world when I came across adblockers and what they are doing to my sites. I have worked pretty hard every day for six years on my sites. I’m now wondering whether it’s worthwhile continuing, given the fact that one day (probably very) soon, everyone will have adblocking software.
I will have to make one of three choices soon:
- call it a day on my sites altogether (really can’t entertain this thought)
- start charging subscriptions (don’t really want to do this)
- ask for donations (not sure if this would work)
I’m thinking if I can make more sites, I won’t have to resort to asking people to pay.
Your comments would be very welcome. I need all the advice I can get.
Tags: Adblockers, adblocking software, free materials, free websites
Hello Sean,
my students and I would really really miss your excellent teaching materials. To be honest, I can’t imagine doing my job without them. In my opinion it is more than o.k. that you earn a decent amount of money with all the work you are putting into your sites. I have already donated a few times and bought your brilliant e-book and I would much prefer to subscribe to your sites than live without them. I sincerely hope “calling it a day” is not an option.
All the best,
Christine
Hi Nik,
Thanks a lot for commenting on this post. I value your advice – it has put things in a lot more perspective for me.
Totally agree with you about the value of Adout – it is a failproof solution to ensure ad nasties don’t appear.
I suppose it is time for me to start re-evaluating Google Ads and looking at possible replacements. The day when adblocking software is ubiquitous is probably not too far off. The ads aren’t exactly the most remunerative of revenue sources. I do like your take on what might be in the near future. It makes absolute sense that there will soon be money in them there web pages and blogs.
I need to put on my marketing hat (or at least go and buy one) and think how to approach companies. I know more people view my pages than many paper-based ELT publications, and I have new pages pretty much every day.
I also agree with you about the ability to pay. There are so many people who, as you say, do not have access to online payment tools. Add to that those reluctant to shop online and those who perhaps don’t know and trust Paypal.
For many reasons I’d really like to keep offering all of my materials for free. Your advice has made this more likely ☺
Thank you Edward. I agree with you that adblockers are probably here to stay. People will increasingly want to have control on how they view websites. I’m wondering if and when Google might intervene – they must be losing too.
Kevin Kelly’s article is great – will ponder those ideas over the coming weeks.
Thanks Olaf,
I also block pop-up ads and think they are incredibly annoying. I think the new adblockers are something quite different. I don’t know any webmasters who put pop-ups on their sites. My understanding of pop-ups is they operate in a Trojan horse fashion – somehow sneaking into browsers. My beef is about the Google ads we webmasters choose to have on our site being blocked my adblocking software – none of which are pop-ups.
Offering space to related companies, as you suggest, seems to be the way to go. Thank you for more food for thought.
Thank you Christine for your lovely feedback and support. Your words have definitely made it impossible for me to call it a day
I hope to provide more sites for you and your students. Best wishes to you.
Have done some digging and seen that there are anti-adblockers. (Google – anti adblocker). These will almmost certainly not work with wordpress.com although there is a plugin for wordpress.org. I can’t say ow effective they are, but it seems that there are people out there fighting our cause!
Even though teachers use your lessons freely, it’s not the responsibility of the visitor to click your ads. I get the impression that you believe it is a teacher’s responsibility. If a TV network pleaded with you not to fast forward through commercials, you would think they were being unreasonable, wouldn’t you? Teachers come to your site for the lessons, not for the ads, and it’s not their duty to click them, even if the content is free. Perhaps they’d rather pay for it.
I didn’t like your reply-comment that visitors to your site are using up bandwidth. That sounds like I’m a burden for visiting, if I don’t click your ads. You’re expecting teachers to click your ads even if they have no true interest in the ad. (You expect us to click them to show our support). But those clicks rack up costs for the advertisers and bring them useless traffic. Not fair to the advertiser. You’re not really a free site if you have certain expectations on your visitors.
If ads aren’t supporting you, then the subscription model you mentioned seems to make the most business sense. I would pay for your content. Why? Because, I would pay for anything that’s of value to me and to my students, if it’s in my budget and reasonably priced. Wouldn’t you? People who really need your content will pay for it. I suspect many teachers would buy your lesson plans if it would benefit them and their students. People will pay for convenience, and your lessons are a convenience. There is nothing immoral about trying to make a profit off your hard work. It’s a lot better than trying to push ads on people. Teachers want lessons, not ads.
[...] the Telegraph interview with Josh Silverman | Read Sean Banville’s blog post about ad blockers [...]
Hi Sean
I went back over my Adsense reports, and saw that in the last year, CTR haven’t really gone up or down.
I’m not convinced that Adblockers are the real problem here (I have no idea how many of my site visitors use them, but would hazard a guess that it’s not a large number) but just as likely as the ads not being appropriate. What seems to work on my site is a combination of:
- text links rather than images
- strategic placing of links (i.e. some places always do better on the site than others, so remove ad placements that don’t have high CTR)
- blocking what you don’t like (either indiv advertisers, or types of ad, or public service ads etc)
- experimenting with borders, colours etc
- good SEO
Hope this helps
Clare
Thanks Clare for your post,
I haven’t changed the placement or style of my ads in the past few years. I’ve uploaded several new sites and thousands of new pages in that time and my overall traffic has almost doubled. However, my CTR and revenue have fallen. In this same period, 200 million adblocking add-ons have been downloaded (different sites give different figures) with the Mozilla add-on getting close to a million downloads a week – their most popular add-on. Other webmasters I’ve spoken to are reporting similar experiences.
I do block sites I think my visitors won’t like and I think my SEO is pretty good (who really knows?). I will try just text links rather than images – a great idea.
Thank you Emily for your post,
There’s a lot to reply to here.
I’ll go for the parts I think you’ve misinterpreted first:
Even though teachers use your lessons freely, it’s not the responsibility of the visitor to click your ads. I get the impression that you believe it is a teacher’s responsibility.
I never once said or implied it’s the responsibility of my visitors to click ads. I did say that 1-2% of visitors clicking is enough to make my websites worthwhile but I would never expect visitors to click. My beef is with software that tampers with the pages I create.
If a TV network pleaded with you not to fast forward through commercials, you would think they were being unreasonable, wouldn’t you?
There isn’t any software that I know of that is capable of completely stripping commercials from TV shows, as adblockers do to ads on websites. Again, I’m not pleading with anyone to click ads. I did make a not so unreasonable request that if people who use adblockers like my site, they might consider whitelisting it.
I didn’t like your reply-comment that visitors to your site are using up bandwidth. That sounds like I’m a burden for visiting
I have made thousands of lessons, I answer all mails and requests sent to me and have helped dozens of other webmasters with their sites because I like doing this. I have never thought of this as a burden nor entertained the concept that visitors to my site are a burden. I do think adblocking software is a danger to the free Web. The only burden I encounter is plagiarism – I spend far too long chasing blogs and websites who think it’s OK to post my material as their own, but that’s another matter.
You’re expecting teachers to click your ads even if they have no true interest in the ad. (You expect us to click them to show our support).
Nope. Absolutely not. I’d be interested to know which part of my blog lead you to believe this.
You’re not really a free site if you have certain expectations on your visitors.
All of my sites are totally free. I don’t even require people to register or log-in, as similar sites do, nor do I send out newsletters. I can’t think of a materials website more free.
As I have said above, I have no expectations of my visitors beyond copyright concerns. I do have hopes, though. I hope my visitors mail me to say hello, tell me what’s good and bad, suggest lesson ideas, point out typos, etc. I hope they enjoy my materials.
And now for the points on which I think you’re spot-on:
If ads aren’t supporting you, then the subscription model you mentioned seems to make the most business sense.
Ads have been a satisfactory model for me up until the past year or so when adblockers really took off. I’ve always thought that a subscription model would bring in more revenue but for many reasons I have never ventured into looking at subs. I really like the idea of keeping all my websites free. Several comments on this post have made me start thinking about commercial (rather than Google) advertising – jpg or gif banners that adblockers cannot touch. This might be the way to keep my sites free and me happier with the revenue stream.
I would pay for your content.
I’m heartened to hear that. I know perhaps thousands of other teachers would also pay. One of the reasons I am reluctant to charge is the fact that many students and teachers around the world cannot pay, simply because they have no credit card – as Nik said below. I think about these visitors when I design (very poorly) my sites. They are likely to be using a modem to access my site, so I keep my pages as small as possible (in terms of file size) so they load quicker on modems.
And finally
There is nothing immoral about trying to make a profit off your hard work.
Agreed. Emily, my whole purpose for this post is to make people aware that adblockers are hurting the little profit webmasters of free materials websites make. In my post I never once even suggested people click ads. I suggested people consider whitelisting the sites they like, and I called on webmasters to be more responsible and block trashy ads from appearing on their sites.
Thank you again for your comments. I hope you post again if you feel I’ve misinterpreted you.
Best wishes,
Sean
Sean,
I urge you to ask members/users to donate. Get rid of the rest. There are good people out there who will support you. I know if I ever asked the same of EFL Classroom 2.0 members, I’d get a response (but I won’t but that’s another story and belief set I have).
A business model reliant on google ads takes a massive presence. Plus, it cheapens the integrity of the site. As mentioned by another user, also get paid advertisers that support/compliment your vision.
The answer is not “more” but “better”.
About education, resources and money, I’ll refrain from stating my beliefs. To each his own.
Cheers and with support for your work.
David
Thank you David for your thoughts – I agree with them all.
Taking the leap to disengage from google will be a huge and very risky one for me. I love the idea of a totally clean site and need to believe that donations and paid advertisers would be a sustainable replacement. My summer holidays are coming up – time to have a big(ger) rethink
Hi Sean,
It would be a real shame if you called it a day as all your sites are excellent and the resources of the highest standard. Your work is an inspiration. However, rather than close down your sites, if the only option is to charge, so be it. I think quite a lot of people would be prepared to pay or make donations.
Keep up the great work,
Kieran
Thank you Kieran,
There’s no danger of me calling it a day – Looks like I’ll be making materials until no one needs them any more. Still looking at ways not to charge for them and perhaps move away from google ads – I’d like to make the sites more presentable and less cluttered. Have had lots of good ideas here. Really glad I posted this.
Thanks again.
I don’t agree with David that Google ads cheapen the integrity of the site. In fact, I’d have to say that I’m pretty happy with the ads they serve – they’re targeted towards my site visitors, they’re not intrusive, and the CTR is fine.
If you’d prefer a totally clean site, perhaps you can have two versions of your site: those who want to pay for a non-ad site do so through memberhip, and other visitors get to see the site ads and all.
I know that English Raven has had some success with teachers paying to access his material – perhaps it’s worth also talking to him about this?
Sean – I definitely don’t think this will end ad based website models. While you have a stake in this, imagine what Google thinks about this as well as all of the other companies and even advertisers. Advertisers want visitors to come to their sites, so much that they are willing to pay.
Also, I don’t know if the ad blockers are advanced enough to block simply ad based java script, but if they aren’t, they’ll be blocking a lot of website content and usefulness of a site that’s not white listed.
Hey, throw your newest lessons in a Flash menu, then users will white list you. Put your newer content into an ad feed from your own site. Roll lessons older than 2 weeks into an html link list like you have for SEO. – - I’m sure there are ways around this problem.
Keep your head up! You’ve got great sites and great content. I’m sure you’ll float to the very top once the water calm down.
Happy teaching,
Mark
Didn’t read all the above so don’t know if I am repeating, but …
…isn’t there a solution that could be based around a free subscription agreement that requires all users to opt-in to receiving the ads? Your website would need to guide users to release your site from blocking and verify that they have done so before giving them access. The alternative you could give is a paid subscription ad-free.
I agree with Mark’s suggestions to look at ways to create incentives for people using adblockers who want to access your content to “white list” you.
Having lived, worked and taught in a number of places around the world where quality content such as yours is desperately needed, but functionally put out of reach when even modest fees by Western standards are imposed, I certainly hope you keep your sites ad-based and not subscription-based. However, I do understand you have to make a living.
-Matt
I totally understand your concerns on this issue, and like many here, would hate to see your excellent resources disappear. I agree with a previous poster that direct sponsorship rather than google ads might be a good way to go.
I can also think of one possibility which would allow the sites to continue to grow while allowing you to put in fewer hours of work – make some of the sites more collaborative by allowing other appreciative users to occasionally contribute their own lessons for you to use on your sites. For example, people could take a text and create a BreakingNewsEnglish style lesson based around it, then send it to you. You could edit it as necessary. I think that regular users of the site would be happy to make this kind of contribution and would be able to do a pretty good job of it. You could even issue some kind of template or guidelines for contributors to ensure that your editing of the material is limited to a minimum. The reduced work from your side combined with the increased amount of material on your sites might offset the loss in ad revenue to some extent.