> [...] I wish people would use it more carefully. What does "carefully" in this context means?
These are genuine questions. I always recommend AdBlock to all my friends and everybody is delighted with it. I would like to have a point against AdBlock, though. Some times people come to me to install "that wired program that removes Ads in youtube"... you know what I mean.
I don't use ad block because some people get paid by me seeing the ad, even if I never ever click the ads. I know I've never bought anything from an ad. I'm unlikely to ever click an ad but it does sometimes happen. (But this just proves to me that I'm never going to buy anything as a result of an ad).
Not having AdBlock installed means that you are OK with the Ads and Ads Companies because you are not opting out.
The only downside is that the content creator is not receiving a little amount of money for my visit. That's right. And it's a pitty. But, most of the time, I would not pay parsonally most of the pages I visit with my money, and the fact that the creator of the content gets paid by a Ad company thanks to an arrangement that have done is something I don't care. If you really like the content of a page and you want to reward the author, send him some real moeny, or a beer (I have done it and it's awesome!).
This a thousand times. I dumped my TV in 2006 and since I use AdBlock I don't see many ads - maybe when I go to the shops or at a friend's house. Thing is, I just don't have the urge to go and buy things any more. I've probably saved a fortune.
I feel that usually ads ruin the experience for me far more than it would be justified by the $0.003 the site earns, so I can't say I feel bad.
A perfect situation for me would be to be able to pay those sites the amount they earn by showing me ads, without me seing them. I'd add a site to a list in AdBlock or some other extension; the site wouldn't show me the ads and ruin my experience, getting the $0.003 (automatically) from me, not the advertiser. Too bad such nanopayments (well, formally millipayments) are far from being simple.
Which is fine. If you're gonna have an ad I can't avoid but doesn't significantly slow down page load, fine with me.
I never understood that logic. If you don't enjoy a website then you shouldn't visit it. That way you will only visit websites that you do enjoy, so you have no reason to use ad block.
If you're browsing websites that you've never visited before then you shouldn't be using ad block at all until you've decided if you enjoy it or not. If you do then you should make a list of each website you visit with ad block enabled and send each of them compensation for the costs they made for your free entertainment.
I chose not to run an ad blocker, but when you have smiley ads that shout "Hello!" at you, or that mosquito ad, well, advertisers really need to put pressure on the creators of those lousy ads to just stop doing it.
You enjoy "free" content from someone and you block the only way they make enough money to stay alive and keep giving you this "free" content.
I do belive that advertising agency have not kept up with the new Technology and are playing catch up (as many other business are) and that the actual ad business model should probably be changed and right now is not what it should or will be.
However, I think the advertising industry grossly exaggerates the importance of advertising.
The trouble is, it's impossible to ask, "Does advertising work?" and get a conclusive scientific answer. There are usually far too many other factors in play to be able to look at a company or product and say, "X failed/succeeded because they didn't/did advertise." Is X successful because they advertise? Could they have been more successful if they'd invested their ad-campaign funding elsewhere? Did Y fail because of lack of advertising or simply because they tried to sell a rubbish product? Did they even fail because they devoted too much of their budget to advertising, not leaving enough to properly develop their product?
On bigger website with a dedicated sale team most if not all ads are CPM payd per impression.
Edit: Also I don't really buy the "I've never in my life click on a website".
No, really, a lot of people just don't ever click on ads. They don't even really see the ads. There are sometimes parts of websites that I subconsciously filter out because I'm used to seeing ads in that area or they've made that bit look a bit too much like an ad.
For more extreme view-points there's the Boulder Pledge, and some people really do see any form of advertising as a type of spam. Like I say, this is a minority extreme viewpoint, but it does exist.
Most people that say are not influenced by ads actually are even if they don't even notice.
And I'm confident that most of the people that are using adblock are not in that minority.
If you are not influenced by ADS because advertisement has no effect on you so much that you don't even notice why bother blocking them out ?
And I'm confident that most of the people that are using adblock are not in that minority."
Is it not then their choice whether to view advertising? If they know it's likely to affect them, even just in terms of subconscious brand awareness, and don't want that to happen?
"If you are not influenced by ADS because advertisement has no effect on you so much that you don't even notice why bother blocking them out ?"
Popups, popunders, animations, annoying noises, things that get in the way, try to grab your attention.... All sorts of horrible annoyances. Also unintended consequences - I had genuine trouble finding a download button on a website a little while ago because they'd used a bright, perky-looking graphic that hit my mental ad filter. I really couldn't see it for a couple of minutes.
Maybe three times, ever. And not in the last 5+ years.
Advertising of any form provokes an annoyed reaction in me now. It doesn't grow your brand (with me), it doesn't make me think about your product, I don't care if it's cute or hip, it gets switched off or blocked or even just mentally filtered out. And if you do manage to break through my technological or mental walls I'll remember not to buy your products, ever.
I only have an idea on the numbers in the country I live where I work for an online only news website that makes all the revenue with only advertisement.
I think I'm safe to say that we are talking about websites that are big enough to have a small team with at least one "Ad Sales Rep".
The Sale representitive will go directly to companies and sell ads either by impression (CPM) or a flat rate for a fixed period of time.
Since the amount you can sell a flat rate for a week/day/month is based on your number of impressions/users is basically another kind of CPM sale.
I don't have a problem with targeted/useful ads... Hell, lots the posts in HN could be considered advertorials, just the same, I appreciate knowing about more... Where my problem is, I don't like highly intrusive ads, or far too many ads.