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Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

mattcutts.com

81–90 of 472 posts

Re: Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

#81

I've been a contributor member for several months now, because I firmly believe in two things: 1. Content creators have to be paid, or much of the web I know and love will cease to exist. 2. Life without ads is much better. So here's what people need to know about Google contributor: 1. I pay for the highest level available. 2. I love not seeing ads. 3. This only works for Google-based ads, which are certainly common…

I must argue a few points.

- Sites like thewirecutter.com make their money from affiliate links

- To try this experiment, I need to turn adblocking off. Which I am not willing to.

- Ads are not the answer. In fact, an interesting thing happened when a city banned the use of outdoor ads. http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/07/sao-paulo-city-with-no-... -- people are happier since less information assaults their brains, companies are still doing what they need to do because they needed to get creative ways to convince people why their products are worthwhile.

Re: Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

#82
I love the concept of this. Essentially it's just letting you enter the ad auction for yourself, with a monthly spending cap (I imagine it's a little trickier under the hood, but maybe not that much trickier).

I signed up yesterday after a friend mentioned it, and it's near. It's definitely a minority of ads, but it's still nicer to see cat pics than other shit.

Re: Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

#83
post #16

This is fascinating. Business model: annoy people so much that they pay you to stop annoying them. Everybody's been talking about the death of display ads, and it looks like Google's paying attention and trying to figure out how to marginalize the ad itself, but still take money on the transaction. Eventually, Google could probably marginalize the ad so much that there are only a rare few display ads left online, and…

Relevant SMBC: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2490

Re: Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

#84
post #54

I've been using Contributor for the last month or so: 1) One needn't turn on all third-party cookies to make it work. Enabling a subset of [*.]doubleclick.com, [*.]doubleclick.net, and [*.]google.com is sufficient. 2) Contributor is the best existing solution to the third-party micropayment problem I've yet encountered. Direct contributions to sites are surely preferable, but not yet practical. Contributor would appe…

Thanks for the rational reply. Some of the cynical and critical comments here strike me as far too idealistic. This seems like a completely reasonable step to take in offering websites money for ad-free content without having to subscribe to individual content.

The privacy argument, I can easier get on board with. Why does Google need to still track you if you're not seeing ads? Wasn't the point of ad tracking to get you more relevant ads, help advertisers with remarketing, etc. ?

Re: Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

#85
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can also be seen as acting like the mob. "It'd be a shame if your nice clean web page suddenly got ruined with ads. You know, we can keep that from happening for a price." No thanks. I'll continue to block ads and not be tracked and have my internet load faster.

But it's not your website. It's someone else's. Someone who created the content and pays to keep it online for you to consume.

OK, then modify the statement, but use the same mobster voice: "It would be a shame if your browser got overloaded with pop-overs, malware and javascript trackers. You know, we can keep that from happening for a price."

Re: Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

#86
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most users tend to complain about flying, pop ups, auto playing audio/video. Google does none of that. So is there a real benefit here?

Some would say that there are a number of auto-playing audio and app store redirect ads on Doubleclick AdExchange.

I'm not sure if the Doubleclick AdExchange allows that but sometimes it can look like it's coming from Adsense or Doubleclick AdExchange but the ad is actually served from Doubleclick For Publishers. In that latter case the publisher decides what is acceptable.

Re: Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

#88
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We hate shitty content creators (like Buzzfeed) who replicate content from other sources or even worse disguise ads with content (i.e. native advertising) . We also hate paying for the whole site just to read a couple of articles every now and then. How about a pay-by-article model with widespread adoption from the industry? I'd gladly go for it. Lastly, we hate tracking. I can't overstate that. They kill profiling w…

It sounds like when you're saying "we" you really mean "I."

Bingo. Most people don't even realize they are being tracked via ads. And if they did, they wouldn't care. Look at how many know about the NSA yet don't really care, and ad tracking is small potatoes compared to that.

Re: Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

#89
post #79

The best part about this is that you have really fine grained control over where your money goes. Don't like it going to a specific site? You can disable just that site in the settings. Want to replace ads with an image of something random? You can do that as well! Want to only have contributor run on a few hand-picked sites? Can do that too! A friend of mine has it setup so that it's whitelist only where he disables…

This is exactly what I was considering. Basically only paying for the content that I think has value by disabling uBlock or w/e for those sites. It would be nice if I wasn't also being tracked though since I'm paying for the content myself.

[deleted]

Re: Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads

#90

I've been a contributor member for several months now, because I firmly believe in two things: 1. Content creators have to be paid, or much of the web I know and love will cease to exist. 2. Life without ads is much better. So here's what people need to know about Google contributor: 1. I pay for the highest level available. 2. I love not seeing ads. 3. This only works for Google-based ads, which are certainly common…

And I'm going to continue using an adblocker out of principle - because to me, the principle that my computer should remain free of malware is stronger than the principle that content creators should get paid.
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