One of the most annoying parts of visiting blogs is being bombarded with advertisements everywhere—in the sidebars, between paragraphs of content, and sometimes popping up out of nowhere. I get it, and I completely agree. There’s nothing I hate more than being startled by a video ad playing, especially when I can’t even FIND where the sound is coming from to stop it.
The fact that I’m acknowledging this might be confusing, considering I have ads around this website. I’ve gotten some comments from friends and family over the years asking why I suddenly have more ads, or why new cookie notifications are popping up. So I wanted to explain WHY I hate ads yet still run them.
- At first when I signed up for an online ad program, it was because I wanted to work on monetizing this blog and making more of a profit.
- These days ads are pretty much the only reason I don’t lose money on this blog (due to taking a big step back). It’s not about making a profit anymore. Because of ads, I can at least break even on the variety of expenses running a private website entails.
That said, I also don’t want ads to make visiting this blog a nightmare so you’ll never want to return. I can’t tell you how many blogs (some very popular) that I’ve immediately left over the years, because I couldn’t handle the slow load speed, ads popping up everywhere, and difficulty finding what I came for. At a certain point it ruins the whole experience.
I’ve specifically gone against direct advice from advertisers and marketing experts over the years about placement and types of ads to run for earning more of a profit. Because you know what ads are successful? The ones in your face and everywhere that you accidentally click all the time. (I’ve probably made people so much money over the years due to how often I accidentally hit ads without meaning to.)
While I’m sure some of the ads that I run can be a tad annoying at times (I don’t pick the specific ads through the network I use, FYI), I just ask that you be patient and know I keep them to a minimum. Ad revenue is a huge reason why this blog still exists. Otherwise, I’m not sure how long I would want to keep paying the fees associated with this space.
- Video ads? I try to limit/prevent them from showing, but at the very least NO SOUND is a priority.
- In-content ads? These are such a pain that can ruin the flow of what you’re reading. No, thank you.
- Pop-up ads? Hell no. The worst are those you have to click the tiny X to escape them, rather than just clicking outside the box.
- Ads everywhere? If you think I have a lot of ads, first of all, I apologize, but have you SEEN some websites out there?! I know you want to make lots of moolah, but if you’re making my site freeze and I can’t even find the article I came for, I’M OUT.
If you ever see any of these on this blog, and you’re thinking, “WHAT IN THE FRESH HELL?!” Please let me know because a setting probably updated and I need to get all up in there to make it stop. Thanks.
One last thing: internet privacy laws have undergone some changes over the years, which have been significantly influenced by the GDPR update (EU General Data Protection Regulation). If you’ve noticed more “opt-in” pop-ups on sites, including one that comes on here lately, it’s intended to help you “control the collection and usage of your personal information” (for marketing purposes). Depending on the site, this may prevent you from accessing the page you wanted, but in some cases (like on here), you can either accept it or X out of it completely.
And that’s my story about why ads are annoying but often necessary. I hope they don’t make visiting Gettin’ My Healthy On frustrating. Thank you for being a recipe follower, monthly favorites reader, or just overall supporter—despite the placement of ads here or there. I have just enough at this point where I make a profit. I could ad more (get it?) to make more, but 1. I’m lazy and 2. I don’t want to be a hypocrite. So this is what you get!
