Given the traffic that has put WUWT in the top WordPress blogs on a semi-regular basis (see below) I have been given a unique opportunity by the kind people that run the WordPress.com free hosting service. This wasn’t just a standard offer, this came in a personal email from the VP of Automattic, Inc., the parent company of WordPress. This is a beta trial for them too.
They have invited me to participate in the Google adsense program, which they offer only to blogs on their VIP hosting service, some of which you see in the top 10 list above. So, effective immediately, you’ll see some of these ads. For example after you click the “read more” below.
These are purely on a trial basis (my decision) and if they get in the way, I may turn them off. For those of you that support the work here at WUWT, you can now support me by visiting the advertisers on this blog.
I can’t control the content of the ads, (though I can block them from sites I don’t want) so you may find yourself presented with contextual ads from Al Gore, political groups, or even Greenpeace at times. Worthy of note, they pay for clicks made.
There’s a division of ad revenue. The ads at the top under the post title are the ones that benefit WUWT, and the ones at the bottom go to WordPress.com
I hope it is not too obtrusive, I welcome feedback on this experiment.
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I see no problem with ads.
Literally.
In fact, I see no ad. Me and my nefarious and diabolical ad block.
I’ve got the usual offenders blocked so I manage to miss half the ads on the net.
Hey, but go for it. Let’s see if it swings a little $$$$ your way.
Why not charge $20.00 per year for ‘Comment Memberships’? Anyone can read the articles, but if you want to post a comment you will have to buy a yearly membership. This way, even the trolls will have to pay up.
If running a few ads enables you to continue the fine work you do here Anthony, by all means run them. Hopefully this will allow you to recoup some of the income that you have surely lost by devoting so much time to this endeavor and the Surface Station Project. Your continued public presence in the area of climate science is desperately needed. Go for it!!!!
Sans picture and sound these links are unobtrusive.
And, I have no problem following one on occasion if it will help to support this important site.
REPLY: I have complete control, I can turn it off at a moment’s notice. I would not have accepted it any other way. – Anthony
Given that, it sounds good. Congrats!
It’s about time. You deserve compensation for all you have done, are doing and are going to do. Money will enable you to do much more for the cause. You provide information and work which we would only have access to (if it were available) for a hefty fee at most locations providing the latest scientific research.
Do not listen to (or take to heart the words of) people discouraging you from earning advertising dollars. You have nothing to prove related to your integrity and devotion…making a little coin to bring your WUWT income up to $1.50 per hour retroactively should be encouraged. If you keep it fresh, maybe a well-deserved raise will be in the cards. LOL!
Keep up the good work, and the advertising. I just checked out a few advertisers as a show of support…will give others a shot in the future.
the ads don’t bother me a bit—well as long as they aren’t ‘personal enhancement ones’! 😉 I think you have a great site–always updated, you deserve to have it pay its way. That they asked means you’ve got to be generating some impressive stats–congrats!
However, is any link we may follow guaranteed by Google Adsense to be safe?
REPLY: AFAIK, yes. There’s no porn or scam sites allowed in my adsense account. – Anthony
Last month I was on a “skeptic’s” site and an ad for saving the polar bears was inserted. There was that brief moment of “What the ….?” and then I had to laugh. As Anthony says above – you can’t control these things and if you accept the irony of it, and learn to enjoy it, your blood pressure won’t rise and you practice controlling the stress in your life. Or treat it like having a coo-coo clock in your house. You’ll just tune it out – unless you decide to tune it in.
Consider one of the ads above: “Care is working to help women affected by climate change.” WUWT?
My understanding is that there have been some….ummm….hiccups with adsense in receiving payment due. However, it was revamped since I last heard much about it, so maybe things have improved.
No problem with it at all…if it starts to bug me there’s always privoxy. 😉
AFAIK http://www.acronymfinder.com/AFAIK.html
Block this one…
http://www.fullsail.edu/index.cfm?fa=landing.IMMSO_10b&mnc=497&kw=Mktg%20Rockstar%20-%20IM%20Cont.%20&utm_source=Google+Display&utm_medium=banner&utm_term=Mktg%20Rockstar%20-%20IM%20Cont.%20&utm_content=IMMSO_10b&utm_campaign=IMMSO
If WUWT can maintain its scientific impartiality – and from your statements, you can – then the ads seem fine to me. Any reader may disregard them at will. Hope you make megabucks from the ads.
Knowing that Greenpeace will help support your site is a delicious irony that will warm my soul, during many a long cold Canadian winter.
🙂
I don’t run javascript or activex, and I see no ads. Win win.
If clicks put money in your pocket, I’ll hold my nose and click away. You deserve rewarding for your excellent work.
No popups, animated ads, or autoloading video or audio.
Other than that, ads are fine by me.
And why would you block Exxon.com?
Is their money not green?
Good.
I find the ads somewhat amusing – comparing the content of the ad to the content of the article has already yielded amusing juxtapositions. I wonder if ad placers can set a filter so that they won’t be putting ads someplace where people might do some research and then post an essay about it. If so, I suspect we won’t see the wecansolveit.org ads for long. Ka-Klunk!
I agree with the majority.I will click on the ads,happy to.
And another thing – how many sites would tolerate ads from their competition?
I’m sure we’d have a good time if RealClimate ad showed up. If a WUWT add showed up at Realclimate, I bet their filter would be modified within minutes. 🙂
Seeing these kinds of ads just stresses to me how much money is being pumped into the AGW scam by all these advertisers.
Posters, please do not encourage indiscriminately “clicking”. People can click when appropriate. Encouraging abuse of advertising dollars can lead to a loss of the opportunity.
jeez aka charles the moderator
I’ll even click an Al Gore link for you, man.
Perhaps then WordPress will let you use the fancy version with preview and edit capability…
REPLY: I asked the VP about that very issue, and he agreed it would be a useful feature to add. Hopefully we’ll see it. – Anthony