Due to all of the attention I’ve gotten (good and bad) over my PBS appearance, the people at wordpress.com have identified WUWT as a high traffic blog and have added advertising to the top and to the sidebar.
For example, my WUWT rank today out of millions of wordpress.com blogs is #2
I do get a little revenue when somebody clicks on those ads, but I have my limits.
Unknown to me and against my wishes, yesterday they added a fourth ad The “Content From Sponsors, by Taboola” which was particularly maddening, as it was nothing but schlock of the National Enquirer variety – entertainment/starlet news and such.
I asked them to remove that today, and told them in no uncertain terms that it was a deal killer.
I’ve considered moving to a private server, but after seeing the kinds of DDoS attacks Jo Nova gets on her website I’ve thought better of it since my wordpress.com hosting effortlessly repels such attacks due to it being cloud based – there’s no central point to take down WUWT. Still, I couldn’t tolerate those Taboola ads. Tough choice – I don’t pay for hosting, but get the benefits of a world class hosting and publishing platform.
I’m happy to report they removed the Taboola ads after I complained.
The others remain. We’ll see how it goes and I’ll review it again later.
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Glad to hear that you found the Taboola ads distasteful and inappropriate for a science blog. I was wondering what had changed when I noticed the new advertising the other day; your explanation makes perfect sense.
Feh. There’s so damned much advertising on the Intertubes nowadays that it seems kinda existentially wrong somehow for my Firefox add-ons to have nothing to block
I’m also using the latest version of Firefox with Adblock Plus enabled but the “Taboola” ads were NOT blocked and I definitely noticed them. They first appeared in the Steve Schneider atrticle a couple of days ago and I was really surprised that it slipped through Adblock. After inspecting the elements on the page I created the following custom Adblock filter:
||taboolasyndication.com^$third-party…and — poof! — the ads disappeared.Now I’m checking WUWT in IE9 (which does not block ads) and I can confirm that the Taboola ads are no longer there. So to those who think Adblock plus is blocking them, you are mistaken. At least for me, the ads initially slipped through Adblock totally unscathed. And believe you me, they were very annoying flash-based ads about cheesecake recipes. I was wondering which sites I had recently visited to trigger such targeted advertisements. I don’t remember watching any Golden Girls episodes on Youtube recently. Not that I watch Golden Girls or anything…
I have chromium’s ad blocker and for some reason those ads were the only ones that it didn’t get. I saw them and was like what the howdie doodie???
No need to worry unless you’re overtaken by “STOOPID HOUSEWIVES”.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out. Might be interesting. Or a dating service?
I presume that’s the deal you signed up to. Don’t look bad to me (other than usual marketing ability to communicate – the Cresline USB stick ad showing a very common design of stick is meaningless, no information to motivate the reader). Can you reject categories of advertisers?
The only time ads are an issue is when you are trying to read from your &*@ur momisugly#%! phone that can’t seem to actually live up to the 4G hype… or 3G, or 1xRTT, or 300 baud… sigh…
Mark
Yeah, yeah, apology for the ads.
Don’t try and kid us. We know you have a money bin where you swim in the five billion quintiplitilion unptuplatillion multuplatillion impossibidillion fantasticatrillion six hundred and twenty-three dollars and sixty-two cents you have garned from the ads on this site. ( johnpetroff told us in the Glaciation thread.)
So just sit in your CO2-emitting private plane, sup up that champage, and gloat.
And send a few $$$ to me, please.
One thing about clicking on those ads to get Anthony some money – they also bring money in for WordPress.
I did click on the Fluke color IR imager in hopes WordPress/Google/whatever would be more inclined to put up geek ads instead of abs ads….
Umm, I see ads. One is the Fluke ad. Time to unleash the hockey stick on WordPress!
I have my ad-blocker turned off for WUWT (and only WUWT) so I can click big bucks for the cause.
jorgekafkazar says (September 20, 2012 at 11:56 am): “Ads? There were ads?”
Exactly. I think a lot of us just tune out most ads automatically. And I put up with a lot more ads on sites I like a lot less.
I turned on an ad-blocker the the other day. It works. Some of them I actually miss, but glad to get rid of the popups, especially the sticky ones.
Roy UK 11.42 pm asks how could you beat Koreanindo
One way would be to develop a computer game with great graphics with scientists showing up alarmists of all sorts.Start with earth orbit crossing planetoids hurricanes global melting floods immersion of coral atolls and death by exotic disease together with species extinction. A good CG graphics would ensure success. Then release it virally on the internet.
I for one appreciate the ads. I click on them to get the informationI need to add their product to my “do not buy this EVER” list. It gives Anthony money and tweeks the nose of zealot companies.
It is very, very nice that more people know about WUWT. Plenty of good reading here! 🙂
And all the visits make it clear that people are not convinced and are searching for what is the truth about “global warming”.
I also get the Fluke ads which I presumed was the result of looking for lab equipment like an FTIR and such like. In fairness I only click on ads for things I am actually interested in. But I do, like Pamela, use them as a filter : never buy anything advertised on TV or the Internet.
Thanks for the tip: it really speeds up my browser.
James Padgett says:
September 20, 2012 at 11:29 am
No need to apologize. People can download NoScript if they use Firefox which will also have the benefit of stopping them from getting new viruses if they are smart with it.
Maybe you can find something useful or amusing to do with the money if it turns out to be significant? How much does an ad in the New York Times cost?
I’m getting a dating banner ad from Zoosk telling me there’s one message waiting for me. I’m pretty excited, actually.
/sarc
In addition to Google’s own, I get ads from AGW surfing companies (“We can measure your CO2 emissions …) , ie snake oil selling companies that seem to do anything to gain money on the AGW hoax .. .
No problem.
Having seen what DDoS can do to a Website that dealt with security and had the willing/free help of security experts (with authority to act) at major ISPs; you made the best choice.
Aww, come on. I *wanted* to know more about the Kardashians!
Advertising make the world go around.
The Ads don’t bother me. (Though my wife did ask me why there was a the girl in her underwear and a tee shirt on the screen.)
But I did find it amusing the “banner ad” at the moment reads, “Bank of America®
Our Goal is to Reduce Our Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 15%.”
Two thoughts:
1. Really wrong site for that Ad.
2. Just get Obama to stop burning our money.
Have clicked on adverts. Please enjoy the small injection of funds at their expense 🙂 I think I’ll keep doing it!