What’s wrong with this picture? Maybe nothing, depending on your perspective. It’s just lacking the ads that are normally at the top and the side of the page, thanks to AdBlock software that is readily available for all internet browsers, and now for mobile devices too. Unfortunately, their use is growing, and represents the biggest single threat to the viability of free content publishers, including CC. I hate to have to bring this to your attention, but we’re already feeling the effects, and its scary. Our financial situation is precarious as it is. Fortunately, there is a very easy solution to the adblocking. The rest is not quite so easy.
Every AdBlocking program allows one to “whitelist” designated web sites/domains, which then allows the ads to be delivered, as shown here. I’m not surprised that AdBlock has become more popular, because many site use very obnoxious ads that pop up, move into the screen, cover part of the images, autoplay video without being asked, etc… I’m at the point where I’m tempted to use it myself for some sites.
The whole issue is a very dangerous dance, because as more folks use AdBlock, web sites become more desperate and increasingly use more aggressive ads. And now with adblocking available on mobiles, which accounts for an ever-increasing share of web use, the situation becomes ever more dire. Here’s just one good article that examines the trends and risks for free web media.
It’s also fueling a larger trend in web publishing that increasingly reflects the media world at large: the percentage of web viewing by the largest sites is growing strongly, at the expense of the smaller sites. The web was once the great flowering of a democratic and universal media, thanks to a very low hurdle to publishing. But sustaining it is another matter; the economics of web publishing have always been difficult, but with the consolidation that’s happening along with adblocking trends, it will become an environment increasingly dominated by the large, with many smaller sites slowing down or dwindling away, as has already happened to a number of automotive enthusiast sites.
The stark truth about CC is this: if it weren’t for the fact that I’m not dependent on its income, it would likely have shut down long ago. It’s a full-time job, and more, with highly incommensurate compensation (roughly minimum wage). And that’s only now; the first few years there was almost no income at all. And that’s only when I’m not paying others to help out, which I do to get a bit of relief. Which is a big part of the problem: there’s not enough income to hire anyone on an ongoing basis, since no one else that’s properly qualified is going to be able to do the job for minimum wage, at least not for any length of time. Ideally, there would be at least one full time Managing Editor along with me to keep up with all of the submissions, housekeeping, and creating content. But it’s just not economically possible. And I’m always fighting burnout, given that I have to also keep my other business activities going, although they’ve been neglected.
OK, so much for the pity party. I love CC and want to keep it alive, vibrant and growing. And the revenue from the ads are a key factor. But I refuse to allow obnoxious ads that pop up or cover images, or autoplay, etc.. Our ads never interfere with the reading and images. But that limits the income, especially if they’re blocked.
We get paid by Google Adsense for both showing ads as well as for clicks, which yields more than just showing them. I’m not allowed to suggest that you click ads. But just delivering the display ads provides a substantial part of the ad income, and obviously both revenue streams are killed by adblocking. Our Google Adsense revenue has been stagnant, or worse. And the gap between page views delivered and actual page views has increased, undoubtedly due to adblcking or mobile use with poor ad placements/response.
Newspapers with high quality content are increasingly charging for their digital content, and as an appreciative user of such content, I pay for several of them (NYT, Automotive News, our local newspaper, some others), because quality content is worth the money, and I believe it needs to be supported. I don’t scrimp on the food I feed my belly, or my brain.
I’ve pondered the idea of also charging for CC, but realistically, it’s probably not a viable solution, as the number of subscribers might not make it worth it, or even if it did, it would reduce the overall reach of CC as well as the lively commenting that is a big part of it. I want CC to be available to anyone, and over half our readers every day find themselves here because of a Google search or such.
We do have a Donation button on the right side, and a few of you have been very generous. I really hate to even mention it, because it’s just not my thing to beg, although maybe an NPR-style web-athon is what we really need. But here’s my pledge: all the money that comes in from donations will go towards compensating some of our more needy young writers who work very hard and are trying to leverage themselves into a career, which is a challenging proposition. I want to encourage them, and it does help with my workload. And if there are enough willing to pay a small monthly amount, I would use it to hire an on-going Managing Editor, or a Weekend Editor, or such.
Ok, enough of the dull and dreary side of CC. But we’re sitting pretty much right on the dividing line of what is sustainable long term, and what isn’t. I can’t carry the show myself much longer. It’s a brutal prospect to have to fill up a Calendar seven days a week, or review and edit the posts that have been scheduled. Ask those that have done it before. It’s been almost five years for me, with only a few breaks. Having a healthy Contributor base is a great asset, but there’s always work associated with that too, except for those that have developed to a pro level, which a number of our writers have.
So if CC is to be long-term viable and buck the current trends, which are unfavorable to the smaller, independent web sites, we’re going to have to figure out a solution. Not blocking ads is one helpful part of that, but unfortunately not the whole answer. I’m still looking for that.
I recently picked up adblock. Some websites have ads that cause my computer to continuously load pages, again and again. Adblock did away with it. I didn’t want Adblock, since I understand the importance of sponsorship and most of it is harmless. It had just gotten to the point where the ads were preventing me from enjoying the sites. I’ve turned it off for CC now, and will leave it off as long as I don’t see ads that keep my CPU running at 75% and my screen scrolling itself back to the top of the page all the time.
I would have a lot more love for this site if it didn’t auto send me to a Vegas ad every 30 seconds. Is that a bug?
I don’t normally even notice ads – I guess I have my own internal adblock – but I looked to the right of this article and the ad was for Victoria’s Secret. As a dude, I don’t have much use for a “T-shirt bra”, whatever that is.
And that’s why internet advertising doesn’t really work.
But wouldn’t your special lady look spectacular in the T-shirt bra? Christmas is three months away, dude! 🙂
Thank you for letting us know and I will see what I can do.
Seems like something changed about a month ago. I hadn’t liked the idea of adblock, and I prefer to feel like I’m paying for value. A month ago two of the sites I read daily had reached the point where they were just piling ads on ads on ads, making the content itself completely unavailable. I turned on adblock then.
CC was NOT one of those pile-on sites, so I appreciate the whitelist reminder.
Oh, snap.
Paul, I am so sorry – if I did adblock this post, it was inadvertently so. Will be cognizant and fix it moving forward.
It’s nothing you did, or can do. It’s a feature on everyone’s browser. I just used your article as an example (and I had do download AdBlock to do it.) But it’s disabled now. 🙂
Not savvy enough to know if Adblock is enabled on my phone but suspect it isn’t.
Sometimes I find the ads to be “informative” as they offer a service or product I didn’t know where to find otherwise. However, there are times when I wish Google would “mind it’s own business”, so to speak, and stop trying to anticipate my needs/desires.
I do appreciate websites that offer free content. In an example of how backwards the “pay for news” sites work: my hometown newspaper charges for looking at their newspaper online. This in a town of 1500 population and where half the print version is NON local news. To their credit, if I still lived there I’d be tempted to subscribe to the print version for it’s excellent local sports news and photos. Yet the city where I currently live offers free access to it’s online newspaper….this in an area with 1 million or more population.
Oddly, the print version of the smaller newspaper sells for just 1/2 the price of the larger paper per day.
Fixed! CC is now un-adblocked for me.
Thanks for all your work, Paul, and all the other contributors, too!
In the last few years I haven’t had to adjust anything to my browsers (IE, FF, Chrome) and I usually see the ads on top and R sidebar, and usually (not always) the one that is at the end of each article. Spam filters have greatly improved, too. Ever since the default adblockers suppressed pop-up ads that appear in different windows, I largely try to ignore the clickbait ads but have done nothing actively to block them.
However, I’m increasingly convinced that on sites like TTAC and jalopnik that there is so much scripted content within each page and bogging it down that even being able to smoothly scroll is becoming a luxury, particularly when (forced to) using IE (like at work). I’ve been too lazy to research that defeat. Maybe some unemployed software engineers from VW can help …
If a popup to hemmings did happen here, I might follow it …
Though I have not used AdBlock in a while (it interferes with my school’s coursework and email “portals”) I have whitelisted CC anyway – no problem. I appreciate you using discrete banner ads and not obnoxious scrolling ads or “native” land mines that make navigation confusing (*cough* that car site that begins with a J *cough*). Please keep it this way!
And the reason I installed AdBlock in the first place was not because I didn’t want to see ads, but because of the poor design (crashing/reloading when scrolling, for instance) of some.
I don’t use adblock, as I don’t really mind ads for free content. I don’t subscribe to Cable TV or satellite radio and of course OTA broadcasts are ad supported. (To be honest, given some of the TV shows today, The ads are often more entertaining!) However on websites that have ads that take over the whole screen or autoplay video or audio, I bail out of the site! As a side note I read CC on a mobile device most of time, and the ads I see are almost always auto related, and often local at that!
I don’t block ads…you do. Your ads are reliant upon offsite JavaScript to render themselves, and you withhold them from browsers that don’t execute offsite scripts or don’t have JavaScript enabled.
I’m not very tech-savvy, so I’m not quite sure what you mean. I assume you’re not using one of the common browsers? Or you’ve made changes to your browser?
As far as I know, any of the common browsers will show the ads unless they’re ad-blocked or some other changes has been made.
Not quite. If the browser doesn’t execute offsite scripts or doesn’t have JS enabled, then it’s still the local browser that is not displaying the ads. CC.com is still serving those ads.
The point I’m trying to make is that not everyone who doesn’t see the ads is using an ad blocker.
If the browser doesn’t execute offsite scripts or doesn’t have JS enabled, the ads don’t get served at all…no requests to the advertising host are made because Google Adsense is broken and doesn’t provide alternate noscript content in their markup.
As Jim and Andrew note, there’s a complex interaction between adblockers, script blockers, and privacy add-ons, as well as each browser’s own security functions. Even whitelisting individual ad services, new ones pop up each time a page reloads, so some ads will alternately work and then not work.
One thing that’s maddening about CC (and various other sites) without script blocking is that one or the other of your ad servers is constantly trying to redirect pages, which Firefox automatically blocks by default, popping up warning messages each time. The various ad scripts are also enormously resource-hungry, which is a massive headache for those of us with elderly computers.
The stated goal of Adblock Plus and some of the other developers is to try to get advertisers to make their advertising less obnoxious and intrusive. So far, that hasn’t happened…
I understand this may not work for everyone, for one reason or another. That’s ok. It appears from the comments that it works well for many, and that was my point. I’m not shooting for 100%.
Yeah that’s what I’m experiencing with Firefox too. With adblocker off(as I will leave it for CC) half the time all ads will come through, while the other 50% of the time one ad slot will be blank, or one will come through with another blank and another with a blocked flash icon.
I really wish advertisers would take heed that message. I have no problem with ads like the Quantico one I see as I write this, which isn’t being blocked by firefox or noscript, but the flash one (I just temporarily unblocked) in the header featuring Dodge caravans being spinnining around like a slot machine is a pointless and obnoxious animation. I’m actually mildly irritated I’ve bought stuff from that particular dealer now! Enough of that tends to lock up my laptop.
Since you asked so nice, you made it to the whitelist 🙂
Same here!
Me too! CC would be the only website that I’d happily contribute to watch. Could we all afford $5 a year via paypal to keep it going? How many people are like me and visit here daily?
Brilliant suggestion – I for one would be very happy to pay for CC. 🙂
Thanks for letting us know, Paul. I have disabled AdBlock for Curbsideclassic.com. It’s easy to do, and if somehow the advertisers get too pushy despite your best efforts, it’s easy to enable again…one click, for each action.
I too have just whitelisted this domain – I want to see this site continuing.
Paul, you stated your case very politely yet thoroughly. I have disabled AdBlock for this site. There are so, so many sites, though, in which advertising and extra “sponsored content” is intrusive, to say the least. I haven’t seen that on this site, thank goodness!
I’ve whitelisted you before but at some point that was undone (regular reset by the software maybe?) and just redid it.
There has to be some way, other than everyone retreating back to the sort of subscription-controlled walled garden that drove everyone off AOL, to get out of the more aggressive ads -> more adblock -> more aggressive ads -> more adblock feedback loop…I’m just not sure what it is or how it could be implemented.
Fixed.
Thank you all for whitelisting CC! Much appreciated. Also to those that have already sent a donation.
I had it turned off on your site for a while because of the types of ads (no nsfw, no strange redirects, cpu doesn’t peg out.) However, we now have a webfilter for work – your site is allowed, but all ads are blocked.
Does using the reader button on my mobile browser reduce ad revenue? I use it because I haven’t invested in bifocals yet, but I can read in regular mode if it helps!
Likely. Are any ads visible?
We need to re-do our mobile site, to make it look and function better, and also still be able to serve ads in reader mode. Hopefully this winter, along with a complete site upgrade too. In the meantime, don’t sweat it. 🙂
Well you have to open the page before you hit the reader button so I image the ads are served at least once for each article read…
That’s a great question Matt. I’d like to know the answer as well.
guilty. to make amends, i just paypaled a small donation. i use ublock origin on firefox which i’ve just set to not block cc, in the future. most adblockers give you the option to unblock sites which is my preferred method for small sites. i wasn’t aware that google gives you revenue for display ads so i may rethink my position on all this but in general i don’t like being tracked which is the problem with the whole whitelist concept.
Thanks for alerting us – I am sure the vast majority of the regular readers here wish to help support you. I count myself in the category of those who use Adblock after getting tired of webpage slowdown. Y’all are whitelisted now.
I do have a question though – I oftentimes read Curbside Classic via Feedly, which does not appear to have any ads pulled from your site – if we are reading your articles on an RSS reader, do you get any kind of credit?
I assume not.
You have to click through to cc.com to see any ads and for the views to credit to the site.
What a thoughtful explanation of what’s going on in media and your own situation at CC Paul. Far, far from a pity party or being dreary it was enlightening. Regarding ads, I’m not that technical and don’t know how to shut them off. Your ads don’t bother me one bit and so I haven’t wanted to learn. Did not know the adblocking software was driving the overly aggressive pop-up ads at other sites. I don’t go to those sites any more. Donation is a great idea and everyone should do their part with an article or two every year, at least.
Agreed !
There’s a whole horde of regular CC-commenters who’s perfectly capable of writing at least a few good articles per year. Even an article about your neighbor’s wheelbarrow can be highly interesting. Or amusing.
Furthermore, personally I think that two new articles and one rerun per day is enough. With a three or four hour interval. Again, just my opinion.
I don’t use adblocking, and this website works flawlessly on both IE and FF. The ads don’t bother me. On the contrary, there’s nothing wrong with those single Asian and Russian women…
No adblocking here I knew you wanted the revenue Paul.
While you’re up there, why don’t you check Paul’s colon?
Only kidding!!
Paul, maybe a reduced publication rate? Mondays and Thursdays or some such? You have been a most gracious slave to CC…I can imagine the burnout factor….
As always, this community is very grateful (I hope)….
Reduced content = fewer page views = less ad revenue. It’s the basic math of ad-supported free sites. But we need to find the right balance.
What about Curbside Classic-fieds? Could be a variable pay rate, with the highest rate getting a full CC on their car, or they could write their own. Just a thought!
I’ve started visiting Curbside Classic a few times a day recently and installed ABP to my main browser just a few months ago. I’ve not thought about it since, but I’ve now clicked the little red icon and selected “Disable on https://www.curbsideclassic.com”
It took two seconds and I think I can handle a few ads in exchange for the enjoyment I get from the site.
My computer skills are far too basic to block ads, and they dont get in the way of my
enjoying this site.
However my GF is a bit suspicious of all the ads for Asian ladies.
I cant explain it either !!!
I get ads for what the ad says are hot Men occasionally which is funny.
I’ve been using AdBlock for years, but I frequent a few sites like this one that are run by individuals, and I always disable AdBlock on such sites. Thanks again for all the effort you put into CC, Paul. I’m happy to see the ads when I visit.
I’ve never AdBlocked this site, figuring that’s how you get paid. Just one ad creeps me out…female android with RJ 46 jacks imbedded in her back. I could never have been an EMT/similar…
Good, I’m not the only one getting those! If I’m going to get a sex related ad, it needs to be a real human.
They have creepy realistic ones in Japan now.
I block ads by default because too many sites are too aggressive with ads. When I upgrade my phone to iOS 9, I’ll be using an adblocker there, too, because of all the goddamn popups that are so goddamn hard to make go away. How small and impossible to tap CAN they make the X to close the popup? Sheesh.
It IS hard to monetize the web. But the advertisers have found every way possible to make ads really fricking annoying. There are a couple of products I have very negative impressions of because of the ways their online ads interrupt and outright block the sites I’m trying to view.
But I’ve whitelisted CC for a long time. And several other sites, too, that serve a niche, are run by someone or a small group of someones trying to scrape by, and wouldn’t exist without those views.
Here’s an interesting thing, though, about the ads on those sites: they are more frequently relevant and interesting to me. Meanwhile, the ads on my NYT Now app, or that show up through Facebook Paper, are 99% of the time for stuff I would never be interested in.
Paul, have you thought about setting up the ability for readers to give automatically each month via Patreon.com? I give to one other site/forum that way. It makes it feel a lot easier to give: I might not miss $5/mo but I’d feel $50 all at once.
I’m going to give Patreon a very close look and consideration. Thanks.
I really appreciate the insights in this article and the comments. Voluntary monthly donations like suggested above along with a once-yearly ‘funding drive’ wouldn’t be offensive to me in any way. I have turned off adblock and am donating via paypal. Thanks for what you do—I don’t know what I would do while drinking my coffee in the morning!
No ad blocking on this site. I even clicked on a couple just for fun. I have also gotten off my lazy butt and scheduled a CC piece.
Having taken a turn or two at running things here in your absence, I can appreciate the grind that you have taken on with CC. It is frustrating how the web publishing model seems to make it impossible to make something like this generate enough income to be run professionally.
Whitelisted! I’m in the “web-page slowdown” crowd of reasoning, but always willing to whitelist for smaller sites that need the revenue. I also agree with what Jim Grey said, Patreon could work. Something like 5$/month to view articles a day earlier?
Paul, if you were to charge for subscriptions, do you have any idea of what the price of a subscription would be? As a lifelong car enthusiast, I enjoy the content on this site and would be willing to pay for it if the price is reasonable.
I doubt that’s the direction we’ll go for now. More likely a program to encourage a small monthly voluntary donation, perhaps via Patreon.
How do you know the ads aren’t “malvertising?” Now, ads spiked with malware can infect users of otherwise respectable sites.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/27/malvertising_feature
Interesting article. It appears that the malvertising is almost always placed on very large sites, with millions of readers, in order to maximize the number of clicks. In any case, if one doesn’t click on an ad, especially if it looks suspicious, there’s no real risk.
But it’s certainly an issue that the ad networks should make greater efforts to prevent.
Paul, I have to say compared to many other sites I have visited, this one has some of the least obtrusive ad layouts I have seen. I appreciate the fact they don’t really interfere with the ability to read the articles. So I have never had the desire to block the ads on this site. I can only imagine the amount of work and time you and your contributors put into this site. I for one would like to say thank you for your hard work. I don’t even have the time to read the majority of the articles posted, so I can only imagine the time you have spent keeping this website running. I hope that this site stays financially feasible, as it is one of my favourite places indulgences on the internet.
I run an Adblocker, but I’ve had this site whitelisted since day 1. The ads here are nowhere near as bad as TTAC- they’re not popping up, covering images completely, and turning words into “hyperlinks”. Sidebar ads are fine with me!
I think whitelisting is the least that we all can do….
I have never used Adblock (or its equivalent) on this site or any other. I mostly don’t even notice the ads; I worked in market research for many years and had to watch ads over and over and over again, as part of my job. Apparently I’ve learned to subconsciously ignore them. If I do happen upon a site where the ads are intrusive, I just move on. CC is one of the two or three sites that I try to visit daily, and it is one of the best. If you need to move this to a subscription site I would certainly understand why and would be willing to pay a reasonable fee for the privilege. Thanks for all of your hard work; I hope you can find a way to be rewarded for the effort you put in here.
Thanks for the reminder – I know nothing’s free! Besides the standard donation link, have you considered setting up an account option which for a fee would block ads but exceed the revenue generated through advertising?
Personally, I hate having to deal with advertising on websites, video, music, etc. I am willing to donate some dollars to support those whose work I enjoy.
Thanks for the work you do. I enjoy reading this site every day!
Paul I appreciate all the hard work you and your contributors do. This is one of my favorite sites. As you can tell by the lengths of my comments that I like to talk. I would like to try my hand at writing a post sometime in the future.
Please do; I love reading your comments.
I don’t use AdBlock & lately on this site there is a video ad in the middle of the article or comments that every time it reloads the window jumps to the video. Half way through a paragraph it jumps to the video & I have to scroll back and find my place. Very frustrating, but I don’t want to use AdBlock if you don’t want me to. BTW, it did it about 4 times while I was typing this!
I’ve experienced that same thing. I’m trying to pin down the exact ad and try to block it. It’s the first time that’s ever happened. Google AdSense is usually good about that kind of thing. I will try again to weed it out.
I’ve noticed the same thing over the past couple of weeks – very annoying, and, at least on Chrome, it keeps doing it, making the article unreadable.
As for me, I make my living in advertising, so no ad block software for me. But I wish my colleagues would be a bit more considerate of what they subject us to, i.e. stuff like this.
I really wish I could pin down which ad is doing it. Please let me know if anybody else can, and I’ll find some way to block it. it seems to come and go.
If someone has it happen again, click on the ad and copy the url it goes to, and then I’ll block it. I’m not allowed to click on ads, for obvious reasons.
The one that was causing the page to jump for me was related to a Las Vegas hotel. If I see it again, I’ll tell you more specifically.
I wish Curbside Classic a long and prosperous life because it is one of the most valuable automotive websites around. I’ve sent in a donation and have switched views on my iPhone so the ads show up. Thank you for the heads up.
(BTW, there’s no need to apologize when asking for money.)
The meta issue seems to be that Curbside Classic has been a labor of love that must, to a certain degree, “go pro” if it is to survive over the long haul. What might that look like?
Some free websites have shifted to a hybrid revenue model. For example, Talking Points Memo has a free website that maximizes readership in order to generate ad revenue and a sister site behind a pay wall. The free website runs subscription drives on a regular basis.
Would a similar approach (albeit on a smaller scale) pencil out for Curbside Classic? One low- or no-cost way to find out could be to interest a talented University of Oregon grad student in developing a business plan.
I’ve also seen a number of marginal media companies survive by becoming nonprofit organizations. Paul might consider chatting with a nonprofit expert (Oregon has lots of them) to see if he could create a structure that addresses his needs, such as being adequately compensated for his investment.
Thanks. Some good ideas; I’ll look into them.
Paul, do you have any contacts with UO Eugene’s School of Journalism and Communications? If not, I wonder if it would be worth introducing yourself to the new media professors. Over the long run you might be pleasantly surprised at the varied types of free or low-cost technical assistance you could receive from faculty and student interns.
The nonprofit model has strengths and weaknesses; one good thing is that you would be eligible to hire work-study student workers. At least here in Washington, if you hire well you can get some really talented people and only pay around half of their total costs. Work-study jobs are usually quarter time during the school year, which can make them most useful for organizations that can’t afford to hire even a half-time employee at market rates. As an example, I’ve had mostly good experiences hiring admin majors from the local community college.
I have AdBlock installed on my computers, but your site is always allowed. Thank you for all you do here!
I always said I would not pay an online fee as the internet should be free.
today I just got a good swift kick as to how the real world works.
thanks paul and I agree with the idea of a small monthly fee now.
this is too damn good to lose!!
I don’t block the ads on this site. I wouldn’t even know how, as I’m hopelessly computer illiterate. However, as a gay man, I have little use for ads promoting a love connection with 9000+ Russian women.
Paul, I love this site and am sorry it makes so little for you. I have a small custom-furniture business and quite understand how difficult it is to turn a buck these days. I think I would be willing to pay a small fee to support this site, perhaps on a donation basis like Wikipedia.
I am not aware of consciously having activated any blocking program and never had ads popping up here, so I must be missing something or maybe it’s area-connected? I’ll make a habit of clicking on the bar ads whenever I come here if it helps.
I jumped straight to the comment field to say this so excuse me if these points are already in the thread somewhere.
I’m not exposing myself to I don’t know how many trackers and I’m not opening my door to outside ad and assorted malware injecting “services”. Because that’s what happens regularly. I’m not at all comfortable with self starting vids, ads that take over my screen and whatnot. Also I don’t need nobody telling me what I might need and I’m not an impulse buyer anyway. For me ads don’t exist anywhere and my world is a lot better for it. None in my actual mailbox, none in my email and none on my screen. Don’t watch tv, don’t listen to radio. I do visit food related stores regularly all other stores strictly as needed. I don’t browse stuff I’m not interested in in the first place.
You’d do better to start selling coffee mugs and t shirts. I’d buy those. Most of us would I think. Maybe do yearly calendars and whatnot. Branch out.
This way many private trackers survive who get their PayPal blocked from time to time.
Most take donations and have a goal bar to show the progress each month where you would put ads. I say that would work a lot better.
There must be some Photoshop artists among us to develop the shirts mugs and whatnot, I for one would submit some stuff if needed. For free yes. I’m a hobbyist like you though I don’t deny the costs you experience running this place in time and money.
You should be compensated I agree it’s just the manner of compensation I can’t condone. Making a design takes many hours btw.
I do appreciate the effort and have for a long time.
I love this place but pictures of old cars are not exclusive. There will always spring up some hobbyist equivalent if the need arises. There probably are many already. That’s the way the hydra works.
Thanks for the reminder Paul. I can’t stand ads and will keep flashblock enabled, but I did donate through paypal. If you removed all autoplay flash ads, I would leave flashblock enabled and would probably still donate.
this should rad that I would leave adblock/flashbock disabled if the autoplay ads were removed. I don’t mind the ads, but the ones that play audio automatically get to me. Maybe it was just when I was on, but there was an ad at the bottom of the article that would reload and play all the time. The ads on the sidebars seemed to be OK.
Things like that are why I leave my volume on mute by default, only un-muting if I’m trying to listen to music or watch a video. What I do not hear cannot bother me.
Personally I don’t find the ads on CC an issue, with just the top banner, side bar and something at the end of the article, and I’ve never used an ad blocker.
I’d even say I’m more intrigued than bothered, given Google’s selections and how they match your viewing history etc.
Pop ups would be different though.
I’ve never used an ad blocker; but some other sites on the web have made me think of it; one site I used to look at a lot, Cnet, used to be a good site, but now the editorial content is so over whelmed by ads; you can’t tell which is which, don’t want to see that happen to CC; one of the most un-intrusive car sites, ad wise.
One of the things tech sites are pushing for is the abolition of all computer user based players, like Java script and Adobe Flash player; and running all sites, videos and ads using html5 compliant browsers; and many people disable these players partly because of the malware and viruses they propagate.
The large network ad companies don’t want to do this, get rid of Java and Adobe, because there are so many people on the web still using older computers with non-html5 browsers.
I was wondering why small web sites like CC, wouldn’t get rid of Java and Adobe, and get ahead of the curve and make sure their sites and ads were using html5 video players and script generators; but now I see, after reading Paul’s article, they are at the mercy of the ad companies and Google, etc. till all those old computers disintegrate, like a 30 year old GM brougham
Not so why so many respondents are grovelling and complying with whitelisting or not using an adblocker/
Why should I be expected to tolerate ads on sites I want to visit?
Do you want me to stop going to to the toilet, or making tea.coffee during ad breaks on TV?
Because that’s the same as suggesting someone not use adblock.
I don’t ever want to see an ad, end of story.
My adblocker remains 100% active at all times.
Advertisers pay you to take their ads, not for people to look at them.
Please take their money – but don’t ask people to look at them.
It’s a free web, so you can do what you want, but consider a few things. CC is high quality because much time is taken in preparing articles and editing them. People generally have to be paid to sustain a site with this volume and quality of content. The ONLY sources of revenue are adds and donations–CC ONLY makes money from advertisers if the add is NOT blocked.
What Paul is saying is that the current revenue stream is marginally sustainable in the long term and ad blockers are having an important negative impact on this. If you don’t care whether CC survives or fails, then don’t donate and turn on your add blocker but those of us that do value the site will be allowing the limited adds and/or donating to ensure that CC is sustainable.
Advertisers only pay when an advertisement is seen, so they are not paying Paul to “Take their ads”. They’re paying when somebody sees it.
Therefore, if their ad is blocked, CC doesn’t receive anything…. at least if it’s like the cases I’ve dealt with.
I don’t use ad blocker but when those annoying, asinine videos start playing, I switch away to another site instantly!
I’m guilty – I’ve been AdBlocking every single webpage out there for the last 10+ years, and I’m gonna continue to do that… on my computer, anyway. Phone browsers seem to deal with ads better, for whatever reason (even on my ancient BlackBerry) – although it’s still an epileptic seizure of redirects for most sites.
But I’m sympathetic to the cause here. I’d gladly pay monthly to keep CC going!
I limit my internet usage to a very limited number of webpages, and don’t use AdBlocking. I still remember the last time Paul wrote such an article about keeping CC alive with ads and donations (maybe more than a year ago?). Many of us (me included) had no problem in clicking the ads (maybe not each time we visit the site, but every few days) to support the site. I still do it, especially when the ads are car-related.
I encourage all readers who don’t mind in clicking those ads to do it on a regular basis. Of course, as long as the ads have contents that can make you feel uncomfortable.
Paul, is there a way to request a larger percentage of car related ads from Google?
The sheer variety of ways ads are being seen by people is surprising, but I’m not overly tech-savvy either. Using Safari at home and Chrome at work, I have never had more than the banner, side, and end of article ads. Like many others, I’ve never used an ad-blocker.
For anybody reading this, Paul spends a phenomenal amount of time with this website. Speaking from personal experience, preparing a single article is time consumptive and he is often doing multiple articles of various lengths daily. My first question upon discovering CC was how this man ever left his computer given the volume of content. When I met Paul and Stephanie in Iowa City, I mentioned this impression to them. Stephanie said this perception wasn’t inaccurate and she was quite happy to see new contributors come aboard.
Whatever needs to be done for the site to continue is what needs to be done.
as i wrote earlier, in the interest of fairness, i am no longer adblocking this site. from reading the comments, it appears to me that most of you are not aware of another aspect of internet advertising. the ads are used to build a psycho-graphic profile of each user. google and facebook are particularly adept at this. they do their best to track every site you go to and every search you make. when you click on an ad, they make note of it and add it to your profile. it’s safe to say that everyone who visits this site is listed by google as being interested in cars. by combining that with what else they know about you, they will profile you. that alone isn’t a big deal but they sell this data on the open market to other marketers. they also share it with the nsa. even if you click the do not track box, they track you. maybe you are ok with that but i’m not. again i’m not suggesting that you should block all sites but you should be aware of what it means to surf the web in today’s world.
I share your paranoid delusion… it’s not so much that I think the NSA or Target or McDonalds or any bulk data purchaser is inherently evil, I just hate the premise of the whole thing. 20 years ago, who would have thought that having a shitty credit score would directly effect someone on a job interview? Isn’t that crazy? We’re gonna see more and more bullshit like that as time goes on, no question. I know I won’t be able to avoid having my Google Score (or whatever) assigned, and my lack of participation will probably just make things harder for me down the road, but I prefer to be dragged, kicking and screaming, in the race towards building a better consumer.
try this: clear your cookies cache. then turn on “don’t track me.” now check your cookies. you will now have a cookie from google. what they should label that check box is “only let google track me.” you’d be nuts not to be paranoid in this environment.
I think I’ve already got it set up that way, but I’ll have to check. No Facebook, no ads, stay logged out of Google unless I’m signed into gmail, only buy stuff online if I absolutely can’t find it anywhere else.
For the record, I wanna be clear that I firmly believe Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK, NASA landed on the moon, the Holocaust was real, 9/11 was not an inside job, and that there is no secret reptilian Illuminati conspiracy involving chemtrails and fluoridated water. Data mining is the only thing I’m a paranoid little bitch about.
I undid it but every time a video ad comes on it knocks me off what I’m reading. I’ll pause it then go back, then it starts up again and takes me back to the ad.
Whitelisted!
OK, I turned adblock off on this site. I understand it costs to run a site like this. And advertisers pay by the view and by the click. Unfortunately, while typing this reply, I’ve twice been taken to the MGM Grand at Lost Wages. The screen literally jumps to the ad. Kiindly get rid of that type, they destroy the experience and redefine OBNOXIOUS. Why they are even more obnoxious and annoying than I.
I’m not a freeloader, I pay to several sites, but it’s a two way street.
Where exactly was that ad located? I’ve been trying to hunt it down.
same here. it was an mgm grand video at the end of the “top 10 obscure editions” article.
It starts out as a static panel, at the end of your post before the comments section, about “A Taste of Austria” http://p.foodplanet.kumma.netdna-cdn.com/vod/foodplanet.kumma/IMG/toaposter.gif. I see your frustration now. I’m waiting here for it to happen and, of course, nothing. Ah Ha! It just did. It’s a flash ad (I should disable flash in FireFox), right clicking gives no clue as to where it comes from. Hope this is of some help.
I run ad-block partially as a means of security, partially so websites load quicker, and partially because I just plain don’t like ads.
With smaller, more “indie” sites like these I whitelist them if I like them as I understand the need for ads, they ain’t giants like youtube where one man with adblock means nuttin’ to them.
That being said, CC’s been white-listed on my end.
I dug up an example of what you could setup to support this place. It’s community made even.
This helps support a private website catering to a 150000 strong membership worldwide. No commercial angle whatsoever. Huge hardware costs to run the place and keep people/enforcement of the trail. A matter of organization. Extra work sure but not yours if you do it right.
http://whatstore.portmerch.com/stores/home.php
They change designs now and again to keep it interesting and keep people coming back and re-spend/support.
When I say no commercial angle I mean what.cd itself not this sister site where What sells some gear for actual money ofc.
The ads on this site are completely acceptable, dont pop up multiple times covering text, like on the new york times. I dont use ad blockers because I know free sites are supported by the ads. I guess its because I grew up with broadcast television, so it is kind of expected.
I use Ghostery. CC is whitelisted of course! Love this website and would certainly pay a subscription to keep it going.
Some sites have a little pop-up thing when you first visit that says something to the effect of “We see you have an ad blocker enabled, if you like Curbside Classic please consider disabling it for us, etc. etc.” and a brief explanation like the one above. How about that? After it’s shown one time, or once every month or something, leave it as a tab in the sidebar that’s always there as a reminder, but not really intrusive.
I don’t mind your requesting us not to ad-block. I agree with you on that- hosting is not free, and content takes time and effort that should be compensated for- ad blocking is a form of stealing in my opinion. If someone finds the ads too obnoxious, like on radio and TV you change the channel- and it is up to the content provider to market in such a way to balance revenue with appeal.
But that post you plugged from 4/1/12 that sorta suggested we we click the ads? That’s a horse of a different color. I use Internet advertising for my businesses with me paying a tiny amount for “exposure” (people seeing the ads) and up to a few dollars “per click”. I am willing to pay that much because my ads are highly targeted with a result being that without persuasion a high percentage of clicks are people who want to purchase- or at least very seriously consider- my product.
My product requires people to purchase it regularly- or at least they usually do. Spending a $20-30 on advertising per customer found is fine when I get customers spending $150 a month on my product.
But when you try to get people to click on ad links they are not actually interested in to boost your site revenue… Then you are the one stealing. Not from Google, not from your readers, but from innocent small businesses who like you are trying to honestly make a buck.
If I were to run a parts company for downsized GM b-body’s, this would be a wonderful site for me to advertise on. The demographic is perfect. Your audience would love to know my company exists. But I don’t want Benz fanatics clicking the link- just to get you my per click contribution. They aren’t going to buy from me- and they wouldn’t be interested in my wares. I am paying for something I shouldn’t be.
Find ways to generate revenue, by all means. I have some ideas, although I’d hope you thought of them already- your a bright guy. But please, don’t do it by gaming the ad system!
I’m sure you didn’t think of it this way, because I don’t think your that kind of man. But stealing from legitimate advertisers is exactly what encouraging false clicks is!
I’m not sure what you’re referring to, “the post I plugged from 4/1/2012”. Can you be more specific? Although the date sounds like it might have been an April Fool’s joke.
I have never asked anyone to click on ads, precisely for the reason you have given, as well as the fact that it’s a violation of Google AdSense policy. I’m not going to risk losing AdSense for doing that.
Paul, I love this website and will do anything I can to help it live a long healthy life.
I have a lot of material I would like to contribute, too.
I only recently gave in and installed AdBlocker on my laptop, because I was being driven crazy by ads that were making Firefox on my vintage 2007 Macbook run so slowly as to be unusable. I hate that s**t! But I was happy to disable it for CC after reading your post. I also just sent you a small donation.