# Any Idea On This Website's Business Model? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 14, 2021, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-idea-on-this-websites-business-model/948674 "2021-08-14T17:45:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-idea-on-this-websites-business-model/948674/1 "2021-08-14T17:45:12Z")
[Grunge.com](https://www.grunge.com/). Article after article, about this, or about that. Not an ad to be seen anywhere on the home page. Click on an article, for example [this one](https://www.grunge.com/487567/why-we-might-be-mining-asteroids-in-the-near-future/), and there is not an ad to be seen. How could this website possibly be making any money? There’s no ad revenue, no subscriptions. The best I can figure is that the articles are themselves the ads; like they have some sort of arrangement where their content is sent out via some ad clearinghouse or something, but how that works out to money in the bank is beyond my comprehension. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-idea-on-this-websites-business-model/948674/2 "2021-08-14T17:49:36Z")
I don’t think the site itself is the money maker, it appears that’s more of a repository for all the clickbait garbage you see everywhere else. It’s one of a handful of companies owned by Zergnet. They also own Looper and Nicki Swift. Think about how often you see those two names when you hover over a clickbait ad. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-idea-on-this-websites-business-model/948674/3 "2021-08-14T17:51:46Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > [Grunge.com](https://www.grunge.com/). Article after article, about this, or about that. Not an ad to be seen anywhere on the home page. Click on an article, for example [this one](https://www.grunge.com/487567/why-we-might-be-mining-asteroids-in-the-near-future/), and there is not an ad to be seen. I went there in a Chrome Incognito window and saw ads, perhaps not on the homepage but on the article pages. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-idea-on-this-websites-business-model/948674/4 "2021-08-14T18:01:15Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I went there in a Chrome Incognito window and saw ads, perhaps not on the homepage but on the article pages. I didn’t see any in a firefox private window. However, when I disabled uBlock Origin and refreshed the page, big white spaces opened up where ads would appear. When I disabled my PiHole, I got an error message in those big white spots. Something was still trying to load, but I assume a setting in my browser wouldn’t allow it. I didn’t try it in chrome, but based on experience, it probably would have loaded there. Anyway, I mentioned they’re owned by Zergnet, but another site, Static dot Com somehow plays into it as well. I wonder if maybe they just provide articles for anyone that wants to buy them. Any news/gossip/article driven website that needs to fill in a couple spaces can buy one of their articles. They also own Mashed and HealthDigest. Again, clickbait stuff that you tend to see woven into other sites. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-idea-on-this-websites-business-model/948674/5 "2021-08-15T16:44:22Z")
There’s some info on the site … > **[Policies - Grunge](https://www.grunge.com/policies/)** > > Read interesting lists and features.