Recently, ads have been an attack vector. I asked at another site - hardforum.com - about their ad provider because I’ve yet to be attacked from there and they use Google as an ad provider, mixed with direct ads.
Google just doesn’t pay well. A lot of sites are unhappy with the money they get from Google given the space provided and the number of click thrus.
Google knows that its rates are crappy and resorts to extortion to force popular sites to subscribe (or if subscribed, downplay other adservices ads). I.e., “Nice site you got here, it’d be a shame if your search rankings went down.” MetaFilter famously took a hit from Google that is suspected to be caused by the site’s placement of non-Google ads along with Google’s.
Does any ad service pay enough to make it worth the endless hassles, cheesy image and lost visitors? Not necessarily on a huge anchor site like this one, but the milliards of small sites that seem to think they’re going to have their hosting costs paid, or even make a profit?
Professional ad brokers are the backbone of the market. Most sites use these brokers along with Google Ads; I would bet there are few sites that can stay in business strictly through subscriptions and certainly very few with the kind of traffic seen at this site.
These professional brokers handle tens of thousands of ads and cannot physically vet every single one. It’s a highly automated business.
Professional ad brokers are the backbone of the market. Most sites use these brokers along with Google Ads; I would bet there are few sites that can stay in business strictly through subscriptions and certainly very few with the kind of traffic seen at this site.
These professional brokers handle tens of thousands of ads and cannot physically vet every single one. It’s a highly automated business.