Thread: Anti-Advertising mindset is going too far!

Recently I received an email from widgetbox. They are changing the policy regarding advertisements placed in the widgets/gadgets that are submitted to their directory. It is their site and they have full right to do this, as they should, but this act is bringing to light more fundamental problems.

First, let me state that I am both an Adsense publisher and an Adwords advertiser so I understand this area from both sides of the fence. With that being said, I feel compelled to say that this backlash against advertising is getting out of hand, and the usual proponents of this idea are simply uneducated in the matter.

If I spend hours, or even days, building a program that you download and use for free, then why should I not be able to place an advertisement on it? I have bills to pay and I have to eat like anyone else. In this economy it's not like there are any available jobs on the market. The utter ignorance of those who think that I (and other advertisers) should not have the money necessary to eat just so they don't have to look at an advertisement when they use my work/gadget/program for free is appalling!

In regards to widgetbox...their proposal is pointless. We (TPCS) placed only one ad per widget and ALWAYS placed our ads on the bottom of the widget. This would allow the user to RESIZE the widget if desired and the ad would not be displayed. Still, many, many people would complain about the ads. You see, this is the caliber of people who complain about the ads...the one's who apparently aren't smart enough to simply resize the widget to hide the ad!

Also, there are usually more than one version of any given widget. If the user does not like your version with the ad on it, he may like the other without. Isn't personal choice still an important right we enjoy?

Bottom line: Regular people, trying to get by in a bad economy, WILL suffer and not be able to make certain bills, simply because some of you feel you shouldnt have to be bothered with ads (even though you will readily use the free products) and even though you have the option to resize the widgets (which would, in effect, hide the ads), that isnt good enough.

Unbelievable!

That is unbelievable.

If it were me, I'd say "If you don't want to see the ads, don't use the software. Nobody has a gun to your head."

Originally Posted by Zap

That is unbelievable.

If it were me, I'd say "If you don't want to see the ads, don't use the software. Nobody has a gun to your head."

Exactly. I had a mail of one of my users saying that i have to many ads in my site. I wrote him back and told him that if he prefers he could send me a check or make a paypal payment to my account.

:devlish:

That is just ridiculous - I agree if you don't like it then don't use it, it is that simple obviously.

I did a site some years ago for a friend of mine and he told me that instead of putting any type of advertising he prefered that i setup a paypal Donation button.
It whas quite a usefull site where you could get for free Letter Templates.
Finally after 1 year he had a great traffic rate but just 8 bucks in donations not even enough to pay for Hosting.
I told him to signup with with adsense.After 3 months of adsense he had enough to pay for years hosting and he paid a lunch.

Some People dont want to understand that ad money is a additional motivation.

And everybody knows that a motivated webmaster will give 110% to keep his users happy.