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Okay, question on ad blockers: So far I have not tried to use one. And my Web site for my startup, to be ad supported, has not gone live yet.

But, what if: What if my Web server sends the actual ads, as JPG, GIF, WEBM, etc. files instead of just URLs to ad servers at some ad network? Then will an ad blocker still work?



Generally the adblockers won't detect it if you host your ads like that. But if your website becomes popular, then someone will figure out whatever pattern is used to display the ads (url location, css class etc) and add it to a list that adblockers can use.


The adblocker can block download of easily identifiable URLs, so if your images look like http://my.coolwebsite.com/ad/jdhe73yd.jpg, the adblocker will refuse anything from http://my.coolwebsite.com/ad/ or similar.

Also, it can stop rendering, so if your ad has a custom CSS class, element name, etc then it will refuse to render that element (and children) even if it downloads the image.


But it will probably not come with these rules out of the box. I don't know how it is for others, but I only ever use the curated block lists and then whitelist a few sites I want to support.


Hardly anyone will pay for that kind of ad, because it can't be audited and you could just forge ad impressions.


This is exactly what we did at Techcrunch. The ads sold and we went from $3k a month ad revenue from bad ads with ad sense to $30k a month (the format where it is the square ads in the sidebar - which almost every other blog adopted)

It can work if you're trusted and selling influence.

Later on when we wanted to run some of the high end campaigns and exclusives we ran OpenX

I think serving your own ads is a solution to a lot of ad and media problems that needs to be encouraged. Its strange to me that so many companies hand over so much of their webpage real estate and user trust to what are often complete strangers


Glad to hear it worked! As you say, it brings trust back to the right places in the ecosystem.


But maybe could get paid based on clicks?


What if my Web server sends the actual ads, as JPG, GIF, WEBM, etc. files instead of just URLs to ad servers at some ad network? Then will an ad blocker still work?

Scott Alexander of Slate Star Codex [0] does this. I've run ad blockers for years and his ads have never shown up on the lists. I feel no urge to block them on my personal list, either, since they don't bother me. It's probably a good way to go if you've got a good sized niche audience and you don't mind negotiating directly with your sponsors.

[0] https://slatestarcodex.com/


I routinely block anything that messes up the layout, ad or not [but mostly advertising]. right-click, add a regular expression rule, never to be witnessed again.

Yet, I am the minority. If you serve your own images/iframes, they are likely going thru... but you have to be trusted not to forge impressions and the like.




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