Hi, just a quick announcement today: I've turned off the Google Ads that display on LeanBlog.org.
Over time, they became increasingly intrusive for me as a user. I can only imagine the ads were annoying others. And, despite Google's efforts to convince me otherwise, the financial reward wasn't worth the risk of driving readers away because of a bad experience.
My goal has never been to directly monetize this site. I do appreciate the direct sponsors that I have for the blog and the podcast, StoreSMART and Stiles Associates, respectively. I'd like to think their ads are unobtrusive and highly relevant to my audience.
As I work to finish the manuscript for my upcoming book The Mistakes That Make Us, I think I decided it was a mistake to keep using the Google Ads platform as the ads became more intrusive. Rather than beating myself up, I'll try to celebrate the idea that I noticed a problem and I'm making adjustments as a result.
Nobody had complained about the ads — but a lack of complaints doesn't mean everybody is happy! That's especially true when the commenting features on my blog were broken for a period of time (now fixed).
My hypothesis is that a better user / reader experience will lead to more people returning to the site — an increase in traffic means a better opportunity to explore, share, and discuss ideas with more people here, as I've been doing since 2005.
I think I forgot to celebrate my blog's 18th birthday. My blog is now an adult!
Reminders: I hope you'll join me for Dr. Lisa Yerian's webinar today at 1 pm ET. And you can still enter to win a “My Favorite Mistake” coffee mug:
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Hi Mark,
Thank you for the announcement. I appreciate the tenor of this blog.
Through years of experience I have always tried to avoid all ads.
Using firefox and some add-ons I can get a reasonably clean experience.
On this site and on many others.
This way I am not dependent on the site owner to stop ads for me.
However I liked your attempt.
Thanks for commenting — sharing your thoughts AND helping me confirm that comments are working again.
I’ll admit to using the Adblock plugin in Chrome. Then I get the pop-ups asking me to turn that off (something I’ve never had this blog do). it’s a never-ending battle it seems.
Mark,
Happy to help with the confirmation of the use of the comment.
And about adblocking. If companies or individuals find it more important that I receive (google) ads than their message, so be it.