How Ads Really Work: Superfans and Noobs -- Great post by creator of Metafilter
fortuito.us
fortuito.us
This ad bandiwdth has a high value for advertisers because of the occasional ad display, a campaing would have a higher visibility (no ad blindness effect). The fan's interests are well identified so that the ad can be focused. It will also make more sense for the fans and eventually be useful to them.
One can always trade member fee with add display, but one should keep the auction effect so that advertisers that pay a high fee still get through. The user could also increase its fee to make the ad barrier higher. This yields a competition.
I designed this business model for a startup using crowd sourcing, where fans contributing to the site would get back their fair share of ad revenue. They could use part of this revenue to increase the ad barrier. The idea was to create a vertuous circle that motivate users and advertisers to increase contribution.
I gave up because funding was too short and I was alone without much time to invest on it. And also because I wasn't sure it would work. So I'm glad to see the base idea is already practiced.
People should understand that flooding the web with ads is diluting its value. So one need ways to increase focus in the benefit of users and advertisers.
Has anyone any stats from their site that show how many people are blocking ads?
Keep in mind too, blocking ads isn't necessarily a rational decision for a lot of people in a lot of situations. We can put aside the fact that ads provide economic incentive for the content people are looking for.
The important thing is that ads are often gateways to the things people are looking for (with is one of the points of the article). People buy goods and services. Ads provide a way for people to find sellers of the goods and services they want.
The advertising driven business model is an extremely old one, and I don't think it's going anywhere. People have always had the capacity to ignore advertising, even without technology -- the human brain is very selective about the information it processes and retains.
Some advertising works subliminally/emotionally (most brand advertising), but highly targeted ads, particularly context sensitive pay per click ads aren't generally in that category. They work when people are looking for something, much like the ads from local car dealers in the local paper, which most people ignore completely unless they have an inclination or outright need for a new car.