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For years I tolerated those Google Adsense ads on the blog. Even though they were not a very rewarding proposition for me. Every few months, whenever their Scroogish algorithm things added what they owed me up to more than $100, they would send that amount to my checking account.
Yeah, $100. For every few months. I would not sell a solitary ad here for anything close to that rock-bottom price for one month, much less for several, and this was a bunch of random ads, not merely one.
But… it cost me no effort at all — I didn’t have to sell the ad, post it on the blog, send out invoices or anything, really. So, as another blogger persuaded me, why say no to, say, another buck every couple of days if it cost no sweat on my part?
So I allowed the ads in, and they were no trouble. I even sort of enjoyed watching the way the AI worked, posting ads that the algorithm imagined were related to something I had put on the blog. Occasionally, the stuff was tacky or even offensive (to me; I didn’t like seeing an ad favoring some political movement or politician I disapproved of appear here, just because I had recently mentioned said movement or pol). But it was more often amusing. Here are some of the comments I’ve made here about them in the past.
But then, Adsense started going overboard. First, the banner ads got bigger, so that you couldn’t even see my top headline on the first screen. Then, a year or so ago, they started with the pop-ups:
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I almost ended the relationship right then. But I thought it would be trouble to figure out how, and decided to wait awhile.
Then, the finally went too far: They started putting multiple ads in the main body copy, as opposed to just one, as they used to do. Often, multiple copies of the same ad. You’ve seen this on plenty of other sites — which has increasingly destroyed any enjoyment I get out of reading those sites. And they seemed to have a special mad, destructive genius for placing these nuisances right in the middle of an important transition in the text, not only making it ugly but ruining the flow of the argument. Like, you know, why did I even try?
So I’ve had it. I closed my account today. They said the ads would be gone within 24 hours:
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They’d better be. Because I don’t want to waste time trying again to do something that ought to be easy, although they do their best to make it look complicated.
In the meantime, though I have carefully placed my own relevant images where they needed to be in the text to explain my points, they will likely be interspersed with rude, random ads that make the whole post look like visual gibberish. When I saw them place one between the last words of my last post and the image of the late Chris Carrizales that the words went with, that really was the last straw. That’s what made me act today…
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Hurrah! It appears they’re already gone! Buh-bye!
But soft! They’ve left a great, gaping white space at the top of the blog, and now I’ve gotta figure out how to get rid of that…
Dang…
In the meantime, I’m glad to have the advertising here confined to my one best, loyalest advertiser, Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union!
These ads, for me, are more meaningful than a business transaction. I’m proud to have it; it feels like an endorsement I’m making, and I’m very glad to make it. It’s a fine local institution, and we do all our modest financial business there.
Although PCFCU is of course far more modern, sophisticated and reliable (no Uncle Billy), I still feel about it sort of the way George felt abou the good ol’ Bailey Building and Loan. May it always provide a great alternative to the Mr. Potters of the world.
And y’all know how I love that movie…