When I first started my blog with WordPress, their policy was that they would try to be as ad-free as possible, but that to keep the site a free service for bloggers, they would occasionally and unobtrusively add ads. At the beginning, I never noticed the ads, but as the number of blogs and the cost of doing business has increased, so has the number of ads. (At least it seems that way.)
I can go ad-fr
ee for $30 a year, but I don’t know if this is a necessary expense. The ads, including videos, generally appear at the bottom of individual blog posts. Sometimes the ads seem disruptive and not at all in keeping with my posts, but I don’t know if this makes a difference to readers. Many readers are also WordPress users, so they understand about the ads, and I’m not sure it matters about people who stop by accidentally, hoping for . . . whatever it is they were hoping for.
So, is it important to go ad-free, or do people simply take the ads as a matter of course?
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Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.” Connect with Pat on Google+. Like Pat on Facebook.
Bertram's Blog 
October 17, 2014 at 5:44 pm
The ads don’t bother me, but that’s just me and I use the free one with ads myself.
October 17, 2014 at 6:17 pm
I ignore ads, too, so I’m glad to know others do too.
October 17, 2014 at 6:23 pm
I believe that all people with a skerrick of intelligence ignore them, they are aimed at people who are unable to think and decide for themselve; so why they bother advertising on WordPress is beyond me, not that WP care it leeps their cost down.
October 17, 2014 at 5:59 pm
Don’t worry about the ads, I read your posts regularly and if there are ads I’ve never seen them, and if I did I’d ignore them; I’m impervious to them. I don’t know if ads appear on my site but I doubt it, they would not get much of a viewing, I think in the 3 years or so I’ve been toiling away I’ve had less than 6k hits.
I visit many WP sites during the course of the day and I can honestly say I’ve never noticed or seen or read/looked at an ad.
My advice? Save your money!
Cheers B. 🙂 🙂
October 17, 2014 at 6:16 pm
Good advice. Thank you!
October 17, 2014 at 7:31 pm
Pat, I don’t think it’s worth the money. I don’t see the ads anymore on any site. I mean they’re there, of course, but I tune them out. I would think that most of us do that.
JMHO
wanda
October 17, 2014 at 7:36 pm
I don’t see ads that often, and when I do I usually ignore them. I wouldn’t pay the expense. There’s so many better expenses that money could go to.
October 17, 2014 at 10:40 pm
I can’t say that I’ve ever seen an ad on your blog, Pat. Maybe I’m just oblivious to them, but even if I noticed one, I wouldn’t read it anyway. I use WordPress, too, and while I see the unobtrusive square that says “some viewers may see an advertisement in this space”, I don’t know if anyone has ever actually seen one there. $30 per month, ($360 per year), sounds like a lot to put out for an informal blog. If I were going to pay for my online presence I’d invest in a good website, or in my own domain name … neither of which I’m inclined to do right now.
October 18, 2014 at 12:35 am
Just goes to show I should double and triple check my work. Going ad free is $30 per year. I wouldn’t pay $30 a month for anything online. I think my website is about $30 a year, too. I’m not really sure why I keep that — I use this blog as a website.
October 18, 2014 at 1:02 pm
Ha! I didn’t even question it because I’ve never checked the cost. I’m using my blog as a website, too. If I had books to promote I think I’d add a page for them, but I still don’t know if I’d pay $30.
October 18, 2014 at 1:37 pm
The good thing about WordPress is that you can add as many pages as you want at no costn
October 18, 2014 at 9:05 am
Many sites have those annoying pop-up ads (sometimes put there by the sites themselves) that cover up what I’m reading. If WP did that, I’d pay the $30. As is, I think I’ll save my money for a new book or two.
October 18, 2014 at 10:46 am
I haven’t even noticed ads on your site
October 18, 2014 at 2:25 pm
I notice you get WP for US$30.00 per annum, I am paying US$99.00 pa – AUD$113.00pa, I wonder what I’m getting extra for my money,
October 18, 2014 at 2:56 pm
The thirty dollars is if I want it ad free. Right now, I don’t pay anything at all, not even for all my extra pages.
October 18, 2014 at 6:59 pm
Perhaps I should ask what I’m getting for my money, they sent me an email saying they were about to hit me with another $99 next month and not to worry they’d just take it :), that’s what I call service
October 18, 2014 at 7:45 pm
How big of them to just take the money. Yes, do ask what are you paying for. I have WordPress, which I don’t pay a single penny for, and I have a website that costs about $25.00 a year. I have five pages on that website plus 2 emails.
October 20, 2014 at 8:52 am
At first they annoyed me on my blog but I figured it wasn’t worth the $30 and we all ignore them anyway. Now I don’t give them another thought.