from Hacker News

Should I tolerate ad-blockers on my website? I am “losing” over $1k a day

by IvanK_net on 9/11/23, 2:29 PM with 9 comments

  • by lusus_naturae on 9/11/23, 2:38 PM

    Are they really losing "$1K"/day, or is the inflated FB-type projection? I would posit that if anyone was interested in what they had to say or sell, they would get that money regardless of ad blockers. Ad blockers are not limiting you, your shitty product or services are.

  • by superchroma on 9/11/23, 2:46 PM

    Well the internet is a commons and you know what happens to those.

    Perhaps do some A/B testing, and see what happens statistically when you block some people from using the site with an adblocker, beg some of them to disable the adblocker with a popup, etc. This will tell you information about how desperate the users of your site are to get to your app, and will contextualize how much of that potential revenue you think you're losing is actually real.

  • by k310 on 9/11/23, 4:45 PM

    One has to decide what business they are in. I recall reading that long ago when I picked up some MBA books.

    Examples:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2020/09/0...

    Mentions Theodore Levitt, In a more condensed form than HBR.

    https://hbr.org/2006/10/what-business-are-you-in-classic-adv...

    Product or advertising? Small outfits can't serve two masters well. One is tough enough.

  • by simonblack on 9/11/23, 11:56 PM

    Chicken and egg problem. Badly-behaving adverts lead to ad-blockers. Ad-blockers block almost all ads, even the 'good' ones.

    'Good' ads are a subjective, relative term. Best to kill 'em all, so you don't have to decide which are 'good and 'bad'.

    Best option would be to set up a specific website for your product. Google is your friend. Your website would be the Web's equivalent of TV's 'infomercials'.

  • by b0afc375b5 on 9/11/23, 2:40 PM

    > BTW. I am tolerating the ad-blockers for now. But you should not apply any "cracks" to my source code to allow people use my Premium features (full-screen interface) for free. That is basically the same as piracy, and you are facilitating it.

    Does this mean Google/YouTube/any other platform that has advertisement or is functionally affected by ublock origin could sue them over piracy grounds? Perhaps another legal framework? Why hasn't this happened yet? Is the reason the same/similar to how YouTube tolerates youtube-dl?

  • by NoZebra120vClip on 9/11/23, 2:36 PM

    The headline as written has nothing to do with the issue or its discussion.