[Foundation-l] No, even a couple of Google ads on each page would be a fatally bad idea

Sun Nov 7 16:31:08 UTC 2010

On 7 November 2010 16:21, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> 1) Why the huge assumption of bad faith?  I don't think you're correct
> that people would sign up for ads who don't want ads.  As you
> correctly point out, there would actually be no long-term benefit to
> anyone for doing so.
> 2) If the payment isn't per click, why would people click through "to
> get us revenue"?

This has nothing to do with good or bad faith. If people are only
opting in because they want ads, then there are going to be a very
small number of people opting in. Why have ads on Wikipedia pages when
you can just google for things you want to buy? If payment *were* by
click, then people would abuse it, which is why payment wouldn't be by
click and we wouldn't get much money. That was the point I was trying
to make.

Can you give an example of a site with opt-in advertising that
actually gets significant revenue from it (for the number of page
views they get)?