We all hate internet advertising. It’s almost a universal truth.
One of the loudest and most frequent pieces of feedback we get is that advertising on Ausdroid is annoying. We know a lot of you probably block it anyway, but we’d rather not have it on the website at all.
We started our Patreon campaign to try and achieve this, but I think we aimed too high. The campaign has been running a while, but it has begun to look like we initially set too high a target. I think there’s a real sense that we were asking people to put their money up, but that the goal of removing ads might never be realised. That’s disappointing, for us and for you guys, especially for those who backed us.
So let’s try something different.
To show we’re serious about reaching this goal, we’ll go first. On the 1st of July, Ausdroid will go ad-free. Google AdSense will be turned off.
In exchange, we’ll ask you — our readers — to back us on Patreon, but to a more achievable goal. If we can reach $1,000 a month (a figure which is less than our monthly advertising revenue from AdSense), we’ll stay ad-free for good.
There is one catch; we have some advertising arrangements already in place with specific advertisers, and we will still show their content in accordance with our agreements with them. However, this will not be junk ads, it won’t be pop-ups or any other spam; it will be targeted advertising that we’ve specifically agreed to run, for products that should be of interest. Most importantly, it will be for limited runs, and so will not interfere with your overall enjoyment of our website.
At the time of writing, we’re roughly 33% of the way there. We’ve got just over four weeks to reach our goal, and then we can be rid of AdSense and junk advertising completely.
We’re also going to offer a little gift of thanks, as follows:
- Support $30 a month, and receive a limited edition gold Ausdroid lapel pin. There’s only six of these, so don’t miss out.
- Support $20 a month, and receive a limited edition silver Ausdroid lapel pin for the first twenty supporters on board.
If we reach our goal, we’ll have another special offer for people, and we’ll come up with something good.
Will you help us get there? Will you support local content, and help us keep the lights on?
Supporting is easy. Hit our Patreon campaign, and make your pledge today.
