Tuesday, February 24, 2009

To click or not to click...


It's an ethical dilemma. There are several sites on the web which I visit daily and which I'm really grateful for. They're sites like Blotanical which let me publicise my own sites, meet people and have fun. I feel I "know" the owners - we've emailed, collaborated on various projects, and as far as you can tell from a web personality, I think they're great.


But their sites aren't there just to provide a service for other people. They're also there to make money. All of them are complex, and involve the owners in a lot of work - and it's the ads on the site which pay for that work.


Because I want to say thank you, I feel I should click occasionally. After all, it's only a second of my time and if I don't, I'm just exploiting the service without giving anything in return.


But ninety nine times out of a hundred, I'm not really interested in the products I see advertised. And even the hundredth time, I know I'm not going to buy. It's just curiousity.


So whatever I do (or don't do) I feel I'm ripping someone off. The site owners if go on using the site without clicking, but the advertisers, who still have to pay for my click, if I click without real intention to buy.


My answer so far has been to look and see if something really catches my eye, and if I'm genuinely interested, even if only for information, to click. After all, who knows? Even if I don't buy now, maybe I will in the future. Or maybe I'll mention it to someone who will. Isn't that how advertising usually works?


There are other ways to "give back" of course, which don't involve clicking on ads. Like promoting the sites on mine, which I'll always willingly do. But I'm still uneasy.


And you? What do you do?




8 comments:

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

I don't like the dilemma. I usually don't click unless I am looking for something in particular.
Janet

Jan said...

I have to say that I don't usually click on adverts, but I can understand why it bothers you.

VW said...

I usually ignore the ads, but you make an good point. Maybe I should keep an eye out for ads on blotanical that would interest me. Better to support Stuart by clicking on it there than google it myself, since I love Blotanical, too. VW

Cathy S. said...

I usually don't click either.

RURAL said...

I was always told NEVER ever click on the ad's on the side of websites. Obviously there are no virus lurking in them, they are google ads. But that habit dies hard.

Even though I am considering putting some Google ad's on my blog, [ that in its self is a dilemma ], I still only click on ads that I feel I would be interested in.

Print ads are paid for by companies, to be placed in magazines, and newspapers, they realize that not every reader is going to be interested in what they produce. So I would feel less concern about clicking on a ad, even though the advertiser pays a minimal sum for it.

Jen

Philip Bewley said...

Hi!
I have not really considered it! I have no ads, but it is interesting to think about.

Anonymous said...

Like Janet, I usually don't click unless something really catches my eye. I have Adblock installed on Firefox and don't see most of them anyway...and I do that because some pages are so full of ads that they slow page loading times to a crawl. But kudos to those who host the ads if they can make a few bucks.

danger garden said...

wow - I never thoughtof it like that! You make a really good point...

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