If you’re anything like me, you can’t stand advertising. I record all my TV shows so I can skip the commercials, I prefer to listen to music from my iPhone versus live radio, and I’ve trained my eyes to skip past any ads in online and print media. Unfortunately, as an online content provider, I also realize that ads are what pay the bills. Despite that fact, I am going to conduct a little experiment. For the entire month of February, The Coaster Guy is going ad-free. I am going to remove all of the banner and sidebar advertisements from my web site.
The reason for this change is because I really don’t want there to be anything on the site that detracts from the content I’m providing you, my reader. I think they’re very distracting. Most of the ads you see now come from a service that tries to match the ad to the type of content I’m providing. Most of the time you will see ads from companies like Disney, Sea World, and Universal Studios. However, since I can’t control it, you may occasionally see ads for non-theme park related sites and services. And since I really don’t have the time to go out and sell the ad space myself to the companies that I’d like to see on my site, I’d rather just do away with the ads all together.
Now, I know what you’re all thinking – “Yay!!” But just because I’m removing the ads doesn’t mean that the bills go away. I still have expenses that need to be covered to maintain this site – things like hosting fees, park fees, cameras, computers, etc. Blogging about roller coasters, and more specifically Six Flags Magic Mountain, is a passion. Most people, myself included, don’t blog to make money. I do it because it’s fun, I love doing it, and it’s extremely satisfying when I hear you folks tell me how much you appreciate this site. However, it is more expensive to visit and blog about a park than just visit and enjoy it as a guest.
Here’s where it becomes an experiment. People tell me all the time how much they love the site and how glad they were to have found it. I’m going to see how much people really like it by going to a pure donation model. How valuable is the content on this site to you? Is it worth $0.50, $1.00, or $5.00/month? Is it worth a one-time donation of $10.00, $25.00, $50.00? Many people spend $5.00/day on a premium coffee. Isn’t a month’s worth of content from your favorite theme park worth at least that?
The process is simple. Just click on the Donate button below and make a contribution through a secure PayPal connection. You can choose how much to donate, and no you don’t need a PayPal account to donate. It’s like a tip jar – entirely up to your generosity.
I know some people will donate and it will turn some people off. I don’t expect anything from anyone, and I’m not looking for charity, so please don’t feel obligated to donate if you don’t want to. Like I said above, it’s just an experiment. As long as I get enough money to cover my blogging expenses, even if it’s not as much as I was making on the advertising, I’ll keep the site ad-free. However, if my expenses aren’t covered, I’ll go back to advertising in March and you’ll probably start see me experimenting with different ad locations, including inside individual posts. I really hope I don’t have to do that. Help keep The Coaster Guy ad-free!
The ads didnt bother me – honestly I cant even remember seeing an ad on this website (and I dont have ad-block).
What I do try and do occasionally on small sites I visit is actually click the ad.
I could visit your website every day for a month, and youd make maybe .02 off me. If I click once…bam, $1.
That’s one of the problems with online ads in general. People think that just because you’re displaying an ad, you must be making lots of money off of it. They don’t realize that it takes people actually clicking on them to make any money. But I’m the same way – I don’t even think about clicking on the ads from sites that I visit regularly. Most of the time, I don’t even notice them, just like you can’t recall seeing my ads.
While I also don’t care much for ads/spam/etc., I don’t mind a small ad on a site, and the ones that appear here don’t bother me at all. If it generates enough revenue to pay for the site, then there’s no harm in having it.
For 12 years now, I’ve been a moderator on a coaster site (Westcoaster). The webmaster there has a small ad on the top of the forum, which is usually not a problem. However, when viewing that site on my phone, some of us have sometimes gotten a huge video ad that we can’t close. A few of us on the site have let the webmaster know, and he’s taken care of it as best he can. I don’t know how much control a webmaster has over exactly which ads appear on their site.
I have neither PayPal nor a credit card, so I don’t know how I could donate to this site. For what it offers, and for its quality, it’s definitely money well spent in my opinion.
Kurt, I’m exactly like you. I don’t care for ads and I’ve subconsciously have come to ignore them. Count me in!!
The only ads I’ve seen are Discover Card ads.
Once I manage to apply for a credit card and another job, Count me in! I also get bothered by ads but not on your site.
Most free sites take longer to load because the ads load before the content. Your site loads fast even with the ads. Which ever is easier on your wallet is fine with me.
Just took care of it . I rounded off my Pay Pal so don’t ask.
I was just going to donate my Full Tilt Poker account refund money but details on that are still on hold.
Give me better ads to click on.
I saw that and have been straining my brain to figure out the significance of the amount. Now it makes sense. Thanks for your support!
Full Tilt. Lol get in line! They owe me $1800!
Lol Full Tilt…. They owe me $1800 too!
Give me a way to donate other than pay pal and ill donate. Buy a year pass or 20$ for how ever much time. I appreciate your work and share the same passion.
Wait I see it okay I’m In
Done.
Thank you for your support, Jeff!
Really appreciate the updates, and although the ads don’t bug me too much, I still want to give my thanks for going out to the park week after week and giving an update even though I can’t make it out there.
Hopefully you’re gonna do this for a while Coaster Guy, your updates are a refreshing change to some of the bigger sites out there, and I like supporting the smaller more tight-knit communities
BTW you don’t need a credit card, just a debit card linked to a bank account, and signing up for Paypal is free. It takes 20 seconds to donate if you already have it set up. I figured even just a small gratuity to Coaster Guy for all the time it takes to go out to the park, it’s really a small price to pay.
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Hey Kurt,
Just did a donation for you and I will make it a recurring monthly. Keep up the great work and I look forward to the updates. Can’t wait for my move to LA so I can experience the fun again.
Thanks,
Jeremy
Thank you very much, Jeremy! Give me a shout when you make the move and we’ll go hit some rides together.