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Somehow, there are advertisements appearing on my website. Advertisement on http://teresasilverthorn.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/catcher-of-dreams/
A friend of mine noticed it, and I couldn't see it unless I logged out.
It appears to be from someone called "poppressed.com"
He says there are google ads on my site, that he sees (but I do not)
Advise?
The blog I need help with is teresasilverthorn.wordpress.com.
To support the service (and keep free features free), we sometimes run advertisements. We try hard to make the ads discreet and effective and only run them in limited places. If you would like to completely eliminate ads from appearing on your blog, we offer the No-Ads Upgrade: http://en.support.wordpress.com/no-ads/
Well, I am not pleased about this. It saddens me to realize that you want to charge me to remove these advertisements, too.
I chose WordPress because of it's class and sophistication.
Like I said, this saddens me.
Well - just how in the world do you expect WordPress.COM to pay the bills to provide you a site that you don't need to pay for??
The $30 for the no ads upgrade helps to cover the lost revenue for the ads that are no longer served occasionally on your blog. It takes a lot of money to keep things rolling along here. They have to pay for datacenters, servers, bandwidth, support and the developers that keep this place running and that provide new themes and features for all the users here. Given that wordpress.COM takes care of all the backend work, $30 per year is cheap. You can self-host a blog for about that (all costs considered) but then you have to do all the installations, all the backups, all the upgrades, and all the troubleshooting. How much is your time worth?
I am actually more interested in why the author of the blog can't see these ads, but the readers can. Was that intentional?
It saddens me because the topic of my site has addressed the mercenary actions of those who are merely interested in profitable gain, not sharing true information.
I have addressed my concerns more than once, and my desire not to be included in this type of "mindset."
Now, I find out that there have been advertisements on my site, without my knowledge, whereas I am looking like a fool. (sorry, can't think of a better word)
I wish I had been told earlier. I feel my integrity has been jeopardized, simply because I wasn't told.
I do understand that WordPress needs to make a profit, but would have appreciated knowing that my site was posting advertisements - instead of finding out now.
I appreciate WordPress very much. Don't get me wrong. I do.
But, I am saddened and feel that I have been duped. (because only the readers can see the ads, not me.)
Enough said.
The use of ads are in the Terms of Service that you agreed to but probably did not read. You are also told that logged in users do not see the ads.
Thank you for advising me of that.
You are correct, I did not see that.
I will be removing my blog because of those terms, as I should have seen that information, and made a wise decision beforehand.
@teresasilverthorn
Wordpress.com has been runs ads on free hosted blogs since 2006. When we are logged in we cannot see the ads. And when others are using Firefox browsers with AdBlockPlus they cannot see the ads. Browser stats for this month indicate 42.2% of those surfing the web are using Firefox browsers. I just wanted you to know that not all of your visitors are seeing ads. Many members have posted notices to this effect on their blogs:
Please note that any ads you see on this blog are placed here by WordPress.com. The Administrators of this blog have no connection to or financial interest in any of the promoted products and gain no income from any advertising displayed on this blog.
Thanks, tt, for your helpfulness in this issue. I feel slightly attacked here, for simply stating my concerns.
How can I be assured that these advertisements don't become pornographic in nature?
My goodness, I never thought I'd be asking this question on WordPress.
@Theresa
I'm sorry you feel slightly attacked. I can hear where you are coming from. Where the heck would a person like yourself look to find these mentions of advertising on blog. And why would a blogger who is not interested in advertising on their blog bother to read the paragraph on the bottom of the Features page or search the support documentation under "advertising" and find out that wordpress.com was running ads they could not see when they are logged in.
I can tell you that back in the day when we found out there was advertising many of us who were answering forum questions were shocked.
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2006/07/27/testing-ads/
From the Volunteers perspective we have posted on this so many times that perhaps we are conveying how tired we are of answering this question but I assure you none of the Volunteers are inclined to attack anyone for asking it.
How can I be assured that these advertisements don't become pornographic in nature?
You can check out the requirements for Google Adsense which is contextual advertising based on key words. If you do then you will see that one cannot have Google Adsense running on a porno blog under content guidelines. https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&gsessionid=qMaLD74qieyuWVj3Y30c9Q
The other information about the advertising running like Google Adsense and Skimlinks is found here > http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/ and more information about Skimlinks can be found on their site.
Perhaps you would like to read this post as it is about the pop-up press sites that are a result of partnering with Federated Media. http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2011/03/20/wordpress-com-partnerships-popping-up-all-over/
This is all very disappointing. Evidently, there is no guarantee against pornographic advertisements.
I feel sick.
Thanks.
I don't know where you are coming from. Adsense contextual advertising is based on keywords in text and you don't use porno related key words on your blogs.
Publishers may not place AdSense code on pages with content that violates any of our content guidelines. Some examples include content that is adult, violent or advocating racial intolerance.
View full content policies.
Sites with Google ads may not include or link to:
* Pornography, adult or mature content ...
Volunteers just answer questions to the best of our ability. Members who don't like the policies here or who need clarification can contact Staff directly. http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/
There have been a few occasions where an inappropriate, or objectionable ad has shown up on a site here, but it happens rarely, and if one were to show up, make sure and let staff here know about it. They do take that seriously and will make whatever adjustments are necessary to keep it from happening again.
Timethief,
I mean, that since WordPress policies are subject to change, there is no guarantee that pornographic advertising won't be acceptable in the future, for the sake of the same profit that is currently being sought.
My mistake, as I stated earlier. I was misled by my own negligence, and assumptions.
I'm not concerned about the content of the ads, just the fact that the ads exist. Yes I realize they need to make money somehow, no I didn't read the TOS (who does?), yada yada ...
What I hate about the ads: the placement (between my post and the comments); the content (at least use keywords to make it relevant, my site has nothing to do with tasteless pop culture), and the sudden obtrusiveness (a little heads-up would have been nice).
I just moved in here, but this makes me want to go back to (shudder...) Blogger.
from the "no-ads" page linked above by macmanx:
"we sometimes display discreet AdSense advertisements on your blog to help pay the bills ... The ad code tries very hard to not intrude..."
They started putting ads on blogs here back in 2006.
I did read the TOS as did several of my friends before moving here.
Putting Porn ads on WordPress.COM would be counterproductive. WordPress.COM does work to be family friendly complete with the ability to mark blogs as Adult. I can only remember one case of a someone complaining about content and they had I think a Thailand travel blog and some dating service showed up in the Ads and seems to me the ads were taken off when they complained.
If you don't like the ads you are welcome to buy the no-ads upgrade. If you don't think your blog is worth the upgrade then in my opinion it must not be worth much to start with. WordPress.COM is one of the best deals around and they do need to pay the bills as @TSP noted above.
So my question is again - how do you expect WordPress.COM to pay for the cost of your blog?
@timethief,
Is there a way to embed that disclaimer (above) on the site, or do we have to post it along with each post?
I just got ads today for the first time and, while I knew they would come, I didn't expect them to be so big or include video.
Videos!
I use a text widget in my sidebar.
Advertising
Please note that any ads you see on this blog are placed here by WordPress.com. The Administrators of this blog have no connection to or financial interest in any of the promoted products and gain no income from any advertising displayed on this blog.
Thanks.
Probably not the right place for this, but given the thread: how do I do that? I can't locate a text widget or a sidebar editor. I'm using TwentyTen, if that makes a difference.
and yes...video. sigh. :)
Please see the instructions here > http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/text-widget/
Fabulous. Thank you!
You're welcome. :)
Received ads (Poppressed) for the first time today. (Yes I read through the entire terms and service and privacy policy as always) I personally do not run ads on my blog because I find them rather distracting and for the curious people who just wander across my site, I don't want them leaving after one article.
I suppose that I suspected that it was coming but wasn't expecting the ads to be so intrusive and off-topic. I understand that its a free service that needs to be maintained so the occasional ads are probably not all that bad. :~
May I suggest that the ads are set up in such a way that they would at least be supportative to the information on the website. For instance, if I was covering software. Possibly ads concerning software should be displayed on my blog.
Cheers
Suggestions to staff should be made via the dashboard Help button. Staff don't generally wander through the forum looking for ideas and suggestions, for all that there's an ideas forum here.
Addendum to my initial response:
I'm off to edit my disclaimer since I already put a section in it that I'm not paid to blog. People may be confused over the ads that my site would on and off display and also to since I only now see those ads, I also have to add in a section stating that I'm not responsible for ads.
Later
one of my readers told me where I get the ads.. but everytime I go to my site, I dont see them.. i said i did not post any paid ads there.. reading from above, I learned that logged in users don't see them. then I tried going to my site without logging in. yep, i saw them
Well, at first, I felt somehow treated unfairly... these businesses get to post ads to my blogs and earn from them, but I do not get compensated for it.. but then I realized, I get to use the services of WordPress for free.. i think that's fair enough. :)
but please make them smaller and dont put them in places where they confuse my readers as part of my blog entries..
I really, really do not see the problem. Don't like the ads? Pay for the upgrade. This whole service is free, so I do not see any room for complaint.
Maybe I am being harsh, but unfortunately someone has to pay the bills.
Would you prefer to pay for the total cost of the service and the themes etc, or just pay for the upgrade?
This topic has been closed to new replies.
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