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As you may or may not know, I run a website, Geeky Hacker, in collaboration with a few very kind part-time volunteers. The idea of advertisement, especially Google Ads, has never appealed to me. It is against my fundamental belief and principles.
However, since last year, I have started running Google Ads on my website. But a common question I am frequently asked is why I run Google Ads when clearly and openly I am in favor of advertisements and big tech. Isn't that considered hypocritical?
In this article, I try (my best) to address such questions once and forever.
I have been running my site for over eight years now. For the first seven years, I did not put a single ad. I have borne all the costs. Wrote 400+ articles (each on average took 4 hours). However, there was always a button that no one has bothered to click in those years.
Fast forward to last year when I ran into a difficult situation. I then had to choose between shutting down or running ads. Since I am not a person who goes overtly and asks people to donate at every chance, I decided to opt for Google Ads against my will.
It is worth mentioning that before opting for Google Ads, I have tried Brave Rewards, which dried up quickly as the BAT price has risen.
Let me touch down on earning, now that I have been running Google Ads for over a year. Earnings from ads are just enough to cover the hosting, domain renewal fee, and saving up a bit for improvements. Google Ads do not make me rich. I do not earn anything. It is still even net negative by a large margin considering past expenses, plus the effort and the time I put into writing an (arguably mediocre) article.
I must say that I do not expect anything in return. I run the website out of my passion and not for profit. Money has never been my motive. I try to avoid aggressive advertisement strategies. If one, for example, happens to use an Adblocker, they are not required to disable it to see the content. As long as the maintenance fees are covered, I am happy.
So yeah, I also hate running ads, but unfortunately, I have no choice as of now. Once I find another source of revenue to cover the cost of running my website, I will surely get rid of ads so that I can sleep better at night :-)
Featured image by Negative Space
