

The Real Current State of Web Design - bradleyjoyce
http://bradleyjoyce.tumblr.com/post/572598960/the-real-current-state-of-web-design

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Osmose
I've always heard people suggesting that one should disable Adblock on sites
that you like to support them. But I'd think most people who can will still
block ads (I do; they're distracting). Trying to support the site by disabling
ads seems to just encourage the site to continue using what will eventually be
an ineffective way of making money.

Couldn't you make the argument that by disabling ads you're "voting with your
wallet" and forcing them to find a more sustainable source of income?

~~~
monkeygrinder
I work in publishing for a niche trade title and I hear this a lot. In fact, I
loathe ads too. In the days of print, trade titles had a limited circulation.
It was easier for them to get advertisers because the title was guaranteed to
hit the desk of the CEO or CIO, which was the target for that particular
advertiser. Now it's all about traffic and the competition online is far more
intense. Sadly AdBlock will not revolutionise the entire publishing industry.
Instead it will hurt it. It is only going to put more pressure on sales guys
to hit their targets which means more ads at vastly reduced prices. It will
also cause online publishers to close, and put people out of work. The rest
will resort to sensationalist journalism tactics and those terrible list type
stories: "10 best diets for a flat tummy". It's either that or a paywall
system like Murdoch is putting in place. What is a 'more sustainable source of
income' for online publishing?

~~~
mazuhl
I regularly read (quality) content online and think "I'd tip for that". But
there's no way of doing it. I could click the adverts, but I don't want to
deal with lots of popups and I have no interesting in buying whatever they're
advertising.

~~~
nooneelse
That would be an interesting addition to Facebook's like button. The site gets
a dime and you get the option of having your generosity show up on your online
social record. People often like having their generosity very visible to
others.

~~~
sili
Interestingly, Facebook are the ones who have the technology and critical mass
to make micro-payments available. But I bet they wouldn't let you pay for
stuff you like in private without announcing it to the world.

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rosshudgens
Somehow, Smashing Magazine is broke. Their content is incredible but they
can't pay the bills.

"I dumb down for my audience and double my dollars / they criticize me for it;
but they all yell 'holla!'"

Smashing, your move.

~~~
proee
How do you know they are broke? I'm interested to know where you're reading
this...

~~~
proee
found this relevant link:
[http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/03/22/smashing-
magazine...](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/03/22/smashing-magazine-
needs-your-help/)

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ThomPete
I am not so much against the adds on SM as I am against the content they use
to create page views for those ads.

SM started out really nice and it's articles where actually interesting to
begin with.

Now they are just diversifying out posts to cover anything of the slightest
interest to webdesigners in order to get more advertising doh.

Nothing against that business model but I can find better ways to spend my
time than to read about "10 trends/ways/free font/icons/to/ improve/help/make
X"

Most of that is so simplistic and misleading it's not even funny.

~~~
wjr
Link baiting is the worse kind of traffic generation technique I know. Even
though in short term it is effective and might drive people to your site, over
time most likely the title/content will be irrelevant dilute the brands
identity. I agree SM isn`t what it use to be, however I do still find good
articles to keep myself up to date on current trends etc. and I don`t expect
anything else from it really.

~~~
ThomPete
Yeah but I am starting to realize that keeping myself up to date is less about
following hugely popular sites like SM and more about finding obscure but in
depth peeps into the future.

If it's on SM it's normally past the trend phase IMHO.

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pavs
In a perfect world, websites with 10s of millions of page views that pays for
dozens of writers should have little to no ads. We don't live in a perfect
world.

There are few sites where I disable my adblock+, SM is one of them.

The op probably don't have any experience running a big site like this.

~~~
derefr
I think it was justified in this case, as the ads actually _pushed the page
content below the fold_. There was literally nothing other than the article's
title visible in that screenshot. Ads are okay _if_ they don't impact the
readability of the content; once the ads start making it harder to get what
you came to the site to find, you'll find your ad sales figures dropping as
users become confused and leave.

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by
The bradley_outline.png background image on this page is 617KB in size. About
ten times bigger than it needs to be. I wonder how much web bandwidth is
wasted by poorly optimised images. Maybe there is a business opportunity in an
automated tool to detect these ... just musing to myself.

~~~
dalore
Doesn't Opera's mobile browser do something like that? The requests go through
an Opera proxy which optimizes images.

~~~
by
Yes, you are right, they are selling something based on providing a partial
solution to a very small piece of the problem, and something like that ought
to be able to produce stats.

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mikecane
Thank to HN, I've now got a bunch of design sites I visit several times a
week. I've always been surprised by the number of ads they have as well as the
annoying way they're done. Very odd to have design sites doing something so
tasteless and obnoxious.

~~~
sunkencity
I don't actually see the ads. I think most people just tend to ignore them.

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wjr
It`s just funny how SM has a huuuge following and the main way they want to
monetize the traffic is through Ads. Is that really the answer to making money
on the internet these days? I`m really tired of seeing great sites and
startups, fail at the basic principle = making money. There`s so many ways to
develop a product or service for your audience that already enjoys your
content and comes back for more, it`s not even funny.

btw. I think Smashing Magazine pumps out great content and is consistent in
doing so.

~~~
marilyn
What would you pay a month to have access to SM?

~~~
wjr
It think anywhere from 4$ to 7$ a month with deals on yearly subs.

With expectations of less link bait style articles and more hands on content.

~~~
weego
I can't see how they could provide any value above anyone else in the market.
The moment one site is willing to fund themselves purely on adverts is the
moment that subs based sites all start to crumble.

As a developer I use sites like SM every so often when it's quicker for me to
look something up than to figure it out myself (when time or cost are more
important than my pride). I'd never ever consider paying directly for that
info (time and cost then swing back under pride) unless someone smarter than
me was available to live answer questions, which will never happen.

~~~
robryan
Your almost better off writing a book than running a subscriptions based
service, easier for people to justify than a collection of articles.

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davidedicillo
i thinks this is exactly why an application like Instapaper is so successful.

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devgeeks
I laughed too.

A veritable SEA of ads like that is sadly not that uncommon these days...

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ahoyhere
There's a fortune to be made in selling high-quality, in-depth content.

There's a dwindling few pennies left in the ad business.

Moreover, the more people try to "monetize" and grab those few pennies - the
fewer pennies there are. The more advertising, the less effective.

On the other hand, the more people wise up and charge for great content, the
more people will be used to paying.

The rule is this: Always do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. There
will always be a backlash - and you want to catch it as it just starts.

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elbenshira
Sure, it is a sad story indeed, but does this story really belong on HN?

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

