I make a living using my computer. When I go to a website and an advertisement pops up, or two, or three, I don’t have time to look at them. I don’t get paid to read ads. I have work to do. I  have to shoot them down like skeet, then get back to work. So….I use an “ad blocker” plugin on my web browsers. I don’t get unsolicited, pop up windows and ads because I don’t want or need them.

When I am ready to shop for a product, I will search the web for all the companies that make that product, scan reviews and directories and choose which company and product that I like. The web is a huge catalog. I never, ever buy a product just because I saw an ad for that product. There is no need for that. It is all up there on the web waiting for me to search for it. I am paying for the internet connection and the computer. I have a right to refuse unsolicited advertising.

I am well aware that there are many businesses who make a living selling advertising. Sorry, guys, Pop ups are a wretched invasion of my time and attention. It doesn’t matter where you live any more. You have access to every product on the planet through the internet. When you are ready to buy something, you will find it. If you are not ready to buy anything, you should not have to suffer the distraction. The age of unsolicited advertising shall come to and end eventually. You need to find another source of income as soon as possible.

That being said, there are still very interesting ways of putting advertising into your website pages. If you are an online news periodical, like “Wired” magazine, you can include entertaining and informative videos in the middle of your articles. Wired does this tastefully. Sometimes I watch them because I learn something and enjoy them. But it is not an annoying pop up window that clutters up my browser window tabs with crappy images that include nothing of value to me. You can also advertise a product by writing an interesting article and publishing that article in a popular periodical or a relevant trade journal. You can include an entry in a directory of similar product manufacturers. When I search for that type of product, I will find you.

Another important thing to note is that pop ups are popular vehicles for delivering viruses, or causing your browser to freeze unless you click something. Therefore, it is technically advisable that people use ad blockers to protect their computers. When I respect a particular website, and I determine that the pop ups are useful to me, then I add that website to the list of exceptions in my ad blocker, allowing pop ups from that website. When those ads begin to detract from my experience on that website, and I no longer enjoy reading it, then I turn them off. More often than not, they are annoying and irrelevant to my life.

So, this is my warning to these business: No one cares about pop ups. No one wants them. Don’t expect the trend to reverse. Figure out another way to make money, another way to advertise. There are other ways, and there will be new ways invented that do not waste valuable time for people who want to have a productive and creative day without being interrupted and have their browsers cluttered and corrupted.

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