Advertising via email
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Look, I understand that as a free service, advertising on everything is inevitable. And I also understand that in an election year, political advertising is a huge gold mine. I get that. However, it would be absolutely LOVELY as a non-political, non-world-at-large blog, to not have any politics on emails associated with my blog. Especially as the vast majority of what I’ve seen goes directly against my own politics. Is there any way to either select the kind of ads or maybe protest the ads going out in emails associated with my blog? Anything at all I can do? I’ve shut off ALL emails I receive as a result of this as the only means of protest currently at my disposal, but would love to have the instant notifications they bring. :( Thank you.
Just so you know, I don’t really expect anything. Just thought it would be worth a try.
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Hi,
the only way to stop ads would be to upgrade to a paid plan. Here’s more information about how ads work on WordPress.com:
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Thanks anyway. I’m not interested in stopping ads; I understand they pay for the free use of the site. I am, however, concerned with the CONTENT of those ads, and if my own readers would find them offensive. I do. And they’re completely irrelevant to my content, something I’d hoped WordPress would be more cognizant of.
So I’m guessing there’s no fix for this. I can either put up with it or switch to a different free blogging platform. I’ll have to think about that.
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If you see an offensive ad, please do report it via the “Report This Ad” link below the ad, or by submitting the form at https://wordpress.com/support/about-these-ads/
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Well, define offensive…
I am well aware that what is offensive to me may not be to others. I’m sure the Powers that Be at WordPress wouldn’t knowingly engage in offensive advertising. To me, however, it is offensive.
I’d rather not be…well, high maintenance…but I’d rather not have these things that do not represent myself or my beliefs, sent off to my readers.
Again, I don’t expect much. I am just extremely disappointed with WordPress at this point.
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We must run ads on free sites to keep them free: https://wordpress.com/support/no-ads/
To remove ads, simply purchase any paid plan: https://wordpress.com/pricing/
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Yeah, I got that. How many times do I need to say that? I totally and completely understand I’m at your mercy because I’m using a free service.
I would have appreciated some…consideration…when choosing the ads that you accept to run. I’m very disappointed in the advertising that you select. Its not appropriate for my readers, the few I have. In fact, I’d say its not appropriate for anyone. But that’s my opinion.
I would have liked a company that was more considerate of its readers and writers. But those are dreams, apparently.
Thank you for responding at least.
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Hi there,
Just to clarify, we don’t choose the ads we run.
Advertisers don’t buy ad space from us directly, but submit their ads to an ad network. That network then bids on ad space on websites, in real time and on behalf of its advertisers, the moment someone loads your site in their browser. Which ads a particular person sees will depend on which advertiser bids for ad space at that specific time, and advertisers use data like the location and browser history of that visitor to decide whether or not they bid.
Whichever advertiser bids the most is the one whose ad will appear. This entire process is automated and happens in the few seconds your site takes to load, so there’s no one manually choosing the ad before it appears on your site.
We daily serve thousands of different ads across tens of thousands of sites in this way, with no two people visiting your site seeing the same ads, so it’s completely impossible for us to know who sees which ad, or even to know which specific ad you’re speaking of.
That’s why we ask that you report the ad using the link appearing below it – that will send the specific ad for review with our ads provider, who can check it against the guidelines we’ve given them and remove it if necessary.
We don’t display political ads on WordPress.com, and our ad networks know not to allow such ads to bid on ad space on WordPress.com sites, but sometimes an advertiser manages to slip the ad past the checks that are in place for this. That’s why there’s also a review system built in.
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Thank you for that clarification. It gives me hope that my readers will not be annoyed with inappropriate advertising. Of course, it also makes me feel like I’m being trolled–there is no way the advertising that I see is in any way related to any browser history of mine or my computers–if anything, its the opposite, which is why I feel personally offended by it.
I wasn’t aware that WordPress has a no-politics clause, or that those would be considered “offensive.” I will certainly keep that in mind and report them as I find them from now on.
Thank you for taking the time to explain this all to me. I do feel a tiny bit better about staying with the service.
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Thank you. The “Report this Ad” link sends the ad for review, along with details to help the ads team track down the issue.
So if an ad is offensive to YOU, for whatever reason, just report it. Our ads team will take a look and take down the ad if it is against our agreements.
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Oh and regarding being trolled, sorry; there are many ways an advertiser might try to get an ad in front of you. I know for me on other networks I was seeing some pretty unexpected (though not “reportable”) ads for a while there too, and complained about it on Twitter and Facebook myself, so I do get that.
And obviously we wouldn’t be able to remove an ad that someone finds offensive for an arbitrary reason that isn’t within our TOS. But do just report anything you’re concerned about, through that report link if possible, so our ads team can take a look.
Thanks for getting in touch.
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