I couldn’t take it anymore, so I turned off the advertisements on Fuji X Weekly. They’re gone. You’re welcome. Oh, and I’m sorry that you had to put up with them for so long.
Why did I do this? Why did I even have ads in the first place? To answer the second question first, there’s a real cost to running this website and doing the things I do. The ad revenue (which isn’t much—it’s amazing how little you actually get from ads, much less than many of you likely imagine) helps to pay for it. It basically covered the cost of web hosting and domains and stuff like that—not only for Fuji X Weekly, but Ritchie’s Ricoh Recipes, RitchieCam, RithieRoesch.com, and the Community Recipes page, too. I discontinued the ads for two reasons: the company facilitating the ads cut their payouts in half (which is crazy unfair), and the ads were just soooo annoying anyway—I hated having them. It was time for them to go!
Unfortunately, when you run a website, you sometimes have to do things that you don’t want to because you have your own expenses that must be covered. The ads were helpful in covering those expenses, but not something that I liked having. In fact, in my very first post, I optimistically proclaimed, “I’m not placing advertisements on this website.” That lasted a little while (although, at the time, WordPress placed their own ads on this site because I was utilizing their free plan back then), but as this website grew, so did the expenses of running it. I hoped that someday another revenue stream would eventually be enough that I could turn the ads off. That never really materialized, but lately Amazon affiliate purchases have increased (thank you for using my links for your purchases!), so I’m using that as my excuse: affiliate revenue is now paying for the expenses of keeping this thing up and running. I’m hopeful that the ads are gone for good.
It’s long overdue, and I’m glad that I finally did it: Fuji X Weekly is now free of annoying ads! This should make the experience of this website noticeably better. I’m sorry that you had to put up with them for so long, and I hope you celebrate with me that they’re finally gone. Hallelujah!
What about Patreon? A couple of my favorite blogs and podcasts use Patreon and it allows me to support them. Albeit in a small way.
(I’m already a paid supporter of your iPhone photo app and recipe app. Good stuff.)
That’s a great suggestion! And I appreciate your support! The apps are possible because of those who subscribe, so thank you very much! 😀
That’s good of you, but I have to say that although I noticed the ads, I wasn’t too impacted by them. My own film recipe site is also ad free, but I’m on the first year at the moment, and it’s not costing much to run. I have to decide by spring whether to keep paying out of my own pocket or to raise some money to cover the costs somehow. Like you, I don’t want user experience to suffer, but there’s also a real cost to cover.
My thinking: you’re doing so much good for the community, you shouldn’t have to pay out of your own pocket to do it. I did the same as you: for the first year and a half, I paid for everything myself, but then as it grew (which required upgrading the hosting), I tried to use affiliate links… but that didn’t pay much at all for years (still doesn’t, but it’s more than it used to be). So I added ads, and that helped, but also didn’t pay much, especially at first (it increased as the website popularity increased). Between the two I was able to cover all of the website expenses and the cloud storage and such. The last couple of months have seen the affiliate revenue grow, and it is now at a point where it (if it continues) will cover everything. I’m sooo glad that the ads are finally gone.
I turn off the add-blocker of my web browser to support the people I follow. There are some persons complaining I imagine, but they tend to expect all free I am afraid. I will recall always to use the affiliate links.
Thanks so much! I always appreciate your kindness and support!
First of all, hooray all the ads are gone. Thank you.
Second,y. There’s a Jersey Mikes’s in California? I thought it was a New Jersey-only franchise.
Oh, yeah. Been there for years. In Arizona and Utah, too. I’m assuming many other states. Good sandwich, although I never get it “Mike’s way…”