I noticed this in the PAD stream that caught my attention. I regularly get a stream of spam comments and other social-network based debris from so-called SEO experts all angling to help me monetize my blog by adding advertisements.
Reading this got me to chuckling and thinking about what it means for me to try to do such a thing with my blog. Ads online are stupid, they don’t go anywhere or do anything. They are the visual noise that surrounds the content you are after and online there are so many great ways to avoid the entire thing. On blogs with ads, you can just pick up the RSS feed and then see the content headlines without the noise. You may be exposed to ads if you click further in, but at least you can control it. Beyond blogs, like when it comes to TV, the smart way is to DVR everything and then just use the fast forward button to skip past advertisements. Hour long TV programs turn out to be only a little longer than half an hour that way. You skip the noise and get right to the content.
If I use a DVR and skip ads on TV, then why would I put ads on my blog? Why would I add noise to what admittedly already is the mental noise of my blogging? So no, there won’t ever be ads here – and I don’t have to buy in to a ad-free add-on since I host my own blog. Something for which I should have done a very long time ago.
The reason for ads is the same for TV as it is for the web and/or blogs. A way to make money. At this point I am basically able to "tune out" most sidebar advertising (shhhh, don't let anyone know I work in advertising and might be considered part of the problem). Basically if there is a few empty pixels somewhere, someone will try to find a way to monetize them. That being said there seems to be a movement to minimize the intrusiveness of ads online (i.e.: google's newer minimal design language) in some areas. Sure there will still be all of the pop-ups for Netflix sign-ups, and the Flash overlays pitching the newest weight loss miracle, but as a designer I think there is a movement more towards personalized marketing in less intrusive ways. Targeting ads towards people's interests in areas and ways that make sense, instead of blindly serving as many ads in as many ways as possible hoping to get a good click through rate. Basically, my post here has taken my an a tangent (ooh, squirrel) away from what you are talking about, but I agree with what you are saying, but the reason for the advertising option to be there and where it could make sense is if you had a blog about underwater fire prevention, you could serve some ads for scuba supplies and they wouldn't be too intrusive or bothersome to the reader while still allowing the possibility of monetizing the blog for the author.