jemjabella - ultimately better than you

Personal Blog Adverts

Am I just being nostalgic and old-fashioned when I question web advertising and banners on personal web pages and blogs?

Back in 2000-2001 when I was a newbie “designer” without a domain name, I’d have killed to have found free hosting without a banner, because everyone knew that the ‘ultimate’ in web design was to be able to present your work without having someone else’s splattered all over it.

This is why I sit here and ponder if web design is going backwards. Is it the latest trend to offer advertising (free or paid) on a personal domain? Is it done to try and make pennies from spoilt rich kids who like to buy 30 domains a year and then wonder why they barely get 3 hits each, or is it just to rub it in the face of those of us who had to scrimp and save or beg our parents to let us get a domain name?

It cannot be because of lack of bandwidth — most of these people claim to get around 600-800 unique hits a day. I get approx. 4000 unique hits a day on this domain alone (due to interest in my scripts, etc) and I use around 5Gb a month — 5Gb is nothing in terms of cost; most hosting companies offer that for pennies. So what is it? And if we leave free hosts to escape the adverts why are people suddenly charging to put them back on?

Page created: April 6, 2008
Page last modified: April 6, 2008