Today, I viewed one of my blog posts while not signed in to WordPress.com, and was horrified to find that they were displaying Google AdSense ads above and below my post.
WordPress.com has remained ad-free for a very long time. I’m not going to look for an opt-out. To start displaying ads without even asking for my consent is just plain rude — if anything, it should have been an opt-in system.
I am leaving WordPress.com as soon as possible and going back to a self-hosted blog. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Hmm, it isn’t in their Terms of Service, but it does say it on the bottom of their Features page. It’s apparently $30/year to get rid of them…
Ah, so there is an opt-out, but I see it is a paid option.
What I’m chuffed about is that I wasn’t asked. Maybe if they had sent me an e-mail asking me if they could display ads on my blog, I might have even agreed.
Actually, they have been showing ads to logged-out users for quite some time. It *was* in the TOS, as there were complaints a while back that it wasn’t. it’s buried somewhere though.
How else do you think they make money?
Reference:
http://wank.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/but-glue-is-sticky/
back in April of last year they were serving ads.
http://wank.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/another-apology/
and eventually added notice to the features page.
Can they pay all their bills by showing ads disparately across the WPCOMsphere? I don’t think that would nearly suffice.
There’s got to be another way they’re making money.