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Removing Ads on Free WordPress Blogs

Forestwood

Those pesky ads that show in the body, and the end, of a WordPress Post; do they annoy you? As a reader, would you prefer not to see them? I am vacillating between paying to remove them and leaving them as they are.

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Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

So I think it is time to ask the Blogger Brains Trust, all of you clever people in the blogosphere:

Should I pay to remove ADs shown on my blog posts?

To help me in my decision, I would love you to answer the below poll.

Ad Content for Blogs

Worth remembering is that we, as bloggers can not control the content of the ads according to WordPress, particularly if we have a free plan. Interestingly, WordPress hands this important decision over to their advertising software:

We screen the ads we display for mature or illegal content. Sometimes, however, you or visitors to your site might still see ads you object to — for example, ads for political causes or products you oppose. We do not endorse the content of any ad, and we encourage you to inform your audience that ads are not selected by site owners, but rather generated by our advertising software.

https://wordpress.com/support/no-ads/

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Published by Forestwood

A philosophic Aussie writes here at StPA, one who will readily admit to loving Scandinavia. I'm interested in global politics and what drives us to be who we are. Scratch the surface and you'll find a practical Environmentalist with an egalitarian bent, trying to unleash a little creativity via the written word. Scandinavian culture, literature and traditions are close to my heart, even though I'm Australian. Travel and courteous discussions greatly broaden the mind, so I travel if I can and am always up for a vigorous, respectful discussion. I'm an avid reader, a writer and I enjoy photography and crafts, particularly traditional art forms. I hope you'll find 'Something to Ponder About,' in my WordPress Community.

97 thoughts on “Removing Ads on Free WordPress Blogs”

    1. Good to hear that you feel it is a wise move, Janis. I have toyed with the idea in the past but never got further than that. Today, I saw a product advertised that was pushing the boundaries of decency, so I felt it was time to look at that seriously again. Apparently, you need a domain first, is that right?

      Liked by 4 people

  3. I upgraded my WordPress plan, primarily for the extra space but also because it removed Ads. When I do see Ads, it doesn’t bother me much. I just scroll past and WP seemed to do a reasonable job of not having it in my face all the time. Unlike other web pages where I can’t t read the page for the Ads over them.

    Are there Ads on your site Amanda? I don’t see them. It must be a perk that I didn’t fully appreciate before – the ads are removed from my site and also any other WP blog I view.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. They may not show all the time, Sandy but it’s great that you don’t see them. I see the message about “you may see an ad/dismiss this message etc” on my posts. It would be great to know if that is true. Removing ads from all. But I would need to purchase a domain and re direction wouldn’t I? So used to typing forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com it would be hard to change.

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      2. Thanks for clarifying, Sandy. I have read that, but wanted to verify with bloggers who opted in. My I.T. son suggested I purchase a domain from elsewhere, as it would be cheaper, but like everything there is often a catch after the first year, price increase or inclusions/exclusions. Privacy eg. (whoisguard), may or may not be included depending on the platform. There is lots to digest in this decision.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. I also don’t recall seeing ads in any great amount. I do pay for my website as well, so perhaps that makes the difference. I used to have ads enabled on my site, which has the potential to earn a few cents per click. I disabled that option because I thought the ads would be annoying to my readers.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. It is a difficult choice, Chris: allow ads and make some money or block them. From what folks have indicated so far, the ads don’t seem to bother them very much at all.

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  4. For me, I have paid to have ads removed since day 1 of my blog. I was not comfortable not knowing what ads would pop up. Having said that, I usually ignore ads on other blogs completely. I have only been annoyed by them on a handle of occasions. Hope that helps. 😊

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Thank you very much Irene. It is great to receive some feedback from other bloggers. I began thinking along your lines more seriously today. Do you have your own domain?

      Liked by 2 people

      4. I have been looking at both. So you have two that used in conjunction with your blog? Do you have privacy coverage with both domains? ie. they keep your details private?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. It is great to hear that your plan is working for your needs. Yes, your blog is still in its infancy. You have many wonderful years ahead.

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  7. You don’t need to specifically purchase a domain or redirect if you stay with WordPress.com. I purchased a plan because I was running low on space, but removing the ads was a consideration: since I try to make my posts pretty, having a rather gross advertising image inserted did bother me. The price I pay includes the domain and WordPress.com took care of all forwarding. It was quite painless, at least at the time I made the change, a couple of years ago.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Excellent to hear. That is what I am looking for- a painless transition. I hate to think after trying to make the posts to look presentable, ads are shoved in people’s faces.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. The only ads I ever see are in the email of the post – the one with the headline that I click on to reach the ost online. That’s it. And those are unidentifiable, as they’re almost below my “horizon”.
    However, I detest advertising in all its forms – one reason why before I gave my TV away, I had not watched a commercial channel for many years. Now I use ABC’s iView for anything that interests me; and thus lead an ad-free life ! 😀
    Of course, I pay to be ad-free myself ..

    Liked by 1 person

      1. In fact you’re right, Amanda: I pay yearly for a totally excellent product called Ad Remover. I’d pay twice as much, willingly ..

        Liked by 1 person

  10. I’ve developed a skill to averting all my attention away from ads whether it be online, tv or radio. I just scroll past ads on websites without even looking at it so probably wouldn’t even notice if the ads were mature. I never see any ads on your blog though! I tried out ads this year on my blog to see what the monetisation would be like- not that great. I’m on their premium plan and it’s done it’s job just fine. Ads can be turned off or reduced with premium.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I have heard mixed reports. I guess it depends on number of views. I wouldn’t expect a great rate for monetizing but it would be awesome if it at least covered the annual cost of the premium plan? Would that be expecting too much of ads?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I think it is possible but views per month would need to be well into the thousands. The example I’m seeing is someone with about 100,000 views per day would earn about $65 for 1 month. There’s also a minimum of earning $100 before you get paid out.

        Liked by 1 person

  13. I pay about $99 a year to go ad free. That’s a pretty low fee. I started doin it because I could chat with WordPress when I had issues and with the free site, you couldn’t do that. I’m one of the lucky ones who always has issues. This is a great post, Thanks for following my blog. I’ll follow back. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

      1. What they could. I still can’t “Like” anyone’s post when I’m using my Google Chrome browser. It’s fine using Microsoft Edge. I did everything they told me to do. They said it worked on their end, but I just use the Edge browser for blogging now. That’s one issue. The others are older. I actually like WordPress very much. I had a WordPress.org site and I hated it. After four years, I closed it down and came back to WordPress.com. They have made a lot of improvements. I still pay the extra $99 to get the services, though. It’s well worth it. 🙂

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      2. Good to hear Marsha. Yet looking at the link Sarah provided, wordpress.org has all SEO features and .org doesn’t, even with a premiun plan. But you do have to add ur plugins yourself. Could that have had anything to do with the lack of comments?

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  14. I answered I dislike like the ad s. I almost said I just scroll past them, because that is what I do, since they are on so many of the blogs. I’ve like the cleanliness of not having them, and am fortunate I can afford to have them removed.

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    1. Thank you Cee. That is valuable input. I like the cleanliness aspect too. Having said that, many have commented that they don’t see ads on my blog, so I am unsure now whether it is worth paying extra to remove them.

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  16. Well, personally, I pay to have them removed, as I don’t want to support most advertising. I think some bloggers have ads when they change plans, or intention, to make money. That’s actually made me unfollow some. I do find them very annoying and the cost to have them removed corresponds to more photo memory.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. I haven’t noticed ads on your blog but unless the flash around, I don’t pay attention. I’ve been paying for my site for at least 4 years now. I figured I spend a lot of my time here so it was an entertainment expense. 😉 I don’t do much else in the entertainment department. We won’t count the books and fabrics. 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It seems like I see ads if I view my blog externally, but that readers do not, Marlene. That is okay and I have toyed with whether I should pay for my blog for some time now. I feel a bit guilty for not paying for what the blogosphere gives me. Two years ago, a blogger told me I shouldn’t feel guilty as WordPress is a wealthy enterprise, yet I still feel I should contribute back in some way. Is that valid?

      Liked by 1 person

  18. Hi there – you should set up Adsense
    I am not sure how the details are – but I think that way you might have more control over the ads?
    And I pay for my blog – a premium plan – but removing ads was nkt the main reason
    It was for space and for help if I needed it

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I value your input, Yvette. My main reason is for storage space and to get rid of ads yet also my guilt at what wordpress provides yet I pay nothing. The ads I am curious about but it seems my concern at the ads on my blog annoying my readers is mostly unfounded. Perhaps my blog does not reach the number of daily views to be desirable, or it could be that my time zone means that most viewers are asleep when I am awake, and that is not great for advertising, I suspect. I might be reading more into this than there is.

      Liked by 1 person

  19. Because I opted for wordpress.org for my site (at a cost) I don’t have adverts (although if I wanted to I could, and get a very small share of the revenue, I believe). The lack of adverts was one factor in me choosing .org but not the main one, which was that I wanted to have full control and ownership of my site and content.

    As I use an ad blocker I don’t see the ads here, but interestingly I do see them in the email previews of your posts, which also say ‘This free site is ad-supported’. I would rather not see them but they don’t bother me to the extent that they would put me off visiting or reading a blog – unless one of the ads was for something I really objected to, I guess.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hmm. That makes me think seriously about opting out of ads and paying for that. So to clarify the adblocker is provided with the plan?

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      1. No, they are two separate things. If you use wordpress.org you don’t HAVE any ads on your blog, i.e. no one sees any. You can see the differences between the two platforms set out here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/

        The ad blocker I mentioned is a free download that you can install in your browser so you don’t see any ads on ANY website (although some insist on you disabling the ad blocker before you can see the content. Having that would stop you SEEING the ads on your own blog (so you’d want to whitelist your site so that you could check what was appearing there, since you have no control) and on the other blogs you read, but it wouldn’t stop anyone else seeing them on yours.

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      2. Ah yes. That makes sense, Sarah. Thank you. I think my son installed an add-on to Firefox similar to the one you mentioned which blocked ads. I don’t think we have that now.
        Marsha noted an increase in comments with the free platform. I wonder if that is still true. It should if anything benefit the paying over the free customer.

        Liked by 1 person

  20. I don’t mind adverts. I’ve grown up in a commercial world, ads abound, I accepted them and I’ve also learnt how to ignore them.

    I would rather adverts pay for this hobby than it came out of my own pocket. I can go elsewhere, begin again, or walk away without ever feeling I’ve thrown away that money.

    If I did consider going ad free, I wouldn’t use WP frankly. I don’t see it as value for money; it’s basically a blogger version of FB . Other places seem a lot better utilised for serious writers – Medium, for example – though there isn’t a free option, you’re required to pay from the start.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. It may be worth adding that I follow/read others on the WP Reader which doesn’t seem to show adverts at all.

      I don’t know how many readers will go directly to the website, via google etc., these days rather than use a reader. It seems a lot of faff to use a search engine when you can follow all of them at once in a reader. Also I find some of the themes some bloggers choose a bit off-putting: the font is too small, or it’s a strange font, or it’s white text on black. The Reader’s uniformity of presentation is more appealing, though it’s a pity that we put much effort into making our blogs look unique, and it isn’t necessary. It’s the words and images which count.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. So Medium compares well. I must research it. I first began with Blogger. Hated it and enjoy WordPress for 9 years +. Thanks for your input, it has given me some more options and lots to think about.

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      1. Medium turns it on its head, I think. No adverts anywhere, you blog for free but pay to read by monthly subscription (if not, you’re allowed 3 articles for free per month), you get paid if your post is popular, views or the number of likes – it’s not much apparently, a few cents.

        It looks professional and seems to attract a lot of good writers, probably because the reader pays, not the writer.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. A great concept that would promote writing. I will take a look but then I would lose my followers and the conversation they bring . I would have to start over, wouldn’t I?

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I have run blogs simultaneously on WP and Blogger before and just copy and paste the words from one into the other. Some bloggers will simply put a “read more” in one blog linking to the other. It’s a bit of extra work but if you want to monetise your work or expand your readership, it is a way to do it.

        It depends how serious an endeavour writing is for you, if your happy with the social media level and would like to expand that, or you’re thinking of making a proper living from it eventually. Honestly, I’m just a leisure blogger and I know there’ll be a time in the future when it’s not worth my time (for a time). I’ve been blogging on and off since 2004; to me, starting again is exciting and it’s why I come back to it. 🙂

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      4. That is a great thought Ian. Starting over can be fun. I have a second blog so can relate to that feeling.
        Now – you might be able to answer this? If you post the same content on different platforms, I have been told it is bad for SEO. Is that right?

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      5. I don’t worry about SEO. As I understand how it works, it’s counter to what I want to blog. The first thing is SEs ignore short posts, I don’t go in for long posts. TL;DR.
        I can’t think why it would be bad for SEO to have the same content in two places, it’s an algorithm searching for keywords, but I really don’t know.

        Liked by 2 people

      6. I read of it pertaining to wordpress. Perhaps it is wordpress only – to encourage folks to post new content. WordPress bump you from the reader if you reblog or duplicate, or even update the dates on your posts too often.

        Liked by 2 people

  21. I paid for the domain name and to have the ads removed. It also means you can upload videos to your blog.

    I objected to having Bible-related adverts on my Pagan blog. (Somebody needs to update the ‘religion’ category to reflect the fact that religions other than Christianity exist.)

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  22. I decided to pay to not have them because they irritate me so much on other channels. That said, I guess WordPress have a right to make money from the free websites. WordPress has given me much pleasure over the years.

    Liked by 1 person

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  24. I don’t notice ads on your site Amanda though perhaps they are there (none on this post) and I just scroll by without noticing, as I have learned to do. I don’t know if ads appear on my site – I guess I should check without being logged in some time. I don’t like them and have considered upgrading to ensure they don’t – I need to confirm that the personal ($5pm) and premium ($10 pm) don’t options have have ads. I will at some point need to upgrade for extra space anyway. I don’t know about you but I regularly (maybe every two months) get an offer of 1/2 price upgrade for a year so would do it then if I were to do it.

    I note that upgrades incl free domain for year -I am rightly or wrongly thinking that url of blog would change but have no idea how this would impact on internal links with my blogs (which I use extensively) – will they auto update or otherwise continue to work? ………. this issue has been the main factor in my not updating to date. I would be scared to make to many changes less my posts don’t work on any new/upgraded platform.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Be careful with the purchase of a domain. It is free or low cost for the first year and then the price sometimes escalates a lot. If you buy the domain name with wordpress, they will re-direct to your new blog url automatically, although you should verify this with support.
      Yes you can buy more storage for photos etc. or you can re-size your photos to 800 x 600. Since I started doing this, I have not decreased any more storage space. You can also ask some of the more experienced bloggers here. M-R is pretty good on that sort of thing. She had a blog previously with a large following.
      Waiting for the half price upgrade sounds good, but like anything, one tends to get what one pays for, so there might be a catch.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Good advice here Amanda.. I actually re-size to 650….. (400 for vertical format) so still have lots of space on free account. I feel I loose a bit on picture quality though but I try to focus on text and use pictures to help with the story as opposed to their being the story.. That is not a criticism of picture focused blogs, many of which I follow! In regards to the half price .. it seems real and clearly states that it only applies to the first year… it is of course marketing … ….

        Liked by 1 person

    1. It has been so useful hearing from other bloggers and their reactions to ads. When one has no control, it is a valid concern that you cannot veto a particularly offensive ad or something that goes against your values. Thanks for sharing your input. I will ‘add’ it (no pun intended), to the store of information I have accumulated in this post. Many thanks.

      Liked by 1 person

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  28. Hi Amanda, I pay to remove the ads. I think it’s worth it. They are annoying and honestly, I don’t want my viewer’s final impression to be an ad for getting rid of nail fungus. 😄

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Eeew.. Nail fungus. One would certainly hope my readers have not got those ads shoved in their faces. Going by the comments it seems that ads are generally not seen on my blog, but I need clarification as to what level of views might be considered valuable enough to advertisers that they would want to places ads on free blogs.

      Liked by 1 person

  29. I upgraded and removed them. It made more sense, to me, than simply paying…

    I’m constantly closing out great articles, that I truly want to read, because they come with a bombardment of pop up ads. I didn’t want to subject my readers to something I loathe.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Neither did I want to subject my readers to annoying and unwanted ads, Chris. Especially if I have no control over them and don’t derive any benefit from them. I am wary of leaving the .com though. How have you found that experience?

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Forgive me. I noticed that after my finger hit the button to send the comment. I should have asked – why did you choose to stick with.com instead of choosing .org and self-hosted. I get confused between the two options.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. .com is used for commercial business, I sell products on and through my site, .org was created for non-profit and charitable organizations, .edu educational, .net is mostly tech companies… .com is still what people think of when you don’t add a domain in person…

        Liked by 1 person

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