Hi- new Atheist here. In looking at a lot of Atheist sites I notice many with non secular ads attached. I understand the why. “THEY” are threatened by Atheism. but the how. How are they able to advertise on an Atheist site do you not have a say in who your sponsors are? I realize I am shouting out my ignorance: I really don’t have a clue as to how internet advertising works. Maybe I shouldn’t even bother you with this question since it doesn’t apply specifically to Atheism. But like I say I am new to this whole Atheist “thing”. I am trying to keep a lid on my anger, you know, for the whole non secular bunch twisting world history and man’s fate thing. Don’t get me started. Thanks for listening and I look forward to your answer.
Posted: May 12th 2010
Dave Hitt www
Google will only allow you to filter out specific URLs. They don’t allow you to filter by keywords, so if there are a lot of people selling stuff you don’t want on your site, you can either put up with it or spend your whole life trying to filter them out. They also limit you to 200 filters, a limit you can run up against rather quickly.
When you see an inappropriate ad, you can ignore it or click it. If you click it, though, it will cost the advertiser money and put money in the site’s pocket. Of course, I’d never ever recommend you do that. That would be wrong.
Posted: May 23rd 2010
bitbutter www
Currently the costs of maintaining asktheatheists.com are partially offset by revenue from click-throughs on adverts served on the site.
The adverts here are served by Google Adsense. Advertisers pay for particular keywords, and Google’s delivery system ensures that the adverts appear on sites who’s content is relevant to those terms. So of course this is good news for religious advertisers who are interested in having their adverts seen by atheists.
For those publishing Google ads on their sites, it’s possible to 'blacklist’ individual advertisers to make sure their 'inappropriate’ ads don’t show up. Google calls this blacklist the Competitive Ad Filter.
'Blacklisting’ religious advertisers is an futile struggle though, since there are so many advertisers, and new ones pop up all the time.
It’s a bizarre situation for sure. But perhaps you can take some comfort from knowing that religious evangelism is funding sites dedicated to talking about atheism.
Posted: May 14th 2010