Well, folks, I couldn’t be more thrilled to finally share a bit of genuinely good news about our website, good news that has been a long time coming as we’ve waded through updates, fixes, and more than a few moments of head-scratching frustration along the way.
First things first, let’s address the elephant in the room… those goofy YouTube ads. You know the ones. The kind that would suddenly appear on your computer, laptop, iPad, or other desktop devices just when you were settling in with a cup of coffee to read the day’s post. While they never appeared on phones (which 24% of you use to read our posts), they were still an eyesore for the rest of us. Well, we’re happy, no, ecstatic, to report that they are officially gone. Vanished. History.
But wait… the even more exciting news is this: the remaining annoying pop-up ads on our pages have been permanently removed, at our discretion, with no plans ever to bring them back.
Honestly, we were frustrated with them. Every time we logged into our site, they appeared, uninvited and demanding attention. It didn’t take a genius to realize how annoying they must have been for you, our readers, who have loyally shown up day after day, year after year. So we finally said, “Enough.” They are now GONE! GONE! GONE! And I can’t tell you how satisfying it felt to flip that switch.
Of course, as with most things in life, there’s a flip side. Removing those ads also means we’re losing a portion of the revenue they generated, which helped offset the ongoing maintenance and management costs of our substantial website. Hosting, security, updates, plugins… it all adds up faster than one might imagine, especially for a site that’s been around as long as ours has. In March, it will be 14 years!
Late last night, after the dust had settled and the pop-ups were officially banished, Tom and I sat down and talked it through. We asked ourselves a simple question: how can we recover that relatively small amount of lost revenue without compromising the reader experience or turning our site into something we never wanted it to be?
Thankfully, the answer was already sitting quietly on our page.
On the right side of our site, when you’re viewing it on a computer, laptop, iPad, or other desktop device, you’ll see advertising links that do not include pop-ups. On a phone, these links are at the bottom on the page. These links pay us a small commission if a purchase is made through them. Nothing flashy. Nothing intrusive. Just straightforward links to companies we already use regularly and trust completely.
These include familiar names such as Amazon, Expedia, VRBO, Auto Europe, and Hotels.com. We’ve booked flights, rental cars, hotels, and holiday rentals through these companies countless times over the years. I want to reassure you of something very important: the prices you’ll see through our links are identical to what you’d pay if you went directly to their websites on your own. You will not pay a penny more by using our links.
As we mentioned a few days ago, we’ve never asked our readers to financially support our site through donation platforms, nor have we introduced monthly or annual membership fees. That isn’t who we are, and it’s not how we want this site to feel. However, if you use these links instead of going directly through your browser, we can earn enough to help offset the revenue we intentionally gave up by removing the pop-ups.
All it takes is one extra click.
When you’re pricing a hotel, a flight, a rental car, a holiday/vacation home, or even ordering something you were already planning to buy, start from our site by clicking one of the links. To make it even easier, we’ve provided direct links below to each of these advertisers (connected to our site) so you can bookmark them or create shortcuts, whatever works best for you. Once they’re saved, it’s seamless.
Amazon – Make sure to enter YOUR specific delivery location
We honestly can’t express enough gratitude to those of you who have already used our links, and to any new participants who choose to do so in the future. Every click helps, but just as importantly, every reader matters to us, whether or not you ever use these links. Our posts will always remain free, with no fees, no memberships, and no annoying requests for revenue.
By the end of this month, all of these maintenance issues will finally be behind us. We’ll be done, finished, and ready to move forward without revisiting this topic, unless, of course, some unforeseen issue arises that requires us to keep you informed.
As always, thank you for being here, for your patience, and for continuing to walk this winding road with us. We don’t take any of it for granted.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, January 16, 2016:
