Tim Schumacher made money with parked domain ads. Now he is making money by blocking ads.
Tim Schumacher co-founded Sedo, one of the largest domain name marketplaces and parking companies. He also served as CEO until six years ago. Now he’s moved to the other side: ad blocking. He is Chairman of Eyeo, maker of the popular Ad Block Plus program. On today’s show, we’ll discuss the irony of this, and also how web publishers and domain parking companies can ensure their ads still show to people who use the ad blocker. Also: Verisign’s patent, Amy Schumer’s domain, MMX earnings and an update on Namecheap vs. Tucows.
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Unfortunately, the answer is not as simple as one might think. For many sites, ads are a source of revenue, and even if the ads are being blocked (because a user blocking ads isn’t likely to click on them anyway), resources like bandwidth are still being consumed – and need to be paid for.
Dee, that is exactly the reason why Adblock Plus strives a fair compromise between publisher interests (yes, ads are a much-needed source of revenue) and user interests (most users are OK with ads, as long as they are not annoying).
We call this compromise “Acceptable Ads”. Please read more about it at http://www.AcceptableAds.com
By the way, contrary to popular believes, users blocking ads are even more likely to click on ads. Reason: they are shown fewer Acceptable Ads, and fewer ads mean higher CTRs. This here is a good read on user motivation:
https://research.hubspot.com/reports/why-people-block-ads-and-what-it-means-for-marketers-and-advertisers
Best regards, Tim