So as a photo-blogger I am now at a vexing cross roads. I launched Singular Images blog in April 2007, which in the day had no advertisements inserted into it. Not the case anymore. In fact this blog is so riddled with WordPress ads, even I have trouble looking reading it. So one of the trade-offs for a “free” blog is these overwhelming distractions. Now too overwhelming.
Of course the WordPress solution is for me to pony up the $99 bucks per year to go “Premium” and avoid all the ads. As a free blog this was a no brainier, when I had the time available, to just do it. This blog has been cathartic allowing me to write and look at my photographs from more of an objective distance. This blog also provides me with a little visibility with my peers, although I receive a lot more immediate comments and direct feedback on my photographs with Facebook, but unlike Facebook what is posted on here has a lot longer visibility.
I also find that with this blog I can quickly modify it to reflect my projects that are on-going than my web-site, thus this has become my alternative web-site. And I am paying about $120 bucks per year for my web-site, so do I need both? It’s not that I am making any money selling prints at this point, but perhaps someday soon.
So while I evaluate my options, this blog is going on a hiatus.
Cheers!
Doug
P.S. I also note that when I read this blog on one computer, I have a ton of ads, when I read it from my other computer, almost no ads. What is it you see? Do you get peppered with a lot of ads or none at all? Let me know, it will make a difference! Thanks!!
Singular Images 
Doug, I am reading it with a Firefox strapped with the ‘Adblock Edge’ plugin, and I never see any ads, neither her nor somewhere else.
Markus, this is interesting. I probably need to check it out and probably recommend others to incorporate this. Do you have a url to link to “Adblock Edge”?
Meanwhile I am also wondering how much crap I am getting from Firefox when not using that app?
https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/adblock-edge/ — but I am usually adding it through the Settings-Addons (Ctrl-Shift-A) menu of firefox. The web is different with it, and this usually is the first addon I install. The other is ‘self destructing cookies’, which help me keep my privacy.
Markus, thanks for the additional information. I appreciate it very much.
As I continue to think about this situation, I want an ad free blog so anyone visiting does not have to put up with the crap (other than my crappy dialog and photos!).
So I am now thinking of having a open edition print sell; for $150 USD any photo published on this site over the last 7 years, printed on 8-1/2″ x 11″ with archival ink and on archival matte paper, signed on the reverse & includes shipping anywhere in the world. This sale will fund the WordPress Premium upgrade and if I can not sell at least 2 prints, It is probably not worth keeping the site going ;- D
Cheers!
Doug, a print sale is certainly a sophisticated way to achieve a both cost-free and ad-free blog ;) Good Luck!
Hi Doug, there´s nothing like having your own domain, instead of a subdomain dot wordpress or dot whatever. I guess you´ll use the WordPress Premium service, but if you plan on using WordPress.org and need any help, just tell me. I have some experience with that.
In adition to what Markus Spring said, I´m using Disconnect in both Chrome and Firefox browsers, so I don´t see the ads you talk about. This plugin allows you to block invisible websites that track your search and browsing history, which includes some ads servers. Here´s the URL for Chrome (I heard you installed Chrome recently) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disconnect/jeoacafpbcihiomhlakheieifhpjdfeo and here´s the main site https://disconnect.me/
Best regards
Hi Tomas,
That is a great offer as one of the alternatives is to use the WordPress.org engine versus their “Premium” service. Switching up to a domain name is another idea I had as I don’t think that many folks have their blog linked up to Singular Images, so the break in the feed should not be a disaster. Since I am pretty lazy and not good at programing, for Singular Images I would prefer to just go with the Premium service. The issues are more daunting for The PhotoBook blog.
My goal is to have a pleasurable read of the blog, so for me to add filters to my browser does entirely resolve my issue of how I want others to experience the blog.
Btw, yes, I did make the change to Chrome for one of my computers, but now I starting to suspect it’s the entire computer which is buggie, not the browser or the blog as the ad spam problems on that old computer continue unabated. I suspect that this computer has been attacked and now I need to debug it, which I have not done for some time. Recommendations?
Tomas, thanks again!
Hi Doug
The key is that any post in the blog redirect automatically to the new destination. For example, if you register the domain singularimages.com and an user wants to visit this post, he would type in the browser singularimages.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/wordpress-no-free-lunch/, but the server should redirect him to the appropiate URL in singularimages.com, which might be singularimages.com/2014/07/03/wordpress-no-free-lunch/.
This can be achieved either you use the Premium service or WordPress.org. In the first case, the redirections are set up automatically. In the second case, you need a service called Site Redirect that does exactly that (http://en.support.wordpress.com/site-redirect/). Both solutions are perfectly valid, though each one comes with its own pros and cons.
Regarding the computer, a firewall and an antivirus tend to be useful. However, sometimes it’s necessary to format and start again with a clean hard drive ;-)
Kind regards
Tomás
Hi Tomas,
Okay, that is cool and would help during the transition to a new url for both blogs.
As to protecting the computer via a firewall, I did but had not realized that the service subscription had lapsed. Fixed!! Thank goodness I will not have to clean the hard disk!!