Give Google Contributor a try: Pay to remove ads
I've been a contributor member for several months now, because I firmly believe in two things:<p>1. Content creators have to be paid, or much of the web I know and love will cease to exist.
2. Life without ads is much better.<p>So here's what people need to know about Google contributor:<p>1. I pay for the highest level available.<p>2. I love not seeing ads.<p>3. This only works for Google-based ads, which are certainly common, but are neither the majority of advertising online, nor are they among the more annoying.<p>4. Contributor doesn't work like an ad blocker, which makes ads just "disappear." Instead, you see a big empty block (that is apparently customizable in some way) that says "Thank you for being a contributor. The ad <i>space</i> is still there, it's just blank. So if half of your page used to be covered in ads, now half your page is covered in little blocks that say, "Thank you for being a contributor."<p>For example, here's a screenshot of iMore (the site that was used to compare ios9's ad blockers): <a href="https://austen-screenshots.s3.amazonaws.com/iMore__The_1_site_for_iPhone_iPad_Mac_and_all_things_Apple_cllk8.png" rel="nofollow">https://austen-screenshots.s3.amazonaws.com/iMore__The_1_sit...</a> I'd almost prefer ads.<p>5. This doesn't stop most of your pages from taking forever to load because of JavaScript from other ad networks.<p>6. I don't care about the tracking/privacy as much as some people, but it doesn't solve that problem either.<p>So, do I think this is a good idea? Absolutely. I hope Google can expand it, and I <i>will</i> pay. I have no idea how expensive it would be to pay for the disappearance of all ads, but I'd likely do it. (I recognize I'm not the "average" Internet user as far as what I'm willing to pay).<p>That being said, it does not yet come close to competing with the convenience that an ad-blocker provides (which I don't use out of principle).<p>It's still early, so I give some leeway, and I like the idea, but as of yet this won't be a game changer. I truly hope it can become one.