We love the web. It’s a wonderful and truly open platform that nobody can control, even though big economic interests do everything they can to stop it. Most of the free web is possible thanks to advertisement and to be able to run a free website as a full time job you don’t have many options other than running ads on your site. We don’t think the ads on AlternativeTo are intrusive but unfortunately some websites throw so much advertisements on the site that it becomes nearly unusable and that is why someone invented the ad blocker.
If you use an Ad Blocker on AlternativeTo today you get this message where our banner in the header is supposed to be.
Hi! For some reason we can’t display an ad here, probably because of an ad blocker. If this ad is not displayed our design gets screwed up. We have full respect if you want to run an ad blocker but we would appreciate if you add us to your white list or consider donating via Flattr or Paypal. The free web is dependent on ads to continue to be free. Thank you, and we hope you find a great alternative!
As stated above, we have full respect for people who use ad blockers and we want to make people aware that there are alternative ways to support your favorite websites without having to view ads. Fellow swedish startup Flattr have created an awesome way to do this. When you sign up for Flattr you decide on an amount that you pay monthly and then you can just “Flattr” stuff all over the web, pretty much the same way you “like” stuff on Facebook. The difference is that the creator of the thing you Flattr get a small cut of of the monthly amount of money you pay to Flattr. It’s a great idea and we really want this project to be successful.
A couple of weeks ago Flattr blogged about our approach to Ad Blockers and they also gave us an exclusive offer for our visitors. The first 200 people who enter their e-mail address below (you won’t get spammed, it’s not our style) will get a €5 Flattr credit (for free) that can be used to Flattr stuff and contribute to the free web that we all love. Of course it would be nice if you decide toFlattr us and continue to use Flattr but there are not obligations what so ever. The offer is only available for new users on Flattr though. Flattr will email you your offer and sign up link within a few days.