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Survey: Consumers won't pay to remove ads on Web sites

09.12.2008
A study in AdAge notes that are willing to pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee to remove advertising on their favorite websites. I've never felt the need to remove ads from the sites I read, but I certainly wouldn't pay a subscription fee to remove them, when I can do that for free with a FireFox add-on (I don't though). I have given money through memberships and fundraising drives to smaller sites that I read often.

AdAge discovered that only 4 percent of consumers would be "very likely" to pay US$39.99 or $29.99 a year to have advertising removed from their favorite sites. That's less than $4 and $3 per month respectively.

founder Drew Curtis told me that Fark had tried offering subscription-based ad-removal "back in the day", but it wasn't popular. In a survey the site ran before the program was introduced, "1 percent of respondents said they would" pay a fee to get rid of ads. "The actual number was far, far less."

That sort of response to a survey, and then different response in real life, could be a result of . That's when a respondent to a survey answers a question the way they think is "morally" or "ideally" right, rather than what they actually believe. Sure, survey takers might be willing to cough up a hypothetical $4 per month to get rid of ads on their favorite site -- but when it comes time to whip out that credit card, they have second thoughts.