I don't want to spark an ad blocker vs no ad blocker debate, but I'm interested to see if some of you content publishers are affected by the influx of ad blockers. I was just reading a few articles on the subject saying that ad blockers will loose publishers billions in revenue. So here are my questions: Do you have a website that relies on ads for revenue? If so, have you noticed that revenue go down? Are you looking for a solution to the problem or just riding it out?
I don't rely on a third party ad revenue any longer, but from time to time I get an email from users saying that they either can't see the banner ads on my classifieds or post an ad. As a rule it's IE11 which has some ad blocker enabled (probably its factory one), but I am not sure. Disabling whatever ad blocker they are using usually resolves the issue. So yeah, I am affected by ad blockers somewhat since some of them block the javascript essential to a webpage performance. If I recall it right IE at one pointed blocked AdSense ads by default. Not sure if it still does.
I don't use adblockers, but some sites are coded so poorly (like this one) that I get messages like "Parts of site failed to load... If you are using an ad blocker addon, you should to disable it (it blocks more than ads and causes parts of the site to not work)." on every page. Messages like that one are SUPER irritating since they imply that it is MY FAULT that there is a problem when in fact it is the site's coding causing the problem.
You see, I blame the ad blocker(s) and not the site. They should block ads not parts of the site. In my experience, most people stop using ad blockers as they eventually realize they are missing out on some goodies too, as a result. Older people tend to stick to using ad blockers and won't disable them even if you tell them they won't be able to use some sites because of that (from my subjective experience).
Ad blockers affected my Ad Revenue - So I switched to a paywall model, best thing that ever happened. They ruined a great free service for people, I would of never switched models if it wasn't for ad blockers.
Ad blockers do affect many businesses that take up online advertising. In that case such businesses should adopt better advertising strategies and techniques.
The impact must be huge, even browsers are starting to include ad blocking software (Opera). FaceBook very recently got in a tit for tat battle with AdBlock Plus both trying to come on top.
In technical terms: "an arrangement whereby access is restricted to users who have paid to subscribe to the site." Before, everything was free driven from ad revenue, then I switched to a paywall model, restricting access to content and tools if the customer didn't subscribe to the service.