It’s interesting to follow one of the “big boys” in this real estate internet boom. Zillow, came crashing onto the scene in February with a nice website, big VC funding and…ads. Yep, ads. They didn’t really have a way to make money off of their application/website, so the best thing they could do was throw some ads up there. It made sense.
Joel writes a good piece titled, Is Advertising Going to be Zillow’s Downfall, where he talks about how they went from a few unobtrusive ads to a bunch of flashy annoying ads. He’s got a good point: where is the balance when it comes to making money on your websites and keeping users happy?
Every web application needs to make money, otherwise why would it exist? Some, like us with PowerInvestorPro, choose to not have any advertisements and charge the end-user directly. Others, like Zillow, have gone the route of charging the advertisers and sparing the end-user a dollar fee. What they end up paying is a usability-fee, where they have to fight off ads or find a way to ignore them.
It’s a tough problem. As an end user/customer, I want my applications for free and I want them to be uncluttered by advertising. That’s just not possible. Some have chosen to give you a choice: you can use my app for free, but there will be ads; or you can pay $x and use the application without ads.
Is there a right way to do this? I don’t think so. It depends on the application and the user base.
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