I'm wondering exactly how these ads work. Do you get money just for hosting them, or do you get money when somebody clicks on them as well?

If so I'll gladly click the shit out of them.

For some reason, my ads are all about finding sex offenders. Weird.

Trying to show you some love, but the pay pal link is not working...

Google ads are mostly pay per click, Daniel. But there are strict rules with Google ads that you cannot solicit clicks. Which is why I decided to answer the question, so that the Feministing ladies wouldn't have to :) But clicking on the ads at ANY blog you like would always been appreciated by the blogger immensely. Trust me.

Link fixed--sorry about that! And thanks so much to the folks who have already donated, we really appreciate it!!

Trying to show you some love, but the pay pal link is not working...

L-K,
Thanks, I'll do that!

As long as you don't sell your domain name to Bang Brothers and related corporate interests, I'm all for you doing whatever fundraising you deem appropriate. :-)

And while I can't donate at this time (family of 4 living off spouse's job and my disability payments... it's rough out here), I did, for the record, buy your book for my thirteen year old daughter, who devoured it whole and is passing it around her Middle School. (A topic I'll have to do a blog post about soon... or maybe have the kid herself do a guest-blog post, we'll see.)

Much appreciation - V.

Awww, we still love you, despite the ads. Some of them are kind of weird. One said it would protect your children from online grooming. What does that mean?
I wish I could give money but I lost my dayjob recently so I'm living entirely off of freelancing. But once I get a job, I'll give you some.

I keep getting Google ads for a "pregnancy resource clinic." :sigh:

Moxie -
Online grooming is what paedophiles do...like getting the kid to like and trust them before arranging a meeting or engaging in online sex talk or whatever.

It's a weird term though, eh? It makes me think of monkeys looking for lice;0)

do what you have to do to keep going! once i upgrade my programs, i will be doing the same thing...

it's the content that matters to us (at least me...i hope to most of us)...so as long as you keep us informed...i bet noone will complain...

Online grooming is what paedophiles do...like getting the kid to like and trust them before arranging a meeting or engaging in online sex talk or whatever.
Thanks, anorak! I really had no clue what that meant, I could only imagine someone trying to get a child to brush their hair and wash their hands over the internet.

Oh noez! The dreaded google ads! :(

It's ok, I guess... At least it's better than those ads with the dancing cowboy silhouettes and "EARN YOUR DEGREE IN 2 YEARS OR LESS!"

And ten times better than selling out to The Atlantic. Which seems to be the fad these days.

I really don't mind most of the ads. But I keep getting this one for divavillage.com of a severely airbrushed woman in a bikini making a pouty face. That one I wish would go away.

"But I keep getting this one for divavillage.com of a severely airbrushed woman in a bikini making a pouty face. That one I wish would go away."

That one has been around for a while, actually. But it is kind of jarring. I keep checking my address bar to see if it's on "feministing.com" instead of "maxim.com".

No donations from me. I don't want my money being spent on purebred puppies from Florida.

You know, I've noticed that the blog does a good job of pointing out sexism, but I haven't seen a whole hell of a lot of actual feminism here. I think the blog needs more calls to action, more activism, fewer ads and fewer puppy posts.

But that's just my personal opinion.

now, see...maybe it's just me...but i think THAT was out of line, elaine...

ouyangdan- it isn't just you.

You know Elaine, you always have the option of not reading. And not being pointlessly insulting.

Guess you should vote me off the island.

More opinion:
Adsense devalues blogs and Google is an evil monopoly.

I still won't be donating to feministing.

However, those of you with small time blogs who do serious feminist activism, please leave a comment on my blog and I'll consider donating to you.

The ads really don't bother me very much--I visit a lot of sites with ads.
I DO wish I could donate. But I'm a nineteen-year-old college student with a VERY part-time job. Once I'm making money, though--I'll probably be donating to every feminist cause I can find.

Gee Elaine, it's really interesting that you automatically assumed the money is going to be spent on a puppy instead of things like conferences, site expenses, etc. These girls are blogging on their own time, and they're broke. As for sight content, isn't part of 'actual feminism' awareness? Feministing is all about awareness. So take your snide comments elsewhere, no one appreciates them. That and now ninety nine percent of readers think you're an asshole.

However, those of you with small time blogs who do serious feminist activism, please leave a comment on my blog and I'll consider donating to you.
Translation: Small feminist blogs who agree with every thing that I say.
And UnBecoming, that's not fair--ninety-nine percent of readers don't think Elaine's an asshole, they know it.

I am getting ads with scantly clad women... Is this something that you all can control because there are some ads that would make me really not want to come to this page (particularly ads that defeat the purpose of this blog). Which is sad because I read everyday and I love it.

Translation: Small feminist blogs who agree with every thing that I say.

Well, hopefully not, since I just submitted my comment to the relevant post on Elaine's site. Meanwhile, I made it very clear that I have no beef with feministing. Also, for the record, I haven't been a vegetarian since I was first homeless in 1991, when the choice between "79-cent cheeseburger at McDonalds" and "$8.00 veggie burger at some place I can't possibly take a bus to" became pretty damned clear. (I may ultimately go veg again - but right now, no. Not on my budget.) And finally, I've quite enjoyed the Monty posts.

Anyway, I'm pretty certain that I - no doubt like many other deserving possible candidates - thoroughly embody this notion of a "struggling feminist activist blogger," so I sent on my comment. Elaine approved it (yes, even with the supporting-feministing-caveat!), and I assume she'll give me fair consideration, in keeping with her own ethics and values which, in certain really clear instances, differ markedly from mine.

She may, of course, decide not to extend support specifically to me, as is her right. But I believe Elaine is acting in good faith. With vastly differing politics on some issues than many others of us on this thread possess, definitely. But still, in good faith.

Y'see, it's in my nature to hope.

P.S. Y'all who aren't already over-committed and/or underfunded: I'd be honored were you to also consider my request for support, along with requests from any other women (yes, including Jessica!) who may be out a-blegging. Support the visions that matter to you, that's all. You can read my deets as presently phrased here, and I'll put up a fresh post on my own site by Sunday evening as well. Right now I have to get some sleep.

P.P.S. There is so much potential here for a real conversation among us about issues of economic class. For perspective, I just read this post at Bitch, PhD... go, now, if you haven't already, and read through the comments. Whooo.

So... the first Google ad I see is for the Pregnancy Resource Clinic of North Penn. I clicked through, just to see if Google's algorithm really did put an ad for a (so called) crisis pregnancy center on Feministing. It did. Now I need a shower.

I totally understand why you need to advertise, but if Google is going to throw your site ads for organizations that undermine the principles you're fighting for... well, I don't know. I don't want my fourteen year old cousin coming to this site and then thinking that, because that Pregnancy Resource Clinic is listed, they're a reliable source of information for her.

Maybe there's a better option than Google? For example, Daily Kos recently added larger BlogAds after the first story on the main page and after all diaries. They've had a banner ad on the top for a little while now. It's the same real estate on the page as the Google ads are taking up now. I don't know how well it pays, though (relative to Google, that is).

"No donations from me. I don't want my money being spent on purebred puppies from Florida."

Gee. Butthurt much?

I'm *so* glad Elaine has stuck around to teach us all about Feminism as well as insult rape victims and those who endure slavery.

NOT.

Damn! Doesn't lack of money always complicate things? But the Feministing ladies are smart enough to make decisions about what's necessary at the moment and, as someone who loves this blog, I support whatever they choose. I hope all their dreams and plans manifest into reality and that we all can continue to come to Feministing for a daily fix ;)

And Jessica, thank you for your honesty and sincerity.

I have no idea what Elaine is on about, and I think Feministing makes frequent calls to action, notes of conferences (albeit in only a few particular cities), and other avenues of Feminist action. But at the same time, I can't say that I don't roll my eyes every time I see a post about puppies or internet image-macro fads involving cats. Maybe it's just me, because in general when I see a new post on Feministing, I am hoping it will be something interesting and elucidating. Puppies don't, in my mind, cross a line between a feminist and a personal blog.

But in general... While some of the ads both here and on Pandagon have been profoundly offensive, it's hard not to appreciate their necessity for the survival of the site.

Seconding thanks for your honesty.

I'm not exactly overjoyed about the ads, either, though I do understand the need for them. Since there has been mention of donations, I have a question: how much would be needed in donations, etc., in order to render the Google addefaecations unnecessary? Maybe if we look at this from the point of view of a concrete goal, donations won't seem too daunting to those with limited resources.

Sigh.....I'm not crazy about those ads either, but as long as Feministing remains thought provoking, I can live wth them.

Years of practice in reading newspaper articles and not seeing the ads surrounding them sure comes in handy.

Hope you're all having fun calling me an asshole and saying I have butthurt. Glad to see that no one is enforcing the comment policy and that personal attacks are accepted on this website:

"All comments with hate speech, personal attacks, or offensive language will be deleted."

---
Perhaps I'd be more inclined to donate if the financials for Feministing were more transparent. Exactly how much money does this site make and where does it go?

Elaine, I can appreciate you don't like the fact Jessica bought a dog. I can appreciate you don't agree with the stance of this blog and many others on animal rights issues.

I disagree with you, but I appreciate where you're coming from.

Suggesting that this site is not about feminism - awareness AND activism - is just foolish. Any regular reader (and it is the REGULAR readership Jessica is appealing to for donations) knows that they do tons of work - promoting big causes and little ones, at conferences.... I could go on and on but there's no point.

Wanting to debate animal rights on a blog not dedicated to it isn't necessarily rude, if it's done appropriately. Continually harping on about it in every thread, however, makes you look mental and hence devalues any points you might make.

Posting unpleasant insinuations that Feministing isn't actually about feminism, that Feministing donations might be spent personally, and demanding financial breakdowns is NOT COOL. If this were my blog, I wouldn't want you around any more. Perhaps the Feministing bloggers are more patient than me. But your actions have made you look like a nasty piece of work, and I won't be paying attention to anything else you say.

Ahem. And on the ACTUAL topic of this post - Google ads are often kind of creepy. If there was any way to minimise the creepy, I would be very grateful - but I appreciate running a big site like this must be very expensive and I can put up with the sex ads if it means the site can do more stuff (and is less of a burden on you guys).

Also, for ppl who don't like puppy/lolcat posts - there are likewise plenty of posts that go up that don't interest me. Over at Pandagon, when they do the top-ten music lists... yawn. But it's nice to have a mix of serious and jokey stuff. And lately Feministing has had a run of REALLY depressing stories.

What I'm basically saying is I appreciate the funny posts, and even when I don't appreciate them, I appreciate the POINT of them.

More Muppet videos, that's what I'd like!

Aww, I love the Monday Monty posts. I will even tolerate Jess's hatred of cats (which I can understand, even though I own one. My dad despises cats). I don't think being a "serious feminist" means having no sense of humor, or not having ANY interests outside feminism. Sheesh.

And yes, the giant airbrushed bikini woman right below the Feministing story is a weird juxtaposition... but oh well. Thanks for explaining the necessity.

I'm sympathetic to the need for additional revenue, but having ads for fake-clinics ("pregnancy resource centers" or "crisis pregnancy centers") appear is a huge, huge problem. We all know that these centers routinely give women inaccurate information about their health and their bodies and that they very often function as arms of fundamentalist religious denominations. My fear is that girls or women who find feministing and who aren't very savvy or aware of how feministing can't control what google ads appear will see these ads and think feministing endorses them or thinks that they are okay places to go for "healthcare" (which couldn't be further from the truth). If crisis pregnancy center ads are going to appear frequently as google ads, I think feministing needs to seriously rethink the decision to run google ads. Even though it may generate substantial revenue, it won't be worth it if it's directing young women to places that use manipulative tactics to draw them in and give them dangerously false information about their bodies once they're there. And frequently harass them with unwanted follow-up phone calls afterward.

I co-run an ad/donation based website. (it's a webcomic) We've been operating for a year and a half and have barely made anything off of google ads. In my opinion, it's not worth it. (A point the writer and I admittedly disagree on) Particularly in this case, where many of them actively counter the principles of the site. It can only put off readers, who won't click on them anyway, thus no revenue is likely.

We've been using Project Wonderful.com and I'm pretty happy with it. It also allows us to block ads we object to.

My ads are about sex abuse, "finding cute girls" and finding a lawyer. I do wonder who they think I am.

Anyway, as far as that goes, you do what you need to do. And that Monty is a cute little bugger, so it's ok to see his adorableness in between serious posts.

@ Elaine: Chill. The entire world doesn't have to justify itself to you. Roll your eyes and calm down. Let it go.

"Exactly how much money does this site make and where does it go? "

Good Lord.

For those who have weighed in with concerns about ads for products/"services" that run counter to Feministing's mission... I totally hear you. Posting Google ads is something we talked about a lot, had a lot of conflicted feelings about, and ultimately decided to give a shot. We'll see if it does indeed bring in the revenue we need to keep going at this pace -- and to expand. After a few months, we'll be doing some evaluation of whether the ads are worth it. Thanks so much for bearing with us, and understanding why we're trying this out.

I can definitely deal with some ads if it means I get to continue reading my favorite feminist blog for (hopefully) many many more years. If I actually had money I'd donate, alas I am a poor college student and won't be able to donate unless I win the lottery. Let's cross our fingers!

"So... the first Google ad I see is for the Pregnancy Resource Clinic of North Penn. I clicked through, just to see if Google's algorithm really did put an ad for a (so called) crisis pregnancy center on Feministing. It did. Now I need a shower."

That's not surprising. Those algorithms seem to use keyword searches instead of comprehending enough entire phrases and sentences to figure out whether the webpage writer is pro-[keyword] or anti-[keyword].

Hi, Jessica.

Sorry to hear about the crunch. I am in one, too.

I appreciate the fact that you do not need my approval or permission in this. Thanks for treating your readers as if our opinions on the topic mattered. That, to me, is more important than my opinions on the ads.

Elaine, didn't the original post say, "we make no money from blogging here"? So, from that one with basic reading and deduction skills could probably infer that the previous revenue of Feministing was a grand total of NOTHING.

Thanks for all the support and thoughts, folks. I actually found out that there are some ads we can block--so next week I'll probably be going through and making sure things like pregnancy resource centers (and that crazy bikini lady) don't come through.

And Elaine, don't let the door hit you on the way out!

I appreciate the need for funds to keep this site going, but if the Google Ads are going to plaster this feminist site with promotion of the likes of "pregnancy resource centers," airbrushed bikini bodies, and god knows what else (I'm sure the dieting ads and all the rest will follow), my initial gut reaction is that this is an unacceptable compromise. There has got to be a better option for funding than sacrificing the integrity of this site in this way.

I could be wrong, but I do not recall feministing letting its readers know it was in financial troubles and making a pitch for donations before resorting to the Google Ads. Why not try this? I'm sure that many, once aware of the urgency of the need, would eagerly support.

Here's one reader hoping these ads are not a permanent feature of this site--I think the addition of that sort of content incongruent with the mission and ideals of feminism will cheapen/weaken the site, despite everyone's best intentions, and I'd like to think we can try to come up with a better way.

“so next week I'll probably be going through and making sure things like pregnancy resource centers (and that crazy bikini lady) don't come through.”

That crazy bikini lady has been annoying me for a while. As for the crisis pregnancy center, I would just keep it. We can all go click on it several times a day. I smile to myself when I think about how crisis pregnancy centers are inadvertently paying to support Feministing.

I'd definitely block the CPCs. I did on my site because not only did I get flack for it (as is seen in these notes), but also because it majorly pissed me off anytime I saw them. Google is quite good at blocking the ads once they are put into the filter, though. The more useful thing to do rather than just bitching (one of my personal favorite activities, by the way) is to post the URLs of the offending sites-- they need those to block the ads, and it can sometimes be difficult to locate the ad again on the site once someone else mentions it.

Well, that's good that you can block the CPC ads. If for any reason it still gives you problems, though, could you possibly think about having a category on the left hand side with the heading of something like "REAL/woman-friendly clinics to seek out if you're pregnant" or something like that? (I know you already have the Reproductive Rights links, but something with a very specific heading and targeted solely toward women and girls who are pregnant might help deter less web-savvy readers from clicking on the Google ads.)

Also on the topic of ads, I would highly recommend that everybody first of all get Firefox (if you haven't already!) and then download two extensions -- one is called Flashblock, and the other is NoScript. Flashblock blocks Flash ads and videos, but if it's something you want to see (such as a video posted here or on YouTube) you just click on a big grey arrow that's blocking the content, and then you can choose to watch the video as usual.

My personal favorite, however, is NoScript, which has won a few awards for safety. It blocks JavaScript, which is great for many reasons, mainly because JavaScript can be used to run malicious scripts that can harm your computer. It also has the added benefit of blocking a lot of ads that FlashBlock doesn't -- for instance, right now I'm not seeing any of the ads Jessica just told us about. In fact, Feministing looks exactly the same to me as it always has. Of course, that's not good if you want to help Feministing by clicking on ads, so you can always click on the NoScript icon in the lower-right hand corner of Firefox and choose to see certain blocked content either temporarily or permanently. For instance, I have NoScript set to always allow JavaScript from Feministing, but right now it's also blocking blogads.com (probably where the bikini lady is coming from?) GoogleSyndication.com and google-analytics.com, one or both of which probably make the Google ads appear. Somebody else can probably explain the specifics of how this works much better than I can -- all I know is that I practically never see ads with half-naked women in them as a result of having these two extensions!

I already emailed about this (twice, once about the CPC ad and once to clarify my original email), but I kinda wished I'd read the comments before I sent the second email, because then my email would've made more sense.

I'll say it publicly, I love this blog and think the work that it does (creating community, raising awareness, generating traffic for smaller blogs that provide a variety of perspectives etc. ) is amazingly important.

In a perfect world, advertisments wouldn't be necessary because writers and social activists woul would be recognized for their true value. In a less than perfect but still good world it'd be easy to control the ad content and make it more closely align with the values of this blog, but we live in neither.

In the meantime, I really appreciate the bloggers of Feministing for their effort to sync their ads with the values of their blog, and I'll support their efforts however I can.

Sorry about the repitition of the second paragraph...stupid keyboard and touchpad.

Sorry about the repetition of the second paragraph...stupid keyboard and touchpad.

Hi, I had a follow-up comment here (re: something said about Elaine Vigneault) that's been in the mod queue for some time now. Don't know if that means no one's had a chance to review and approve it or if, in fact, it's been rejecte - in which case, I'll understand, since it was even more long-winded than usual and had a crapload of links, but can someone let me know one way or the other?

If I don't hear anything, I'll post it on my own site. Again, not upset here, and I'm quite respectful of the fact that it's your prerogative to not publish comments.

Yay! I see you've liberated my earlier comment from moderation. (Which, given when it was submitted, is more than half the way up the comment thread thus far and thus may not even be read at this point, but c'est la vie.)

Many thanks.

Hey Feministing ladiezz. I totally understand the need to try to find new sources of revenue for sustainability. At the music forum I frequent, we had google ads for a while too. They did *ok,* but did not work out in the plan of having long-term sustainability.

What did work out was a sort of annual drive. It's a forum, though, so there are more ways to highlight the importance of donating than there are on a simpler blog.

One important action that has increased the music forum's sustainability is getting users to set up a montly donation that comes out of their bank account automatically. The site owner encourages this action over a one time larger donation. He and his accountant-type person much prefer if people set up standing orders of even $1-$5 per month rather than donating, say, $25 once per year. That way there's never a huge loss or a huge spike in revenue and things run along evenly without worry.

Also, this music forum has a number of ways to donate to make it easy for everyone to do so. People can donate through PayPal, by transferring money from their bank to the forum's bank account (and this is how the standing orders work), or by sending in a check. The forum also accepts money in different currencies, though obviously that affects the amount of donations when certain currencies are weak and when PayPal charges for conversion.

Anyway, those are just some ideas. They work really well at our forum and I think it's really reached sustainability. They also list a chart of accounts on the forum's home page which you and all users can see here at the bottom of the page. You can see the big button asking users to donate on the right here. And you can learn more about incorporating all these donation options here, though you have to create a quick account to view this link (just need email, DOB, user ID & password).

Good luck! I, too, want to see Feministing grow into something more dynamic and interactive.

Hello. I've just submitted a *hopefully* helpful response to this post, but it needs to be approved as it had a few links. Thanks. x

It might not be a crazy idea to suggest, in another post, to readers that if they hate the ads so much that they could all donate and then there would be less need for the ads. It seems that they aren't so popular and maybe lots of people would rather pay directly than see the adds. Just a thought. I donated my (measly) amount and wish I could give more. Thanks for the amazing work that is done here!

I'm not going to lie, it was totally weird to see this dating ad pop up on feministing.com:

The ad was for a dating site helping men to "find asian girls".

Ahh, here it is:

Asian Girls For Dating
Beautiful Chinese ladies seek men for love and marriage. Join free!
www.chnlove.com

Have you guys (i.e. the Feministing ladies) considered a fundraising party? I know some of you are near NYC, and with all the women & GLBT friendly businesses there (Bluestockings, Toys in Babeland, etc) I bet you could get loads of donations and sponsors.

Does no one else access Feministing content via RSS? No ads there.... Is there a way to enable automatic monthly billing to my debit card? I'd sign up for that.