Companies that develop ad-blocking software have made a ton of money on these programs. Internet users don’t want to see ads when visiting a website. There’s just one problem with ad-blocking software. Websites that rely on advertisements to make money are losing thousands of dollars per day thanks to programs that block ads from user view.

A startup out of Ireland is trying to help companies gain back some of those lost ad dollars. PageFair sells its own software that lets website owners know how many ads are being blocked. Additionally, the company includes supplemental ads that only appear when an ad-blocking program is present.

These ads display messages that attempt to appeal to the human side of things (example: when you block an ad, we lose thousands of dollars). Sites that don’t make any money from ads can quickly fold. There are two sides to this coin, though.

Should Ad-Blocking Programs be Illegal?

It is true that some website owners lose a ton of money thanks to ad-blocking software. On the other hand, site visitors don’t want to be bombarded with ads. Plus, a lot of the ads that appear these days are downright annoying, steal visitor information, and can cause a lot of problems. So it’s no wonder that ad-blocking programs are so popular. PageFair sees the problem in a different light, though.

This company is on the side of the merchant or site owner. Without ad dollars, websites can’t expect to exist. That’s a big problem for obvious reasons. But do website owners losing money to ad-blocking programs really need a company like PageFair to come to the rescue?

There are numerous plugins that site owners can use to prevent anyone running an ad-blocking program from accessing a website. Those plugins are free. Only, that means excluding some potential clients from purchasing a product or service. It also means a steep decline in site traffic. The solution might be to focus on mobile ads.

Mobile Traffic Blocks Less

According to some recent reports, people that view various sites via mobile don’t use ad-blocking programs as much. So, the solution for some site owners might be to invest in mobile advertising instead of focusing so much on site ads. Then again, it’s only a matter of time until people start purchasing mobile ad-blocking programs too.

This is a tough one for both site owners and site visitors. On the one hand, site owners make money from ads (some sites can lose up to $20,000 per day thanks to ad-blocking software).

On the other hand, shouldn’t site visitors have the right not to view ads? After all, you don’t have to look at things like billboards if you don’t want to, right? Well, this is kind of the same thing. Maybe site owners are going to have to find better ways to make money. Maybe, just maybe, the website advertising business is dead – or should find a fast way to adapt.

Do you block site advertisements? Or, are you on the other side of this argument?