Why can't I have a free lunch? Because life costs money….

Sites are bustling with the latest news and other information and the running costs are numerous. Maintaining and running these sites is not cheap - not only is there the normal day to day costs of staff and the like but also linked to the success of the site is the cost of hosting and delivering the information to the reader. Access to the internet is tarnished by the popular opinion of the general public that everything should be free.

The easiest and most common way to pay for the majority of the costs of maintaining a site (and make some money!) is via adverts. Cast your eyes back 3 years or so. When the internet was just taking off and delivering mass content to many for the first time investors had a multi-faceted view of the 'net. Most were happy to deliver content and invest in technology by putting in connections and setting up for the future. This resulted in the dotcom boom - selling advertisements back then was easy and you could demand the premium you wanted. This is not the case now. Now-a-days it is a lot harder to charge a realistic premium for advertisements even though growth in usage of the internet continues to expand exponentially. Indeed, with greater access via broadband, with around 30,000 people a week signing up, there is seemingly no limit to the user demands for access that may be made but this does not resolve the problem of costs for delivering content.

There are two core routes a site can take: Run the site "ad free" and charge for the delivering of content via a subscription. This instantly denies potential access to the many and may be a self defeating option since without access and usage a site loses its fundamental reason for existence.

Run the site with adverts. This maintains the user's ability to free access however selection of advertisers may influence the user's opinion of the authenticity and integrity of the editorial information delivered. The individual user's use of advert blocking software potentially hinders the revenue stream and advertisers may well pull out as a result.

Ok, so you decide to have adverts on your site. How do you decide how to charge? Flat rate is simplest but does not reflect site usage. CPC/CPM does reflect usage but often rates are low and a high hit rate is necessary for a reasonable return. Some advertisers offer pay-per-sale however this relies on the integrity of the advertiser to declare sales made - it is impossible for the publisher to track. Whichever method you select there always remains the question of whether the publishers are actually getting the right payment?

So where is the future of the Internet in terms of its funding? Subscription or via more adverts popping up? Personally I don't mind the adverts and don't have a problem with them but many readers are aggravated by them. Would these very same people be willing to pay a subscription? I think not. The adverts are necessarily here to stay. Remember, life isn't free and without support, sites won't continue to be able to deliver the content which makes the internet such a rich resource. So next time you fire up your ad blocker, or moan about too many adverts on a site - remember the money has to come from somewhere. µ

David Ross is editor of British hardware site Hexus. He doesn't always look like he does in the picture above