We have decided to retire Google ads and stop allowing Google to serve ads on our website. This is a big shift as it represents a strategic move in our efforts to balance between a great human experience (if you like, user experience) and monetisation of our content to support the continued growth of this knowledge platform.
Recently, I opened one of the blog posts here and there were ads all over. You can hardly read the content. It seems something that we did for a good cause is no longer serving the interests of our readers. I want people using this website to have a distraction-free reading experience and return whenever we have new content that solves their problems. This is impossible if ads intrude on every corner of the website and distract readers from getting the value that landed them here.
My Commitment: Valuable Content on Construction Matters
When I created this website, my goal was to have an independent platform to share my construction industry experiences with people from all walks of life who are interested in construction. I envisioned a hub of domain knowledge that helped educate others on how things work in the construction industry, including advice on construction careers, and how-to guides, with a specific focus on construction informatics (information technology), building information modelling, software and tools.
Also, occasional updates on my professional practice, books I am reading, podcasts and a peek behind the scenes of what we do in the construction industry. People need this knowledge. Most bloggers are not industry experts and don’t give in-depth details of the technical aspects of the construction industry. My voice is closing that gap.
That remains the goal. I am committed to delivering on that promise by sharing in-depth, finely crafted educational content that helps make your construction journey easy, and simplifies technology adoption for construction companies and professional practices looking to stay globally competitive.
Removing Ads? What About Making Money?
Running a website costs money, and you might be wondering how we make money to support it. First, we allowed Google to place ads on our content and pay us a portion of what the advertisers pay to them. But now that this monetisation method jeopardised the human experience on the website, we are discontinuing it. By the time you are reading this post, ads are already removed. We want our readers to get more value from our content without any distractions.
Going forward we are incorporating other monetisation models that work better. For example, when we review any product that is sold online, we will be leaving affiliate links for you to buy through them (if you choose to) and that will earn us a commission. This method is not intrusive and offers complimentary value because the products you buy are helping solve some of your pain points. You can see some of these in our resources page.
Apart from these, you will also see our digital products (templates, spreadsheets, worksheets, product guides, tutorials, and online courses); together with professional construction cost consultancy services for people who want help managing costs and budgets for their projects. These are directly valuable to our readers and relate to the content of the articles that attracted you here.
Fan Funding the Blog
Going forward, our content and blog posts will remain free. There’s no gatekeeping.
However, we will adopt a model called fan funding. This is where fans financially support their favourite content developers through contributions and donations while building meaningful connections and enabling them to access valuable content. If you read any of our posts and get value from them, feel free to send your donations to support us to maintain the website and potentially scale it to reach more people and help provide answers to their problems too.
You will start seeing a web page dedicated to donations (I will post an announcement when this is ready), and a link at the bottom of every post to call all readers to support this blog content to remain free, without ads, for a better human experience on the internet.
Cheers to better connections and experiences on our website. Thanks for your support.