Well, I won't comment on that since every site has to have its own way to pay the bills.

But another way is subscriptions. I know of one site that has spent the better part of its existence flaming and screaming about anyone who tries to recoup any of their costs through selling software or having subscriptions but has now decided to join reality and is now asking people to give them money.

WinCustomize is light on such things because Stardock funds it from its software sales. Apparently, Jay, pop up ads are better than being funded through software sales as some "elites" feel that Wincustomize isn't a real skin site as a result.

But like I said, bandwidth is expensive so they all have to have some way to generate revenue. Pop up ads pay quite a bit better than banner ads. You won't see them here because they are simply too annoying to deal with.

probably a good thing.

i have often wondered what would happen if a stardock funded site (here) started to use popup adds, only to find that most of the members were using a stardock product (web blinds) to block them

that of course is one answer JayG, use a program that blocks them for you

Is it really true that popups generate more money than banners these days? Surely I'm not the only one who just closes a popup before it even has a chance to display the ad. Whereas with banner ads, at least I'm likely to at least glance at them.

Popups truly are a pain. I'll certainly never resort to popups in my sites when there are so many other solutions to the advertising problem these days.

I've made gratuitus use of the HOSTS file (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc for XP users) just add stuff like "127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net" to the file to reroute an address/IP back to you (127.0.0.1 is local IP). So what with WebBlinds, ZoneAlarm 3 and this I see very few ads.

You may not see the ads Rob, but that won't stop the popups. You'll just get empty windows popping up.

That's why I also use WebBlind and ZoneAlarm 3

Zone alarm pro blocks all popup adds and there is other software that also block popup adds, so that is not going to work either in time......

I don't use zone alarm so I am curious... When you click on a zoom link here does zone alarm block our popup to show you the zoomed imaged?

Many ad blocking products block all onload and onclose javascript events. The problem with that is legitimate events will be blocked as well as pop-up ads. Windows Update, for example, uses pop-up windows when it generates your list of updates. These are blocked by some 'pop-up killer' programs, rendering it useless. I do find pop-up ads terribly annoying, but I have yet to see a product that is smart enough to kill ads and still allow pop-ups when they are useful or necessary. If you're regularly visiting a site that offers subscriptions (or sells stuff) as an alternative to ads, then supporting them will not only improve your browsing experience, but is much more gratifying.

I use Netcaptor http://www.netcaptor.com (a brower application that basically wraps around the IE control and provides tabbed browers and automatic popup closing). It works pretty well. I think Opera and Mozilla may have something similar.

MikeB314 - Many ad blocking products block all onload and onclose javascript events. The problem with that is legitimate events will be blocked as well as pop-up ads.

i use atguard for this. it does firewall, plus ad and java blocking. by default i have it set to block everything possible.

but, for those sites where the popup windows do something useful (like windows update) i simply create site specific rules to allow popups there only.

it takes a bit of setting up at first, but i like the result.

This thread seems to be the right place to ask a question.
How can you find out where mystery popups come from? I mean I know I have a spyware, but I don't know what it is. Even when my browser is closed, I sometimes get a new window that opens a very annoying advertisement. And also I noticed that I receive some cookies EVEN WHEN ALL BROWSER WINDOWS ARE CLOSED, but I have no idea what is causing them. This is making me crazy.
Does anybody know how I can find out what program is causing this?

I just installed and ran Ad-Aware.
We'll see if that solves my problem. I had a couple of spy craps. Lets hope it's over now...

WebBlinds actually does a pretty good job of eliminating most pop-ups without eliminating necessary ones.

T-Man, ZoneAlarmPro only blocks the popup ads.... I can use popup chat windows and popup menu's. I have had this program for 2yrs now and would never part with it.