It’s been a few months since Google unveiled their alternative to web ads, and Google Contributor finally seems ready for the spotlight. Invites are rolling out now for Google’s new way to help support your favorite websites.
In case you’ve forgotten, Google Contributor allows you to pay a monthly fee to reduce the number of web ads that you’ll see on participating sites. There are three monthly payment levels that will reduce the ads you’ll see exponentially.  For $2 a month you should see 5% – 15% fewer ads on participating sites, while $5 per month gets you a 15% – 25% reduction. If you want to pay $10 per month you should see up to 50% less ads on websites participating in the Contributor program. You’ll even be able to see and control which sites receive your contribution via the Contributor dashboard.
When you visit a participating web site, a thank you message or other small image will show up where the missing ad would have been. You’ll know that you’ve supported the site, and the placeholder should prevent any sort of formatting issues with the site’s theme due to the removal of an ad.
Participating websites will see a cut of the money contributed by paying participants, though the specifics of that transaction haven’t been made public at this time. Contributor seems to be a happy compromise for both websites and readers. Readers don’t like to see ads, and I’d imagine that most websites would honestly prefer not to have to show them to their readers. Google Contributor allows readers to see less ads while still supporting the sites they love.
What do you think? Will Google Contributor make you consider paying to reduce the ads you see on web sites? Is this preferable to Patreon, or other possible sources of income for content creators? Let us know what you think in the comments below, or on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter.
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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