The free Internet isn’t free. And the rise of ad blockers is slowly choking off what little revenue online publishers do earn while visitors bemoan privacy concerns and boring content.

Talking about using the web as a book publishing platform; Matthew Butterick touches on the economic realities of supply and demand related to online publishing.

Let’s face it, un­less you’re re­ally slow on the up­take, you’ve out­fit­ted your web browser with an ad blocker. Ha ha, you win! But wait—that means most web ads are only reach­ing those who are re­ally slow on the up­take. So their dol­lars are dis­pro­por­tion­ately im­por­tant in sup­port­ing the con­tent you’re get­ting ad-free. “Not my prob­lem,” you say. Oh re­ally? Since those peo­ple are the only ones fi­nan­cially sup­port­ing the con­tent, pub­lish­ers in­creas­ingly are shap­ing their sto­ries to ap­peal to them. Even­tu­ally, the con­tent you liked—well, didn’t like it enough to pay for it—will be gone.

The economics of a web-based book: year one

Simply put; if you are not paying for something your opinion on it will not be consider in it’s ongoing evolution. Businesses and entrepreneurs need to make money; and they will take it from anyone, but they won’t work to please those who don’t give them money.

If you want a seat at the table, if you want your voice to be heard, then you need to have a finical stake at risk.

Ann Lappé said it well.

“Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.”

― Anna Lappé

What kind of world do you want. Remember that the next time you’re spending money, or blocking ads on websites.