This is a long one, so bear with me.
I'm very sad that Whole Latte Love, a company we've partnered with for years and years, has recently decided to no longer be an advertiser on CoffeeGeek a few months ago. I do hope they reconsider, as we've done a lot to promote this company over the years.
They've decided platforms like Google and Meta are the best areas to spend their advertising dollars.
They also felt they were not getting enough clicks and traffic through their coffee and espresso- targetted ads on our low-impact, no popups platform.
The real reason I'm posting this though is this: If you want independent content producers in the arenas you are interested to continue and thrive, you have to do your part:
- don't adblock those sites if at all possible. I can understand if they're over-run with constant Adsense popup ads and big in your face ads every paragraph, but many indie sites do NOT do that, yet still get adblocked.
- don't just click, but SUPPORT the independent advertisers that support those content producers. They often has the same or lower prices than Amazon, often have free shipping, and in almost every case have way, way better customer service.
With both of these things, it often doesn't cost you a penny more, or any kind of increased frustration, but you're supporting independent businesses and not feeding the Amazon / Google / Meta engines.
If you enjoy independent, honest content about the hobbies and interests you love, you have to do your part to ensure they thrive and continue. Pretty soon, all you're going to have left is AI-generated blabble on corporate-controlled websites.