This morning I updated the Intro to EB Manual FAQs section with the explanation below – and the hope that my fellow Edubloggers will join me as an EB Supporter:

Last week a colleague asked me about the links to “Content Ads” that popped up when she accessed – for the first time – the Kids Book Blog (an EB site run by 5th and 6th graders at Joseph Sims Elementary School). Since I had never seen ads on any of my EB blogs or in any of my teacher trainings, I contacted Sue Waters, The Edublogger, for an explanation. Thanks to Sue and after doing a little reading in the EB Forum, I now understand that there is a very good reason for the Content Ads, and that, most likely, few of our blog readers will ever see them.

Let’s start with the reasons for Content Ads:
• Remember back in October when James Farmer was upgrading EB servers? As always, the brief disruption in access to our blogs resulted in more “goodies” being added to our EB toolkit. This last upgrade, however, has exceeded James’ budget. And that’s not a good thing. But being able to count on continued membership in the EB community of educators is a very good thing – far outweighing the occasional appearance of Content Ads on our blogs.
• Only first-time visitors to your blog(s), who are not logged into Edublogs, would see the ads. On their second and subsequent visits, no ads would appear. In fact, very few people would see ads at all, but enough search engine visitors might in order to help Edublogs cover the bills and continue to grow and develop.

Let’s look at why I had never seen Content Ads:
• For the last year, I’ve been an EB Supporter, which means that for a mere $25 per year (less than the cost of one Starbucks latte per month), I not only have extra space, a few more widgets, etc., but I also never have ads appearing on my blog.

Let’s look at why you probably do not see Content Ads on your EB blog(s):
• You will not see ads on any blog you are logged in to or have visited more than once.
• No one who has bookmarked your blog(s) or types in your URL will see any ads.
• No one logged into Edublogs will ever see any ads

Let’s look at the best solution for eliminating ads from your blog(s) and supporting the EB community:
• Become an Edublogs Supporter:-)
• Tell your fellow Edubloggers about the benefits of becoming an Edublogs Supporter:-)