Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
I
The only payment that you have to make to Automattic to use WordPress is that free blogs hosted
on WordPress.com sometimes carry Google AdSense ads—context-sensitive ads that are intended
to add value to a site by being relevant while generating revenue, paid by the advertiser when
users click on ads. Ads run infrequently—but with more than a billion pageviews a month on
WordPress.com, they are still likely to generate significant revenue for Automattic.
Ads don't run at all in the following conditions:
•
If the WordPress site visitor is using the Firefox browser
•
If the visitor is logged in to their own WordPress account; many visitors to blogs have an
account so they can comment on WordPress blogs that allow it
•
If the visitor has linked into your site from another WordPress-powered blog
These exceptions don't cover most users most of the time, so ads have a chance to run on most site
visits. It does mean most of us bloggers don't see the extent to which our site visitors are, or aren't,
afflicted with ads on our sites. Apparently, ad displays are still relatively rare.
You also pay for premium features. A page from the list of premium services, current as of this writ-
ing, is shown in Figure 1.1. You can see the current version of available upgrades; from within your
WordPress blog, choose Dashboard, then click the Upgrade link under Upgrades in the left column.
Figure 1.1
WordPress
upgrades add
capabilities to
your blog, for
a price.
