Is there relevant advertising that benefits everyone involved? The nerves and trust of many internet users are probably overstressed by now, since desperate influencers don’t just advertise their sports and travel gear at Amazon, but let annoying banner ads for cheap products deface their websites.

Desperate Influencers?

I blog and use social media quite sparingly and mostly for the purpose of collecting enough experience to advise my customers on creating their websites. Weeks or months can pass until I publish another new post here or on Instagram. At the same time, I regularly publish a lot about technological topics in the respective specialist forums.

Banner ads have annoyed me a lot while only generating little to no revenue. Google isn’t picky enough with their advertisers, but picky enough to question my legitimacy as a potential advertiser, and Google has also been infamous for collecting unnecessary data and processing it on servers outside of Europe (at least they used to do that back then). Amazon is another example of a corporation with whom we should avoid cooperating as sustainable businesses if possible. I stand for pragmatism rather than perfectionism, and I don’t want to ask anyone to delete their Google account. But I don’t think either company is acceptable as an advertising partner. Microsoft might not be much better, but currently, that’s the only way to place ads in Ecosia’s search results, and apart from some clicks, it gave me some insights and inspirations for improving the text on my website.

More Sustainable Alternative Recommendations

Instead, I want to recommend (more) sustainable alternatives that I know from my own experience. I have been cooperating with Armedangels (sustainable fashion), MYVELO (bicycles and e-bikes made in the Black Forest) for quite some time. In 2024, I have added the popular Avocadostore, the gas and electricity provider Naturstrom, and the online printing service MOO, where you can order flyers, business cards, and other printed matter on sustainable material.

All of this is paid advertising with a win-win effect, because new customers usually receive price discounts and, as the recommender, I receive a commission on the sales amount. In return, I save you as readers from annoying advertising banners, and I can keep up my budget-oriented pricing options for sustainable startups and re:flecta companion partners, that I offer as a web developer. All of this remains a compromise, but in case you plan to order from one of my advertising partners anyway, then you can do both of us a favor and use one of the following links below:

Alternatively, you can also support me at Patreon or buyMeACoffee.

Anyway, you can enjoy Open Mind Culture, with or without using ad blockers, without any annoying banner ads in the future.

Outdoor advertising affects everyone (Aussenwerbung trifft jeden) is written on this poster.