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You probably already have a few answers in your head. “Sure! I can sell merchandise, sell users’ data to 3rd parties. Maybe have some content that can live behind a paywall or subscription… Essentially, quite plenty” — you say…
I will tell a quick story of my past few years. The idea I had in my head started blooming maybe some 9 years ago, but only 3 years ago it clicked in my head — what if I could create some form of notary platform that vets a certain web user A should or should not see ads when visiting your site.
After some back and forth I ended up with a quick Chrome browser extension experiment to see if it’s possible to inject a special header into active tab’s web request. It worked! Not only I can inject HTTP request header using chrome.declarativeNetRequest, but parse active tab’s HTTP response header using chrome.webRequest.onCompleted.
That’s how Zero Ad Network was born
Zero ad.. what?! Yes, the idea is simple. Web user installs the browser extension, signs up into the platform, purchases a subscription plan and their paid money now are staying for that month to be distributed to partnering sites they visit. In return, when the partnering site web server detects it’s a Zero Ad Network paid user, based on the content the site serves, it can A) disable all ads, cookie trackers, disable cookie consent screens, the infamous “Subscribe to our bestest newsletter” modal or B) serve site content that is behind a paywall or a monthly subscription.
As the site not only provides access to its content, more importantly, it provides pure user experience, the site designed unharmed by Ad networks, 3rd party JS scripts tracking every single mouse click, fingerprinting the user in every way possible to then later resell data about them.
For this, the site gets paid by the end of each month in two ways:
A) Usage based proportional payouts
Lets say, web user A often visits 5 sites that participate in Zero Ad Network program, based on how much time that person spends on your site vs 4 other sites, their subscription payment amount gets distributed proportionally.
B) URP — Unaddressed Revenue Pool concept
If the web user paid for Zero Ad Network subscription, but that month they didn’t spend any time on any of partnering sites. Then all of them will be allocated a proportional URP payout split into equal payments for each unique publisher (that is you).
OK, I’m hooked, what now?
Well, sign in to the platform, add your site, and pass through the site configuration step. Once your site is detected to respond with X-Better-Web-Welcome token and turns ads off when presented with a valid X-Better-Web-Hello token, it will be marked by platform admin as ACTIVE.
From then on your site is ready to be paid for serving Zero Ads! During the onboarding process you’ll need to have a good look at https://docs.zeroad.network to understand which method to use to switch between ad-full and AD-FREE rendered pages.
Growth and future of the network and potential of payouts
As more and more web users sign up and become active platform subscribers — the larger monthly pie to be shared becomes.
Why does this platform exists in the first place?
I’m sure you, just like me, and many, MANY others dislike ads, so we go out of our ways to use various forms of ad blockers, be it browser level, DNS or something else entirely. Google doesn’t like ad blockers so much, that with their MV3 they essentially crippled ad-blockers big time. The situation seems like it isn’t going to get better either.
As people say, if you’re getting content for free — you are the product. Very wise words. Hence, Zero Ad Network allows people to get their browsing habits back to their hands, get access to web content that clean, accessible and fair to both parties.
Want to join? Go check it out now -> https://zeroad.network
Lets make it happen!