Like spy vs. spy, the AdBlock vs Ads is a zero sum game. Sure there are ways to block ads on website (ahem, like our own Adblock for Google Chrome), but there are just as many workarounds as well (one which we will share). The reality is, pop-ups (no matter how cool) or  flashing ads (or flash ads-no matter how attractive they are) will not get you clicks if someone doesn’t want to click. The truth is the harder you try to get users to click on your ads the worse the user experience. At the same time, we think blocking all ads is not the solution either. To make things fair, especially with the relase of our Adblock for Google Chrome, we figured we would share and oldie (but a goody). We direct this workaround to those site who are responsible ad users. It is not the an ulitmate work-around, because you can still be added to a block list especially if you do nefarious things. Nevertheless, this should allay some fears about Adblock.

This solution comes from ProBlogDesign. You can read the dirty details or you can skip to the fix. Here it is:

Take whatever ad code you have, and wrap it in two divs, as shown below:

<div class="nameyourdiv">
<div>
## Ad code here ##
</div>
</div>

Now, add the following to your CSS:

.nameyourdiv, .nameyourdiv div {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}

.nameyourdiv div {
height: 280px;
width: 336px;
background: url(nameyourpic.gif) 10px 10px no-repeat;
}

You have to make 2 changes to the CSS above:

Replace the values of height and width with the height and width values of your advert.
Replace the nameyourpic.gif line with the URL of the image you want to use, relative to the stylesheet’s location (Important – Make your image 20px shorter and 20px thinner. This is a precaution to prevent your ads from being seen under rounded corners.)

Some notes on using this solution. The nameyourdiv and nameyourpic should be to something unique, and should not reference the word “ad” or “advert” anywhere in them. I would also suggest you tell Adblock users why they are seeing the image, but be polite. There is a reason they are blocking ads. Also if you go with an alternate image make sure the size is small, so it does not take a long time to load!

So there you have it, one day we give users and adblocking tool, and the next we show a way to “bypass” it. In case you wonder, there are some draconian workarounds out there, like inhibiting AdBlock users from your site, but to me, this is really undesirable. If someone chooses not to see ads, no script will stop them long term. They’ll just stop visiting your site.