Ad blocking and site support

I hate Internet advertising - not only do I not like seeing it, I refuse to have on any of my websites either.<!--break-->
Why? Mostly because the content of the ad rarely matches the content of the website. Even with the clever work that Google does to target ads according to content, it only takes a few odd words on a site for the content to be strangely irrelevant. For example, visit a specific Jumbo Joke page and you'll get adverts for 'Find your Child', 'Is your teenager taking drugs' and 'Spoiled Tonkinese kittens'. This may be an extreme example, but I don't think it's unusual. The other reason I don't like ads, and that Jumbo Joke piece is a good example, is that the ads often interfere with the rest of the content of the website - I don't visit these sites to read the ads, and yet often the flash, animated, or simply garish content of the ads detracts from the content of the website. I understand that for the site owners they make money, but many individuals and companies go to a lot of trouble to make a nice layout for their site, which they then spoil by including an awful arrangement and position of ads not in keeping with the rest of the site. Of course, I've wondered before whether we still need adverts - now we have ad blocking built into, or available on, so many web browsers. Firefox with AdBlock is a good example, and while I was for a while a Firefox convert, I've moved back, for the moment, to Apple's own Safari because of the synchronization functionality. My preferred browser is OmniWeb, but it's not very stable on my ATK, so I've reverted to Safari. While looking for ad blocking, I found this site which conveniently blocks through a number of browsers, including Safari, by using a style sheet to block images and IFRAMES that often contain ads. But as more people start removing ads (and presumably, therefore, clicking on them) there must become a point when it no longer makes sense to run the ads on your site. I support my sites through the other work I do - I see it as free PR if nothing else that my name/company gets out there - but others do it as a way of making money; some even do it full time. If you don't get the money from ads, where next? Some companies are wising up and requiring registration for anything but basic services. Many companies have even based their entire business model around the basics of getting users to register, and then charging them for more specific functionality. for example, Flickr does this, and I've just noticed this morning that Linked In do the same by limiting the introduction/contact numbers unless you pay a registration fee. Some individuals are doing the same. John Gruber, over at Daring Fireball, a Mac blog, is encouraging people to subscribe, and even offering a T-Shirt as part of the deal. Based on his recent post though, he's not having much luck. Subscription is a good idea, and the numbers can make it worthwhile. Get 5000 people to subscribe for $10/year and most people would be happy. It only works though if people actually do subscribe and this is probably the most fundamental issue about the Internet that needs to be overcome: Most people consider the Internet a free resource I'm sure most people are happy using the Internet for free (barring connection costs); force someone to pay for access to their favourite websites and suddenly their postition changes. Think about it, would you pay - really pay - money to read a blog or other news site? Subscription services on the Internet aren't new, but those that do exist generally do so because they offer something else; the Internet portion supports the other. Audible for example provide a subscription service to audio books and radio programs that you download. The Internet portion supports their basic role of supplying spoken word audio - albeit in digital form. Flickr offer storage of photos and sharing of those with others; it doesn't charge for accessing the content. Paying for opinions and news however may be more difficult to sell...