They fund the web. Google is built on them. Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and StackOverflow couldn’t keep the lights on without them. Even we at Finxter use them to fund our operation and create more helpful content.
What am I talking about? …
… ADVERTISEMENTS! 🤯😤😭
Yes, they may be needed to fund the web infrastructure. But no, you don’t need to accept them. You can be a free rider and get the benefits of the web without paying the most valuable currency you have: your attention.
I admit: I block ads, too!
By minimizing your exposure to ads, you’ll enjoy many advantages:
- Less cluttered websites.
- More focused work and fewer distractions.
- Save time.
- Consume less and produce more.
- Get annoyed less often.
- Zen 🧘♀️
In this short guide, I’ll tell you a couple of tips to get all those benefits in a couple of minutes—so let’s get started! 😊
Tip 1: No Browser Ads (Free)
The first tip is so simple and it requires only a couple of minutes. It’ll be the most valuable thing you do for your future self. However, only a small percentage of web users have actually done it:
💡 Activate an ad blocker in your browser!
How to use an ad blocker for Chrome?
- Open Chrome
- Open a new tab and search for “Google Web Store” using the Google search engine
- Click the first result on the search result page
- Search the Google Web Store for “Ad Blocker”
- Click “Add to Chrome” for the first or second result. Make sure it’s trustworthy and has a lot of installations and great ratings.
Voilà, you’ve successfully blocked 99% of all ads in your Chrome browser! You can see this procedure in the following Gif:
The difference is staggering—try it out!
Let’s dive into another tip I found on Reddit:
Tip 2: No YouTube Ads (Cheap)
The idea is to remove all video ads from YT by subscribing to YouTube premium—but using a super cheap subscription rate.
To do this, use a VPN to access YT from a different country location to simulate a travel to that country. In some countries like Russia and Argentina, YT will offer you the premium subscription for as cheap as $1 per month.
Check this Reddit tutorial that shows you how to get a YT premium subscription for cheaper:
Is it legal? It should be legal to use a VPN during the checkout phase—if VPNs are legal in your country anyways. But I’m not a lawyer obviously, so take this with a grain of salt.
Make sure that you also don’t violate the YT terms of service.
Tip 3: Brave Webbrowser
If you don’t want to bother with manually installing these ad-blocking tips, you can also install the Brave web browser that has in-built ad-blockers—even for YouTube.
Here’s how our blog post “Python One Line X” looks on Chrome (without ad blocker) and Brave in the default setting:
