The ability to recover funds from the seller by way of reversal with no waiting period. Paypal is owned by eBay and is all about protecting the buyer, never the seller; the system has many flaws.

their system is one of the weakest going

Based on…

If you make a claim like that, you need to back it up.

Personally I think paypal is about as safe as you will get.

As I've noticed a number of people recently saying they're simply unaware that blocking ads on this site (or any site) is depriving the owner of revenue, perhaps there's a way to give these people a nudge in the right direction.

I've seen a couple of sites who put a placeholder image *behind* where the adverts normally load, saying "Hey, it looks like you've got an ad blocker on. Please don't / here's a link to donate / explain why ads are important." So if the ads load, fine. But if they don't, the user sees the "please don't block me" message.

Maybe that could work here? Certainly the large advert in the header would be an eye-catching place, and would stand out more than the wee "go ad-free" link at the side.

I'm still waiting for the yearly subscription although I'm not bothered by the ads anyway.

A question to the other visitors: Is this the first website you give your money to? (it is for me…)

No need, i already have that ad-free look ;)

BTW: why is the ad-free image not showing “New on F1 Fanatic”, its between “Search F1 Fanatic” and “Active F1 Fanatics” ?

Best site update ever Keith!

I don't know which model F1 Fanatic has but for some ads you get money only if the visitor actually clicks on it.

Lack of knowledge there Oblong_Cheese, credit card fraud isn't solely down to "stupid mistakes", many companies still store credit card details in excel format and quite often get exploited when their systems are hacked. Happened to me a few years ago, only used the credit card with a single company and when their system got hacked, my account was taken for thousands (returned by the bank fortunately).

As for using Paypal, yikes, no chance, their system is one of the weakest going! Direct Debit would be a better route for Keith to take.

The ads don’t bother me in the slightest but I know what it takes to run web sites with original content. I frequently click on the ads to generate some £ for Keith. He does an excellent job and I am just waiting for the setup of annual subscription to pay for a clean and original F1 content he provides from days to days.

+1
I would not like to pay a 2$ foreign transaction fee (to the bank) for a £1 subscription each month.

The reality is that he probably gets less than that per person per advert. Tbh I don't know where the concept that online advertising pays big bucks comes from - the reality is pretty grim. If you look at it from the perspective of the advertiser, they would be better off putting their money into mass-media campaigns rather than bespoke websites (in terms of views per £1). Then if you factor in that there's a middle-man coordinating all the advertising who will want a cut, then it really doesn't add up to much…

No idea what size Keith's readership is, but you'd have to have a very very large group to start making money (but then it gets interesting, because the more people you have, the more you can charge!)

Yep.

@keithcollantine Really? You're not getting a lot per ad served if a daily visitor doesn't work out to £1/month. I'm not saying that's not the case, just that it surprises me.

Like most of the posters here at least, I visit at least once daily. That's 30 days times let's say 4 pages (front page, daily roundup, back to front page and one other article, which, going by my own habits is on the low side) times 3 ads per page makes 360 ads served per month. That's .2777777pence per ad.

Again, I'm not saying you're getting paid more than that. Just that £1/month seems a bit on the low side, considering I didn't count posting comments (another reload) or visiting the forums, or reviewing articles that I have commented on etc. etc.