Why I Just Turned Off Google Ads on Fat-bike.com

And why the ads that are left are the only ones that ever belonged here.

I’ve been running fat-bike.com since 2011. Fifteen years. That’s older than some of the kids I see ripping around on fat-bikes now. In internet years, this site is ancient. And for much of that time, it’s had Google ads plastered all over it.

Today I turned them all off. Every last one.

No more banners squeezing between paragraphs. No more auto-playing video ads lurking at the bottom of the page. No more of those god-awful full-page “vignette” ads that hijack your screen when you click from one article to the next. If you’ve been visiting this site on your phone, you know exactly the ones I’m talking about – the ones where you’re trying to read about tire pressure and suddenly you’re staring at an ad for car insurance that takes over your entire screen, and you have to hunt for the tiny X to close it.

I hated those. I hated them more than you did, and I’m the one who let them be there.

What’s Staying (and Why)

Now, you might still see some ads on the site. Good. Those are supposed to be here.

Companies like Blivet, Panorama Fatbikes, Bike Studs, Billy Flamingo’s – these are direct partners. They’re in the fat bike space. They’re making products and experiences for us. When their ad shows up on this site, it’s not because some algorithm decided to serve you whatever random advertiser bid the highest nickel. It’s because I personally chose to work with them, because I believe in what they’re doing, and because I think you actually want to know about them.

That’s the difference. Google was auctioning off your eyeballs to whoever showed up. The sponsors you’ll see on fat-bike.com now are companies that care about fat biking as much as we do. Click on them. Check them out. Support them. They’re supporting this site, and they deserve your attention way more than a pop-up for meal kits or crypto ever did.

Let’s Talk Real Numbers

I believe in being straight with you, so here’s the truth: since November 2024, Google AdSense has paid me a grand total of $925.60 to run ads on this site. That’s over about 16 months. I actually had ads turned off for a stretch over one summer because I couldn’t stomach how the site looked and the revenue wasn’t even covering my coffee habit.

The reality is that November through February are the only months that generate meaningful ad revenue – because that’s when people are actually searching for fat bike stuff. The rest of the year? Pennies. Literal pennies.

And here’s the kicker that finally pushed me over the edge: when I pulled the plug today, I had $30.02 sitting in my AdSense account. Google doesn’t pay out until you hit $100. With fat bike season winding down, it would’ve taken months to reach that threshold. So I’m not even walking away from $30 – I’m walking away from $30 that Google was never going to send me anyway.

Meanwhile, the site costs me $120-150 a month just to keep the lights on. Hosting, plugins, domain renewals. I was degrading your experience to net maybe… nothing? Possibly less than nothing when you factor in the people who bounced because the site felt like a pop-up minefield?

What Google Ads Were Really Costing This Site

Here’s what I didn’t fully appreciate until I sat down and thought about it honestly:

Those ad scripts slow the site down. Every ad that loads is another chunk of code your browser has to chew through before you can read about fat bikes. On mobile, it was genuinely painful sometimes. I’d load my own site and wince.

The overlay ads – the vignettes, the sticky banners – they weren’t just ugly. They were actively getting between you and the content. Between you and the affiliate links for gear I actually use and recommend. Between you and the links to the newsletter, the podcast, the community. Google was selling your attention to the highest bidder, and some of those bidders were serving you ads for stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with fat bikes.

Worst of all, the generic ads made fat-bike.com look like every other content farm on the internet. And that’s the one thing this site has never been. This has always been a passion project. Mostly one person – me – and a few valued contributors writing about something we genuinely love. A Blivet ad belongs here. A Panorama ad belongs here. A flashing banner for online gambling does not.

So What Now?

Killing the Google ads doesn’t mean the site runs on love alone. Here’s how you can help keep fat-bike.com going – and honestly, these all do more good than Google’s pennies ever did:

Use the affiliate links. When I review a bike, a tire, a pair of pogies – and I include a link to where you can buy it – click that link. It doesn’t cost you a penny more. I get a small commission, and it goes directly toward keeping this site running. No middleman selling you car insurance.

Support the sponsors. The companies advertising on this site now are here because they believe in fat biking. Check them out. Buy their stuff if it’s right for you. Tell them you saw them on fat-bike.com. That kind of feedback keeps partnerships alive.

Join the community. I’ve been building something over on Skool called the Fat-bike Lab. There’s a free tier where we talk bikes, share rides, and nerd out about tire pressure. And there’s a Pro tier for the folks who want to go deeper and help support what we’re building. It’s a few bucks a month and it means the world.

Subscribe to the newsletter. The Weekly Dose of Fat goes out every week with stuff that doesn’t always make it to the site. It’s free. It’s fun. And a bigger subscriber count helps me attract the kind of sponsors who actually belong in the fat bike world.

Listen to the podcast. Full Spectrum Cycling on YouTube is where I’ve been putting a lot of energy lately. Subscribe, leave a comment, share an episode with a riding buddy. That stuff matters more than you know.

Tell a friend. Seriously. If you’ve been coming here for years and you’ve gotten value from this site – a review that helped you pick the right bike, a trail tip that made your winter better – share it. Word of mouth is worth more than any ad network.

The Honest Truth

Fat-bike.com gets somewhere around 12-15 thousand visitors a month these days. I know not all of you are regulars. Some of you land here from a Google search, get what you need, and move on. That’s fine. That’s how the internet works.

But some of you have been here for years. Some of you have been here since the early days when fat biking was still weird and we were all figuring it out together. You’re the reason I’m still doing this. And you deserve a site that respects your time and your screen.

So the Google ads are gone. The site is faster. The reading experience is cleaner. And the only ads you’ll see are from companies that actually give a damn about fat bikes.

I feel better about the whole thing than I have in a long time.

Greg