The Lure of Advertisements

Ads are everywhere on the web now, and can be as much of a nuisance as a help at times. Ads are put on websites for all kinds of reasons. Some people use them to try and make a living, while others use the ads to pay for basic site fees so that they can provide free services (like this site).

And now that advertisements have permeated the vast majority of the internet, it would be easy and almost natural to try to put them on your site. However, if you are talking about a church website, then this becomes a very dangerous road to walk for several reasons:

1. Most churches are non-profit organizations - by placing advertisements on your page you may cause visitors to question the church's priorities
2. The church is an outreach tool - just as with many outreach tools, it costs time and money to be effective. The main focus of the site should be what the church can give to visitors, and not what it can get from them.
   
3. Ads may not always provide appropriate content - since many ads are now "context sensitive", meaning that they try to pick good advertisements based on the content of your site. However, certain keywords can trigger ads for illicit websites, and this reputation risk is on that is not worth taking.

While I have only come across a few church websites that have encountered this problem, it's something that I'm sure has crossed many a webmaster's mind. In the end, the use of advertisements just "looks bad" for a church for so many reasons. They really are something to be avoided.