Short answer: We don't take annoying ads - and especially not involuntary popups. Period.

Long answer: We don't permit annoying ads with gratuitous animation or popup ads that get in your face while trying to read an article. The last thing we want to do is drive away readers, even if we are free. We encourage either static ads or rich media ads that inform, educate, and truly display the vendor's wares in a helpful light.

For example, imagine a SoundTraxx Tsunami ad with a nice loco photo that lets you try out the sound decoder for yourself. Click on the bell, and the bell rings. Click on the whistle and you get a popup that lets you play the whistle with your mouse or chose whistle sound options. And so on. How useful is that? It's completely possible with a well-designed, helpful rich media ad!

With a rich media magazine, you can click on links in the ad and immediately go to the advertiser's web site. Paper publication advertising can't deliver instant results because it's offline. To get you as an offline reader to complete an action, an advertisier must promote such an amazing offer that you stop what you're doing and go order the product right then and there. Or hope you remember them later. Links in a rich media magazine ads go instantly to the advertiser's web site - making ordering as convenient as it gets!

Since our magazines are posted online for download, search engines will find our keyword-rich content. We will continually be discovered by new online readers and rediscovered by previous readers. Our ever-growing base of high-quality free articles can be linked to by web sites, forums, and blogs, as well as passed around by email. By contrast, articles in print-only publications don't have the sticking power or the viral marketing* potential. Once an offline print article is no longer featured in the publication, it's out of sight.

^*Viral marketing: Word-of-mouth advertising that harnesses the network effect of the Internet and is capable of reaching a large number of people rapidly. The ad audience itself becomes the carrier, hence the term "viral". Viral marketing is popular because of the ease of execution, the relative low-cost (compared to printed publications), the more precise targeting, and the often high and rapid response rate.