I’ve built Sierra Voices using the freely available WordPress.org source code, and I pay a quarterly fee to have it hosted at Westhost.com, where I installed and configured the blog software myself.

For Minetalk blog, on the other hand, I use the conveniently pre-installed and free (for the basic package) WordPress.com.

My wife the other day asked me why I was suddenly getting advertising below each of my blog entries on Minetalk.

Investigating this, I found that as long as I continued to stay logged in on Minetalk (which I always am), I never see the ads. But as soon as I logged out I was able to see them.

I have no idea how long these ads have been appearing behind my Minetalk blog entries. But judging by the sudden and conspicuous advertising behind the blog entries of other local bloggers, I suspect that WordPress.com has recently ramped-up their frequency for some reason.

Fortunately it is possible to buy the “No Ads” option with WordPress.com for less than $30/year (under Dashboard/Upgrades), and the ads will disappear. I’ve now done this for Minetalk.

If you have a WordPress.com blog, you may want to view it while logged out, just to see if you are satisfied with having these ads after each of your blog entires.