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February 2008 Archives
February 9, 2008
Choose your own Ad-venture
When I did seminars on planning websites for entrepreneurs, one of the most common questions I would get was whether there were less expensive or free options for web hosting. My answer would be that there is no shortage of free hosting out there, but that it comes with limitations, and that it does have to be paid for by something: advertising. When you use a free website host, they will pay for their service by putting ads on your site that they have selected. This is less of a problem for personal sites, which are more often the clients of these companies. However, there remain drawbacks, chief amongst them is the lack of control.
I have no problem with advertising. As a marketing professional, that goes without saying. But as a consumer, I don't mind having my products and services subsidized. Sometimes the commercial is even clever (the first few times). Though I'm still not signing on with the over-use of them, a guilty pleasure of sports; I don't want to sit through a commercial break, come back for a play then return to commercials (especially the same commercials I just saw).
But when you use ads yourself to pay for something, it's so important to be in control of what shows up. Rather, you need a veto. I've used many services that required me to put up with ads for things I don't care about. My old webcomic was paid for by ads, often for other comics or the service that hosted me. That was cool. My facebook is paid for by ads that insist I'll know who has a crush on me if I click and sign up for their subscription service (I wasn't aware those were still around). That was cool, if only because I got good at ignoring them. And my free, less entertaining personal blog used ads to buy me more services from the site.
But then you start running into problems with content, and this is something I see with using Google ads. Now, as I said, my personal blog used ads to increase the services open to me. That didn't bother me, because I didn't pay much attention to them. While they were usually something random, they also gave me ads relating to interests of mine that I specifically stated when I signed up. And since it was powered by Google ads, there were also many cases where it would look at the content I was putting up, and deliver things based on keywords.
This is alright (albeit creepy) when they hit the mark. Ads about Bruce Springsteen after I write about an album or show? Great! Ads about tv shows I watch? That's fine too! This is advertising I can live with.
However, it then picked up on some remarks I'd made regarding a controversial political issue, and decided to put up an ad. For the other side. And I'd like to point out that this is an issue where the other side (for both sides, that is) isn't just an opposing viewpoint, but is HIGHLY offensive. I find those who don't agree with that to be offensive, and they think the same of me. So needless to say, I was more than a little upset.
Where am I going with this? There were consequences, minor though they may have been. I lowered my account back to free, but without ads. And spread some of the hate to some like-minded associates. On the whole, was that a big dent for the hosting company? Probably not. But that doesn't mean the same can't happen to others.
If you're going to use ad revenue to power your site, you have be careful. You've worked hard to understand your market or your readers; you should have a decent idea of what they want to see. So turning things over to someone who might make a massive error in judgement is a good way to lose customers/subscribers.
Take control. It's your site, so take care of it.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on February 9, 2008 5:03 PM Permalink
February 25, 2008
Shiftless
There are few people who, in my mind, are more self-delusional and pitiable than people who shift their automatic transmissions. Those poor souls who put their automatic shifter over to the side, and insist on pushing it up and down towards those + and - symbols that are supposed to represent up and down gears. And it's a growing group! Plenty of people who dropped an extra $1000 per car to avoid learning how to drive with an extra pedal are trying to pretend they're street racers who know just how to get the most out of their car. It's so prolific, Mazda, among other car companies, is using this behaviour in their advertisements (and not just in SUVs where you have little choice...watch the latest Mazda 3 commercial, you'll see what I mean).
Now before I really begin proper, let me qualify something: there is NOTHING wrong with driving automatic. Automatic transmissions were invented for a reason. Actually, several reasons, two of which are traffic jams and hills with intersections on them. My issue is with people who get an automatic transmission, and then try to behave as though they didn't.
It's a way of lying to yourself, but it's also not as effective as you might think, because these pretenders have forgotten the meaning of the entire premise: it's automatic. Not semi-automatic, not kinda-automatic, not automatic-most-of-the-time-except-when-I-don't-feel-like-it. Automatic.
If you know how an automatic transmission works, you're one of 3 people: an automotive repair technician, an absolute car nut, or somebody with an internet connection and plenty of free time. But as someone who could be debated to be the 2nd or 3rd type, I've gone to the trouble of learning. Let me tell you, these things are a masterpiece of engineering. Whatever group of automakers sat down and banged this out ought to be commended for coming up with something so clever. And here's a nifty bit of information about automatic transmissions that not only shows how brilliantly they were designed, but also how nearly foolproof they are: various driving conditions (the speed of your car, how straight it's going and how flat it is) affect the ability to shift. In other words, if the car doesn't WANT to change gears, you CAN'T make it.
Automatic transmissions are designed to eliminate bad driver decisions when it comes to shifting in order to preserve the gear box and give you a smoother ride. It makes smart decisions about what the engine is doing to optimize performance and acceleration. So not only do you not NEED to try to tell it what gear to use, it knows better anyway. You don't have to tap it to the - symbol to get it to gear down for better acceleration, you just have to jam your foot down and it will kick into overdrive. Incidentally, as somebody who's driven standard his whole life at varying degrees of skill, this is PHENOMENALLY fun. It's rare that in everyday driving you'll have to floor it, so getting to do so every time you need to pass somebody on the highway or simply want to merge is a giddy little thrill that makes me forget how foolish I look in an automatic car*.
So we've seen that it's totally unnecessary, especially considering people paid a fair amount to get that transmission that does it all in the first place. So why would people do it?
We need to remember that people are not exactly rational. We, as humans, excel at doing things that are foolish or ill advised. Smoking, drinking, gambling, self-mutilation, crime...these things aren't exactly healthy. But we do it anyway. So how does faux-shifting come into it?
Popular culture has made racing "cool". Movies, television, motorsports, they've all ingrained the idea of the fast-driving gearhead into a cool personage. And never do you see these icons drive an automatic car. No, they drive stick. They need ultimate control of their vehicle, and they know how to use it in just the right way. There's also the violent jerking of the driven (no pun intended) racer aggressively changing gears; you can't judge desperation and intensity just through their face, or their turning...okay, you can, but it's not the whole picture. And dropping that pedal to the floor only works at the start of the race as the tires spin and smoke. That intense constant shifting adds excitement and emotion. Often the way they do this simple act shows their personality and state of mind. Contrasting the jerky motions described above, the driver who calmly and smoothly changes gears during a race has a different allure, that of the person who never cracks under pressure.
I could go on forever. Finally, there is the fact that driving stick takes a little more skill than driving standard. I know, I'm biased, but any extra steps involved in driving makes it a little more complicated. You take the normal necessities of driving awareness (speed, other cars, pedestrians, road conditions, laws), and add on that you have to know what gear you're in, when to shift, and how to shift without taking your eyes off the road to look. And of course knowing how to combine the pedals. Even veteran drivers still stall sometimes. So that adds to the perception of coolness, that you can do this thing that not every driver is able to.
I would liken it to Guitar Hero. If you can't play guitar, but want to pretend that you can (and that you can do it well and in a famous rock band), this is a reasonable facsimile. You know it's not real, everyone ELSE knows it's not real, and there's a machine doing all the actual work. But you can get a contact buzz off of it, and dammit, it's fun.
In my opinion, that seems to be the basis. Driving stick is a skill that not everyone has, and that has been glorified by society and the media. So in an attempt to at least pretend you're part of that group, the allure of trying to fool your transmission isn't that hard to understand. There are plenty of things I can't do, but sometimes pretend I can.
But it doesn't cost me a thousand dollars.
Until next time,
JW
* - People who are accustomed to driving standard always look a little silly in an automatic car. Whether it's the fact that they keep kicking the left side of the car floor or braking incorrectly because they don't have the luxury of gearing down when stopping, there's just a sense of barely perceivable discomfort, like somebody's made one of their shoes just the tiniest bit smaller.
Posted by JW on February 25, 2008 6:47 PM Permalink
February 27, 2008
Faceless
I'm committing what some people may call blasphemy: I'm leaving Facebook.
No, it's not a grand protest against the privacy intrusion, or being driven away by applications. It's just outlived all usefulness for me.
I know this baffles some people, and has even driven a few of my colleagues to speak out and ask me not to leave. So I figure this is as good a way as any to explain myself.
Nothing new
Facebook offers me very little in terms of services I don't already have. Rather than a more or less public messaging system that is limited by who's joined and who actually checks their site, I already have a telephone, email and an instant messenger; each of which is, in my opinion, far more convenient and robust than the wall or message inbox will allow.
Really, nothing new
Also, I have found that nothing happens on Facebook. I would sign on every day to decline invitations to events I don't care about in cities I don't live in, to read about the current status of people I haven't spoken to in years, and to delete calls to join groups I'll never check and applications I'll never add. Nothing of interest happens on Facebook, and frankly, I have no time for websites that don't enrich my life somehow.
A better photo album
If you want somewhere to put your photos, might I recommend Flickr? No limits on the size of your photo albums, the ability to avoid being tagged in embarrassing pictures, and far fewer drunk people. Also, you can store your photos at their original size, and view them at any range of standard sizes. This is a vast improvement over Facebook's "one size fits all" mantra. Yes, to get the most out of Flickr you have to subscribe, but I offer these three tips that really made it an obvious choice for me:
1) Even without paying, you still get fairly decent service for smaller scale use
2) I'm willing to pay for something if I think it's worth it, and this is
3) The community is terrific, and sometimes even give away subscriptions. My current subscription was a gift from a total stranger who helped me out on the forum when I was having trouble with my credit card.
I would like to mention this point before I move on: Flickr has been bought by Yahoo!, and so their customer service (through Yahoo!, of course) is remarkably uninspired, I was not overly impressed. But the actual site is so fantastic, I was willing to put that aside.
Not Applicable
I know, I know, I keep saying that it's not the applications. But I really hate applications, and I can't write about Facebook without giving them a shout-out. Facebook's applications are like the comment boards on most websites: they irritate me simply by their presence, and I would give anything to be able to choose not to see them. Where are the widgets and gadgets when you need them?!
Long time no see
In the end, Facebook became something I would go on out of habit to clear any debris away and see whose profile picture had changed. It gradually dropped off until I would only go when I received an email that somebody had written on my wall or sent me a message. So away I went.
Guess who's watching?
One final note: I know everyone's heard this song and dance before about Facebook and your personal info, and all the conspiracy theories that go along with it; but seriously...Microsoft paid $240MM for a 1.6% stake in the company. Microsoft isn't in the business of just giving away money. There must be something there worth paying all the cash for such a pittance...and it's called marketing databases.
Until next time,
JW
