8.31.2004

marketing

So apparently you can now add ads to your blog and make some money off of them if your readers click on the ads (so long as you don't get all sneaky about clicking on them yourself or drawing specific attention to the ads - anyone remember the "fake surf" program for that stupid ad toolbar thing?). I was thinking, hmm shit, I could use some money. But right now I just cannot get myself to do it. I cannot bring myself to prostitute my blog for a couple bucks a month. Advertising is everywhere on the web already and it drives me crazy. If you have checked out Orkut.com or Friendster lately you'll see what I mean. I want to allow people to read my blog ad-free, sharing content for the sake of it, not for money. The only thing that might be interesting to see is what ads pop up based on the stuff I write about (ala Google of course). For example, would my blog below about how bad life sucks in your late 20s prompt an ad for anti-depressants to appear?

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I went to empty my junk mail folder a couple days ago and noticed an ad for a Christian dating site. Sure if there's conservativematch.com, why not a similar site for all the God-fearing folks? So I'm deleting all this shit when another spam mail grabs my attention, it reads "Eliminate your debt the Christian Way!" There's a pattern here. In the early 90s, it was all about social issues marketing, we used everything from whales to rainforests to sell absurdly unrelated products like cereal and hair products. Now it seems that the marketing of God is really hot! I mean, how the fuck really do you eliminate debt the Christian way? Do you pray your way out of debt?Somehow I don't see Jesus coming to your rescue for pawning your wife's jewellry so you could make your poker debut on the World Poker Tour. I wonder what product they'll use God to market next. How about this - "Pray your way to natural male enhancement!" or "Say amen to new hair growth!"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i agree with you.

it's really sad that there are people who blaspheme the name of Jesus, only to get money out of it. *shakes head*

Fumbling said...

Actually I'm not Christian so it's not blasphemy that concerns me. I just find it mildly amusing that marketers are clever enough to target people who'll do anything just because it's the "Christian" way.

Anonymous said...

Adsense fraud detection is way more intelligent than anything AllAdvantage had so it's basically impossible to cheat Google and other advertisers. Gone are the days when one could make easy money with Internet companies and technology in general.
...the most obvious way to identify an Internet user is by his IP address. google adsense would see if the same user kept clicking on ads repeatedly (whether manually or automated). JH