Good Ad. Me Get.



  • There's that Iain M Banks book ad on the front page. Now, I used to own The Algebraist, but I lent it to someone and never saw it back. Bastard. That was a fucking good book for any SF lover.

    So, um, I clicked the ad (my very first ad clicked in 9 years of being online!). ...is that all there is to it? Do I need to do anything more to help TDWTF's advertising efficiency? I'm sorry about this question. Clicking ads... it's all so new to me. Forgive me; I've just been cherrypopped.

    I'm also buying it right now, online. 


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @dhromed said:

    Do I need to do anything more to help TDWTF's advertising efficiency?

    Hey, cool! I appreciate you supporting the site's sponsors. To answer your question though... obviously, direct sales from the ad is the best scenario for an advertiser, but I don't think anyone here should go out of their way to do that. All that advertisers ask for is "fair chance" to catch your peripherial with an (intriuging book title | sexy irish girl | etc) - from there, it's all up to them to close the deal. So, as long as you're not some freeloading adblocker, you're already giving them that fair chance.



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    So, as long as you're not some freeloading adblocker
     

    "and I'm not naming any names, but," ;)

    The ad links to some blog with a stark raving mad review. I don't think I was able to buy the book there, but I planned to get it from Bol anyway, because, like, they're actually here.



  •  if i was a rich man all the sites i read at least once a week would get hefty checks to ensure their continued online presense. But i am a poor man, and somewhere between my first hop and my browser ads get dropped. I want to see the irish girl :-(

    Oddly enough, text ads get through fine. it's just the fancy flash and java ads that don't. oh well. 



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    So, as long as you're not some freeloading adblocker, you're already giving them that fair chance.
     

    My general strategy is to only use AdBlock on sites I don't frequent.  I have no problem in having ads on sites that provide lots of free content unless they resort to obnoxious fly-over Flash or something.  For the most part, I don't mind the ads on this site, although the sidebar ads sometimes take forever to load.



  • @bstorer said:

    I have no problem in having ads on sites that provide lots of free content unless they resort to obnoxious fly-over Flash or something.
    It's the ones that make sound, pop up windows, pop under or steal keyboard/mouse focus when I scroll the window that generally cause me to get noscript (I don't use adblock). I disable animations though cause the seizure inducing "You are a winner" really distract from the reading.
    That being said I find all the ads here to be very tasteful, although as a student I don't click any of them, as I can't afford to spend any money on their products.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    I have an idea for an April Fools WTF thing. Now I was just going to run with it, but it's March 17, and I don't think I'm ever going to find the time to do it on my own.

    What I was thinking was, running an announcement ("to better serve you, the reader, I've decided to partner with some innovative ad providers... blah blah") and then having some javascript overlay ...double-green underline every single word ("come buy "the" at zzango.com!"), randomly have fake flashy banner ads ("You're not a winner - but refresh and try again!") rotate over the screen, etc -- all for maybe about 20 seconds or so. Ads could be for WTF products ("Excell to PHP converter!"), etc.

    Thoughts?



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    Thoughts?
    Consultant services from Paula Bean



  • I think the "ad invasion" joke was already pulled somewhere else (Coding Horror, I think). Better pretend that you sold the site to SpectateSwamp. Or is that more suited for Halloween?

    If there was a CAPTCHA, it would be: scaary.



  • @Spectre said:

    I think the "ad invasion" joke was already pulled somewhere else (Coding Horror, I think). Better pretend that you sold the site to SpectateSwamp. Or is that more suited for Halloween?

    If there was a CAPTCHA, it would be: scaary.

     

    Yes.  Alex, I will give you seven American dollars if you make the entire website look like something SS designed for April Fool's Day.



  • @bstorer said:

    Alex, I will give you seven American dollars if you make the entire website look
    like something SS designed for April Fool's Day.

    Or maybe like something SS designed for [i]The Masses[/i]®?



  • Sounds good to me. Even something subtle like a wooden table effect background would work. Rename your account to Paula Bean. Put up stories all day that are blatantly not WTFs, probably even best practices.



  • I'm also guilty of buying this book after seeing the ad here. Only thing I've ever bought from an ad. 80% through the book, I recommend.



  • @NaN said:

    I'm also guilty of buying this book after seeing the ad here. Only thing I've ever bought from an ad. 80% through the book, I recommend.
     

    hurray!

    I've barely touched it. Much else to read.



  • Or you could clean up the site by announcing another name change to The Daily WTH (as in Heck). That might actually cause some real heads to explode.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @shadowman said:

    Or you could clean up the site by announcing another name change to The Daily WTH (as in Heck). That might actually cause some real heads to explode.

    Well since ya mentioned it... I was planning a rename to "Worse Than Failure" again, but I dig The Daily WTH!



  • Sorry... Fails the military jargon test.....   Whiskey Tango... Harriet ?



  • @pitchingchris said:

    Sorry... Fails the military jargon test.....   Whiskey Tango... Harriet ?
     

    Who uses "Harriet"?!  At least in the US, it's "Hotel". 



  • @bstorer said:

    Who uses "Harriet"?!  At least in the US, it's "Hotel". 

     sorry... forgot my [/sarcasm].  I shall try harder next time.



  •  @bstorer said:

    @pitchingchris said:

    Sorry... Fails the military jargon test.....   Whiskey Tango... Harriet ?
     

    Who uses "Harriet"?!  At least in the US, it's "Hotel". 

    Whiskey Tango Hotel actually makes sense of a sort.  Picture someone awakening in a strange place and trying to recall the past night's events while rubbing their forehead...

    First there was the whiskey....then we tangoed.  And wait...the hotel...



  •  @shadowman said:

     @bstorer said:

    @pitchingchris said:

    Sorry... Fails the military jargon test.....   Whiskey Tango... Harriet ?
     

    Who uses "Harriet"?!  At least in the US, it's "Hotel". 

    Whiskey Tango Hotel actually makes sense of a sort.  Picture someone awakening in a strange place and trying to recall the past night's events while rubbing their forehead...

    First there was the whiskey....then we tangoed.  And wait...the hotel...

     

    Sorry. It's just the Phonetic Alphabet. Nothing of "military jargon".

     As for the US - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet



  • @NaN said:

    Sorry. It's just the Phonetic Alphabet. Nothing of "military jargon".

     As for the US - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet

     

    Okayyy, but why are you telling me? 



  •  You spoke last? I don't know. I just clicked someone. Send the message one up.



  • @dhromed said:

    @NaN said:

    I'm also guilty of buying this book after seeing the ad here. Only thing I've ever bought from an ad. 80% through the book, I recommend.
     

    hurray!

    I've barely touched it. Much else to read.

     

    I just randomly clicked on someone, too, Nan.  See why it's not a good idea? 



  •  He did it!  Site rename 3.0 is on. I guess now we can sit back and vote on your favorite steaming-mad comment in the new name thread.



  • @shadowman said:

     He did it!  Site rename 3.0 is on. I guess now we can sit back and vote on your favorite steaming-mad comment in the new name thread.

     

    Yeah, but he lost out a seven dollars.



  • I think my favorite so far is Anonymoose's #187171


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