Think twice about ads on your blog

May 6th, 2009 in Marketing by Ian Baugh

Recently I was holed up out back of beyond working on a book I’m writing.

Came lunchtime I made myself a sandwich and started reading an eBook called 279 Days to Overnight Success by Chris Guillebeau (“an unconventional journey to full-time writing”, free and recommended).

On page 42 he said, “[Google] Adsense ads suck.”

Chris had two reasons for such a strong statement:

“First, do you believe in and endorse the solutions that the companies advertising on your site are offering your customers? Second, do you want to send your hard-earned visitors away from your site?”

Hmm, I thought, food for thought… Finished my sandwich and started a new chapter called “Suck It And See” (I’ll explain another day).

Then I had another thought: I wonder if everyone will know what that little bit of slang means…

So I googled “Suck It And See” … and got to a helpful site that defined the meaning, gave its derivation – thank you Google – and advertised, “Horny Ladies… For Free… No Registration!”

Hmm, I thought, I see what you mean Chris.

Cheers, Ian

PS Unless you’ve got a lot of traffic you’ll only earn pennies anyway.

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What do they expect?

March 4th, 2009 in Marketing by Nigel Hicks

10 Comments »

Tags: Advertising, Economy, Expectations, M&Ms, Uniqueness

I bought a big 250g bag of M&Ms, as I often do, to share with the people in my office … but I didn’t get what I paid for.

I expected M&Ms, the normal mixture, but I ended up with a bag of orange chocolates, the last colour I’d choose. To quote from the packet, “M&Ms are now sold as separate colours”.

I was expecting a mix of colours: they didn’t deliver.
Without even telling me, they changed the rules: their advertising failed me or they didn’t do any.
Nowhere on the bag did they even say what colour I was getting.

I know this is trivial! What people have grown to understand to be your uniqueness gives you huge leverage. And it’s free.

IMHO A bag of orange chocolates is boring. I was paying for an expectation. And so are your clients.

Cheers, Nigel

PS Remember New Coke? – Ian