Today I'm on jury duty, and so in my vast amount of time sitting around with (and without) my computer, I've been doing some heavy thinking.
I've come up with a theory about improving bounce rates that may revolutionize the web as I know it.
More to come.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Reasons StumbleUpon Advertising is Ineffective
I think StumbleUpon would like to make all stumblers believe that it is advertising-free, and that the way in which you come across the sites in the database is completely serendipitous, but it simply isn't true.
Now, I'm not knocking the StumbleUpon folks for using adverts, they have to make money just like the rest of us, but the way in which the adverts are displayed is a little sneaky, and a lot ineffective.
For just pennies a view, you can pay StumbleUpon to show your web page to stumblers; you choose the number of views you want a day, and the categories for which you want the ads to show.
The problem is, as a user, I find it very easy to spot the ads. This is simply because stumble allows too many pages from one advertiser to be shown to a user per day.
I stumble a lot, and so sometimes during one day of stumbling I'll come across pages from the same advertiser three or four times. Different pages, mind you, but pages boring and not stumble-worthy enough to keep coming up. I've stumbled enough to know what is interesting enough to sift to the top of the stumble community, and these ads are not it. A parenting site, a crafty blog/site, and a womens magazine are among the most common culprits.
Now, I would appreciate it if stumble simply made a notation on these pages that they were ads, and didn't try to parade them as random acts of stumble, but I know that advertisers want to try and blend in with the usual stuff and would probably reject that idea.
So maybe instead Stumble could limit the number of ads from one advertiser that are shown to a user per day, or maybe Stumble could have a tiny sidebar that is always open that displays "similar" pages to the page you are on that are all sponsored - I could get into that.
Whatever the solution, the current system doesn't work (and I'm too cheap to pay for a stumble account to avoid the ads) and I doubt that it works for many of the advertisers who flood the stumble system with similar boring pages.
Now, I'm not knocking the StumbleUpon folks for using adverts, they have to make money just like the rest of us, but the way in which the adverts are displayed is a little sneaky, and a lot ineffective.
For just pennies a view, you can pay StumbleUpon to show your web page to stumblers; you choose the number of views you want a day, and the categories for which you want the ads to show.
The problem is, as a user, I find it very easy to spot the ads. This is simply because stumble allows too many pages from one advertiser to be shown to a user per day.
I stumble a lot, and so sometimes during one day of stumbling I'll come across pages from the same advertiser three or four times. Different pages, mind you, but pages boring and not stumble-worthy enough to keep coming up. I've stumbled enough to know what is interesting enough to sift to the top of the stumble community, and these ads are not it. A parenting site, a crafty blog/site, and a womens magazine are among the most common culprits.
Now, I would appreciate it if stumble simply made a notation on these pages that they were ads, and didn't try to parade them as random acts of stumble, but I know that advertisers want to try and blend in with the usual stuff and would probably reject that idea.
So maybe instead Stumble could limit the number of ads from one advertiser that are shown to a user per day, or maybe Stumble could have a tiny sidebar that is always open that displays "similar" pages to the page you are on that are all sponsored - I could get into that.
Whatever the solution, the current system doesn't work (and I'm too cheap to pay for a stumble account to avoid the ads) and I doubt that it works for many of the advertisers who flood the stumble system with similar boring pages.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Best Internet April Fools' Day Jokes
I always enjoy a good prank on April Fools' Day, although rarely pull any myself for fear of insulting someone or getting myself into trouble. Reflecting upon a few of yesterday's jokes, I thought I'd share some of my favorite April Fools' Day jokes from the web.
1. Google. Each year Google does its best to make us laugh, and usually it works. Yesterday's introduction of Autopilot and CADIE was one of my all time favorites (read more about the round-the-world google hoaxes, including using thousands of pigeons to collect google maps data). Other google favorites include pigeon rank and google gulp.
2. Sitepoint let everyone know that the Internet was going to reboot - hold on to your hats!
3. Familylink used its facebook app, we're related, to let millions of users know that Barack Obama had confirmed them as a fourth cousin.
4. ThinkGeek makes up stuff, SqueezeBacon, Unicorn Chaser, and even a USB pet rock.
5. Woot offered a bag of random crap for the unbeatably low shipping price of 1 million dollars.
6. Youtube's videos were upside down (although this sort of counts as google).
7. Reddit made itself look like digg, calling the redesign a "long overdue update"
8. The Guardian moves completely to a twitter platform.
9. Pirate Bay is purchased by Warner Bros.
10. UCSD students who were rejected from college get a "congratulations" email (oh wait, that wasn't an april fools' day joke, but just an unfortunate accident).
1. Google. Each year Google does its best to make us laugh, and usually it works. Yesterday's introduction of Autopilot and CADIE was one of my all time favorites (read more about the round-the-world google hoaxes, including using thousands of pigeons to collect google maps data). Other google favorites include pigeon rank and google gulp.
2. Sitepoint let everyone know that the Internet was going to reboot - hold on to your hats!
3. Familylink used its facebook app, we're related, to let millions of users know that Barack Obama had confirmed them as a fourth cousin.
4. ThinkGeek makes up stuff, SqueezeBacon, Unicorn Chaser, and even a USB pet rock.
5. Woot offered a bag of random crap for the unbeatably low shipping price of 1 million dollars.
6. Youtube's videos were upside down (although this sort of counts as google).
7. Reddit made itself look like digg, calling the redesign a "long overdue update"
8. The Guardian moves completely to a twitter platform.
9. Pirate Bay is purchased by Warner Bros.
10. UCSD students who were rejected from college get a "congratulations" email (oh wait, that wasn't an april fools' day joke, but just an unfortunate accident).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
