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Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

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21–30 of 60 posts

Re: Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

#21

I wonder when people are going to get it. We have been talking about "IN-vertising" for ever but NO, NO, NO. We still want to guess what the user wants. No software can tell what a user wants better than the user him/herself. I believe we should spend more time and resources providing users with services that let the user initially decide the ads they want. For me send anything that rhymes with coffee, mobility, star…

If you already know you want a VW Golf, the ad isn't very useful for the advertiser.

Re: Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

#22

I wonder when people are going to get it. We have been talking about "IN-vertising" for ever but NO, NO, NO. We still want to guess what the user wants. No software can tell what a user wants better than the user him/herself. I believe we should spend more time and resources providing users with services that let the user initially decide the ads they want. For me send anything that rhymes with coffee, mobility, star…

If you already know you want a VW Golf, the ad isn't very useful for the advertiser.

Yes it is. If there are 4 cars dealers in my state who have what I am looking for, they can all serve ads to me, then I compare and buy the best car with the best payment option.

Re: Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

#23
post #13
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what kind of information can the adpinion guys extract if someone downvotes every single ad?

Hi ph0rque, the theory is that even the most ardent of ad-downvoters would eventually like an ad enough to not down it (or, that they would get bored of compulsive negativity, and start being more selective). That one ad would be an extremely valuable piece of information. -Luke

Hi Luke, are you with Adpinion? Can I advertise for http://www.getkratom.com on Adpinion?

Re: Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you already know you want a VW Golf, the ad isn't very useful for the advertiser.

Yes it is. If there are 4 cars dealers in my state who have what I am looking for, they can all serve ads to me, then I compare and buy the best car with the best payment option.

I see. I assumed the advertiser was VW, but as you point out, there are others who'd still be interested.

Re: Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

#25
post #3
post #2

Its plastered all over paulgraham.com, not just the essays. I personally like the ad free version of paulgraham.com :). I wonder if adpinion is another YC startup.

Yep. Why else would I do it?

To give proceeds to News.YC readers? :-)

Re: Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

#26
I hate ads. Everyone hates ads. Why would we take what is largely an automated process (extracting information from a site to guide ads), and make humans do it?

With the idea to "make something people want", isn't it a bad idea to make something a minority want and the vast majority will fight against? Especially considering the majority's clicks are all that matter.

Re: Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

#27
post #13
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what kind of information can the adpinion guys extract if someone downvotes every single ad?

Hi ph0rque, the theory is that even the most ardent of ad-downvoters would eventually like an ad enough to not down it (or, that they would get bored of compulsive negativity, and start being more selective). That one ad would be an extremely valuable piece of information. -Luke

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. The haters won't down-vote. They just won't click at all.

Re: Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

#28
There was a lot of hype when Seth Godin implemented this idea on Squidoo back in December. I haven't heard much about it since. That's not to say it's a bad idea, but rather that it's not some miracle technology with guaranteed easy money.

I thought it had a lot of potential at the time and I still think it has a lot of potential now. The only problem is that until there is a large body of ads you get very scatterbrained results.

Re: Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay

#30
post #10
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we know what we have to do, now that you've given away the secret :~).

This will be an interesting experiment to watch. Its taking the reddit/digg style voting to the world of internet ads and hoping that users will tell what kind of ads they want to see. If every user is like me, it'll mean no ads... maybe everyone is not like me.

Actually, most people aren't. Apparently, most people actually LIKE ads--so long as they are relevant.

I don't know about you guys, but I actually enjoy looking through the ads in Wired. Usually they're catchy and they are almost always relevant for me. I can't say that about most ads on the web, and certainly not for TV (I will never buy a truck in my life so stop 'effin showing me ads for them!) Obviously the problem with these last two mediums is that they don't have enough information about me.

Honestly, I would submit my personal tastes/preference to some sort of central advertising database which authorized companies could then plug into. Right now, it would make a lot of sense if Google hosted that database, but it should really be something open so that any advertiser can use it.

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