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

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

#51
post #39

I would suggest instead of "Sorry" say, "OK, Bye." I think the latter would be more satisfying. I adblock only distracting animated ads. Will they notice a pattern if I downvote according to ad style, or is it only based on ad topic?

I like "Sorry" actually. It may help raise awareness of how annoying and intrusive bad ads are. "Ok, bye" would be appropriate if it was a friend of yours showing you the ad rather than a faceless corporation.

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

#52
This is not such a great idea, but it probably can be tweaked.

First, it needs some automated targeting. Does anyone know how AdSense targets ads? I bet the ad ends up on the pages that would be returned from a Google query containing the keywords. The better pagerank, the more expensive the ad. I do not have in mind a good algorithm for adpinion, but they should figure something out - Google's targeting is really good..

Second, upclicking doesn't matter and the button is not even needed. The only way the user indicates he likes the ad should be to click through.

Third, do not just count votes. Implement the best open recommendation algorithm from Netflix prize contest instead.

Downclicking that hides the ad is good and useful.

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

#53
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what about the marketing manager's manager. If the marketing guy says "We could use this new ad service -- but we'll only get clicks if users like our ads, and that's not going to work out well for us," he'd deserve to lose his job. Nobody who says "the more accurately you judge my efforts, the worse off I'll be" is worth keeping around.

I was trying to spark conversation along a different line of dialog, but maybe I have been misunderstood. Yes, this new ad system is a great idea - instant feedback and better, more specific targeting for individual websites and viewers, and any ad/marketing group should love it. Yet a certain amount of unpredictability remains, especially for ad click-through rates, and it is this that I wanted to follow. Right now,…

Leon, yeah! We're excited about the potential for our Adpinion as a tool for businesses to quickly evaluate the performance of their ads.

The issue of advertisements getting shown less because everyone dislikes them is something we're looking at closely. We focus a lot on individual user preferences, so if you dislike an ad hopefully there is someone out there who likes it and they will get shown the ad more to keep the number of impressions consistent. However, there will be cases where an ad gets less impressions because the majority of people dislike it. We feel that serving these ads as much as the ads that everyone likes creates an inefficiency in the cost per click model: if you're a website publisher and there are two ads that pay the same per click, you're not making as much off the less popular ad. We're exploring ways to incorporate ad ratings into the cost structure in a way that gives advertisers incentive to make well-liked ads.

Also: guaranteeing a minimum viewership/maximum price for cost estimation is definitely something we're aware of, and we have some ideas on how to achieve that. We'll reveal them when we're done ; ).

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

#54

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 scatterbra…

There's an automatic large body of ads because their default ad is the Amazon affiliate program. While there's not a lot of money to be made as an Amazon affiliate, there's useful information to be gained about a user's taste in media.

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

#56
post #55

So how do you get a sample set that's not biased? What kind of benefit is there to the user in saying that the ad worked the way it should?

The user who doesn't like an ad benefits from thumbs down because the ad disappears and he's less likely to see similar ads in the future.

The user who likes an ad benefits from thumbs up because he's more likely to see similar ads in the future.

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

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's still a piece of information though, especially if the same user has actively down-voted other items.

There is no useful information gained if people never touch the system. Clearly non-downvoting means something for people who periodically downvote. But the way I plan to use the service is ... not at all.

I see, I miss-read what you wrote. I had thought we were still talking about "ardent down-voters" Yes, in order for them to glean any information from a particular user there will have to be some clicks. And indeed, the most common way that a user uses this system might very well be "not at all".

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

#59

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.

That's probably when the ad is the most useful, because they can get you to buy it sooner. It's a pretty good deal for VW if a few cents' worth of internet ads can cause you to make a $20k purchase a month sooner.

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

#60
post #23
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Contact Luke at lukexi@gmail.com
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