I'm a little surprised podcast ads weren't tried, mostly because I'd love to know how well those do/don't work out for a tool like this.
Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
91–100 of 290 posts
Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the point is that most people have extremely-low-to-zero motivation to spend time actually thinking about that question, so they pick whatever makes the request go away. I know I'm like that, exemplified by the fact that if the question is mandatory, and I pick something which triggers an extra text field for more information, I am much more like to try and change the intial option to something that doesn't r…
one day i will figure out how to respond to a minor detail, without making people think i'm addressing the main point.
Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
#93Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
#94The Twitter 'thick skin' part made me laugh. A past startup had the same experience with Reddit ads. The initial replies were so negative ("I could do this 3x cheaper myself" etc), and often negative for the sake of negativity. It took a little time, but we replied to most of them with gentle words along the lines of "thank you for your thoughts and comments; we're a small business trying to do things ethically; gett…
One could say you're doing the exact same thing to Redditors that you say they do. Being negative for the sake of being negative. Just love to hate when there is no human face - or even someone to reply. But oops, here one is ;) Redditors are entitled and they are demanding and they are quick to jump all over you. And they can be wrong. But it's not for the sake of negativity and it's not because there is no human th…
That’s not my experience at all. I’m curious what makes you think that?
Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
#95Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe ads work by making a brand name familiar, which helps you recognize it in the sea of information. And that makes it automatically somewhat more attractive and reputably. You can be entirely unaware of this and it still works. Maybe the ad is not what convinced you, not at all, but it did prompt you to wonder if this LaunchDarkly thing is any good. Youtube kept spamming it in your face and you kept ignoring…
Yes, but it can work in the opposite direction as well. Eg, all the Youtube ads of NordVPN only did was to convince me that if I'm ever in the market, I'll use someone else. Part because all that advertising has to cost a lot of money, which of course the subscription has to pay for. Part because some of their advertising is less than completely honest about what they provide.
Tom Scott’s video a few years ago helped, but some creators still seem to be saying or implying that using a VPN makes your browsing “safer,” which unless you have a very specific need for a certain kind of safety, is untrue. I wish VPN companies would audit the claims their partners are making about them, but there really isn’t an incentive to do so —- if their brand gets damaged irreparably they can release a new VPN under a different brand.
Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
#97Is that a thing now? Companies restricting which search engine you're allowed to use at work? I've worked in some pretty locked down environments before where switching browsers wasn't an option (thankfully less of a thing now), but hadn't ever heard of a company restricting search engines.
Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
#98Quora being a good option is incredibly surprising to me. I never click on Quora links as 90% of the time the "answers" are just ads or people who want to pretend they are a bigger deal than they are and know more than they do. I'm a little surprised podcast ads weren't tried, mostly because I'd love to know how well those do/don't work out for a tool like this.
Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
SponsorBlock ( https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock ) to the rescue!
I feel more bad about using this than a regular ad blocker. With a regular ad blocker it's blocking ads for which the lion's share is probably going to $facelessabusivecorporation, whereas sponsorships go 100% into the pockets of content creators who typically aren't exactly rich. It feels less like downloading pirated music and more like sneaking into an indie concert without paying.
It's not that people don't want to financially support creators. It's that the targeted advertising business has become so manipulative and hostile that some people do not want to see ads for any product in any context.
Re: Burning money on paid ads for a dev tool – what we've learned
#100The Twitter 'thick skin' part made me laugh. A past startup had the same experience with Reddit ads. The initial replies were so negative ("I could do this 3x cheaper myself" etc), and often negative for the sake of negativity. It took a little time, but we replied to most of them with gentle words along the lines of "thank you for your thoughts and comments; we're a small business trying to do things ethically; gett…
‘Show HN’ posts often have a mix of different comparatively negative comments: from the (classic) I could do this quicker/cheaper/easily, alternatives being posted, genuine criticisms (+/- misunderstandings) of the offering, criticism of the underlying website due to choices made around design/fonts/contrast/processor utilisation/JS use…
It’s such a nice surprise when there’s a ‘Show HN’ and the comments are predominantly supportive and/or positive!