Who in your opinion is #1 Vote in the poll.
What is the most important thing you want in a blog ? sales data, info, how to, etc...
What is the most important thing you want in a blog ? sales data, info, how to, etc...
I disagree DU, if the person has not been paid but takes the time to write an article that is complete and honest about the product. What is wrong with a referral code ? If that's that persons livelihood why shouldn't they be paid.
Maybe I should say to the person selling me a lemonade at the mall for $3, Fuck you its only water, a lemon and sugar that all come from nature.
I agree with you Yofie I always find it funny but none of the people who object to one persons job tell me why they should get paid for their job. If everything is going to be free ok, pure barter system, no money for anything, medicine free,education free, housing free etc.... Its funny when domainers are against advertising, ( before anyone goes on a rant that they are not a domainer, they just hang out in domainer places, I get it.)Its just hysterical IMO.
Bottom line if its the persons job and is not a hobby , its not charity either,when it comes to charity I can think of far better causes. They should get paid. Again IMO
Just noticed this thread has some pretty strange Tags :O
What I'd love to be able to do is replicate DNWs media strategy.
$100k / yr in advertising from one site is nothing to be sneezed at.
I think it was the initial marketing, not sure if you can replicate it now, at least in this industry.
Again. I didn't say NO ads. I said the fewer the better. If you write an article on the 5 best toasters - then by all means use an ad link to the store selling those 5 toasters.
What I don't like is that every time someone writes "domain" it's an affiliate link to GoDaddy.. and "hosting" is a link to hostgator and the link referral is embedded. This is, to me, not transparent enough. I think it's underhanded - this is JUST IMO.
If you are transparent about it I don't care anywhere near as much. So if you write an article about Hosting and you love hostgator... no issues with you writing "I love Hostgator and I use them for my blog" or whatever and providing a referral link. Referral links should be referrals not just embedded covert links. It's an opinion. I don't agree with it as a method to make money when it's not clear that's what is happening.
Again I said:
"There are plenty of methods to create value without resorting to a screen that is 50% ads."
If you think that the future is click ads and referral links then I think you sorely undervalue what is important. That's not innovative and innovation is what makes money in the long run.
One day I'll probably violate all my principles to make some money - but that's beside the point You asked what people looked for.
What I don't like is if I go to a stand that is going to tell me something about the health benefits of Lemonade who then sends me to a Lemonade store and receives commission from them without me knowing. I'm just reduced by them to a schmuck to make a buck from.
If they made their spiel and said - you know, i have an arrangement with the lemonade stand over there.. I'd feel better about it.
Again. It's about integrity. I don't trust anyone who has an opinion about a product if they are being paid to advertise that product UNLESS they are clear about the relationship. It's about honesty.
If someone wants to make a living hocking shit ? That's fine if I want to read a blog with someone trying to make a living hocking shit and that's clear. I'm more likely, however, to go to a site where someone is presenting information I want who might have some advertising links somewhere on it.
My example was Elliot's Blog.. how many effing ads does one blog need? Even competing companies? Come on.. that's just pathetic. What am I supposed to think?
I'm not sure what part of what I said you don't understand. I like the BBC news because for the most part it is more impartial than Fox News. Fox News straight out admits that they aren't liberal and aren't actually strictly conservative - they are whatever their local MARKET wants. Yes. The NEWS targets its market. Is that really where I want to get my information? Blogs are the same. Are you giving information or am I just a market? Ads tell me I'm the latter. Just IMO. There's nothing wrong with that but it's not something that I value. I do value freedom from the annoyances of flashing logos.
In the same way that there is an industry proactively trying to make money from ads there's an industry preventing ads. Ad Blockers are everywhere. It has been PROVEN that technical blogs have lower click thru rate than non-technical blogs - I don't think resistance to ads is unique to me and I don't feel defensive about my decision. I'm not stealing anything from anyone by not clicking on ads.
I don't believe that the race to zero is a positive for any industry. I actually believe the race to zero is TERRIBLE for the consumer in the long run. I think that the news should NOT be free - people have no idea what a proper investigation costs. If we lose that investigate part of the news media we have nothing. People are manipulated enough now without the need for it to get made worse.
The simple fact is that most domainer blogs are full of respun shit with 30 ads for each original thought. Perhaps if people put more effort into imparting information versus selling themselves and their portfolio I'd feel differently. I'd pay for news. I may pay for great original informative content. I won't pay for respun articles. I won't pay for unoriginal thought. Elliot and Shane for example do actually appear to put thought into their posts and I respect that it's why I do sometimes read what they say. Shane in particular appears to be writing from a personal place in terms of ideas and thoughts and I respect that. I still don't like the number of ads. I think Shane is one of the most honest of the domain blogs you have listed and in ways I think he's penalized for it by the "establishment" for not being the one of the original domainers. But I don't think he gives a shit - even though he has this weird aspiration to be one of them..ironic since NOT being one of them is, in my mind, admirable.
Even though I like them -- I still won't ever click on their referrals/ads. It's a choice I make. If this was causing them enough hardship to contemplate not blogging? Be up front, be honest and say so. Personally, I think they're doing fine regardless of what I do or don't do.
I don't actually mind Elliot's Blog - he's less smarmy than most and does the one thing I do value - reponds to comments. I just think it's ads galore. I'd respect him more if he didn't have them all. That said - he does do it nicely - he puts content left, ads right - he doesn't embed ads in the middle of his posts. He's not the worst offender by a mile - just an example.
TheDomains has done it better... small footer ads, one header ad and a few on the side - almost innocuous.
The worst? DNJournal. Has links to scams. I mean really? You want me to think you are a high integrity publication and you have links to :
<Your City>: Mom Makes $6795 Part-Time...
Sponsored Link
There was even a thread on it here at NP by someone thinking it was a legit opportunity BECAUSE it was in DNJ!
Did Duke take it out? Nope. Still there.
http://dnjournal.com/news.htm
With your everything free comment...You can play reductio-ad-absurdum if you want but it's not much of a basis for discussion. It's just silly...I could argue that people should put more ads. Hide more ads. Make every word clickable - it's all about the money...they don't remove any information they just add potential revenue and that's only fair....
Your question:
What's the most important thing you look for in a blog?
I said fewer ads, no embedded/hidden referral links.... What I should perhaps have said is that I look for a information that is delivered without any conflict of interest or without pretext.
JUST IMO - which I write because I often only write other people's opinion
Well John you are taking everything personal and its not a personal stint against you....was free, Homestead years ago,Ning,Xtranormal etc...
I agree on Xtranormal. State is confusing. But yeah the software I am told can be used if Xtranormal is no more. GoAnimate is light years better imo. Clear pricing and you can do a lot more.
I contacted him and let him know.
Juanny said:My example was Elliot's Blog.. how many effing ads does one blog need? Even competing companies? Come on.. that's just pathetic. What am I supposed to think?