Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting
different results (Albert Einstein). Boobytrapped websites don't
capture readers, they chase them away. So why do advertisers get
increasingly obnoxious? Is there a parallel universe where
obnoxiousness works?
If I didn't use ad and script blockers I would never make it
through a workday, because disabling the ads speeds up page loads
many times, and saves me from having to swat the junk out of the
way like clouds of fat little flies just so I can read the
articles. Hey, you know what articles are don't you? That's those
little squished bits in between the ads. I might be the crazy one
here, but those are what I visit Web sites to read.
Intellitext, popups, text ads that fake being parts of articles,
interstitial ads, Flash ads, talking ads, those weird floating ads
that follow you up and down the page, "surveys", social networking
toolbars, mouseover ads, expanding ads, tracking cookies, Flash
cookies, and on and on...my current special hatred is for those
dratted social networking toolbars. Some sites have two, one on top
and one on the bottom. They keep getting bigger, and it is annoying
to have to search for the half-hidden close button.
Do these things really work? It doesn't seem likely. I'm not
going to click a Facebook link, or Digg, or Reddit, or
what-have-you just because it's thrust in my face. I'm not ever
going to click on any ad that isn't pertinent and interesting to me
in some way. Quite the contrary; the more they shout the less I
listen. Which is sad, because we should have intersecting
interests: we need stuff, they sell stuff.
"But advertising pays the bills." That is true. It pays my
paycheck. So why employ counter-productive advertising tactics?
Most Web ad campaigns stink. How many readers sit and patiently
wait for some lardy, irrelevant Flash ad to load? What incentives
do advertisers offer to entice potential customers to pay attention
to their ads? Mostly none. It's crazy. Traditional newspaper ads
work because they offer sales and coupons for things that people
actually want. TV and radio ads work for the same reason, and the
best marketing campaigns make their products appealing and
desirable.
Compounding the problem is decreasing quality and quantity of
original material and increasing torrents of swill from content
farms, recycling the same shallow junk over and over merely to
provide a framework to hang yet more ads on, and then SEO-gaming
for all they're worth. Thanks, I so love it when the first page of
a Google search is link farms and content farm crapola.
Consider supporting sites you enjoy, if they accept reader
subscriptions or donations. For example, Groklaw and LWN.net serve
up some of the best, most in-depth articles anywhere. Groklaw runs
no ads, and LWN.net relies on subscriptions to help them keeps the
ads to a minimum. As always, it comes down to the Golden Rule-- the
one with the gold makes the rules. Me, I don't even want to live in
a world controlled by marketers. Though I fear we are already
mostly there.
