Seth Godin’s Lost it!

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By JLP | August 29, 2008

Of course Seth’s a marketer so he could have written that post as a way to generate some buzz by ruffling some feathers.

Regardless, ads are NOT tip jars and telling people to click on them just for the hell of it is just stupid.

Thoughts?

Topics: Miscellaneous |

Comments to “Seth Godin’s Lost it!”

Yana Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Tip jars are tip jars. I like them because they are straightforward. On blogs and personal websites, I pay attention to affiliate links if I think the blogger personally endorses the product or service. I pay no attention to advertising that has no relevance in that it is not specifically chosen by someone I like and respect (the blogger/site owner). I don’t look at or click on Google text ads or targeted marketing; in fact, I resent targeted marketing. I don’t see many ads that I wouldn’t want to see, because I block them in my browsers.

Nobody will get in trouble for click fraud on my account!

JLP Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Yana,

I have purposely stayed away from most affiliate advertising because I don’t want to have to endorse a product in order for it to sell.

Laura Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

It looks like Seth wrote the post to generate controversy. The analogy is off. Tip jar collects money from customers. Money from ads come from companies. A donation button is a tip jar. While I would enjoy more money, I’d rather get it honestly.

Jerry Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 5:24 pm

I have had people email me and ask me to click on their blog ads in the past, and I thought it was pretty… I don’t know… “off.” I hope Seth was just generating some buzz, I wouldn’t want to be the lead balloon to suggest otherwise. Affiliate advertising should ideally be offered with some unspoken insurance that the person who owns the site really does endorse the product, but I guess that’s a little too much to ask from most people. (Present company excluded, of course!)
Jerry

Bobby Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

Seth actually wrote a follow-up post the following day.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/08/beating-the-sta.html

Mike Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

I read Seth’s blog because his content is all original; not because I always agree with him. We disagree on ads and the use of pie charts in presentations, so far.

Preston Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 11:21 pm

Since I Started blogging about work I’ve seen some incredibly accurate ads come across google adsense over at one of my blogs. In fact, we’re currently evaluating a product that came across my own blog ad…heh.

While I believe that clicking ads for the sake of clicking ads can be harmful, acknowledging their existence and trying to target your content in a way that allows the ads to be meaningful does have benefits.

(That said, I browse with noscript and adblock in full force 99% of the time.)

Matt Says:
August 30th, 2008 at 11:28 pm

I agree that Seth is just stirring the pot. I don’t think he’ll entice a whole whack of click fraud because his statement however controversial you might think it is really isn’t going to change people’s behavior. Even if your ad clicks went up from 0.5% to 0.75% I think very quickly people would get bored of doing it and you’d be back to your usual 0.5%. I find that people are generally lazy and clicking on a link that forces them to click the back button or even the home button will annoy them and they’ll stop doing it.

The Smarter Wallet Says:
September 1st, 2008 at 2:39 pm

I thought that was against Adsense TOS?

Sam Says:
September 1st, 2008 at 11:22 pm

Wow I’m surprised with his statement. The guy is definitely missing some points when it comes to online marketing.He should be reminded of two facts:
1) The big G is dominating the internet advertising market. As of March 2008, they have 70% share of the internet advertising market including DoubleClick.

2) It is strictly forbidden to encourage clicks according to Adsense TOS. Seth is free to fantasize though however these are the solid, hard facts of the situation.

In fairness to him, he added a follow up post about it. However it still doesn’t convince me to justify asking people to click ads.

Sam
Fix My Personal Finance
http://fixmypersonalfinance.com/

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Seth Godin’s Lost it!