Salon.com reports: Political spam: Get used to it
Now I'm furious....Political SPAM??? Not only aren't they doing anything about spam but now they are sending it to us? What else can politicians do to make us trust them less? This is so ridiculous.
Speaking of Salon.com, they have a new gimmick.
"Salon.com has introduced an unusual advertising program that waives subscription fees for readers willing to wade through an interactive commercial."
Sorry, I just don't think it will work. I think the direction of ads in the future will be like what I read the latest James Bond movie's nickname is: "Buy Another Day". Product placement is the future of ads. Which makes it a big problem for content sites like Salon.com. Good content is not like good entertainment...product placement hurts the quality of the content far more than it hurts entertainment. When you watch a TV show, who cares if the actors drink Coke or Pepsi? Basically only Coke or Pepsi care... even if it affects our purchasing habits, personally I still couldn't care less. I'd gladly trade in commercials for product placement...but not in written content.
What people are not understanding is that the Internet has made it cheap enough to create quality content that ad driven content is not that huge a moneymaker.
There are 500,000 blogs out there. Take the cream of the crop and you will find some awesome content including up to date news and articles for free. Why wade through an excessive Mercedes Benz commercial just to read Salon? A few clicks on the net and you'll find plenty of value to read...
It's not that I don't sympathize with Salon. I appreciate quality writing and would be happy if the average person placed more value on it. But reality is reality and they will probably never be as big a business as they or their investors wish them to be.... and dancing ads may help them a tiny bit, but not enough to keep them afloat...
