Advertising in the internet age…
Recently the inventor of those pop-up ads apologized for creating them. I guess he finds them annoying too. Here’s my take: Many websites offer all kinds of “free services,” so they’ve decided to make money by convincing corporate advertisers that those pop-up ads, especially those targeted to a consumer’s interest, really are worth it. I guess that’s progress. We’ve progressed from the carnival quack screaming about his wondrous elixirs; to TV’s screaming used car salesmen (they’re invariably men—they scream the best, Toyota’s ever-present spokeslady notwithstanding); and finally to the internet’s pop-up ads, which now are often videos with people—you guessed it—screaming about some wonderful product they’re selling or recommending (streaming video’s inventor should also apologize!).
I can’t believe any sane person enjoys this. Millennials love to scream—go to Central Park in the summer to any GMA concert, or to any popular protest event that’s a la mode. GenXers love to scream at their kids—they have kids now, and the GenXers pandering to their every need has backfired for these paraents. Baby boomers no longer scream—they lost their voices (and hearing, for that matter) screaming at protests (against the Vietnam War instead of against Wall Street or Israel), rock concerts (lots of dBs there), and their kids (the boomers overly permissive parents too). I suppose turn-about is fair play. The internet is so democratic that it screams at all of us, although it can tailor the content of the screams to the audience using all that info about ourselves that we give the data brokers.
Maybe I’m just an old horse ready for the glue factory (where Bill de Blasio wants to send the carriage horses in NYC, by the way, in his “kill the charm in NYC” campaign) and called a doddering old fool by some, but I still have some faith in humanity left. I believe that most people don’t like the screaming on the internet. “Turn the sound off!” you say? Sure. I already do that. But all those flashing fonts, even on the non-video ads, are like screaming. I’m old-fashioned enough to have my mouse ready. I suppose it’s a good thing that I can practice my reflexes and test my visual acuity—I can spot that little X and click the ad off just as fast as a millennial. Well, I suppose the millennial doesn’t use a mouse, but you get the idea. I never—that’s N-E-V-E-R in 18-point bold font—read those damn ads!
In fact, the index finger on my mouse is almost as fast as my middle finger when driving in New Jersey (lots of screaming there too). It’s so fast that I shoot myself in the foot, sometimes (some NJ drivers would prefer to shoot me elsewhere—don’t slow down gangbangers on their way to make a drug sale). I subscribe to email updates from Daily Kos (I read it and recommend it, especially for the cartoons—much better than the evening news, except maybe the PBS’ News Hour or NPR’s All Things Considered); these email updates are comprised of a list of links. I hit one of those and up pops an ad, but not for a product. They’re usually for a good cause, usually a petition to sign against some stupidity going on in the nation’s capital or in the corporate world. My quick mouse-finger has cost them some e-signatures. And Daily Kos is nice enough not to repeat the ad until the next day if I visit other links they’ve indicated, so I don’t have any do-overs. Their loss.
Most websites aren’t so civilized. Make a Google search for a snow blower, say (yeah, it’s going to be that time again), and then go to Facebook, Google+, or some other social media site. Up pops the ads. In fact, many people say they just have to think about something, and they’ll start seeing ads. Don’t know how that’s done, but I wouldn’t put it past Google to have mindreading gizmos in those vans they have riding around everywhere to update their neighborhood spying. We googled our home address the other day and saw a two-day (that’s 2 days!) old picture of our house—you could read the license plates of the cars in the driveway. The secretive data brokers like Axiom et al are even worse—they’ll piece together everything you put out there in order to develop a profile they can sell to someone—many someones, in fact. And people complain about the NSA invading our privacy!
Most authors are internet advertisers. Whether you call it PR, marketing, promotion, or whatever, authors have to solve the “discovery problem.” That means, whether you’re self- or traditionally published (only one-percenters like Preston, Patterson, Baldacci, and so forth get trad-pubbing’s big advertising dollars these days, leading to TV video trailers and full-page Times ads), you have to convince people you exist and you write books. They’ll decide if what you write is interesting—readers rule!—but they have to know you exist. It’s harder and harder to achieve that, though. But please don’t resort to pop-up ads. It’s not quite as annoying as spamming everyone from here to Alpha Centauri and back, but it’s pretty close. Remember that fast index finger. Many internet users have them—I’ve even seen some very fast ones with keypads (acts in that multi-ring circus we call Starbucks).
You see, the real problem is that pop-up ads are basically zero-content ads. If I scream, font-wise or on a video trailer, “Hey, look at me! I write X!”, you can bet most people’s fingers go into action, even before they can think, “What the f&^k! What do I care!” The ads are so ubiquitous that our reaction to them has become automatic. I’m sorry for social media sites that need this component in their business model. I know you employ a lot of people who make big salaries, but if you are all so damn smart, why can’t you think of some other less annoying ways to make money? I’ve read some surveys that show social media marketing results for authors are very low on the promotional totem pole anyway. I’m guessing that’s not only true for books. Maybe targeted marketing will improve things for the needy social media programmers, but I really don’t care.
I’m convinced that word-of-mouth (in today’s world that’s augmented by emailer X recommending something to emailer Y) is still the most powerful form of marketing, and especially for the discovery problem. Given that as an assumption, if you like this blog, tell friends, family, colleagues, and other acquaintances. If you’ve read one of my ebooks and liked it (or them), pass the word along to those same people. Encourage them to pass the word along too. I love to entertain readers, but I can’t do that if I don’t have any. Gauguin might have painted many paintings on a remote island, but people passed the word along that he was a good painter…and bingo! I’m not Gauguin, of course—I speak fluent Spanish but not fluent French, for example.
One thing I’ll guarantee you, though: you’ll never see a pop-up ad on this site, if I can help it. I suppose WordPress or my website host might want to do that someday—greed seems to be a highly contagious disease these days—but they better have a way for me to opt out in that case. (I already killed GoDaddy as my website’s host—the pics of the CEO with his trophy elephant kill really turned me off.) I want you, the reader, to be in control. You have the power. You can hop around here at will, or visit some of the sites I recommend, checkout some of the books on “Steve’s Bookshelf,” write a comment to a blog post, whatever. I offer some freebies, but I never will subject you to pop-up ads. I don’t even sell my books here—you have to buy them at Amazon, Smashwords, or other online retailers.
You’re in control. That’s the way it should be!
In libris libertas….
