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February 6, 2007
Well, it was a nice try.
As the posts below will attest, I took One Simple Ad through several incarnations, but it never quite came together. January revenues were one cent, and the average daily visitor total was four people. Which is kind of impressive, in its way.
The site will stay up for five years-- I'm a man of my word-- but I suspect these will be the last words I write for it. To find out what I'm up to lately, your best bet is to go here. Happy adwatching!
--T Campbell
Project Wonderful, that is.
Going with the PW system means changes to the system, some of them temporary, some of them permanent.
Temporary: One Simple Ad will only be able to serve 468x60 ads. Ryan North is working on changing his system so that it can serve ads of any size, and as soon as he makes that change, I'll be the first to use it!
Permanent: A change in the way ads are presented. Here's the way it works now: each new high bidder for the main page's slot also gets a permanent place in our archives, meaning that their ad will occupy an entire page for as long as the site lasts (five years at minimum).
Temporary: Ads will no longer change over at or around midnight. Ryan's workin' on it. But no ad will be on the main page for less than a full 24 hours, ever.
Permanent: Fewer headaches and prompter service, because Ryan's infrastructure is way better than mine was.
In addition to the change in software, One Simple Ad needs a slight change in attitude. I take great pride in the fact that my comics features have almost never missed their deadlines, and I wanted this site to show the same clockwork regularity: "a new ad every day." But as I got fewer ads and fewer contest applicants than I expected, I realized that that's a promise that's not mine to make; it depends on the advertisers and what they do with this new tool. This site now has the properties in place to grow organically, and like any gardener, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.
Thankfully, I've had some prospects materialize since I began this project, so I no longer have to worry about living off this particular crop.
And finally: There were fewer applicants than I anticipated, but I'm pleased with what came in. The GOD OF GRAPHIC DESIGN CONTEST is now under way. Vote today!
--T Campbell
To improve both the quality and quantity of ads on this ad-centric site, I'm declaring a contest for graphic designers. Send me your best graphic work and a link to your homepage. You can either design something totally new, or use an existing work you're especially proud of-- and it doesn't have to be designed as an ad, because as long as it's a good argument for your design skills, it's a good advertisement-- for yourself! I will select twenty-five semifinalist graphic designers, and run one of their pieces each during December, beginning on the 11th, and the site's readers will choose whose awesome talents they worship at the end of the month. Think about it: isn't it about time you won an award?
Ad slots will be given out free for the duration of the contest, with the bidding system resuming afterward.
(Semifinals changed to begin on Monday rather than Friday.)
--T Campbell
Two weeks in, and I've gotten all the feedback I need to see where this site has to go. It's funny; I started the site to make money, but now I'm feeling the same old sense of responsibility to its users that I've felt for less profit-driven projects. That's good news for you viewers, and good for you advertisers, too. So here's the new plan:
1. Viewers get one new ad every day, not an undetermined number of ads whenever. Advertisers bid on each day, rather than paying per impression. Working in webcomics has taught me the value of a regular schedule. Viewers don't want to have to hit "refresh" a dozen times to be sure they don't miss anything-- they just want to check in with their faves every day, or troll through the archives every month, which brings us to...
2. Old ads will be archived, along with their links. This will raise the long-term value of the ad space significantly and ensure that nobody misses an ad they want to see, even if they don't discover this site until long after the ad has run!
3. Auctions, not a flat rate. I think that in the long run it will be best for One Simple Ad if the ad space goes to the people who want it the most. And because of that...
4. I will be interfering in the selection process even less than before. The "video ban" is over! I'm going to allow all types of ads now, including Flash and video, and I won't worry about which ones I find most interesting, because I don't want the advertisers to worry too much about pleasing me, specifically. This site has become an experiment in social engineering: I believe that if you create the right conditions, interesting, useful things just happen, and it's best to stay out of their way. However, I will still step in if I cannot condone the ad morally. Sorry, racists and hardcore pornographers! I will also step in to enforce the following rules...
5. No reselling to get around point #4. If you put up an ad that links to your site about puppies, but then change that site so that it redirects to porn, I will not be happy and will treat it as a breach of contract (see the new buying rules).
6. Never the same ad twice. With the old system, you could buy enough impressions to ensure that your same ol' ad was showing up for days and weeks to come. Though repetition is one of the tricks in an advertiser's repertoire, repetition doesn't really suit the desires of the viewers who come here to see new and interesting things. You can advertise the same product as many days as you want, but you must do so with significantly different ads. (Don't just change the color of the background of your ad: that's cheating! Give us something NEW.)
I think that covers everythi-- oh, you had questions?
"Auctions? Cost per day? This sounds familiar. Will you be using Ryan North's incredibly excellent Project Wonderful?"
How do you speak in hypertext like that? Anyway, the short answer is not yet. I would be happy to work with Ryan in this capacity, but One Simple Ad has special needs that Project Wonderful 1.0 can't fill. He and I will keep talking as we develop further. In the meantime, it's Ad Peeps and eBay.
"What about the people who have paid using the old system?"
Fear not: they will get all the impressions they paid for! Remaining impressions will be served on a special "original recipe" page until they run out. I will also offer the advertisers weekend slots in the new system, free of charge.
"What if nobody bids for a day?"
Then it'll be up to me to come up with something entertaining for whatever I think is worth promoting. I have many ideas, and am patient. I think others will be running the content soon enough.
"I notice there are no bids available for next week. What's up with that?"
I expect it will take a little time for the bidding process to develop like it should. So November 13-November 17 is Charity Week at One Simple Ad Central, where I will use the space myself to hawk some of my favorite charities (sometimes with ads I develop, sometimes with ads they develop). Stop by, won't you?
--T Campbell |