|
|
2004-09-15
Last Friday, September 10, I officially became a member of the Google AdSense program, which pays you to run targeted advertising based on the content of your web site. It's pretty easy to implement: just copy-and-paste some code into your web page and Google chooses which ads to run. After you earn $100, Google cuts you a check. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I gave it a try. I started running the ads at my math web site early Friday morning and thought I'd see my first check, oh, sometime around 2012. Boy was I wrong. So far I'm averaging close to $3 a day! That won't allow me to quit my day job, but wow, talk about exceeding expectations. If you run a web site with good content and have any kind of significant traffic, you are wasting money if you're not running Google Ads.
5:14 PM
2004-09-13
Google is running an interesting advertisement in search of new talent. The ad is on banners and billboards that reads: "(First 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e).com". That's all it says. Solve that, go to the web site, and you'll get yet another math problem. Solve that and you get invited to apply for a job at Google. Clever mix of math and marketing that simultaneously appeals to the brainiacs Google desires and generates a public image of the company being staffed by super-bright, ultra-cool, intelligent geniuses. On top of that, they're getting free publicity from media outlets talking about the ad campaign. I smell a "business school case study" coming from this one. However, I have to wonder if the campaign will really attract good candidates, especially now that the solutions to the puzzles have been published on the internet? I suspect the Google HR team now has thousands of applications to sort through, most of which are from people who simply wanted to be able to say they applied to Google. In fact, the more I think about it, I'm not so sure this was a legitimate search for talent as it was a public relations stunt. I think this guy said it best: "This Google ad works on a micro level, and it works on a macro level," said Fritz Kuhn, a senior vice president of Boston advertising firm Hill, Holliday. "The target-audience people who are going to see it are going to say, 'That is my language, that is directed at me.' For the rest of us, it just burnishes the image of Google: I can't work there, but, wow, those guys are smart."
2:28 PM
2004-09-01
I haven't purchased an iPod yet, but I have started using iTunes. I've been using it to listen to music at work and I love it for two reasons: (1) it doesn't pester me about upgrading to a full version when I open and close it; and (2) it uses crossfade playback between songs (ie, it fades the last song out while fading the next song in, like a radio station). I've loaded close to a 1000 songs on my computer, so now I just open iTunes, hit the shuffle button, and randomly listen to all my favorite bands. Love it! Oddly enough, it appears that iPods don't use crossfade playback between songs. That's a bummer because I really like that feature. The Rio Karma does, but some owners have experienced hard drive problems or even failure after a few months of use. I'm not sure which one I'll get, if either, but I definitely want to get something I can hook up in my car. The Karma is tempting because of price and its little $28 FM Transmitter. I suppose odds are in my favor that I'll buy a unit that will work just fine, right?
4:24 PM
|