Decentralized, the web — as a whole — is the property of no one individual, organization, country or empire. The information found on the web is held in an intangible format and controlled by a countless number of parties, scattered in data centers around the globe, tucked away on personal hard drives and isolated within servers in government and corporate facilities.
On a slight tangent of a related note, I’ll leave you with this.
Today marks my two-week anniversary of Toronto residency. (Congratulations, me.) It’s also Memorial Day Weekend for our neighbours south of the border. (Congratulations, Americans.) On a sadder note, Dennis Hopper passed away today, following yesterday’s death of Gary Coleman. (If these things come in three, I wonder who’s next? Just sayin’.)
Club cards. Points cards. Rewards cards. Have them? I do. HBC Rewards, Shopper’s Optimum, Subway, Starbucks, Indigo… the list goes on and on. And more cards are coming. Everyone is jumping into the game. And I love it.
Here’s how it breaks down:
Making repeat purchases? Get a points card. After all, you’re buying stuff anyway, so why not get something more out of the transaction?
Activate the card. Register online. Fill in your personal data.
Boom. Now every purchase you make is recorded and the information is correlated to who you are.
On a mass level, companies can start seeing trends across demographic and geographic markets.
On a micro-management level, automated services can cater specifically-targeted offers to you. Directly. Via email, txt, or (gasp) traditional post.
I love this mass-scale data collection for the same reason that I love Facebook’s advertising scheme: When targeted correctly, I don’t mind the advertising, because it’s relevant. (Eerily so, in some cases.)
The same applies to these points cards. I’m opting in and choosing to participate. The marketing messages I get hit with are relevant to me. And I like relevance. It’s fun.
At least, it’ll be fun as long as we don’t end up in this situation:
Disclosure: I’m not experienced in affiliate marketing. My knowledge of the industry is second-hand, based on personal research and word of mouth from those who have worked in the “field” for a number of years. I’m not an affiliate, I don’t have a vested interest in the industry and I see myself as more of a curious observer than an ambitious upstart. Keep that in mind when you read through the rest of this post. Thanks.
…
My opinion of Affiliate Marketing, as a tool, is fairly simple: it’s outsourced advertising. It’s the practice of finding agents and partners to help promote your product or service for a share of the profit. It’s like traditional impression-based advertising, but it’s based on results, not potential. Of course, as with most things that aren’t guaranteed, the industry seems to be relatively small — or at least have limited mindshare — compared to things like display advertising networks, especially for webmasters. Which is a shame.
I think affiliate marketing could be a great tool for publishers, community leaders and businesses on a much larger scale. Relevant, targeted offers trump generic banners any day of the week. I also think that there are are huge number of websites that would make fantastic affiliates.
There seems to be a disconnect between my thoughts and the thoughts of some others in the affiliate industry, though. At least based on the small, bite-sized look I had during a recent affiliate meetup. As I excitedly talked about the potential of online gaming communities (as in videogames, not gambling) — and no doubt irritated many of the other attendees in the process — I was met with both confusion and apprehension. “Videogames? Why videogames? What’s the point? Males 16-34? So you should spam them with male enhancement ads.”
Ouch.
It’s understandable, though. I was talking dedicated communities, long-term relationships and user loyalty – offering something to users that’s useful and relevant and not spam. It was less about making a quick buck and more about staying on message (ie., providing service for site visitors and users). Those around me, on the other hand, were talking about setting up fake Facebook profiles, misdirecting users through misleading landing pages, etc.
Ouch. (Again.)
If individuals happy making money that way, then by all means, have at it. I don’t feel inferior for wanting to keep my communities free of unwanted “male enhancement” ads, though.
In summary: Based on everything I’ve read and everything I’ve seen, there’s great potential for niche communities to embrace affiliate marketing. But spamming users, misleading them and abusing the trust you’ve gained as a webmaster? That’ll just backfire.
REDDEAD.NET (aka RDN or RedDead.net) has been growing steadily over the last several weeks. Here’s some quick stats:
We’ve grown to approximately 3,500 members on the forums.
Our daily visits have gone from 1,500 (April 25th) to about 75,000 (May 25th).
Unique visits have skyrocketed from about 800 (April 25th) to about 57,000 (May 25th).
Daily page views have also gone way up, from about 16,000 (April 25th) to about 275,000 (May 25th).
To celebrate, we’re planning some giveaways, competitions and other such goodies over the next few weeks. Adam (adamcs on GTANet) is busy preparing his uber-quality walkthroughs, and we’ll be sharing content with our partners at Red Dead Wiki.
It’s been a little over a week since I moved to Toronto. From a one bedroom apartment to a bedroom in a shared apartment, it’s been a massive change, completely different from anything that I’ve done before. But I’m adapting.
Some family members had their doubts when I said that I’d be moving to Toronto. It’s a big city — the biggest, in Canada — and they didn’t think I’d cope. I’m a small-town boy; the biggest city I’ve ever lived in was Newmarket, and even though it’s close to Toronto, it isn’t (or at least wasn’t, at the time) the same. They didn’t think I’d be able to handle it.
But, frankly, the city hasn’t been that hard on me. There are so many people in this city… I’m just another person.
With that said, I’ve made a few observations.
You can live however you want to live. You can play Local Tourist and hit all of the attractions that international tourists tend to pile into: Harbourfront, Toronto Island, Wonderland, Ontario Place, ROM, AGO, etc. Or, if you prefer, you can continue to live a “townie” lifestyle – avoid the downtown, shop at Sobey’s, buy your stuff at Mark’s and “eat out” at Harvey’s. (Of course, you’re limited by your means; as much as I’d like to live on the waterfront, I still have a ways to go before I can afford anything like that!)
It’s like going from Elementary School to High School. In the 8th grade, you may have been cast aside. A loner, someone who didn’t fit in. Then, suddenly, you find yourself surrounded by like-minded individuals in the 9th grade. A greater number of people means more opportunities to find people you can fit in with. I’ve been in Toronto for a week and I’ve already met other folks who are heavily interested in technology, gaming, and web culture – something I simply couldn’t find back in Kingston, let alone Peterborough.
And, finally,
Jumpers quickly go from “shocking” to “nuisance”. I know it sounds bad, and I completely understand that these are real people losing their lives… but when it happens four or five times in a week, the shock value of it quickly disappears. For Toronto commuters, it seems, “personal injury at track level” is simply a frustrating inconvenience.
I’m sure there’s tons of other stuff that I’m missing out on. After all, I’ve only been here a week – I’ve barely scratched the surface.
It’s been approximately a month since I launched REDDEAD.NET, a fan community dedicated to the upcoming Rockstar title Red Dead Redemption.
This was my first time launching a completely dedicated site, and it’s been quite an experience.
Up until now most of the projects I’ve been involved in have been collaborative in nature. REDDEAD.NET (RDN) is completely different.
From design and development to administration and moderation, most of the work has been on my end. The obligation I’ve made to succeed, and the promises I’ve made to our members, have driven me forward.
On that note: the biggest surprise out of this entire project has been the surging popularity of the community itself. It’s only four weeks in and we’re already sitting at 700 members with over 60,000 visits. (Once the game comes out, we expect this to leap up significantly.)
With my upcoming move to Toronto on May 15th, starting a new job on May 17th and the release of RDR on May 18th and a number of other projects waiting to go live, May 2010 is certainly going to go out with a bang.
