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This is great, and now let's say I want to productize this "sponsored by X" feature so other sites can use it. I can't assume every site owner wants to deal wit

This is great, and now let's say I want to productize this "sponsored by X" feature so other sites can use it. I can't assume every site owner wants to deal with figuring out who's the sponsor each week, so we'll automate that with some backend that serves the correct sponsor. We'll want to know how many people see the link and how many click on it, because we (and our sponsors) want to know how well these links work. Haven't I just re-implemented an ad network at this point? Is what I've implemented objectionable now, or only later as other bloatware features are added?

huehehue 10y ago
Obviously the latter is more objectionable, but the big factors here are control and transparency. For example, I'm uncomfortable serving ads from large networks because I don't know what the end-user will see and because it's nearly impossible for me to know how my users are being tracked. If your proposed solution was open-sourced and gave me full control of user data, I think that would make all the difference. With existing solutions, company A tracks users and iframes company B in so they can get in on the action. And maybe company B wants to loop company C in, too? Many advertisers deliberately obscure these things because they're either unethical or part of their "secret sauce" -- it's less users having an issue with their view & click being recorded.
gkya 10y ago
> We'll want to know how many people see the link and how many click on it, because we (and our sponsors) want to know how well these links work. That's an assumption not a fact. Presumably if I sponsor a blog I have an idea for the value of it. Ad networks on the other hand detach the publisher from the sponsor so that all the latter has to know the effect of their campaign is bulk data from surveillance. Direct sponsoring or good networks like the Deck on the other hand don't require that.
- codazoda 10y ago
  This is commonly what advertisers want to see but it probably shouldn't matter how many people see it or click on it. All that should matter is how many of the people who clicked on it took action on your website (email signups, orders, etc). If all advertisers looked at those metrics instead of tracking everyone on other sites they would probably have more effective advertising.
thijsc 10y ago
You could implement it as an API call. The site could fetch the current "sponsored by X" line and render it directly in the HTML it serves.
- jasonkostempski 10y ago
  But I don't want to point my servers at shady URLs to fetch random content, that's what the users machines are for.
  - thijsc 10y ago
    Well the premise is that you would trust the company you choose do business with for this service.
jknoepfler 10y ago
The author believes that personal curation of ads is an essential part of his relationship with his readers. He believes in his own value as a voice for products that he finds useful or interesting to his readers. It is very difficult to productize the trust of a specialist community, because smart people value authenticity and despise shills. If the author were to productize his model, which isn't impossible, it would require a great deal of effort to not lose trust, and his relationships with his customers would have to look a lot like his relationships with his sponsors (tightly coupled, personalized, most control left up to the consumer).
djrogers 10y ago
> I can't assume every site owner wants to deal with figuring out who's the sponsor each week Here's where you've broken the model - long before you get around to re0implementing an ad network.

huehehue 10y ago

Obviously the latter is more objectionable, but the big factors here are control and transparency. For example, I'm uncomfortable serving ads from large networks because I don't know what the end-user will see and because it's nearly impossible for me to know how my users are being tracked. If your proposed solution was open-sourced and gave me full control of user data, I think that would make all the difference. With existing solutions, company A tracks users and iframes company B in so they can get in on the action. And maybe company B wants to loop company C in, too? Many advertisers deliberately obscure these things because they're either unethical or part of their "secret sauce" -- it's less users having an issue with their view & click being recorded.

gkya 10y ago

> We'll want to know how many people see the link and how many click on it, because we (and our sponsors) want to know how well these links work. That's an assumption not a fact. Presumably if I sponsor a blog I have an idea for the value of it. Ad networks on the other hand detach the publisher from the sponsor so that all the latter has to know the effect of their campaign is bulk data from surveillance. Direct sponsoring or good networks like the Deck on the other hand don't require that.

codazoda 10y ago
This is commonly what advertisers want to see but it probably shouldn't matter how many people see it or click on it. All that should matter is how many of the people who clicked on it took action on your website (email signups, orders, etc). If all advertisers looked at those metrics instead of tracking everyone on other sites they would probably have more effective advertising.

thijsc 10y ago

You could implement it as an API call. The site could fetch the current "sponsored by X" line and render it directly in the HTML it serves.

jasonkostempski 10y ago
But I don't want to point my servers at shady URLs to fetch random content, that's what the users machines are for.
- thijsc 10y ago
  Well the premise is that you would trust the company you choose do business with for this service.

jknoepfler 10y ago

The author believes that personal curation of ads is an essential part of his relationship with his readers. He believes in his own value as a voice for products that he finds useful or interesting to his readers. It is very difficult to productize the trust of a specialist community, because smart people value authenticity and despise shills. If the author were to productize his model, which isn't impossible, it would require a great deal of effort to not lose trust, and his relationships with his customers would have to look a lot like his relationships with his sponsors (tightly coupled, personalized, most control left up to the consumer).

djrogers 10y ago

> I can't assume every site owner wants to deal with figuring out who's the sponsor each week Here's where you've broken the model - long before you get around to re0implementing an ad network.