4 ms·

Have you ever ran a business? Curious to how you promote a business without ads or sponsored content to get the word out there to the masses..

_Understated_ 7y ago
On that note, I have nothing against sponsored content. For example, a blog on programming that happens to have posts sponsored by a company that specializes in dev tools or something. That makes perfect sense! Sure, some of it can be puff-pieces for the company and they are quite clearly just bullshit but it's easy to leave and go elsewhere if they take the piss. A banner at the top of a blog post saying "this content was kindly sponsored by <insert company relevant to the content>" is a great idea and more should do it. But they don't! They use ad networks that track the ever-living shit out of every move you make. That's the issue for me!
Nextgrid 7y ago
Good old SEO? I mean if your product fills a unique niche it should be really easy to rank high. Get your first few customers like that, then because your product is revolutionary, word of mouth will do the rest. A real-world example: Monzo, a modern bank in the UK. They only very recently started using advertising, but got their first million customers with nothing but word of mouth. Their secret? Simply making a product that's light-years ahead of what the existing banks provide. Your product is not revolutionary? Oh then I don't know (actually I do - make a revolutionary product - switch industries if necessary), but you're not entitled to waste my time, attention & privacy with ads just so your business can survive. Being profitable is not a right, I couldn't care less if you go out of business.
revvx 7y ago
SEO, good content marketing, sponsoring blogs and videos (when done tastefully), product placement, engaging with communities, talking about it in HN/ProductHunt/etc. All those things are acceptable to most people who block ads, IMO.
- miguelmota 7y ago
  Some of those things still sound like ads. I’m not convinced that a company, for example one that sells shoes, would not profit from running ads everywhere
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

_Understated_ 7y ago

On that note, I have nothing against sponsored content. For example, a blog on programming that happens to have posts sponsored by a company that specializes in dev tools or something. That makes perfect sense! Sure, some of it can be puff-pieces for the company and they are quite clearly just bullshit but it's easy to leave and go elsewhere if they take the piss. A banner at the top of a blog post saying "this content was kindly sponsored by <insert company relevant to the content>" is a great idea and more should do it. But they don't! They use ad networks that track the ever-living shit out of every move you make. That's the issue for me!

Nextgrid 7y ago

Good old SEO? I mean if your product fills a unique niche it should be really easy to rank high. Get your first few customers like that, then because your product is revolutionary, word of mouth will do the rest. A real-world example: Monzo, a modern bank in the UK. They only very recently started using advertising, but got their first million customers with nothing but word of mouth. Their secret? Simply making a product that's light-years ahead of what the existing banks provide. Your product is not revolutionary? Oh then I don't know (actually I do - make a revolutionary product - switch industries if necessary), but you're not entitled to waste my time, attention & privacy with ads just so your business can survive. Being profitable is not a right, I couldn't care less if you go out of business.

revvx 7y ago

SEO, good content marketing, sponsoring blogs and videos (when done tastefully), product placement, engaging with communities, talking about it in HN/ProductHunt/etc. All those things are acceptable to most people who block ads, IMO.

miguelmota 7y ago
Some of those things still sound like ads. I’m not convinced that a company, for example one that sells shoes, would not profit from running ads everywhere
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]