Readers' Comments

Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 6 June 2001
Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.


From: Dennis Brown
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: macro payments

Would Aardvark get a cut of the payment for driving traffic
to the sites?

Aardvark Replies
I don't get a cut now even though I link to sites that are supposedly
earning money from advertising -- so I don't see why anything would
change under the proposed system.




From: James Laycock
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Ad-free content

I have got so used to being fed free information on the radio by the BBC
and CNN, and then in the last few years being able to find it myself on
the net, that I'm not inclined to pay anything for it. The only site I can
think of I'd really miss is yours, but I could live without I guess. I did
before I found it.

There would only have to be one free site available somewhere in the world
for your scheme not to work. Sorry. I don't often disagree with you but I
do this time.

P.S. I have an MSN Passport, but the data I gave to obtain it is junk. I
didn't want to give personal information away. No big deal I thought, but
I'm certainly not the only one to do this. That means the information for
"targeting" me with "relevant" advertising is also junk. This probably
goes part of the way toward explaining why advertising on the internet
does not work.




From: John
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: pay for content

Wouldn't it be simplest to pay through our ISP?  That is,
web companies bill isp for time or whatever spent on their
site by viewer.




From: ...Tom
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: targeted advertising

James raises an interesting point. I certainly never tell
the truth when forced to supply demographic information. If
I'm in the right mood, it's almost a game.  "Now what
profile shall I create today." You'd be amazed how many
websites Bob The Builder of bob@thebuilder.com has visited
over the years.

I'd have serious doubts about the accuracy of online
demographic information supplied.

Personally I think a lot of the funding future of the net
comes from non net activity. For many activities the net is
a value added service (eg take a look at the massive online
gaming communities). I spend up to 300 hours a month online
(admittedly maybe only 30 - 50 of that using WWW) I can
only think of one site that I may be even vaguely tempted
to pay for (cricinfo) and even that has alternatives.




From: bede
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: macro payments

Well when you think about it
porn sites have been doing it for some time

Under the adult check banner and other such schemes
where people put content out and the only way to get
access is to sign up for a subscription.

after signing up for a subscription some how the publishers
get money based on the volume of traffic going through a
site and i think get refferal money from new ppl signing up
to the scheme.

does it work?

Who knows they havnt gone out of business and I belive they
have been in business for a while now..

its not a bad scheme by any means, how ever its how good the
content is, im certanly not going to pay for rehased press
release that get published by certian papers,

but a good mix of thought provoking content and community
type feel where I can debate issues and give and recive a
jolly good flame every now and again may catch my intrest.

sounds some what like maybe newsgroups huh?

How can you make people pay money when there are so many
options are avalible to get information for free...




From: Steven Heath
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: user provided data

When having to provide "information" for access to areas of
a website the rate of misinfomration is huge.

I myself, if I do not see the value, normally use the
following 'demographic'.

97 year old woman employed as a student with masters/PHD
level education that earns $5000 (US) a year that lives at
zip code 90210.

Would not be hard to code logic in to stop this but only
ONCE has it come back and go 'please review your selection
again'.




From: Tim
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Dummy Profiles

A couple of years ago I bought a few domain names, some I
intend to use, and others for potential resale.  One of
which was khjk.com - who knows, maybe someone has use for
the acronym (not).  About 4 months ago I had an email
service setup for it - and was totally swamped with
emails.  I was amazed at first, but then if you think about
the millions of people out there entering junk information,
someone@khjk.com is a pretty easy email to use.




From: Jayne
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Micropayments

Whilst your idea has good reasoning, the only reason I would pay such
money for a subscription would be on the basis that they provide ISP
services as part of the subscription fee.

Paying for News subscriptions and also paying a monthly fee to be
connected to the internet would start to get a little expensive.   News is
available in print and freely on the air and therefore paying such a price
purely to view it on the internet would not be something I would subscribe
to.   (Even if I do hate getting black print on my fingers!)

Mmmmm....perhaps there is.....?
Now Have Your Say