Yep.. It is true. Some companies are failing to adapt. But myself and others know that the key is to connect with fans and give people a reason to pay. Not just create content and charge money for it.
My site has a thriving community built around it and while it is hard to make yourself stand out from all the free stuff online, part of the fun is coming up with innovative ideas for generating traffic and revenue.
This post makes me sad. I have usually come to expect better from techdirt.
The government has not mandated this technology be used.
"It's too expensive" Is ALWAYS the reason behind companies wanting products to be less safe. This is why various government agencies mandate certain safety features in cars, airplanes, and consumer products.
Some or many of them are patented. But so what, there are many ways to innovate around a certain need using different methods. SawStop does not own a patent on every single possible way to stop a saw from hurting you.
When I got the slick packet from them in the mail years ago demanding a large fee and a percentage of revenue from my porn site years ago, I was a little scared and I was not sure what to do.
I was in no way about to give money to patent trolls, but at the same time did not really want blow a bunch of money on a legal fight.
Most of my content was still photography, so I simply took down all the music and videos, responded to their notice saying that the offending content had been removed, waited a while and then put it back up.
I have been in the industry for 10 years and remember in the early days trying very hard to fight file sharing.
But over time I have realized you just need to keep on your toes and adapt as things change. Identify ways you can add value and create things that people can not share by engaging your customers and creating a community around the content.
However, one problem I have identified that has put the porn industry at a much bigger disadvantage than mainstream content industries is that you can pretty much only advertise more porn on a porn site.
Sex and porn are rarely hot topics on my forums. It is all about the latest gadgets, music, politics, etc.. So if I could advertise products my users are actually interested in, I would make some decent money. But none of these industries are going to want to run ads next to porn. All I can advertise is more porn... Most of my users are not interested in more porn.. They already found some porn they liked and paid me money for it.
This may make it a lot harder for some adult companies to survive. But as long as I can stay competitive enough.. I will personally welcome some of the less innovative competition being thinned out.
PDX airport also has free wifi.
Honestly, I would be willing to pay in an airport if they had reasonable fees. If I want to check my email on my laptop during a 1 hour layover, I am not going to pay $10 or $20 for it. I'll go through the trouble of trying to peck out an email on my phone instead. But $2 or $3 would be reasonable to me.
I just don't see why things are priced the way they are, although I don't have data to back it up.. It would seem that they would actually make much more money by charging less. However, the popularity of smart phones and 3G will eventually kill paid wifi in airports.. I think
They can still trademark their logo. I ran into this problem when applying for a trademark. The words in the brand were too generic, but a stylized logo could be trademarked which I think is perfectly suitable in this case. It gives them a certain amount of protection while preventing them from potentially getting broad ownership of the word hotels.com and then trying to sue any other website that contains the word hotels and a .com
You do not believe for one second that google reviews their ads?
well you sir, are very ignorant.
I've been advertising on google since the day adwords launched. both normal sites and adult sites. I know from experience how strict they are and that everything gets reviewed by a human. It just takes a few days sometimes.
I don't think Aibo was that great of a seller anyway. I don't know anyone who has one, i've never seen one in person, and for what they can do.. they are pretty expensive.
My bosses read the spam email and fax stock tips they get.. as well as any other spam they get.. they take all spam for exactly what it says and never question it.
In fact.. I had to change their paypal password and keep it from them so that they stop falling for those paypal email scams.
I wonder if the advertisers were mostly the small business types who are used to adwords and have little experience in print advertising.
When you advertise in print, it is rare you will see a return on your first run. This is why people who advertise in magazines or newspapers frequently buy up ads in blocks of multiple issues. Not because they see immediate results, but because it takes a long time to see results.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Scott Owens.
It's true. (as Scott)
My site has a thriving community built around it and while it is hard to make yourself stand out from all the free stuff online, part of the fun is coming up with innovative ideas for generating traffic and revenue.
:( (as Scott)
The government has not mandated this technology be used.
"It's too expensive" Is ALWAYS the reason behind companies wanting products to be less safe. This is why various government agencies mandate certain safety features in cars, airplanes, and consumer products.
Some or many of them are patented. But so what, there are many ways to innovate around a certain need using different methods. SawStop does not own a patent on every single possible way to stop a saw from hurting you.
Finally
I was in no way about to give money to patent trolls, but at the same time did not really want blow a bunch of money on a legal fight.
Most of my content was still photography, so I simply took down all the music and videos, responded to their notice saying that the offending content had been removed, waited a while and then put it back up.
Agreed
But over time I have realized you just need to keep on your toes and adapt as things change. Identify ways you can add value and create things that people can not share by engaging your customers and creating a community around the content.
However, one problem I have identified that has put the porn industry at a much bigger disadvantage than mainstream content industries is that you can pretty much only advertise more porn on a porn site.
Sex and porn are rarely hot topics on my forums. It is all about the latest gadgets, music, politics, etc.. So if I could advertise products my users are actually interested in, I would make some decent money. But none of these industries are going to want to run ads next to porn. All I can advertise is more porn... Most of my users are not interested in more porn.. They already found some porn they liked and paid me money for it.
This may make it a lot harder for some adult companies to survive. But as long as I can stay competitive enough.. I will personally welcome some of the less innovative competition being thinned out.
Airports
Honestly, I would be willing to pay in an airport if they had reasonable fees. If I want to check my email on my laptop during a 1 hour layover, I am not going to pay $10 or $20 for it. I'll go through the trouble of trying to peck out an email on my phone instead. But $2 or $3 would be reasonable to me.
I just don't see why things are priced the way they are, although I don't have data to back it up.. It would seem that they would actually make much more money by charging less. However, the popularity of smart phones and 3G will eventually kill paid wifi in airports.. I think
(untitled comment)
Water (as scott owens)
Re: Well, when you look into it (as Scott)
well you sir, are very ignorant.
I've been advertising on google since the day adwords launched. both normal sites and adult sites. I know from experience how strict they are and that everything gets reviewed by a human. It just takes a few days sometimes.
People liked it? (as Scott)
People do it
In fact.. I had to change their paypal password and keep it from them so that they stop falling for those paypal email scams.
What kind of advertisers? (as Scooter)
When you advertise in print, it is rare you will see a return on your first run. This is why people who advertise in magazines or newspapers frequently buy up ads in blocks of multiple issues.
Not because they see immediate results, but because it takes a long time to see results.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Scott Owens.
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