by Mark E. Mason on July 21, 2008
A few days ago, Garry Conn lost his mind and pulled all the ads from his blog. I am not sure what he was thinking, but apparently he got some survey feedback that led him to think that his readers would be better served without the ads.
Never forget what Mark Twain said: "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics."
I actually like Garry's ads because he screens them so heavily. In fact, he has pulled several "sleazy" ads in the past and actually refused to take people's money. That's right, people have actually sent Garry money and he has returned it because he thought the products being advertised would be harmful to his readers. To put it in Garry speak: "My Blog, My Rules."
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by Mark E. Mason on March 25, 2008
RSS feeds are cool, but to be honest with you, there are times when I get so busy it is hard for me to get to my reader. This, coupled with the fact that I am often mobile and don't have a great RSS reader for my BlackBerry means that I am never completely up to date with my RSS feeds. So, for blogs that I really care about, I subscribe by email. Email is great because I get it wherever I am -- in Outlook, on my BlackBerry, in GMail, etc. I "live in my email," so an email subscription is just the ticket for me for important things.
Now, one of the things that you always hear about email lists is that they are the most important cornerstone of an internet marketing business. Guys that are famous for information marketing will tell you that their lists are the real asset in their business. They document cases where businesses have fallen apart (due to partnership or other troubles), but were rebuilt later based on the strength of the surviving email list.
These ideas -- that email lists are part of the core of a legitimate and successful internet marketing effort and that they provide a convenience service to readers -- are why I started my own list. I have not done much with it yet, and I have no intent to monetize it any time soon. Still, I am convinced that lists are an important part of my long term strategy to provide value to my readers.
Now, you can imagine that as I am learning about internet marketing, I am paying attention to people that I have come to respect who are also successful. Note that there are many people who are sucessful that I do not respect. I have mentioned some of my favorites here before. When people I respect do things that make sense to me, I try to learn from them.
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