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advertising that sticks it to the man

By September 22, 2008How To, Marketing, News, The Business

Yes, sports fans. That is an advertisement you see over there on the left. But it’s not what you think.

I’ve thought about putting ads on my site for a long time but have resisted because, well, I don’t like ads. They don’t ask my permission and they have nothing to do with me – but there they are, in my face. And I didn’t want to do that to you every time you came to see me.

But I recently discovered an interesting twist to the ad tale from Jessica Smith of Wishpot (and of many other cool places.) It’s a new revolutionary ad application called the MeFile from YouData.

You can go to their site and check it out for yourself (and try not to get distracted by the fact that the voice in the live demos sounds a little bit like George W. Bush – it isn’t him) – please do, though they don’t have all of the video demos up. But, I’ll also try to explain it in my own words here because it took a few explanations for me to really get it myself.

At its most basic – you are presented with targeted ads, if you choose to be, and you get paid by the advertisers to view the ad. In that sense it isn’t so far away from pay per click…ish. If you come to my blog, and you’ve created your own MeFile by giving your male or female status and your birthdate at least, and answered about 12 other totally benign questions at best, then you can view text ads or watch video ads from the adget (think widget) on my blog (again see top left sidebar) and get paid to do so…via paypal. The more questions you answer in the MeFile, the more relevant the ads will be.

If you would be so kind – you can split those proceeds anyway you’d like – with me (the owner of the blog) and/or you can set up an instant donation to the charity of your choice. They liken the ‘giving some to the blog writer’ to a tip jar. As an artist, I like to imagine that you’d all be throwing coins and bills into the open cavity of my typewriter.

So, what about privacy? The MeFile is totally private – not bought or sold, your personal info (social security number, address, phone #, etc.) is in total lockdown…the advertisers just get your demographic so they can match the ads to your dubious place in life, that’s it.

Only thing is that MeFile only works with visitors who also have a MeFile…We can only hope that they fill up, that soon everyone has a MeFile. But right now? It’s just taking off. Though they were at BlogHer ’08 and got a number of high-powered (is there another kind?) female bloggers pretty stoked (and I’m sure they’re at all the other conferences as well). It may just be a matter of time.

Check it out. I’m really interested to hear what you think. Sign up and let’s get paid for our time by advertisers, not just bombarded intrusively.

Talk about Permission Marketing, eh?

Also, Trae, from the YouData Team, is about the nicest guy around – he actually responds to emails and talks to you on the phone! Amazing. So don’t feel shy about contacting him and asking him questions and receiving high quality support.

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