Monday, February 12th, 2007

here's another advertisement (or "advert," as I guess the Brits call them) I put together for the site. Behold it, in all its animated glory:

There's an advertising program out there called Project Wonderful, which allows small-time comics (such as LIPP) the opportunity to advertise on other comic sites without the possiblity of ridiculous, over-the-top pricing by the more popular sites.

When I say "ridiculous, over-the-top pricing," I do not include Alien Loves Predator or Wondermark. Both actually had reasonable six-month pricing of which I took advantage. ALP still has my ad up, but Wondermark refunded what money I'd invested when David switched to the Project Wonderful system. And, that's how I heard about it.

For a paltry amount (usually 7 to 50 cents per day per site), your ad can pop up on a few sites of your choosing. Advertisers are determined by highest bidder, making the system all that much cooler. I'm quite excited about it, one thing led to another, a few vodka and tonics later -- well -- there's my ad.

Great idea, right? What could possibly go wrong?

As most systems, Project Wonderful's got a flaw: high bidder takes all -- and I mean all. It's a system that, in my opinion, is supposed to work for the little guys. We don't usually make money off our sites.

I used the word "invest" up there earlier. When you "invest," you usually get some sort of "return." My return is a higher number of viewers -- of which I am vastly appreciative.

But what about those guys who already have an assload of traffic pouring into their site?

I give you a screenshot of a row of six advertisement links from Diesel Sweeties, a site I visit on a near-daily basis.

You'll notice I named the file "bullshit."

Scott Kurtz, author of PvP Online, bought out three of the six ad spots on Diesel Sweeties' website. Why? What's the point? Is his "animated series" starving that badly that he has to boot three of the smaller guys out? Is he worried that readers for Diesel Sweeties are too inept to click on one of his ads, so he figured he'd give them a fifty-fifty shot?

I simply don't get it. Project Wonderful is supposed to be this system that gives the chance to folks to advertise their sites. It doesn't matter if the site's great or complete crap, the opportunity is there.

It pisses me off when I see a guy like Kurtz selfishly start snapping up ad spots and, thusly, jacking up the price-per-day. It's borderline abuse, and it's unfair to the rest of us.

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