> what good is the e-gold webpage, as an advertising venue
Unless e-gold started data mining the spending habits of their users and
correlating it to the type of business that the spend was made to, the
only relevance that the advertising would have is that they accept e-gold.
This sort of data mining would require account type differentiation to be
able to separate merchants from consumers. This would require a major
policy shift for e-gold.
Without the extensive data mining and generation of user spending habits,
the probability that a banner will interest the spender would be down
around the usual 0.7% that untargeted advertising usually gets. To put a
high price-tag on it would be to create an false impression about e-gold.
That of 'The e-gold community is so small, and of essentially the same
mindset, that all advertising is targeted, thus the higher cost.' Is that
really the image you want to project?
Usually the only reason that a content provider hosts advertising is to
generate needed revenue. Usually the only reason that a consumer puts up
with advertising is get free stuff. For example, television is completely
free and broadcast over the airwaves to anybody and everybody; however,
the viewer must endure approx 25% of their viewing time taken up by
advertising. Cable television, on the other hand, must (in theory) be paid
for by the viewer; however, the viewer can then enjoy uninterrupted
entertainment.
PayPal has lots of advertising on their site because they purchased their
users for $10/piece and many of these users get PayPal's service for free.
These users also had to fill out a marketing profile, and confirm
demographic information in order to receive an account. PayPal is, in all
likelihood, dependent upon the advertising revenue to survive. The users
should have no problem with this because they receive cash up front as
well as free service.
PayPal deals with their HYIP/scam problem by implementing a 'merchant is
responsible for the sins of its customers' policy of freezing all accounts
that touched the 'scam-tainted' money.
e-gold did not spend obscene amounts of money solely for the purpose of
acquiring a headcount. They do not require a marketing profile to be
filled out, and do not even require a verification of demographic
information to obtain an account. e-gold, most likely, does not need the
ad revenue to continue thriving.
I see no reason why the user should accept this because they do not
receive anything and are still forced to pay for the service.
> It should depend on its popularity with small businesses and the
> average person
It seems like we have a sort tortoise & the hare race going on between
e-gold & the rest of the financial world. It seems kind of strange calling
something with a ~30%/month growth rate a tortoise though.
> but do you want to marry the e-gold webpage to them to do so?
The dowry for marrying e-gold to MegaCorp would be the privacy of it's
users.
After the question of 'How do we contact e-gold users?' comes the question
of 'What are their spending habits & demographics?'. So after the question
of contacting users is solved, the question of who is the user remains
unsolved. 'You expect us to market a product/service when all we know
about the consumer is that they use e-gold? What a fucking stupid
conversation this is.'
After that comes the barrage of SPAM. If e-gold sold, or in any way gave
out, the email addresses & contact info of it's users, they would be in
violation of their user & privacy ageements.
> Perhaps E-gold should be impartial to business.
Yes, they should. e-gold should just be an accounting system. Wouldn't
advertising create the same sort of legal liabilities that listing the
businesses in a directory, with the usual disclaimer, would create?
> Perhaps it should be like the blind-folded woman with the scale in
> her hands, minding the store, but not playing favorites --
Sounds good to me.
Viking Coder
________________
Worth Two Cents?
http://www.two-cents-worth.com/?VikingCoder
---
You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org
To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
