MUSINGS

(photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdeye/)

Ok - this has nothing to do with Internet Marketing, making more money, copywriting,or just about any of the other small minded matters I try to tackle on here as often as possible.  So if a little bit of scary social commentary is not up your alley - simply skip watching the video below.  But if you want to take a closer look at the real power of persuasion and how social memes spread nefariously through small groups in cataclysmic ways ( and of course - you can draw any number of your own analogies as to how these very same sorts of mindsets are at work in our lives, business practices and the fishbowl economies that so many of us play in online) take a VERY close look at the last 2 minutes of this video.  The whole thing is worthwhile - but if you truly want to feel the immense power of social conditioning run amok - ( and of course the whole nature/nurture argument of belief) taking a hard, close uncomfortable gaze into the eyes at the end of this thing, is well - very sad stuff.  

I've always been a big believer that you sort of have to pick a solid monetization strategy on a new site before you put in the work - I mean, getting traffic is pretty easy these days with social networking sites, link bait, viral video etc - that you can ( and I often have) get a huge influx of new visitors to a brand, spanking new neophyte niche crammed with adsense ( or other contextual ads) and not make 87 cents for all of the effort.  I personally believe the days of big buck blogging on the back of easy google clicks are well behind us - and for a plethora of pretty disparate reasons.  Which is why I've spent a fair amount of time on here discussing alternative ways to monetize your network of sites either by selling ads directly yourself, niching out your sites to match a particularly good converting affiliate offer, or simply - as is my primary driver for this site - simply using your thoughts, ideas and experience as a lead generation tool to aquire new clients in a service related market.  ( in my case - private coaching and consulting)

Which is why I'm not quite sure what Ricky Martin is thinking - as other than livin' the vida loca, he also apparently is a bit believer in the Google Adsense monetization model.  The man has google ads on his website.  And three unique ad zones too.  Now - while I didn't spend much time vetting this out, it pretty much looks like this is HIS site and not some nutty nudnick with too much free time and a jones for listening to "she bangs" more often that the once a year William Hung American Idol re-runs.  I'm actually quite stunned.  What international superstar logs in and checks stats everyday and and wonders why his "home page right" channel is getting a better CTR than the 728X90 banner above the fold?  I don't know.  I'm hoping it's a desperate webmaster or something.

I don't get it.  I only recently put an adsense block on this site because I thought it would be cheesy.  And I can't sing.  So Just in case you are reading this, Rick - you should grab the OIO publisher Plugin and just sell the space yourself.  Or drop me a quick note and I'll help you come up with some better ideas for making more money with your website in 2008, and beyond - no special treatment of course, but between you and I -my girlfriend is a huge Gloria Estephan fan, if you can work something out , I'm sure I can hook you up with better ways to amp up the income on dem crazy fans.   

And I thought her name was Bonnie.  I knew this looked suspicous.….I've been Im'ng with this chick for like two months after hooking up on Mybloglog!  I had no idea that she was a) a Movie Star or b) really a guy named Frank from Dayton, Ohio.  They really need to monitor the little author image/gravatars more closely - or, I've got to get out more - or at least watch TMZ every once in a while.  I feel violated.  And to think I was planning on flying out to see "her" in Paraquay early March and have been trackbacking all of her posts on the "Earth in Crisis"  since August.  What a disappointment.  Looks like it's back to the lonely hearts Craigslist club for me.