Attention of users as the universal value of the Internet, or support your favorite resources!
The world economic crisis is gaining momentum. Analysts, except that bets do not bet on which project will survive the crisis, and who will bend. Advertising budgets are shrinking, and Internet resources that receive money from advertising at home are forced to compete with renewed vigor for advertisers, proving that it is most profitable for them to advertise with them.
But advertisers spend money not just for their banners to decorate numerous websites. They want our attention. The attention of Internet users who visit when they are great, when they are average, and when they are frankly shitty projects. And it is up to us, the users of the network, which of the sites will give an end, and which will survive the crisis, having found advertisers in a falling market. Because our attention is the very universal value that the advertiser is so after.
Every day I visit dozens of sites. I go to some myself, some I visit on the links that I meet on FriendFeed, on the Habré or in the blogs that I read. And if I am grateful to the creators of some sites for creating and maintaining them, many sites, in my opinion, would be better not to appear on the network, since they only pollute the information environment. I wouldn’t go to them at all, but when you click on a link, you don’t always imagine what kind of site awaits you for it.
Can I somehow influence the number of bad sites on the Internet, and at the same time, good sites survived the crisis? Certainly can! Not alone, really, but I can! To do this, it is enough for all of us to stop giving the universal currency of the Internet - our attention to you - to advertisers who advertise on bad sites, and vice versa - to pay our attention to their advertisers to those sites that we like. In the conditions of the economic crisis, when advertisers especially carefully monitor the effectiveness of advertising, this will reduce the revenue of those sites that you do not like, and help your favorite sites survive the crisis.
I do not urge you to opt for the worst products or services that are advertised on sites that you like. But if you make a choice between two products of equal value, one of which supports your favorite site with your advertising money, then why, ceteris paribus, make your choice in favor of this product?
I think that if we become more prudent, using our attention, we can make the Internet cleaner and better. If I don’t like the advertisement inserted by LJ after the first post, then no matter how attractive the advertisement sounds, I won’t click on it out of principle. If so many will act, the SUP will be forced to remove the ad unit from there, because advertisers simply will not pay them for it because of too little conversion. If I like - despite all its shortcomings - Habrahabr, then at least I'll see what exactly the advertiser advertises for me.
Let's all together support in difficult conditions those sites that we like! After all, this is what we can do without money - we only need to realize that our attention is a value, and that we can thank people who create our favorite sites with this currency.
UPD: It surprises me that some readers see the call “pay attention” as a call to click on a banner. In a little more detail I expressed my opinion in this comment .
But advertisers spend money not just for their banners to decorate numerous websites. They want our attention. The attention of Internet users who visit when they are great, when they are average, and when they are frankly shitty projects. And it is up to us, the users of the network, which of the sites will give an end, and which will survive the crisis, having found advertisers in a falling market. Because our attention is the very universal value that the advertiser is so after.
Every day I visit dozens of sites. I go to some myself, some I visit on the links that I meet on FriendFeed, on the Habré or in the blogs that I read. And if I am grateful to the creators of some sites for creating and maintaining them, many sites, in my opinion, would be better not to appear on the network, since they only pollute the information environment. I wouldn’t go to them at all, but when you click on a link, you don’t always imagine what kind of site awaits you for it.
Can I somehow influence the number of bad sites on the Internet, and at the same time, good sites survived the crisis? Certainly can! Not alone, really, but I can! To do this, it is enough for all of us to stop giving the universal currency of the Internet - our attention to you - to advertisers who advertise on bad sites, and vice versa - to pay our attention to their advertisers to those sites that we like. In the conditions of the economic crisis, when advertisers especially carefully monitor the effectiveness of advertising, this will reduce the revenue of those sites that you do not like, and help your favorite sites survive the crisis.
I do not urge you to opt for the worst products or services that are advertised on sites that you like. But if you make a choice between two products of equal value, one of which supports your favorite site with your advertising money, then why, ceteris paribus, make your choice in favor of this product?
I think that if we become more prudent, using our attention, we can make the Internet cleaner and better. If I don’t like the advertisement inserted by LJ after the first post, then no matter how attractive the advertisement sounds, I won’t click on it out of principle. If so many will act, the SUP will be forced to remove the ad unit from there, because advertisers simply will not pay them for it because of too little conversion. If I like - despite all its shortcomings - Habrahabr, then at least I'll see what exactly the advertiser advertises for me.
Let's all together support in difficult conditions those sites that we like! After all, this is what we can do without money - we only need to realize that our attention is a value, and that we can thank people who create our favorite sites with this currency.
UPD: It surprises me that some readers see the call “pay attention” as a call to click on a banner. In a little more detail I expressed my opinion in this comment .