I’m gonna claw my eyes out if

I think I’m going to claw my eyes out if I see this one more time!

Somebody is spending a king’s ransom on this ad. I see it all day every day. Why? Because I am always looking into my Hotmail. This… this… this (sigh; must remember, this blog is Rated G) advertisement is truly omnipresent and always reigns supreme across the top of my page. The number 1 spot.
It must be costing them multiple, multiple-thousands of dollars.

This ad surely must be gaining them gazillians of new ‘patients’ for their ‘clinics’… right? I mean, it wouldn’t make any business sense if it wasn’t… right? (Are we Americans that hairy? Sorry. I digress.) But… it’s only a chance to win free hair removal… right?
Hmmm… I’m confused. Why are they spending so much and trying so hard to give something away? Can someone out there help me understand?

Way back in the days of Ancient History when the “dot com bubble” was our 
reality, circa 1997 or so, one of my jobs was to create animated “banner ads” and purchase their placement and monitor their results (I’m not real proud of that, but…). Back then, it wasn’t cheap — and if you wanted your ad to be seen on the “good” websites (the ones with the most “eyeballs”), you paid premium.

Back then, results (ie “clicks”) were irrelevant to your cost; you paid for a 
certain number of airings, regardless of whether you ad was being ignored or not. This was OK with us (to a degree) because of the concept of “Branding”… and because that’s what everybody else was doing. But we really wanted clicks: we wanted visitors to our store’s website. I don’t think that has changed over time. It’s all about the clicks.

Oops! My banner ad has changed position today — it’s in the number 2 spot. That move will save them a few pennies.

Perhaps one of my readers, who is involved with Internet advertising, could set me straight and get me up to date. Perhaps, Hotmail has promised to run this ad until a certain number of clicks has been reached — and nobody’s clicking, and that would explain why this ad runs 24/7 for over two weeks? (It would also mean that if I want it to go away, I would have to click on it several times a day, and get all my friends to do the same…) Is it possible that this laser hair removal company simply has a TREMENDOUS ad budget? Is owned by Bill Gates? What is going on (and I wish it would stop)? I truly am looking for some feedback here. (Click on About Tech Paul for my email.)

Tip of the day: As you may already know, the number one problem solver is the reboot. When your computer seems frozen, when your printer seems to be disconnected or your scanner isn’t recognized — reboot. It works on the devices as well. If your trouble is with a USB connected device, unplugging and re-plugging (oftentimes, a different port will make a difference) acts much like a reboot. If you lose your Internet connection… reboot your router (or modem). The simple reboot will resolve the majority of troubles. Don’t forget.

Today’s free link: SpamIntelligence for Outlook is a free add on that brings features found in Thunderbird to Outlook — Spam Assassin, AV, etc. — and audible new mail notifications.

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