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[Rokkuman]

Bonzi Buddy himself, was heany good, or was it just lame.

[wizardlife]

Gabe from PA has the best advertising rant in my opinion:

I gotta crack out a Penny Arcade Christmas card today but I wanted to
talk to you about advertising first.

You may have noticed that we are running an advertisement for
MechAssault this month. I have already gotten some mail asking if the
reason we have been talking this game up so much over the last few
weeks is because MS is stuffing our pockets with cash. I find it hard
to believe that anyone who has followed PA for any amount of time
could consider that a possibility. You guys should know us better than
that after four years. I have said on countless occasions that I feel
the key to any success we may have is that we have always been 100%
honest. Even when it comes to s___ like Metal Gear Solid 2 and Halo
we tell you what we think even when it gets us buried in hate mail.
The fact of the matter is until last month I didn't think the Xbox
was worth owning. I said as much right here in this very space
countless times. But things have changed now and I don't mind
admitting that. I play MechAssault every single night with Kiko. I
think it's one of the best multiplayer games ever and I am proud as
hell that we are advertising it now on PA.

That is the thing you should know about our advertisements. We actual-
ly turn s___ down on a fairly regular basis. I will be the first to
admit that we could certainly use the money some of these companies
offer but if the game is crap we're not going to put it on the site.
If you see something in that slot over there you can rest assured that
we think it's worth your time to give it a click and check it out.

Here is another little behind the scenes look at the way advertising
works on the internet. Game companies want animation. They want a
f___ing guy to parachute down from the top of your screen and land on
the article you're trying to read. They want you to have to interact
with their advertisement just so you can see the content you came for.
Everyone who uses the internet knows that this kind of s___ is just
frustrating. Look at sites like IGN, Gamespot, or Gamespy. You can't
read an article there without an animated bug crawling across your
screen or some flash ad blaring s___ty music. When we decided to do
advertising we decided that we wouldn't ever run any kind of animated
add. Some companies won't advertise with us because of it. Others,
it's like pulling teeth to get a non animated ad out of them. They
have this idea in their head that the only way their ads will be
effective is if they are annoying as f___.

Some of them are actually shocked when ads at PA out perform animated
versions at other sites like IGN. Here we are just a little comic site
and we kick their f__ing ass. We tell them that if you don't insult
people with s___ty flash ads, they are much more likely to actually
check out your game. I have never once clicked on a flash ad except to
mute it or close it and I have a feeling you guys are pretty much the
same. They just can't get it through their heads that people don't
like to be annoyed by advertising.

I feel like we have a pretty good relationship you and I. Maybe I'm
wrong but I feel like we treat you guys pretty well and I think that's
why you treat us so well in return. You click on our ads and buy our
stuff at an unbelievable rate. Those new Wang Fu shirts sold out in one
f___ing day. I mean that is some crazy s___. Tycho and I just want to
say thanks. We have the best job in the world and we have it because of
you guys. It seems like we should hug or something now.

-Gabe out

[toonski84]

wise words. actually, i just skimmed over that because reading hurts my eyes but i'm guessing its one of his rants over how he made more money than gamespy with just a banner. but i concur with that, i'd much rather click an interesting, related banner with descriptions than click on that damned tank that pops out of your screen.

the problem with your advertising, serge, is that penny arcade has something like hundred thousand hits a day. your site is probably very interesting and you'll probably get a nice community to visit it (like this one).. but it wont be getting the kind of following, say, a gaming site or an extremely popular comic would, and advertising prolly wont help much. they usually pay something ridiculous, like pennies a click and you wont be able to pay off even a small site with that kind of income.

[wizardlife]

No, he says that because they filter their ads for stuff they liked and think readers will like, and don't allow anything animated, a lot of people actually click the links instead of ignoring them. PA was 70k+ hits per day the last time I checked, which is an awful lot more than this site's mainpage, for example, but it's not even close to Gamespot or Fark or something.

[toonski84]

true, true, that's actually what i was connoting about not allowing animations, but if you have advertisers coming to you you can probably just say the word and people will click the banners.