Introduction from Stevo
Greetings Warriors from Stevo
I found this site, I found it interesting and I joined.
My background is database programmer since 1987. I made a horse racing website in 2000, then another horse type site in 2005, and a few other experimental sites as well. Total income over those years from PPC and affiliate sales about $40k. Not making much today, mainly due to recession, PPC banned on my main site, and lack of time due to recent spells of injury and then contracting jobs (my primary source of income). For me the web and marketing are still a hobby.
Spent last two years thinking about a question. "Why do people commit to an action." Came up with some interesting answers along the way. Don't have the full answer but I feel I have made a lot of progress in those two years. The start of the search began with reading the book "The 20 Greatest Adverts Of All Time" and the final answer will probably end up referring back to the examples in that book. Over two years I read thousands of pages of history mainly covering Europe/America during the period 1400 to 1900 from the 100 years war, to 17th century pirates and up to 19th century farming. This was a period of great change and provided plenty of examples of understanding how people are prompted to take actions.
Something I will proclaim upfront. Clarity of definition is the primary driving force of man and nature. Darwin's Law Of Natural Selection described this admirably. What survives and thrives is the thing that fits its environment with the greatest clarity of definition. A weed grows in a spot on the ground because nothing else can fit that square hole in the environment better than the squarest block (that weed). This same premise applies to marketing a message. The message should state exactly with 100% clarity what the content of that message is and fit with 100% clarity what the viewers definition of that message is.
Something about our environment. Since about the 1850's to the present we have been living in the age of pleasing the individual. Pleasing the invidividual has governed how power and wealth has been distributed in the last 160 years. It has culminated into edifices such as social networking sites and cell phones. But I believe these are also the indicators of the demise of this age. Contrary to popular opinion, billions of personal messages are to me an indication of the forces driving the age of individual weakening. Just as a mushroom cloud dissipates from an explosion. The age of the individual came about because of the use of coal, oil, gas and finally electricity. It provided each of us with 500 energy slaves at the flick of switch or turn of a key and turned us into self-contained deities.
In 5,000 BC we would have marketed to the beasts (with carrots). In 500 AD we would have marketed to the supreme being (with a ceremonial sacrifice). In 1700 we would have marketed to the nation state (with offers of loyalty to the state). In 2000 we marketed to the individual (with promises of self-deification). In some decades hence I believe we will be marketing to the molecules and microbes (with satisfactory environments for them).
As you can see I enjoy philosophies. But I also work hard at the nitty gritty levels of making something work and fixing the bugs.
Look forward to discussions both practical and philosophical.
Stevo
I found this site, I found it interesting and I joined.
My background is database programmer since 1987. I made a horse racing website in 2000, then another horse type site in 2005, and a few other experimental sites as well. Total income over those years from PPC and affiliate sales about $40k. Not making much today, mainly due to recession, PPC banned on my main site, and lack of time due to recent spells of injury and then contracting jobs (my primary source of income). For me the web and marketing are still a hobby.
Spent last two years thinking about a question. "Why do people commit to an action." Came up with some interesting answers along the way. Don't have the full answer but I feel I have made a lot of progress in those two years. The start of the search began with reading the book "The 20 Greatest Adverts Of All Time" and the final answer will probably end up referring back to the examples in that book. Over two years I read thousands of pages of history mainly covering Europe/America during the period 1400 to 1900 from the 100 years war, to 17th century pirates and up to 19th century farming. This was a period of great change and provided plenty of examples of understanding how people are prompted to take actions.
Something I will proclaim upfront. Clarity of definition is the primary driving force of man and nature. Darwin's Law Of Natural Selection described this admirably. What survives and thrives is the thing that fits its environment with the greatest clarity of definition. A weed grows in a spot on the ground because nothing else can fit that square hole in the environment better than the squarest block (that weed). This same premise applies to marketing a message. The message should state exactly with 100% clarity what the content of that message is and fit with 100% clarity what the viewers definition of that message is.
Something about our environment. Since about the 1850's to the present we have been living in the age of pleasing the individual. Pleasing the invidividual has governed how power and wealth has been distributed in the last 160 years. It has culminated into edifices such as social networking sites and cell phones. But I believe these are also the indicators of the demise of this age. Contrary to popular opinion, billions of personal messages are to me an indication of the forces driving the age of individual weakening. Just as a mushroom cloud dissipates from an explosion. The age of the individual came about because of the use of coal, oil, gas and finally electricity. It provided each of us with 500 energy slaves at the flick of switch or turn of a key and turned us into self-contained deities.
In 5,000 BC we would have marketed to the beasts (with carrots). In 500 AD we would have marketed to the supreme being (with a ceremonial sacrifice). In 1700 we would have marketed to the nation state (with offers of loyalty to the state). In 2000 we marketed to the individual (with promises of self-deification). In some decades hence I believe we will be marketing to the molecules and microbes (with satisfactory environments for them).
As you can see I enjoy philosophies. But I also work hard at the nitty gritty levels of making something work and fixing the bugs.
Look forward to discussions both practical and philosophical.
Stevo