Networking Sites
Until a few days ago I had avoided networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and such. Over the years I’ve occasionally received invites from Chad or Dean to join their networks, but I’ve avoided visiting these sites more than once or twice. I’m not sure why; maybe it’s because I don’t have many friends at my age (quality trumps quantity – and freedom on a Saturday afternoon trumps having to help a friend move) or maybe it’s because I come from the Usenet generation, where people wrote and exchanged ideas on forums. Whatever it is, I haven’t felt that I was missing out on anything.
Until now. I’m trying to promote the Ministry of Propaganda, my Cafepress shop. It doesn’t sell very much today, and I feel that my designs are good enough to sell more. I got to talking about the store with my colleagues at work, and one suggested that I explore promoting it using one of the networking sites. I’ve tried Google adwords, and it’s too expensive. I’m also running a Blogads ad, but the click thru rate (CTR) is quite low; when you figure that most clicks don’t net in sales, and that my average sale nets me a buck, the odds of this working are rather long. So free advertising is really the only kind I can afford at this point.
Which leads me to Facebook and Myspace. These sites seem pretty closed off to someone like me; like going to a restaurant alone and there aren’t any free tables. So I’m messing around with the sites, and man I just don’t get it. I’ll keep messing around with them, but technologically they make me feel like I’m a freakin’ geezer.
mgroves:
Just don’t go to “Pimp My Myspace” or anything and you’ll be fine.
17 April 2008, 7:54 am