Re: OT RE: [cobalt-users] Ezula POSSIBLE PROBLEM WITH SOLUTION

[Carrie Bartkowiak <ravencarrie@xxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 18 Aug 2001 07:38:08 -0400, Dan Kriwitsky mumbled something 
like:
>>I used the WhirlyWiryWeb.com script to simply display a warning
>>message on
>>my site and a link to another page, again within my site. I'm not
>>sure why
>>anyone would want to automatically divert people away from their
>>own site
>>when they could easily provide the exact same information and keep
>>the
>>visitor on their site providing the exact same "service" to them.

Because people will ignore that warning just as they ignore banner 
ads. I guarantee you that they don't even see it, they are so 
conditioned to ignoring everything that looks like a banner ad.

I know that there is a potential loss of revenue by redirecting 
visitors - I am doing it anyway. Why? Because I'd rather not have a 
customer than have a customer visit my site and become Dialtone's 
customer because of those links. I am not in the business of 
advertising for someone else for free.
And that dumb alert on the top of the page does nothing - it gets 
ignored. You're still allowing other people's ads on your own site, 
and you're still sending customers over to Dialtone. I'm sure 
Dialtone loves you for it.

By redirecting people, we make it impossible to ignore - like a 
banner ad, and we really bring to people's attention that they have 
this crap on their computer. We also give them full instructions on 
how to remove it. Soon (hopefully this weekend), I'll also have more 
info on there about all of the private info that these programs 
transmit over the internet (Have y'all actually  READ ezula's terms 
of service? SCARY!!!)

It's another case of where YOU are in the business you're running. 
Are you there for the customers, or are you there for the bottom 
line?
Bottom-line people will leave an alert on their site that will get 
ignored, in the off-chance hope that a customer won't get redirected 
over to Dialtone (etc.) and they'll still end up with the money.
Customer-oriented people will redirect the visitor, so that the 
visitor becomes fully aware of what this does to their machine and 
their browsing experience - and they'll have a more informed customer 
because of it.

End-users will either get huffy at being redirected and never visit 
my site again, or they'll be thankful that I helped them get this 
crap off of their machine and they'll become loyal visitors.

I'll take the latter anyday - and I have no use for the former. I'm 
not out for the bottom line. It's a nice side-effect, but that's all 
it is - a side effect of providing a truly valuable service. The 
service comes first, not the bottom line.
--
CarrieB
If you get to thinkin? you?re a person of some influence, try 
orderin? somebody else?s dog around.