When Seth Godin called ads “the new online tip jar” –
If every time you read a blog post or bit of online content you enjoyed you clicked on an ad to say thanks, the economics of the web would change immediately. You don’t have to buy anything (though it’s fine if you do). You just have to honor the writer by giving them a click. You still get what you pay for, even if you pay with attention.
– hell broke loose in internet marketing circles –
That’s all fine and good, except that it screws the advertisers who end up paying for empty clicks and get a poor ROI. Ultimately, those advertisers get priced out of PPC advertising and there is less demand to run ads on the sites with great content that are getting all the thank you clicks. Yes, “the economics of the web would change immediately,” as Godin states. We’d go from a system that works to one where everybody would lose. (Shawn Collins)
