Banner ads don't work. That seems to be a bit of common knowledge on the internet. Most of us are too savvy to get sucked into another website by some blinking obnoxious ad at the top of somebody's page, right? Well, I've found as the internet grows that certain ads work better than others. And it always helps if the ad is actually advertising something you'd be likely to buy in real life. So when I saw a certain ad at Comicon.com, I found myself intrigued, and I tried to visit the website. We'll get to that bit in a moment, but first I want you to take a look at the ad, and see if you can figure out what drew me in...
First of all, there's no flashing bits. It's not animated, and therefore isn't annoying. And it's simple. A title, a tagline, and an image. Nothing wild, nothing crazy, and just enough information that it draws you in... "he is the city's greatest hero who no one remembers..." I'm a sucker for a good mystery. How can someone be a great hero, yet no one remembers him? I can think of tons of standard superhero possibilities, but this one makes me want to know.
So I clicked on the ad, and my browser promptly exploded.
Boom, dead. Killed the app completely. General protection fault, stack dump, the works. I thought it might be a fluke, so next time I browsed Comicon, I clicked on the ad again. Boom! Same thing. Well, I thought, if they can't make their website good for all browsers then I'm not interested in their book. So there. And I attempted to forget about them and their ad.
But it didn't work. Every time I visited Comicon and saw the ad, that little spike of curiousity jumped out. You know that curiousity killed the cat, right? Did you know that satisfaction brought him back? I was in need of some satisfaction, and I couldn't get it while browsing on Mozilla, so I pulled up my Internet Exploder and took a look at the website. And I got hooked, partially because they have two whole issues up on the website to read for free (although one would have done it for me). So I ordered the thing, and also sent a snarky note to them letting them know that their website kills Mozilla browsers.
Anyway, as of this writing I haven't gotten the book yet, I expect it soon. I'll do a standard Rapid Review once it's in my hands. From what I've seen of the book so far, though, I think it's safe to say I like it. Despite the browser problems.
I guess some banner ads do work.
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