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Advertising


The Advertising Policy at Zyra's website

I have seen websites where adverts are slapped in your face with loads of pop-up windows and obtrusive and/or misleading things. This type of thing (splat advertising) insults the intellect of the customer. Besides, it's distracting. This won't do, so on this site there is a sensible advertising policy.

There's nothing wrong with having advertising, but it should be done Sensibly. The principle here is that when you are looking around my website you are a guest as if you are in my house having a cup of tea. If you ask me "Where can I get some books?" I'll show you some books, and places where you can buy books. Things you ask for, I tell you about. But I don't see why, when you're having a look for something, there should be something distracting leaping out at you and telling you you've got to buy something which is nothing to do with it!

This "select advertising" policy seems a bit odd in the present age (2001/07) because it's a bit ahead of its time. I suspect I sell less stuff because of this sensible advertising policy because people have got accustomed to the hard sell. As the prospective buyer, here you have to remember to ask, look, take the initiative, rather than just be a passive entity that leaves it to advertisers to grab your attention.

As well as not having indiscriminate adverts all over the place, I also don't have COOKIES on the site, except in the periphery of the site. This means that some companies have "double-isolated" links. You never get a cookie without being informed a cookie is going to appear on the next page. Also, if I find my advertisers have a "compulsory cookie" policy, they get marked down as it is prejudicial to future freedom.

I don't allow misleading advertising. "Click on this moving item to win the money" adverts on many sites are often just a clickable banner, not a clickable image map. In other words, it doesn't matter where you hit it, you still get to the same place. Also things that look like a Windows system error box saying things like "Your system is not optimised" etc, - these aren't fair, in the same way that it would be if someone was shouting "Help me I'm drowning!" and then when you go to rescue them they aren't in danger but are trying to sell you something.

I generally test what is on offer, and if it turns out to be not as honestly described as it should be, then the links to it tend to get embellished on this site. So, for example "Get a FREE CD if you click here!" gets checked and then appropriate honesty added such as "Note: Free CD available only if you live in the USA and sign up with a recruitment agency" or whatever it is.

The policy is designed to let YOU make your choice, a free choice, with the knowledge in advance. You shouldn't get cajoled or fooled or distracted into something. You should be able to see what's on offer, make a free choice, then if that's what you want GO FOR IT!

Links which break the backlink on those oldfashioned browsers or try to take over your system on the basis that you've been fooled into buying an inferior operating system, they don't do so well here!

Something which I have seen some companies do, and which has then excluded themselves from this site, is where the company has an unfair policy. Such things as "The affiliate agrees to the merchant being the ONLY company selling the product at the site" (example) are anti-competitive and so such companies don't get an agreement here! (Although they sometimes get an unauthorised link, so it gives YOU the customer the freedom to deal with them if you want to despite being advised of the situation).

Companies claiming such things as "We are the greatest casino in the world", get the text amended to (for example) "This company claims to be the greatest casino in the world" etc. The latter statement is undoubtedly true.

Good companies do quite well here because they often get a free webpage on this site. This is very good for business, improves interlinking, and gives you the chance to save/bookmark the page in a cookie-free etc environment before you link to them.

Exceptions to the "No distracting ads" policy: The Links page. This has loads of ads on it. That's because it is a "Web surfing hyperlinks" page off the front page, and is therefore deliberately chaotic.

There is also the Internet Advertising Channel which is like a set of "Television Rooms" where you can go and see advertisements from around the world changing as you refresh the page. But when you go there, you have chosen to watch the advertisements! Anyway, it's quite fun.

Also, some pages such as the bookshops and the Linux are in effect marketplaces. So, loads of ads. But only ads for things appropriate to those categories. Also see Advisements which are advisable things often missed in the usual field of normal advertising.

One of the policies on the site is that competition and customer freedom of choice is good. So, in a category you tend to see a collection of links to companies even if we don't have an affiliate program with them! Also, being included in a business classification is free, regardless of whether the company pays for the advertising. They just have to ask. That way the customer has a free choice. (Companies may have a free link, but then pay to have a favourable position. But they do not get excluded purely for not paying! They have to do something much worse than that to get banned!)

If you would like to advertise on this site, CAN DO! There are loads of ways of advertising here within this fair policy, and you can pay me, or not, and get good value for money either way!

If you don't like advertising, and have one of these anti-commercial ad-blocking programs in your machine, see Help in case of problems with link pages at this site

Also, if you don't like advertising, you won't see very much of it, because you'll generally only see adverts when you are looking for something, and then you'll find advertisements for the things you are looking for. As a result, some people are now using the site as their bookmarks and index into the Internet. See how to do this

There are no stupid pop-ups at this site, obviously! In fact, we had to say goodbye to Motigo web stats because they used pop-ups. If you see any pop-ups when you are on this site, then the most likely reason is that your computer has caught some spyware. You don't need to feel ashamed and you don't need to blame anyone. You just need to get it sorted out. See Stop those Stupid Pop-Ups and Get Rid of Spyware

Can't say fairer than that.

Other advertising-related links here:

Annoying Pop-Ups and How to Defeat Them

Jiggling Banners (down with them)

Spam - quite a lot of stuff written about this!

Splat Advertising - a general denouncement of hype-based promotion

Select Advertising - a definition to show the contrast

Retargeting - a disreputable practice which is not done here! It's to do with those annoying ads that follow you around on the Internet, like a conspiracy of spying.

Capped Programs - capped affiliate programs artificially limit affiliate programs and seldom have a good excuse

Spyware Cleaners - how to get rid of unwelcome software which has invaded your computer and hijacked your browser

Sponsored Links - Sponsored Links are the New Spam!

Telesales - good and bad of cold-calling!