This week, we wanted to shine a light on one of our all-time favorite companies (and, products): The Hamboard! While we're at it, we also wanted to talk a bit more about the "A Word From Our Advertisers" program.
We've had a lot of great feedback so far from the advertisers, regarding our advertising policies. Predictably, we've also had quite a few questions. Considering that The Solitary Life is built on a foundation of transparency, we figured that we'd go straight out, and address those questions, publicly.
First of all: Really, the ads are free. That comes as a surprise to most folks, but honestly and truly, the ad space is totally free. The basic reasons are simple enough: The Solitary Life costs me next to nothing to create (minus a little bit of time here and there). So really, why should we even charge for ad space, when we have no expenses...?
Secondly: I have no clue how many readers we have. On the other hand: That doesn't even matter. Whether it's one reader, or one million readers... The Solitary Life still costs me nothing to make. And thus, I can only forsee that ad space will continue to cost zero to utilize. We did install a counter this week, to see how many readers we do (or, don't) have... but, that was done more out of curiosity than anything else. None of it has any bearing on the ad rates, because they'll continue to be free, regardless of what the "counter" says.
Thirdly: It's no secret that I personally feel that money- and, man's incessant pursuit of accumulating money- has a tendency to wreck and ruin everything around it. This industry is built on the premise of "Profits Before Principles"... and to be brutally honest, that's why this industry can really fuckin' suck sometimes. The bottom line is that somebody, somewhere, has to put principles before profits, and tell it like it really is. Somebody, somewhere, has to stop putting their own stupid little interests first, and start putting "The better interests of skateboarding, and the skateboarding community" front and center for a change. Where they rightfully should have been the whole time, I might add. Again: That's one of the cornerstones that The Solitary Life is built on.
Fourth: The ad-size requirement. I put in a "maximum" ad size for a few reasons:
- I don't want The Solitary Life to be like fucking TransWorld, where the ads overrun everything else in the damn magazine. And,
- I don't want any one advertiser to steamroll over everyone else, with huge-ass ads. And,
- I want the site to be easy to scroll through, and I don't want a zillion outsized ads mucking it all up.
Again, this shit gets right down to the founding principles of The Solitary Life. The game plan here is to level the playing field between the big, rich companies, and the smaller guys. Obviously... all ads being free, of course... the ad rates are more than "fair and equitable". Likewise: I wanted the sizes to be "fair and equitable", as well.
This is a little banner that I created for Hamboards this morning. There were no large-size banners available online... at least, none that I could find. So: I took a digital picture of a Hamboards sticker (that I swooped at the Vans Warped Tour last week), cranked up the contrast, and resized it down to a "use-able" size for The Solitary Life. "Use-able" being no more than 400 pixels high, and about 600 pixels wide. It's way simple, but it totally gets the job done.
That said: The last thing that I wanna do, is to stifle creativity and originality on the part of the advertisers. Someone asked me last week, if YouTube videos would make "acceptable" ads?
Well: Given that they're still clearly in the "target size range", I can't for the life of me see why they wouldn't be...?
As long as they're not, like, 50 hours long or something... I can't see why YouTube videos wouldn't work well as ads at The Soilitary Life...? This Hamboards ad (probably from some episode of Evolutions) is ideal, maybe even "perfect".
As far as animated gifs, or other hot-shot "advertisements" go... you've gotta understand, I'm still figuring all of this stuff out, myself. If I don't know how to program it, or embed it... then, it's obviously not gonna work for The Solitary Life.
Last thing on the shit list: The Product Reviews. In the past, we have insisted on buying outright, all products that we've reviewed here on The Solitary Life. Again, that was an ethical decision on our part: We didn't want to be "bound" to give a favorable review, just because we got something for free. And, I'd rather support the companies by simply paying for my shit.
The emerging problem that this is causing, though, is pretty simple: Everyone wants their stuff reviewed, right away. Yet, our bank account is approaching "nil" mighty quick...!
Now, this is a very, very real problem...
A couple of years ago (when I was still at Concrete Wave), Pete Hamborg was kind and gracious enough to send over a Hamboards "Fish" for me to check out. I've totally forgotten the reason why he sent it... was I supposed to review it for The Wave? In any rate, it ended up going out on tour with me to skateshops all over the midwest for a couple of years. Yeah, its not the easiest thing to tote about in the EconoCar. On the other hand: Seeing people's faces when they first lay eyes on a Hamboard, is so totally worth it...
The only thing that I never did end up doing, was a "proper" Product Review on it! I suck, and I know it. Thankfully, the Hamboards line has stayed pretty static over the years... the only real "change" being, the addition of a bamboo line... so, we've decided to finally give this "Forty Pounds of Fun" the full-on Product Review that it has rightfully deserved all along. Watch for it next week (or so)...
As such, this might require a change of policy. The new policy will be: We will happily pay for Product Review products when we can, and/or, as our budget allows us to do so. This policy is probably best applied to companies that I'm already familiar with (as there's little to no risk of me buying something that is ultimately gonna suck, or otherwise be a complete waste of money).
On the other hand: If you're a new, unheard-of company with little to no "track record"? Or: If you're in some mega-hurry to get your latest and greatest reviewed...? You might have to eat a few greens, and send that one in as a freebie. Our budget waits for noone, except for the next paycheck. Sorry, man. Reality sucks, sometimes...!
Thanks to everyone that has contributed something to The Solitary Life- including, of course, our advertisers. By keeping us up-to-date on your newest stuff, you're helping to keep us- and, our readers- better informed.
That's what The Solitary Life is here to do.
