Dear Ridley Report advertisers:
I wanted to update you with regard to some things that affect you. First, as you may have noticed, I am now broadcasting live from the scene in some cases. Live remotes are a great tool but an easy thing to abuse. When they came to television in the 80s, viewers were subsequently subjected to decades of boring reporter standups in front of empty buildings. My live remote situation lends itself to a different kind of abuse. If I air a live report, and try to do a live ad in the process, it may not be as interesting or "correct" as the ads I normally edit for you. I may not be able to put your link in the video description at first. Eventually I may get to the point where the live ads are just as good in their own way, but for now they are not worth charging you full price over. If it's okay with you, here's how I'll work this for now. I may advertise you live...but if I do so I'll charge you half price for that ad. Once I am content that I have refined the live approach to the point where it rivals the taped ads....The price will probably end up being the same for each. Let me know if you have any issues with this approach.
Another issue I should bring up: Since I've now become a youtube parter, I'm allowed to "autoplay" my featured video. This may artificially increase my number of hits, on some vids. I'm checking to see if there is a marked increase. If it is I may institute a discount of some kind, or further delay rate incrases. If not...then my rates will not be effected by the autoplay.
I can't drop my rates too much or I will be unable to fulfill orders on a timely basis.
Ultimately I don't really like autoplay, or artificial hit increases...even though the source of the increase is youtube itself. However an artificial increase would trigger a subsequent *natural* increase. It would put me on various youtube positions I otherwise don't achieve, thus getting me new viewers who *aren't* affected by the autoplay. Additionally, even if there are people viewing only the first ten seconds of "your" story...they are still going to see your URL and hear your jingle.
So I probably shouldn't say no to autoplay unless you specifically request it. I can only make sure you are still getting what you pay for. The latter I am doing and keeping an eye on the situation, trying to answer several questions: Is it boosting hits much? Is the boost artificial? If artificial, is it resulting in more people counting as hits but failing to see the ad? So far it doesn't seem to be having much effect but it may take another week or two to figure out. Autoplay began around 2/13.
BTW about 1/2 of vids will be affected by autoplay, for about 12 hours on average.
Lastly I wanted to make sure that all of you are aware of the big discount that goes into effect whenever you order $100 or more worth of ads. The price goes down 30 percent. It becomes 2 cents per first-week video view.
Let me know if you have any questions, concerns or instructions for me.
To hear the latest "news for advertisers," visit
http://nhunderground.com/forum/index.php?topic=15218.0I include this link in most video descriptions and will probably put it on my youtube page next.
I will not normally send mass mails like this.
Thanks again all of you for....
Your support..
Of the report!
Dave