Anyone else out there remember the John Deere “Sabre”? It was a light green riding lawn mower with the John Deere name in small print. It was not made by John Deere. Turns out they weren’t built anything like a “real” John Deere. It was one of those made by MTD. One company makes one tractor with seven (or eight or nine) different paint jobs.

Then I heard about Honda push mowers. I mowed yards as a teenager using junk mowers, but found out through others in the business that Honda push mowers were almost bullet-proof. Then I heard - I think it was from Consumer Reports - that Honda wanted to increase their margin and decided to start using cheaper (and less reliable) parts in their engines.

Now it comes to Pizza Hut. I really like Pizza Hut Thin Crust pizza. Sure, we can get cheaper pizza from Domino’s, Papa Johns, and the like, but it just isn’t the same quality. Anyway, we were in an unfamiliar town and in need of a quantity of pizza and saw the ad for $5 pizza’s from Pizza Hut.
We got tooken.
It seems the pizza’s that are $5 apiece are ’special’ pizzas, indeed. They used an unfamiliar crust (you could not choose Pan or Thin), the sauce tasted different, and there was hardly any cheese. Quite frankly, I thought they were awful.

I most certainly can understand a company trying to make a little more money or widen their market, but what is the use of building up a brand name and then trashing that name?

Honestly, it’s not that big a change. I’ve just gone from a three-column layout to a four-column design. This creates more space to sell some more ads. Don’t worry. Running more ads doesn’t mean there’s less room for news. I’ll be running off at the mouth as much as I used to.

But I am selling more ads, both directly and through Google AdSense and Text-Link-Ads and other national services. The revenue is getting to be a bit more significant than just gas or lunch money. I want to be able to generate more revenue, so I need to open up space on the site. You will notice the large Google ad in the upper right hand corner. The location and size makes it perfect for the large video ads that are becoming more popular. I wanted a taste of that, so I made an adjustment. As always, I’ll replace it with a local ad if anyone is interested. Call me for details

Readers will notice that there are some active feeds on my site now. This new theme works with Widgets, which … well, the simple answer if it’s more flexible and lets me drag and drop content, including RSS feeds from new sites and other blogs. I’ll be adding more as I go.

I’ll be adapting the header image to the new page width when time permits.

I’ve also turned off those pop-up ads. They were annoying and no one clicked on them.

Some of the fine merchandise I’m offering now are things I’ve offered for sale before, but I’ve added some new stuff, most notedly shirts carrying the names of local high schools. I’m going to be adding new schools — including some that don’t officially exist anymore — as I go along. I’m certainly welcome to suggestions and will work with anyone looking to buy in bulk.

I also plan on creating new buttons with political and social messages. I’ve got one that fits my personal philosophy to a T.

In a way, I almost wish that the large ad I’m running was bought and paid for by someone else. ‘Cause an ad that huge usually runs for $150 per week.

I like the whole idea of Blogads. I’ve made some decent money with them. But I am thisclose to telling this company to shove it. I’m not pleased with how I’m being treated.

For those who don’t know, Blogads is a company that acts like a freelance ad sales rep for blogs. Businesses looking to buy space on blogs can browse Blogad’s list of member blogs and pick and choose on which blogs to place ads. These advertisers collect the cash, take a cut, and send the remaining swag back to the bloggers.

I don’t mind paying the commission because these are ads I wouldn’t otherwise sell in a million years.

One “out of the blue” ad came from the Ford Motor Company. Perhaps you recall seeing it. It ran in the left sidebar for the better part of the month. The ads started running on Aug. 8, and I expected a nice little payout the 15th of the following month, which is when Blogads pays out. That happens to be today.

And there’s no payout scheduled.

It started last month, when this letter from Henry Copeland of Blogads appeared in my inbox:

You probably noticed a blogad titled “THE FUTURE OF FUEL, THE FUTURE OF FORD” in your inbox today.

In my view, it’s the most exciting ad to cross Blogads’ servers in our four years of business.

The ad promotes a film in Ford’s BoldMoves weekly documentary series. Click and you’ll hear people saying “Ford has the worst fuel efficiency of any automaker in America… years and years of mistakes… these guys don’t have much time.”

This is an ad? Yes. The first Cluetrain ad.

Back in 1999 the Cluetrain Manifesto predicted that people-powered-publishing would spark a commercial revolution. Magnified by cheap web sites and hyperlinks, passionate individual human voices would drown out bland corporate-speak.

As Cluetrain put it, “most corporations… only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about ‘listening to customers.’ They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.”

But since 1999 we’ve heard very few real human beings speaking on behalf of corporations. Though it’s clear that web-powered human voices ARE winning, most corporations remain Cluetrain victims rather than victors.

Now, down a few billion bucks and peddling gas-guzzlers, Ford has drunk the Cluetrain cool-aid. Eschewing the “same old tone, same old lies” and the “soothing humorless monotone,” this Ford ad celebrates the brutally honest conversations that are essential to its revival. And Ford’s BoldMoves project finds an ideal counterpart in the blogosphere, the great American brainstorm.

So, enjoy your latest blogad, the first Cluetrain ad. I hope the American industry is lucky enough to create more like it.

Henry

I was enthused. I cheerfully approved the ad and started planning on how to spend it. The ad began running the instant I gave the approval.

Then I got this letter, dated Aug. 18, from Henry Copeland:

To maximize clicks, we’ve deferred the Ford ad so it can run again next week when there’s creative up for a new episode.

Remember, at this point, the Ford ad had been running for 10 days.

That’s more more than one week and less than the two-week ad I approved and for which I expected to be paid. By deferring the ad for one week, that meant they were due to run only an additional FOUR DAYS. What actually happened was that the ad started back up in about a week and kept running on my blog until yesterday, Sept. 15, and it stopped only because I finally contacted Blogads to ask why a payout wasn’t scheduled.

This is their reply, from “Justin:”

The Ford ad was a two week ad. The cache on your adstrip must not have reloaded, for whatever reason, since the campaign ended. I’ve just gone in and reset it, so that ad definitely won’t be appearing any more. Sorry about that!

Justin then goes on to try to get me to switch to the upgraded Blogads. I’m not sure I want to stay with the company at all.

I received the following letter this morning from “Hano:”

I have just checked you account in the old system and the amount for ad#3471388 is $220 which is your share of the ad. The payment from the advertiser to blogads is still not complete so we are unable to include this ad in payments to you. Once we receive payment for the ad you will be able to receive payment.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

I replied to ask if the Ford Motor Company is a late payer.

The reply:

They are not late payers, with these bigger ad campaigns and advertisers we need to invoice the advertising companies as with larger companies they cannot make payments via C/C or PayPal as there is more of a process to have the payment cleared and then sent to us. As these large advertisers do the bulk of the advertising this is something all of us can live with otherwise there would be fewer ads been sent to bloggers.

To which I replied:

So … Am I going to have to wait until October 15 for a payout on a two week ad that started on Aug. 8?

I’m being paid later than usual because a multi-billion dollar company doesn’t have a PayPal account?

Geeze …

What really ticks me off is that this ad ran for about five weeks on my site because the cache didn’t clear on YOUR end. That’s three weeks of a free advertising for a multi-billion company. I don’t know about you, but as a capitalist, I expect to get paid for the services I provide. The way it looks now, I’m going to be out $150 AFTER you finally pay me for the services I provided to your client. I don’t think that’s right.

New math: By my calculations, this ad ran for a total of 30 days. My rate for a one-month ad is $500. Ford was supposed to pay them $275 for a two week ad that — according to Blogads’ own posted payment policy — should have been paid out by the 15th of the following month.

Bear in mind that during this “free ad” period, I had NO ability to take this ad off my site, without removing Blogads entirely. I seriously thought Ford had extended the length of the ad buy.

I’m not getting any response to ANY complaint about being paid the full amount I am due. I’m getting lots of apologies for the lateness of the payment, which I understand in a way (they needed to tell bloggers upfront that the payment would be delayed).

But I guarantee you that if any media organization ran an — especially one from a large cofrporation — for more than four weeks on the say-so of an ad agency, and if that agency later said: “Sorry, there was a communication problem on OUR END and our client only wanted the ads for two weeks; you’ll have to eat the other two,” that agency wouldn’t be in business long. At the very least, some other company would come along and eat their lunch.

Blogads needs to buy a ticket for that “cluetrain” or someone will come along and replace them.

TOTAL FARKERS: I’ve got a brief update here.

UPDATE: It’s Monday, Sept. 18, and I’m exchanging emails with Mr. Copeland and we’ll probably talk by phone tomorrow.

Blogads,Henry Copeland,Ford,Cluetrain Manifesto,BoldMoves

The fund’s founder, Jennifer Wilfong is actually going to be making media appearances on WMBD Radio tomorrow morning; WMBD TV Thursday morning, WEEK TV Friday morning so I’d appreciate if you post about the impending “name change” that you’d mention this. I will in turn e-mail the stations… I’m sure Greg and Dan will talk about this.

Basically the Can Do 4:13 scholarship fund promises 4th graders at Irving School $1000 when they graduate from high school… they can use it for college or trade school.

The program encourages them to work hard in school and along with what Mike Illuzzi and his staff members are doing… really helps encourage positive self image and self esteem.

I very cool commercial is available at the Website.

I neglected to get this post up in time for the mention on the Greg and Dan show yesterday. My bad. But this sounds slike a very cool project.

Never Been Used. Supports Pentium4 Front Side Bus 800. Supports 4 DIMMs Duel DDR 400 with ECC, AGP Pro 8X/4X, SATA 150 Raid, 6 channel audio and Optical S/P In/Out. Purchased for @ $99. Will sell to best offer or trade.

Email me at peoriapundit@gmail.com.

Then I remembered: I took the modem out to make room for a PCI graphics card. I did it several years ago and I have long ago given away/lost./threw out the 56K modem.

So, anyone know where I cay buy cheap or trade for a working 56K modem, internal or external? By trade, I mean I am willing to trade ad space here on Peoria Pundit.

Any takers should send me an email with their phone number.

It’s Time Once Again For The River City Times Annual Readership Poll Naming The Best Of The Best Of 2005 In The Peoria Area!

It’s So Simple, Even We Can Vote!!

Just Click On The “Best Of 2005″ Button, And Place Your Votes For The Best Our Area Has To Offer!

All Entries Must Be Received By Dec. 29, 2005 For Publication In The January 5, 2006 Issue!

river city times,best of 2005

This affiliate program works by straight commission. If you make a purchase from any of these companies, I get a cut. So, if you are inclined to order books from Amazon or buy cheap stuff from Wal-Mart, please come to my site and get to these pages my linking on one of my ads. Thanks.

More and more, people are relying on the Internet to help them in their everyday lives. The Community MarketPlace offers an online Community for Buying, Selling, Trading and Hiring in Peoria and Central Illinois. It’s so easy and it’s local too!

The Community Marketplace advantages: Cost, Convenience and Control. It’s inexpensive, easy to use and puts you in control. No wonder newspapers are selling fewer and fewer classified ads and more people are doing business in the Web.

Cost – Using this online community is very reasonably priced. Did you know a 30-day job posting at PeoriaHelpWanted.com starts at $278? But a single job posting on The Community Marketplace costs just $5. For only $30, you can post it 30 times or $300 to post as many postings as you want for an entire year.

A garage sale is a great way to raise extra case, but only if serious bargain hunters can find your sale. Did you know it costs $33.65 to advertise a garage sale in the Peoria Journal Star? For that, you get six lines. It would cost a mere $5 to list your garage sale at Community MarketPlace . And you wouldn’t have to hold it to six lines. You can list as many items as you want. Our integrated Mapquest search lets readers get directions to your sale!

You will never have to pay so little to sell your stuff!

Convenience – And it’s never been so easy to sell your stuff! It’s a fact that fewer people are using print and TV advertising is too expensive for most people’s budget. Using the net to conduct your commerce business is so easy. The fact that this is a Peoria-based classified ad directs your ad towards most people’s target area. You don’t have to wade through lots of online classified ads nor do you have to wade through several print newspapers to search out ads or to place ads. AND, you won’t have to sift through a bunch of phoney baloney job ads!

Advertising on the net has other advantages. Readers can click our special “print this ad” button to get a fresh paper copy of YOUR ad. Advertising a home or apartment for rent or sale? Our integrated Mapquest search lets readers get directions!

Readers can use our integrated search and category links to zero in on YOUR ad. And unlike eBay or Craig’s List, readers won’t have to wade through hundreds of ads before they — MAYBE — find an advertiser in their home town.

Control – You have total control over your ad. It will appear exactly the way you want it. You don’t have to use abbreviations or short cuts. Say want you want to say and use as many words as you need. You can even edit your ad at any time to reflect a price change or to include multiple pictures. This is comes at NO ADDITIONAL COST for our subscribers!

PLUS! As an added incentive/feature, any subscriber can get a free blog at BlogPeoria.com!

Check us out at www.thecommunitymarketplace.com!
For more information: Debbie Adlof, 309-692-0644 or Bill Dennis, webmaster@thecommunitymarketplace.com

ads,apartments,for rent,for sale,fsbo,cars,classified, classified ads,rentals,home

The Peoria Pundit Black T-Shirt sells for $22.99 (2x and 3x are $3 extra). This is a close-up of the image:

Just in time for Christmas. I’m absolutely sure someone on your list is simply dying for a cool shirt like this.

cafe press,peoria pundit,t shirts

More and more, people are relying on the Internet to help them in their everyday lives. The Community MarketPlace offers an online Community for Buying, Selling, Trading and Hiring in Peoria and Central Illinois. It’s so easy and it’s local too!

The Community Marketplace advantages: Cost, Convenience and Control. It’s inexpensive, easy to use and puts you in control. No wonder newspapers are selling fewer and fewer classified ads and more people are doing business in the Web.

Cost – Using this online community is very reasonably priced. Did you know a 30-day job posting at PeoriaHelpWanted.com starts at $278? But a single job posting on The Community Marketplace costs just $5. For only $30, you can post it 30 times or $300 to post as many postings as you want for an entire year.

A garage sale is a great way to raise extra case, but only if serious bargain hunters can find your sale. Did you know it costs $33.65 to advertise a garage sale in the Peoria Journal Star? For that, you get six lines. It would cost a mere $5 to list your garage sale at Community MarketPlace . And you wouldn’t have to hold it to six lines. You can list as many items as you want. Our integrated Mapquest search lets readers get directions to your sale!

You will never have to pay so little to sell your stuff!

Convenience – And it’s never been so easy to sell your stuff! It’s a fact that fewer people are using print and TV advertising is too expensive for most people’s budget. Using the net to conduct your commerce business is so easy. The fact that this is a Peoria-based classified ad directs your ad towards most people’s target area. You don’t have to wade through lots of online classified ads nor do you have to wade through several print newspapers to search out ads or to place ads. AND, you won’t have to sift through a bunch of phoney baloney job ads!

Advertising on the net has other advantages. Readers can click our special “print this ad” button to get a fresh paper copy of YOUR ad. Advertising a home or apartment for rent or sale? Our integrated Mapquest search lets readers get directions!

Readers can use our integrated search and category links to zero in on YOUR ad. And unlike eBay or Craig’s List, readers won’t have to wade through hundreds of ads before they — MAYBE — find an advertiser in their home town.

Control – You have total control over your ad. It will appear exactly the way you want it. You don’t have to use abbreviations or short cuts. Say want you want to say and use as many words as you need. You can even edit your ad at any time to reflect a price change or to include multiple pictures. This is comes at NO ADDITIONAL COST for our subscribers!

PLUS! As an added incentive/feature, any subscriber can get a free blog at BlogPeoria.com!

Check us out at www.thecommunitymarketplace.com!
For more information: Debbie Adlof, 309-692-0644
or Bill Dennis, webmaster@thecommunitymarketplace.com

ads,apartments,for rent,for sale,fsbo,cars,classified, classified ads.rentals,home

In addition to T-shirts, both sites offer coffee cups, hats, stickers, refrigerator or locker magnets calenders, etc.

I’ve been thinking of creating sites with logos of area high schools, but I’m not willing to expend the labor and expense unless have a reasonable expectation of being able to make some sales.

So I tossed together a site that includes some products like this:

If sales pick up with the new prices, and if there’s some interest shown in high school products, I’ll consider merging all my shops into one and offering products for all area high schools.

cafepress,peoria pundit,branchly uppercut,woodruff,whs,t shirts