On 3-1-08 I ran across this page on Adam Kalsey's site
http://kalsey.com/2008/01/netaudioads_bad_idea/

in which the general tone was set by Adam in his initial post of January 4th, 2008. His analysis was that the Pay Per Play /NetAudioAds is a flawed concept from the gitgo and the promoting of it is a scam. His page is FULL OF INACCURATE INFORMATION, misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed "facts". I submitted a reply but it didn't post on his site. I saw later that there's an editor approval process for some posts. Well, after several days, it is apparent that the editor decided he didn't want any substantial information posted on his page that was different than what he had already said. This kind of suppression makes me very leery of one who claims to be looking out for his readers. So I decided to post it here. In the process of running a spell checker on it before posting here, I see I "shoulda" done it before posting there. Maybe I don't want it posted there now.. makes me look like an idiot... jeesh....
 

March 1, 2008

Ah, nothing like nay-sayers and their ability to re-enforce people's natural tendency to be leery of anything new. It is so easy for casual observers to be critical of what someone is doing, especially if what they are trying to accomplish isn't fully understood by the observer. As a bystander, one might easily come to erroneous conclusions, and more so if making judgments based on other casual observer's comments. Self-reinforcing "told-ya-so".

Easy example we're all familiar with for the purpose of illustration... kinda like watching Noah build an ark on dry land and deciding he was a nutcase and deluding others. I'm sure many found comfort in their conclusions because the guy standing next to them agreed. These self-reinforcing observations served them well... till the ship left dry-dock. Can't ya just imagine it? Everyone standing about congratulating themselves for their superior intelligence, their vast experience and judgment skills. What the hell is rain? Who ever heard of rain. Rain doesn't exist. In all my years, I've never heard of such a thing. I can guarantee that rain is a hoax. Noah is an idiot. Who does he think he is. Wait, where did the water on my head come from?

In the comment above mine, a Play Per Play forum thread is referenced in which I was a participant. If one cares to wade past the initial comments (and some truly silly ones following), much correct info is to be found there. However, (not referencing any particular commenter in that thread) in the net world of anonymous user ID's, people are free to say anything and they likely might not if using their own name. Usually one has no idea if that person is an 12 yr old, some senile oldster, or the biggest scam artist in town. In the real world, we can see if remarks are made by a 12 yr old or the local scam artist and take that into account. In the real world, we see if the person is an uneducated idiot or an experienced professional. As Adam mentioned, I personally prefer to speak as myself and not hide behind some anonymous user ID or handle. People are free to judge as they see fit.

Every opportunity on the net to make some money is besieged by bottom-feeders, MLM hypers, click-fraudsters, etc. The fact that some of them have been attracted to PPP is no mystery. That these types will do anything and everything they can think of to get traffic is not surprising. But it also does not mean everything they are associate themselves with is automatically bogus. Some people should get their heads out of a dark place and learn to reason past the end of their noses.

Take Google. In the beginning, I don't recall everyone on the planet cheering that suddenly they would have ads taking up space on their favorite web sites just so the site owner could pick up some extra money. I mean everything on the net is supposed to be provided totally free of charge, right? But as we all know, Adsense did in fact show up pretty much everywhere, is mostly accepted by most net users as a fact of life, and has made many web site owners a little extra money or a very lot of money.

Have untold thousands of scum sucking, over-hyping, thieves and idiots abused (or attempted to) Google's system? Sure, on all counts. Does that make Adsense wrong? NO! Does everyone involved with Adsense represent Google? NO! Was Google proven correct in their venture into content-driven text ads? Duh!!! Is there a market for Google's ability to put ads on the internet? Again... Duh!!! Have web site owners all over the world benefited? Yep! Some make lunch money and some mortgage payments while some quit their day jobs and make a very healthy income. Last Google thing... was Google GUARANTEED to be successful with Adsense? NO! Nevertheless, they spent a lot of money and built an infrastructure betting that they could do it successfully. It looks like it paid off for them quite handsomely.

That all said, let me make a few quick points. Much of the nit-picking remarks above (and in many blogs) are incorrect by the way, or only marginally correct with numerous caveats, etc. This is a fully and professionally audited program and is being done on a continuous basis by BPA Worldwide. BPA is a nearly 80 yr old association of advertising industry people. The whole purpose of deciding to go forth as an audited program is to ascertain that NAA can in fact do what it says and continues to do so. Just as with radio, TV, magazines and newspapers... broadcaster and print media publisher's actual performance is known by all interested parties. They can't fake it. Same here. Ad rates and revenue will be based upon provable results, not speculation. Big ad agencies will not take their client's ad budgets and throw it down a drain if they want to retain their business.

Some quick info for consideration... NetAudioAds rollout in volume was delayed about a month due to unexpected massive system upgrades which were required by suddenly having to deal with the reality of an initial network footprint 5 times larger than anticipated and to deal with millions of bot attack threats attempting to game the system. With those challenges, large server farm system upgrades were required and accomplished in record time. Anybody who claims to have a spec of brain matter should understand the wisdom of being sure the system is as sound as possible before launching full speed. With that delay of rollout, the next audit cycle had begun.

Advertisers were willing to wait as would be expected, but many publishers were not understanding what was happening and as a result, some went ballistic thinking it was all a scam of some sort or that NAA was inept, hence many remarks found in the PPP forum and the blogosphere. There is intense advertiser interest and I'm convinced that will only grow. As an example of that interest, consider this... Due to the huge response, the PPP publisher opportunity was closed and no new publisher signups were allowed. However (and shockingly surprising to many), based on initial results, the ad industry was requesting an even larger publishing footprint. So as of today, 03-01-08, it is open again for site owners to join.

In fact, anyone reading this (Adam too, I'd be happy to sign you up) with even marginal interest in monetizing their sites with extremely minimal effort is free to contact me if they want some straight info instead of relying on what they find on various blogs. Speaking of bloggers, you know, bloggers have reason to create or perpetuate controversy. They like having traffic driven to their sites. They make money from traffic and who doesn't like to make money?

With PPP, the opportunity for site owners to earn income on their own traffic is great ESPECIALLY in light of the fact that sites do not have to be recoded to make page space available AND that it costs nothing to participate. But for those who can/will refer others into the tiered system, the opportunity for earning a residual income on downline traffic is nothing short of incredible. The thing is (and many don't seem to know this) is that the ability to refer others and earn overrides on that downline traffic is not guaranteed to be available in the future. It will remain for those who have it, but many in the future will only be able to earn from their own traffic. Is it possible that could change. Yes I suppose, but that is the current plan.

I have no special privileged insider knowledge but I am pretty good at sorting things out and dumping the chaff. Just recently, I've had some intense exchanges with the principles and in the aftermath, some much improved communications have and are continuing to come forth to the publisher network. As I see it, Voice2Page /NAA /Play Per Play is doing almost everything right. The biggest failure, (and one that is quite understandable once some background information and circumstances are understood), is that they were unable or didn't understand the need to implement an effective means of clear communications with the publisher base soon enough. But those deficiencies have been and are being corrected as we speak. Great things, big things, amazing things are happening now and it should soon become apparent to the many. But I'm sure the nay-sayers, net goons, 12 yr olds and senile people will undoubtedly continue. Nobody likes being proven wrong.

Last thing. Just as Google was not guaranteed success, neither is NAA. I believe it will be a tremendous and overwhelming success for all concerned, advertisers, ad agencies, NAA, and web site publishers. It is possible that it could fall flat on it's face as with all business ventures. But even if that happened, the vast majority of publishers will not lose a thing because it costs nothing to participate other than place a tiny bit of java script on some web pages of their choice.

Rick Stout said that....

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