All the news that's fit to link.
Old News: Early Humans
All the news that's fit to link.
The No.1 Reason Why Paid Ads Fail: Example Campaign Metrics
Content Warning: Speculative funnel metrics
Moz’s whiteboard video, “Why Paid Ads Fail”, concludes that most paid ads fail because brands are not known to their audience.
There's no trust, no recognition, and so the cost per click remains high and rising.
I see this dynamic play out at companies of all sizes, all the time, so here are some example campaign metrics to illustrate Rand Fishkin’s point in the 'Why Paid Ads Fail' episode of Whiteboard Friday.
The Zen of John McPhee: Rising From The Plains
“Hollywood cannot resist the Tetons. If you have seen Western movies, you have seen the Tetons. They have appeared in the background of countless pictures, and must surely be the most tectonically active mountains on film, drifting about, as they will, from Canada to Mexico, and from Kansas nearly to the coast.” - John McPhee, Rising From The Plains
Rising from the Plains not only changed the way I look at the Wyoming landscape, but left with me a certainty that geological awareness is good for you.
The Cambridge Analytica Psychological Warfare Scare: Facebook Data For The Taking, Ads For The Making
'Whistblower’ Christopher Wylie of Cambridge Analytica came forward this week to discuss his firm’s role in creating “Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool”. (In the industry, we sometimes call them “advertisements”).
Interestingly, Wylie adapted his PhD work originally geared towards fashion trend forecasting to target millions of US Facebook users with political ads.
The Old Man and The Bike: Tim Krabbe’s The Rider
The Rider by Tim Krabbe is my most recommended and most gifted book of all time. If the opening words of the novel intrigue you, pick up The Rider and glide along with Krabbe.
Old News: Secret Menus
All the news that's fit to link.
Fun Bots From The Botsphere 🤖
With all the negative sentiment surrounding Twitter bots these days -- and Twitter itself, for that matter -- it’s worth highlighting some positive examples from the botsphere.
Tabloid Future: The Question of Greatness and Quotes from “White Noise” by Don DeLillo
All the themes of the hour are contained in Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, White Noise. It’s remarkable that a 30-year-old work can feel so simultaneously current, futuristic, and nostalgic.
The Significance of The Number 8 In Blood Meridian
Each time I read Blood Meridian, I notice a new theme or motif. Upon this close read, I was struck by the conspicuous use of the number eight in the text -- and the conspicuous absence of any mention of eight in A Reader’s Guide or any other analysis I am familiar with, so I thought the matter was worth a few notes.
Given the care with which McCarthy constructed the story from the historical account of the Glanton gang -- choosing to adhere to some historical facts and manipulating others to suit his purposes -- the repeated use of the number eight in Blood Median seems deliberate and significant.
[Content warning: Blood Meridian-level violence.]