Housekeeping items
posted at 2:55 pm on June 1, 2007 by Michelle
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Just a few things of note: You may have noticed the new ads on the sidebar. We’re pleased to announce that we’ve joined Pajamas Media. My personal blog has been part of the network since PJM’s inception. Lots of readers/viewers ask how they can help support us. Well, supporting our advertisers always helps. With backing from our new partners at PJM, we’ll continue to do our very best to serve, stimulate, inform, and entertain you as we have for the past year.
We’re grateful to Henry Copeland and Blogads for their past service.
Also, our webmaster extraordinaire Mark Jaquith is joining b5 media. Please send him congrats and good luck. He’ll continue to provide services for us, along with King of Fools. But we can always use extra help. If you know of any WordPress gurus with some spare time, let us know.
Finally, Ian Schwartz is leaving his part-time position here to spread his wings. We’re grateful for his contributions to the site and wish him the best in his college studies and future. He was onto the video blogging revolution before it had a name. He’ll still be a regular presence here as a fellow commenter and, as he told me, “I will still visit Hot Air a 100 times a day.” You can reach him at i88schwartz@gmail.com and his blog is at www.ianschwartz.com.
Carry on!
–The Boss
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Good luck to all the HA Alum! All the best in the future!
Ian, really enjoyed your postings and will be checking in at your blog. GOOD LUCK!
labwrs on June 1, 2007 at 3:09 PM
Thanks for the Heads-up Boss. And Ian, hate to see you go man, I really enjoyed all your stuff !!
Maxx on June 1, 2007 at 3:12 PM
Good luck, Ian. Will put your blog in my faves.
Brat on June 1, 2007 at 3:17 PM
Good luck Ian. If you ever get to Wise County, Texas there is beer and BBQ waiting, and I’ll even throw in some grits.
Limerick on June 1, 2007 at 3:18 PM
Mark Jaquith should have a blast at B5. I hear Darren Rowse is a great guy.
Ian, thanks for all you’ve done here. I, too, have added you to my Blogroll and favorites.
amerpundit on June 1, 2007 at 3:34 PM
Good Luck Ian, will be by as well as I’ve “known” you for well over a year now from your old site to here. Good Luck in all you do. Good luck to Mark as well.
Thanks to Allah, Bryan and of course-The Boss for all you do everyday.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Catie96706 on June 1, 2007 at 3:35 PM
Limerick, why would he want to go to Wise County when he could go to Dallas County :P
Seriously, best of luck to Ian as he furiously flaps his wings.
PattyAnn on June 1, 2007 at 3:37 PM
Yes, Michelle, but you don’t have any advertisers at this point to support. I’m not sure what Pajamas Media’s business plan is since the PM home site and all its affiliates don’t seem to be accepting any advertisements at all. It seems to me that they are building their brand first, and then worrying about revenue later.
It’s nice of you to thank Henry Copeland and Blogads. Mr. Copeland, though, did not underwrite Hot Air, but rather it was your advertisers who used his service, like myself, who have helped make the site a success. Frankly, I feel a bit abandoned. First you tripled your ad rates, and now that you are part of PM I suspect when they do start accepting ads for Hot Air, the rates will be even more expensive.
This is the second time that affiliating with PM has effectively made a blog off limits to me as an advertising venue. I was one of LGF’s original advertisers.
Advertising on blogs is a very effective way of reaching an already preselected audience, particularly for a small business like my own. They can allow a small business to grow. Unfortunately, the consolidation of blogs into networks like PM seems to be done so that the networks can solicit advertising business from large corporations. This movement away from the grassroots and entrepreneurs seems contrary to the spirit of blogs.
rokemronnie on June 1, 2007 at 3:40 PM
Thank you all, it means a lot.
Ian on June 1, 2007 at 4:11 PM
Good luck Ian. Because of you I was able to join the elite company of commentators when you made the switch from the Political Teen to Hot Air. Thanks for your help. Hope to see you posting again some day.
Mallard T. Drake on June 1, 2007 at 4:17 PM
I don’t notice any ads at all - I use Firefox w/ script and popup blocking.
peski on June 1, 2007 at 4:18 PM
Sorry, …from Expose the Left to Hot Air.
Mallard T. Drake on June 1, 2007 at 4:23 PM
Hey Ian>>>>you shouldn’t have to flap too hard from this great perch. You were so sweet at CPAC.
GOOD LUCK, love. ;)
seejanemom on June 1, 2007 at 4:37 PM
Ian, sad to see you go, but glad to see its for a good reason. Good luck.
Number 2 on June 1, 2007 at 4:37 PM
Best of luck, Ian!
see-dubya on June 1, 2007 at 4:54 PM
mmmm… stimulate… Keep it coming.
And good luck, Ian.
Lawrence on June 1, 2007 at 5:25 PM
I fear change… ;P
Good luck Ian and Mark!
SilverStar830 on June 1, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Good luck, Mark.
Ian, Ian, my boy, life does go on after Rosie. Just kidding, good luck, I enjoyed all your posts (good job)!
Rick on June 1, 2007 at 6:10 PM
Ian,
May the roads rise to meet you.
May the wind be at your back.
*sniff*
RushBaby on June 1, 2007 at 6:35 PM
Michelle, Bryan, Allah and Ian… in the words of my hero, Gen. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, “May God Bless you all”.
Best of luck to Ian, and to all those associated with this fabulous meeting place.
Zorro on June 1, 2007 at 7:01 PM
Is there any reason why HotAir cannot support both small and large business adds?
Does PM stipulate that by joining their network you cannot work with any other ad networks? I would assume so.
If not, as an expert in web applications, I can assure you it is more than possible to accommodate more than one banner network in your ad panel (I wrote one of the original banner rotators for phpbb2 and have written several since in almost every web language in existence).
It would be a shame for such a grass-roots site to fall into the stereotype of conservatives catering to big business. I have no financial stake in any of this, I just wish that loyalty was still the coin of the realm.
What’s more, I’ll put my money where my mouth is and volunteer to program any accommodation that HotAir is legally allowed to institute for keeping old advertisers who were with the site when it was unknown.
unamused on June 1, 2007 at 7:06 PM
Contact me at bryan.simmons-at-gmail dot com.
unamused on June 1, 2007 at 7:11 PM
Good Luck Ian (i88)
You did great and we watched you grow quite a bit, I think.
Your future is bright, keep it that way always.
shooter on June 1, 2007 at 7:46 PM
now I guess I’ll have to go over to I.E. and see what all the fuss is about…..
shooter on June 1, 2007 at 7:47 PM
Congrats, Ian, and good luck!!!
William Teach on June 1, 2007 at 9:12 PM
Staying in business, making a good living, and growing don’t seem contrary to the “spirit” of blogs or to entrepreneurship.
Kralizec on June 1, 2007 at 10:16 PM
Thanks for your support.
Kralizec on June 1, 2007 at 10:25 PM
Same here.
BANNED.
BTW, Allah, you can sent up something in the code to detect if someone is running foxfire and forward them to a page telling them to us I.E. or Netscape or what not. Not sure of the exact code, but you can look it up in a PHP forum/tutorial about checking browser types.
- The Cat
MirCat on June 1, 2007 at 10:32 PM
Spoken like a true libo-nazi.
I support HotAir, but I refuse to be forced to watch commercials. So eat me techno-Stalin
peski on June 1, 2007 at 11:25 PM
Hmmm… sounds like the free market at work to me! Both sites that you cite have grown wildly popular, and both Michelle and Charles would be crazy not to capitalize on the increasing viewership. An increasing viewership is inherently increasingly demanding, and I’m confident that all at HotAir deserve every penny they get.
Here’s what I learned in E101 at school. Anytime the economics of one’s business dictate that rates should rise, they should… it’s that simple. Otherwise, the market won’t be balanced. Supply and demand dictates that, if Michelle made the rates at a level that you’d be willing to afford, she’d have two options:
1) To maintain a healthy balance sheet, she’d end up flooding the page with so many ads that I for one wouldn’t want to look at it (or, on Firefox, it would be one tiny site). Changing the site would effectively change market conditions, scrapping the current supply/demand curve and creating a new one. I submit that it would curve dramatically against her favor as people, sick of so many ads, leave. Advertisers, seeing evidence of lower viewership (supply), would demand still lower rates.
2) She’d maintain the site as is, accept the unsavory result of a pay cut, a massive one assuming your figures are right, and perhaps also not have the necessary funds to otherwise keep up this wonderful site.
Neither one of those options would result in our enjoying HotAir for much longer. It stinks that the other little fish get eaten or left behind when a fish grows big, but that’s the way it is. For it not to work this way, well, the left keeps saying that Cuba’s really doing great things… /snark
As for using Pajamas Media or Blogads, do we want Michelle screening ads all day, or do we want her making Vents and blogging?
flutejpl on June 1, 2007 at 11:27 PM
Ian: Best of luck to you. Thanks.
flutejpl on June 1, 2007 at 11:29 PM
I could reduce myself to name calling too and point out that you’re a freeloader, but I won’t
- The Cat
MirCat on June 1, 2007 at 11:59 PM
So… I’m a freeloader? Because I choose to filter out unwelcome ads from my browser. If that’s the point of this site, PLEASE BAN ME. Is that what you really want? I don’t think so.
As for the name calling, yeah it’s petty, but what you wrote pissed me off, and I don’t feel like mounting a big intellectual argument for why your statements are so patently stupid at 9pm on Saturday, so sue me.
Good luck with that “ban the freeloaders” mindset.
peski on June 2, 2007 at 12:17 AM
Blocking banner ads only makes a financial difference if HotAir is paid per page view. I doubt that’s how they are paid by PM. It’s most likely that they get paid based on ad clicks.
So, what’s the difference between seeing the ads and never clicking them and never seeing them? The impact on the revenue for HotAir is the same either way.
I don’t block banners, I never have. But I’ve never, NEVER clicked one (with the exception of Google ads). So, do we have to click ads we could care less about to artificially drive up click-throughs in order to say we “support” a site?
Economics dictates that growth brings change. I’m not against HotAir, or any site, changing their business model to handle growth. Obviously, the money to pay for AP and other facets of the site we enjoy must come from somewhere. I just wanted to point out that economics is not all about product and consumption. A large part of economies is relationships. The payoffs are never easy to see, but they are the lynch pin of good business. If we can accommodate those who have been loyal in this time of growth, we should. If not, so be it. My point is that it’s the right thing to do to try.
unamused on June 2, 2007 at 1:43 AM
In no small part due to the advertisers, the revenue from which paid for Charles’ and Michelle’s bandwidth.
Also, with so many people using Firefox, whose default setting block popups, it doesn’t make sense for advertisers to patronize a site that isn’t maximizing ad exposure.
I wonder if PM or its affiliates let potential customers know that Firefox users are not likely to see their ads.
rokemronnie on June 2, 2007 at 8:01 PM