The Fickle Online Advertising Business

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about how online advertising is robbing revenue from newspapers and hastening their demise. Yet, for all the popularity of advertising on the internet, it seems that target markets on the internet are more elusive than ever.

YouTube is watched by millions of people, yet its owner Google has difficulty selling advertising on the site. However, they are trying different home page formats to accomodate more general advertising. MySpace is trying the same tactic for its large viewer base.

Online advertising is a small portion of the overall advertising done in the United States. The $505 million spent on online advertising represents 2% of the entire advertising expenditure.

Online video watchers are a slippery bunch for programmers and advertisers: Not only are they reluctant to pay for anything — they expect to download everything for free, and they also skip commercials on free, ad-supported sites.

Jerry Buhlmann, CEO of Aegis Media, says that the growth in online spending has less to do with additional consumers using online media than a shift in the industry towards ad buys that deliver measurable returns. This is in line with a study by Google that found that relevant ads are more profitable for advertisers, and here’s a look at how targeted online advertising works.

Then again, all this discussion may be for naught. Advertising expenditures are down right now with all these dips in the economy. Also people still don’t really know much advertisers are spending online, nor do they really know how effective the advertising is.

Desperate For Answers

You’ve probably heard about the large hadron collider that was turned on a couple of weeks ago in Europe. Scientists are using it to recreate the Big Bang, while opponents to their experiments are concerned that it will create a black hole that will suck the Earth into it. It was automatically dismissed among the scientific community as “end of the world” paranoia. It is currently shut down because of a malfunction, and it will require two months to get it back online.

In our Sunday school class last weekend, we talked about how the theory of evolution is considered to be a fact to so many people and that some people look at you like you’re an idiot if you tell them you don’t subscribe to that theory. The answers they seek about the creation of the universe are right in front of them, but they want a verifiable scientific study to support their beliefs instead of faith in something unseen. So, is it more nonsensical to believe in particles no microscope can see colliding with each other at the speed of light or to believe in a God that you can’t see physically, but you can see spiritually manifested in His followers with actual changes in those people from who they were before?

This devotion brings up a very good point. God has provided the answers we need to know right now, and yet people seem desperate for a different answer.

A popular afternoon television program a few years ago was hosted by a self-proclaimed medium. He supposedly received messages from spirits of the dead to give to their family members in his studio audience. His readings prompted many people to believe in this occultic practice.

We live in a culture where people are desperate to know their future, and they’ll turn to psychics and mediums for answers—a practice expressly forbidden in the Scriptures. The ancient Israelites were desperate to know their future, and God knew that they would be tempted to consult ungodly sources for answers. So He warned them to stay away from mediums and those who contact the dead (Lev. 19:26,31; 20:27; Deut. 18:9-14).