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GeekNights Ad Contest! - NOW WITH PRIZE

edited August 2009 in Contests
It is true that GeekNights has a no advertising policy. Unless someone makes us an offer we can't refuse, GeekNights will never have ads. However, other FRC things, such as these forums, are not subject to that rule. If you are not using AdBlock, which we do encourage you to do, you will see an ad on the side of this forum.

That ad is provided by Project Wonderful, and it has been there for quite some time. Since we put that ad there, it has earned us a grand total of... $25 and change. So, one plate at a pretty good restaurant. Nothing to get excited about.

However, think about this. We've had that ad spot there for a long time. That's a lot of advertising that someone paid only $25 for. Thus, we can use that same $25 to buy another whole lot of advertising on some other site. And that is what I intend to do. Primarily this is just out of curiosity. I want to see how well the ads perform, and how ad-buying works. Of course, if we got some more listeners because of it, I would not complain.

The thing is, if you want to advertise, you need advertisements. Google AdWords is primarily text based, so I can do that on my own. Project Wonderful is primarily image based. Thus, I need some help from you artsy peoples. We will have a contest for making GeekNights advertisements. Here are the rules. I don't have a lawyer, so I'm sure the legality of this contest varies by state, and is actually not really legal anywhere. But I'm sure that isn't going to be an issue either.

Anyway, to enter the contest, please make one or more advertisements in any of the following sizes.

width x height in pixels
button = 117 x 38
square = 125 x 125
banner half = 234 x 60
banner = 468 x 60
rectangle = 300 x 250
leaderboard = 728 x 90
skyscraper = 160 x 600

Ads can be GIF, JPG, or PNG format and must be no larger than 100K in size. They must be appropriate for all ages. They must not contain any sort of annoying animations, transparency, or anything else weird. The winners will be subjectively determined by Rym and myself. The winner(s) will receive an unspecified good prize.

To submit an entry post it in this thread, or e-mail it to geeknights+adcontest@frontrowcrew.com. By submitting an entry to agree to license that entry to us under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You also guarantee that your submission itself does not violate any copyrights, e.g: no pics of copyrighted characters. All GeekNights logos and art are already licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, so you are encouraged, and permitted, to use them.

Unless many people request more time, I hope to pick a winner before we leave for PAX on September 2, 2009.

If you have other questions, just ask in this thread.
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Comments

  • Scott, if you want a walk-though of ad-buying on PW, I'm your gal. I also made a hand-out walk-through for my Etsy team back when I was in NC. It has screen-caps and everything.
  • Scott, if you want a walk-though of ad-buying on PW, I'm your gal. I also made a hand-out walk-through for my Etsy team back when I was in NC. It has screen-caps and everything.
    Thanks. I've pretty much figured out how it works, so that shouldn't be a problem. Of course, I will still probably need your advice in figuring out how to get the most for our money.

    The real problem though is simply that we don't have any ads to put up, hence the contest.
  • Of course, I will still probably need your advice in figuring out how to get the most for our money.
    One word: Campaigns.
  • Of course, I will still probably need your advice in figuring out how to get the most for our money.
    One word: Campaigns.
    But what system to use? Burning wheel? D&D;? BESM?
  • If you accept an ad, let me know and I'll put it in Underworld Hockey Club. According to the anonymous statistics, it's got a playerbase of about 200, which isn't enormous or anything, but better than nothing =)
  • So it doesn't seem like anyone is interested in this contest. I'm going to have to remember to mention it on the show. However, I think I can boost interest by announcing the very good prize I have found.

    You may or may not know that the manga Akira is 6 volumes long. Dark Horse brought out all six volumes in the US years ago. I have all of them. Dark Horse stopped publishing these awhile ago, and now they are hard to find, and expensive.

    Well, Dark Horse's license to Akira expired. Now the Japanese publisher, Kodansha, is republishing Akira in the US directly. No middle-man like Viz, Dark Horse, or Del Rey is getting a cut.

    The thing is, we don't know if the Kodansha printing will be different, the same, better, or worse than the Dark Horse printing. Because it is a complete mystery, I have to buy it anyway.

    That means I will have two complete sets of Akira. Even if one set is "better" than the other, I can't imagine that there will be a very large difference.

    Obviously, I'll have two sets, and I will only keep one of them. The winner of this contest will receive the set that I do not keep for myself. If I give out the Dark Horse set, you'll get it all in a few months once I receive the first Kodansha volume. If it's the Kodansha set that I give away, you'll get it one book at a time as they come out.

    That's a pretty awesome prize right there.
  • GeoGeo
    edited August 2009
    So it doesn't seem like anyone is interested in this contest. I'm going to have to remember to mention it on the show. However, I think I can boost interest by announcing the very good prize I have found.

    You may or may not know that the manga Akira is 6 volumes long. Dark Horse brought out all six volumes in the US years ago. I have all of them. Dark Horse stopped publishing these awhile ago, and now they are hard to find, and expensive.

    Well, Dark Horse's license to Akira expired. Now the Japanese publisher, Kodansha, is republishing Akira in the US directly. No middle-man like Viz, Dark Horse, or Del Rey is getting a cut.

    The thing is, we don't know if the Kodansha printing will be different, the same, better, or worse than the Dark Horse printing. Because it is a complete mystery, I have to buy it anyway.

    That means I will have two complete sets of Akira. Even if one set is "better" than the other, I can't imagine that there will be a very large difference.

    Obviously, I'll have two sets, and I will only keep one of them. The winner of this contest will receive the set that I do not keep for myself. If I give out the Dark Horse set, you'll get it all in a few months once I receive the first Kodansha volume. If it's the Kodansha set that I give away, you'll get it one book at a time as they come out.

    That's a pretty awesome prize right there.
    That's as maybe and that is indeed a sweet prize....but I have a question. I'm not trying to be negative or anything, but what makes this any more different than any other prize that you have promised previously? I mean you have promised prizes in the past (I know Rym has mentioned that he has a list for all the people he has promised prizes in the past) and as far as I know you have never come through on delivering them. Even if somebody comes up with a fantastic piece of advertising and they win the contest, when will that person receive their prize and will it take a long time to get to them?
    Post edited by Geo on
  • Mr. Roboto got his Guin Saga, I think!

    ...right?

    They are 50/50 on historically delivering prizes.
  • Did anyone ever take part in a previous contest?
  • Did anyone ever take part in a previous contest?
    When was the last one?
  • The skepticism about receipt of prizes is justified. However, in the past, we never specifically mentioned what prizes would be. For a very long period of time we said we would give out "a prize". We didn't actually have the prize, or know when we would get it. We assumed we would have t-shirts and such soon enough, and that took far longer than we expected. We also assumed we would have DVD boxed sets, but that proved to be infeasible.

    Also, I would like to point out, that all of those things were Rym's responsibilities. T-Shirts, e-commerce, etc. are all things that Rym decided he would take care of.

    Meanwhile, in the time it has taken Rym to setup the e-commerce, I have put out the new web site, and mostly finished a major upgrade to the web site. Also, I would like to point out that I have frequently been selling books on Amazon, and I always mail them within a few business days.

    This ad contest is completely my doing, and the books are completely mine. Thus, you can believe the winner will get the prize. Hopefully mentioning this on the show will stoke some interest.
  • I'm working on two different designs and should be able to send them to you guys by the end of the week.
  • The skepticism about receipt of prizes is justified. However, in the past, we never specifically mentioned what prizes would be. For a very long period of time we said we would give out "a prize". We didn't actually have the prize, or know when we would get it. We assumed we would have t-shirts and such soon enough, and that took far longer than we expected. We also assumed we would have DVD boxed sets, but that proved to be infeasible.

    Also, I would like to point out, that all of those things were Rym's responsibilities. T-Shirts, e-commerce, etc. are all things that Rym decided he would take care of.

    Meanwhile, in the time it has taken Rym to setup the e-commerce, I have put out the new web site, and mostly finished a major upgrade to the web site. Also, I would like to point out that I have frequently been selling books on Amazon, and I always mail them within a few business days.

    This ad contest is completely my doing, and the books are completely mine. Thus, you can believe the winner will get the prize. Hopefully mentioning this on the show will stoke some interest.
    I would just like to note, that you have much less of a life :-p
  • edited August 2009
    Oh, Burrrrn!

    Rym should finish the store, though. I have some things I want to sell in there.
    Post edited by gomidog on
  • Oh, Burrrrn!

    Rym should finish the store, though. I have some things I want to sell in there.
    Has he not been working on it? I know he has to stay up extremely early this week, but has he not been working on the store?
  • If no one submits anything, do I win by default?

    image
    I suck so badly at drawing.
  • He hasn't been working on the store because he is busy, busy, all the time.

    However, he has had months and months to finish it.
  • This sounds really fun. Why is it that a contest finally happens when I'm really busy? Maybe I'll have time to join in before it's over.
  • He hasn't been working on the store because he is busy, busy, all the time.

    However, he has had months and months to finish it.
    His busyness is no different than anyone else's busyness. We all work, we all ride the train. Rym just spends a lot of time doing nothing when I'm spending that time working on stuffs. That's why when something is my responsibility, like making this web site work, it gets done (eventually). But when something is Rym's responsibility, like updating the closer to the show, it gets put off for years.

    Also, it's been over a year since we have evened up our finances. I am ready every month to do this, I know exactly how much I am owed. Rym probably can't even tell you how much I owe him, other than hotels and electric bills. I know how much he owes me down to the pennies of individual comics he's bought.

    He takes care of all sorts of big items, but he just completely ignores any task that takes only a small amount of effort. He'll spend a whole bunch of time e-mailing a bunch of conventions, but when you ask him to do a simple Google search, nooo too much work to do a search. Have to go to bed. And don't even get me started about the time he said he would put the rent check in the mail, but I found it hiding in the back of the closet, even though he lied and claimed, with no doubt whatsoever, that he had mailed it.

    The e-commerce would probably take me maybe a couple hours at most to setup completely. I could have done it a long time ago. The only reasons I didn't was to expose Rym as the primary source of shit-talkery.

    Also, I would like to make it clear that there are lots of things Rym fails to do, but I only blame him for ones that he promised to do. He said he would mail the rent. He said we would re-record the closer. He said he would take care of the e-commerce by April 1, 2009. If he had said no, that he wouldn't do it, then I couldn't complain about his fail. The fact that he says he will do things, and then fails to do them, is why it is permissible to bash him so.

    If you guys ever want to buy GeekNights merch, I suggest you flood rym@frontrowcrew.com with your complaints.
  • Oh man. It's scary when mommy and daddy fight!
  • The e-commerce would probably take me maybe a couple hours at most to setup completely. I could have done it a long time ago. The only reasons I didn't was to expose Rym as the primary source of shit-talkery.
    He has now been exposed. What are your reasons now?
  • Oh man. It's scary when mommy and daddy fight!
    Time to go hide under the kitchen table!
  • edited August 2009
    He has now been exposed. What are your reasons now?
    I'm actually working on other things. He said he would do it. I'm already working on many other things that are far more time consuming. For example, I'm making the website automatically post new episodes, TotD, News, etc. to Twitter. I'm also making it so the web site integrates with the forum. When I'm done, forum threads will, hopefully, show up as comments on frontrowcrew.com. and also the episode threads will be automatically generated, whereas now we have to do that by hand. I'm also working on a wiki show notes solution, and maybe even a replacement for IDShare.

    All Rym really has to do for the e-commerce is type in some PayPal info. Take a picture of a t-shirt. Upload the picture. Then type in how many of each size we have available. If you guys want it badly enough, make him do it. My constant pestering has no effect.
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • My constant pestering has no effect.
    Hit the weak point for massive damage?
  • edited August 2009
    I had some time in my hands so I desisted to play around with Photoshop a bit and make few banners for this contest.

    My first piece of work.
    image
    Different version.
    image
    Then I tried to be funny.
    image
    Post edited by Apsup on
  • add-free
    I utterly disagree. This accusation is utterly ooh shiny stuff anybody want cake?
  • edited August 2009
    His busyness is no different than anyone else's busyness. We all work, we all ride the train. Rym just spends a lot of time doing nothing when I'm spending that time working on stuffs. That's why when something is my responsibility, like making this web site work, it gets done (eventually). But when something is Rym's responsibility, like updating the closer to the show, it gets put off for years.
    Hey, I agree with you. He should do what he said. I told him to do it.
    My constant pestering has no effect.
    If it makes you feel any better, Scott, my pestering doesn't do much better, and I'm more cuddly. Remember the few times when I would get ticked off at Rym and gripe at him? It was all stuff like this that he forgot to do or blew off even though he said he was going to do it. Don't say yes in the first place if you are going to drag your heels like that.

    However, I think part of it is that Rym would rather have fun with other people than stay up in his room working hard. He loves pleasure and entertainment above responsibility. This is occasionally a problem, because you have to have some of both. It's a balance. Sometimes he chooses fun instead of "work hard with Scott or Emily" and we get annoyed.
    Granted, I harass him about his mess in the apartment about as much as I harass you. The only reason I didn't side with you the other day when you were cleaning the bathroom is because he had been living with me for two weeks, and I thought that if you hadn't cleaned in the two weeks he was gone, it was pretty much your own fault. I don't know why you got pissed at me and Nuri, though. I clean your house from time to time even though I don't live there anymore.

    edit: You know, fuck it. I'll manage the store. I have good ideas for stuff to put in there anyway. Just show me how to do it and I'll do all the fiddly entry.
    Post edited by gomidog on

  • edit: You know, fuck it. I'll manage the store. I have good ideas for stuff to put in there anyway. Just show me how to do it and I'll do all the fiddly entry.
    Ok, come over after work, and I'll show it to you.
  • I'll have Rym drop me off after dinner.
  • I think Rym should follow Scott's example of not promising things if he doesn't intend to follow up on them, cause that's a good rule to live by in life.
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