After sex and telcos, the next biggest money spinner on the Internet is banner advertising (at least, as far as I can see). They're a pain in the butt, right? You end up just blanking out a portion of the screen, in your mind, automatically.

However, the content provider is entitled to some income from your viewing of his site, even if it is just so he can give it to the telcos. So, this seems like a good idea: Burst offer a service that gives a site operator control over what is advertised on his site. The banners might even end up being interesting and desirable, just like Italian TV advertisements.

(I found this on one of my favourite sites: Dan's Data)

Here's a map of spam. Where it comes from and how it travels.

I found this via ocau.

Enjoy

It's been a couple of days since I've emptied my HotMail account. I now have mail from:

5 people who want to lend me money, 13 people who want to sell me something I don't want to buy, 1 person who wants to give me something for nothing (yeah, right), 1 person who wants me to gamble and 1 lazy spammer who couldn't even be bothered putting in a subject line.

Oh, and there was one useful email telling me my phone bill is due. I have to admit, I didn't open any of these emails. I just looked at the subject line before deleting them.

Of the products I don't want to buy, 4 were for sex improvement and 1 was for HGH. Intriguingly, there were no porn sites on offer.

What am I missing here? There must be some point to spamming. Do some people actually respond to this form of marketing? Sure spamming is cheap, but it still takes some money and effort to do.

I see two problems with trying to make money by spamming. 1. Why on earth would anyone expect me to give them money across the anonymous void of the Internet, and 2. why would any reputable business associate themselves with such a disreputable form of advertising.

More on spam later.