Do you look at the Sponsored Links

I'm just curious to know how many actually look at the Sponsored Links tab IW. I just realized that I have never looked. Is this just a waste or do people really check these places out?

MJ

i looked to see what they were. localized spam. i don't think i'll look again.

prediction: all links will have ~!@#$%^&*_ or other such thing in their name so they sort to the top.

This is probably an accurate prediction, however, it doesn't matter if noone is looking.

I regularly look at the whole list, and make note of interesting locations I haven't been before -- amassing Landmarks to explore in the process.

Of course I don't look.

What does it actually mean? What am I supposed to derive from this listing? It has absolutely zero bearing on the quality of whatever it's advertising. It just means they won an auction to list an ad. Whoop-de-fucking-doo!

Great point Torley. I would like to see a Forum dedicated to places to visit tho. That would be an easy way to keep up to date on new and old locations and it won't be limited. Maybe I'll post this idea in the Feature Suggestions thread.

Huggerz,
MJ

LOL!! Good Morning Kris. Glad to see you being your usual happy self, hehe

Good morning MJ.

It's true. Totally true! This list has zero value to me. The Linden Top Picks, whilst not updated often, was at least of some use. And everyone whined about playing favorites and stuff. So they replaced it with yet another pay for service that makes it effectively useless, and yet no one seems to be whining that it favors the fetid money changers yet.

I guess they must all be still busy whining about ratings

Hey! I'm one of those whiners about ratings..but that's beside the point. I enjoy diversity, so I am addressing all kinds of topics today (mainly cause i'm medicated...shhh don't tell anyone). Well shit, now I lost where I was going with this reply. Oh well, have a wonderful day.

Huggerz,
MJ

Nope!

I look at them in the find menu, but the only one I've visited so far is the Giant Cube in Mocha.

I no longer look at the "top picks" list. I believe before the whole ebay bid on your own "top picks" placement... it meant something. What LL deemed as "cool" and worth checking out. Now I see it as just plain ol advertisting

~Tya

Echoed sentiment

Yes, I look through them from time to time. They are just advertising now, but advertising is not a bad thing as long as its not force fed down your throat. Really the find places button is the same thing essentially, since it costs 30$L per week to be listed. The sponsored links just happen to cost $US instead. Ive actually come across a couple kewl items from there. I guess in the end, its sometimes I get bored and look to see whats there.

I think you mean GIANT CUBE.

As in, "GIANT CUBE cured my athlete's foot!!"

GIANT CUBE saved me from life on the streets!

I browse through them because it gives me an idea of the activity that's going on in SL. I also check out the tech store ads in newspapers. I might even glance at ads in magazines.

They're ads, plain and simple, but not spam, since you can only see them if you go to that tab to look.



They're not sorted alphabetically. I think the order is determined by the order in which the ad spots are sold on eBay. The first one has sold for more than the others, I believe.

Not true. They are indeed sorted alphabetically. I posted about this in the "Linden hotline" forum and Robin has said that they have noticed the gaming of the alphabetical ordering to appear at the top and are looking for a remedy (I had suggested random ordering, but price paid or eBay auction number works just as well).

Nope. I'm not interested in ads.

I will speak about a couple of things, since I have advertised in it twice - with fairly dramatic results. The ads paid for themselves almost immediately.

- the * thing is used in Find all the time - it is not some "gaming" technique used on sponsored links. Those ads are set up by hand by Robin - she easily could just remove the * and put them in alphabetical order. I tried it with this ad to see if it made any difference - the previous time I placed an ad, I did not. It is hardly an enormous list - it is 20 listings. They could be in completely random order and have the same effect.
- though forum users may not be using it, someone certainly is - the effect on traffic to all of my stores has been very noticeable.
- Every single listing in Find is an ad.

The entire reason I decided to advertise there is because I did find myself going to places i had never been before - I checked out Thinc's store, a car dealership, and a park which just turned out to be a giant sign for Anshe's land business. I won't bid on the auctions again for awhile, but I did find the experience useful. To each, their own. Carry on with bashing those who have advertised there.

Personally, I'm not bashing it, I'm just not interested in using it. I would have preffered if they had this new system in addition to the old Top Pics.

I could care less who advertises there (I really have no idea who does because I've never looked) or whether it works for them or not - my point is merely that simply because of what it now is - a paid advertising page - I'm no more likely to be interested in it than the junkmail freeads papers that comes thru my letterbox. It is not a reflection of anything, where at least the top picks 'meant' something, even if it was just someones personal opinion and not updated all that regularly.

Personally I'd prefer to see a system that took resident votes, or perhaps takes the 'things most included in residents profile picks' and make a useful listing.

If you find it useful, go for your life

I agree with you - I liked top picks also, and never wanted it to go away - I think having both would have been nice. However, the Lindens severely dropped the ball on Top Picks, so they just did away with it. I would love for there to be a subjective community based approach to getting items on that list - though anything like that seems subject to gaming.

I would love to see the idea about stuff put into our picks section of our profiles to have a bearing on what appears on that list - that way no one person could easily game it. I would also love to just see some randomness to it - there are a lot of amazing places in SL that no one ever sees, especially now that there are a gazillion sims.

The thing is that EVERY single listing in Find is an ad. Do you not use find at all? And see my reply to Ingrid, I agree with you about a useful listing. I just don't think it needs to be an either or situation.

Just to make it clear Cris, I was not bashing with starting this poll. Just was curious to see how successful it was. Could it also be that maybe you have had an increase in sales lately due to the fact that you have recently released various new products within the last month? How can you be so sure that it is because of the advertisement?

Huggerz,
MJ