abdpbt personal finance

Still Another Piece of Evidence That The Green Movement Is Not Only Pretentious, Annoying, Sick and Macabre, But Also Just An Excuse To Be Cheap And Gross

anna — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:00:19 +0000

Oh, green. Green, you have gone wrong. I’m sure people have been doing this since the beginning of time, but to create a cottage industry out reusable toilet paper, and call them “family wipes”? Nononononononononono, Greenies! Wallypop is a company that you might have heard of before, but just in case you haven’t, they make Family Wipes, a disposable toilet paper alternative.

Wallypops Family Wipes.

Which is refreshing, because I don’t know about you guys, but the burden I’ve felt from not having a means of reusing and recycling my toilet paper has been a KILLER. And also, because nothing says family togetherness like cutting up a bunch of old pediatric nurse uniforms, sewing them into squares, and using them as a conduit that allows you to share your fecal matter with the rest of your family members via butt cloth.

"Still Another Piece of Evidence That The Green Movement Is Not Only Pretentious, Annoying, Sick and Macabre, But Also Just An Excuse To Be Cheap And Gross" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on November 13, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

8 Tips For Cutting Costs On Your Divorce

anna — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:00:55 +0000

Divorces suck. But they don't have to be so expensive.

I know, I know, I just featured cost-cutting techniques for weddings on Monday, and how much of a cynic do I have to be to have a feature on divorces two days later? Listen, I’m neither a fan nor an advocate of divorce, but I am a realist, and when I was writing the wedding post it struck me how much I know about the divorce process for someone who has neither been divorced (nor ever plans to be — I love you, Mr. Right-Click!) and who is not a lawyer herself. See, I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this here, but I’m kind of uniquely qualified to write a post advising people on how to save money on their divorces — I happen to be the child of two family law specialists who have been practicing law — primarily divorce law — for well over thirty years each. And let me tell you, when you’re at the dinner table with two divorce attorneys during your formative years, you pick up a few things. You learn about how clients sometimes run up their bills for not good reason. About how fights over things like pictures can end up costing people thousands and thousands of dollars. Now add that early training to the fact that I’ve also worked as a legal secretary and a paralegal in countless law firms, and you’ll understand why I’m far too familiar with the pitfalls of divorce law. Listen, I’m hoping you don’t need ever this post. But if you do ever find yourself in need of divorce advice, do your best to bear the following in mind.

Do not call your lawyer unless it is absolutely necessary. Most lawyers bill in 1/10th hour increments (every six minutes), and all of the time you call them or leave messages for them counts towards this billing. This is true for most any type of law, but it’s especially important in the case of divorce because people tend to use their lawyers as therapists, or to make them feel better about things. Do not be so stupid. For one thing, many lawyers are going to cost more per hour than a good therapist, and . . . well, let’s just say that lawyers don’t become lawyers because they’re really understanding of human emotion. Call your friend, call a therapist, but don’t call your lawyer, because the clock is always running.

You can call your lawyer’s secretary, but be judicious. The dirty secret of billable hours is that your lawyer’s secretary is probably not going to bill for time on the phone with you. This is a good backdoor way of getting information about your case without stuff being on the clock. But you need to be very careful about how you use this option — legal secretaries tend to be very busy, and you want them to be on your side. If you call them all the time with unnecessary questions, they aren’t going to like you. You should be nice to them and respectful of their time, it’s definitely in your best interest.

Organize your paperwork and financial records yourself. This tip comes straight from my mother’s vault: the single most important thing you can do to save yourself money when getting a divorce is to organize all of your financial paperwork yourself. One of the first things that has to happen in a divorce is an assessment of a couple’s financial picture, and this requires going over bank records, credit card records, brokerage account statements, retirement fund statements, tax returns, and any other miscellaneous financial asset documents you can think of. Do yourself a favor and organize all of these in chronological order, and put each of them in folders, ideally with summaries that state what everything is, and where it is, so that the lawyer can find everything they need quickly. You do NOT WANT TO PAY THE LAWYER TO ORGANIZE THESE DOCUMENTS. It can take hours and hours to go through this stuff, so if you organize it yourself, not only will you save yourself a TON of money, you will make your lawyer happy because they won’t have to waste their time going through things trying to find receipts.

Wherever possible, pay as you go. Lawyers will sometimes let you run a bill for your case, and in some cases you will have to do this. But if at all possible, do not run a bill. As is the case with any form of debt, costs can get out of control quickly and without you realizing it. And a smart lawyer will be charging you interest rates on any balance you run — as much at 10%, which is worse than many credit cards. Paying in cash regularly will keep you from spending a lot of extra time on stuff that doesn’t need to be done.

Determine if you really need a lawyer. If you and your spouse have no children and don’t have a lot of assets, you might not need a lawyer. If you have kids and not a lot of assets, you still might not need one, provided you’re reasonably amicable. But let’s say you’re getting divorced, hypothetically, from somebody who has amassed a large amount of assets, and that person says that he or she doesn’t want to use a lawyer. That is a case where you run, don’t walk, to the best attorney you can find. You need to run because that person has probably already met with half of the attorneys in the general geographical area, and because of this, they won’t be detainable for you. You need to get an appointment with somebody who is decent whom your spouse hasn’t already contaminated.

Just because a lawyer costs $700 an hour does not mean they’re better at lawyering. Lawyers are like mechanics in a lot of ways. You have to shop around, and it takes a while to know enough about how they work to know if you have got a good one. Some people try to forgo this by just hiring “the best” in a given field. Though there is definitely some truth to the old adage “you get what you pay for,” this is another case where there are circumstances that can drive up a lawyer’s price for no good reason. Say you hire a big firm well known for family law. Are you getting the partner who made the team’s name? In that case, it might be worth it to pay more. But the likelihood is that you are going to get a young, inexperienced associate who is doing most of the work. And, yes, that associate’s work will be billed out at less than what the partner costs, but it will still be far, far more than that associate would ever be able to charge as a sole practitioner. You need to ask the right questions when trying to find a lawyer, including who will be working on your case and when, and what their experience is, and what their track record is.

A referral from one of your friends is a good starting point. Lawyers refer people to other lawyers all the time, but this is not always a sure-fire means of determining a good attorney for you. They might refer you to one of their friends, or they might refer you to somebody who has a history of sending them 20% referral kickback fees. It’s very hard to determine what an individual lawyer’s referral policy is, but you do know your friends and (hopefully) trust their judgment. Your best bet is to find somebody who has had a divorce in your area and see what they thought about their own lawyer, and the lawyer on the other side
Even with a good lawyer, you aren’t always going to get the result you want. The reason people hate lawyers so much is because effective litigation (any kind) ends with both parties unhappy. Never is this more true in the case of a divorce. You cannot reasonably expect to get everything you want in a divorce. It’s a divorce — it sucks. It’s going to suck. And beyond cases of gross malpractice, most of that suckitude is not going to be your lawyer’s fault. So lower your expectations and just try to get through.

"8 Tips For Cutting Costs On Your Divorce" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on November 11, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

11 Tips For Cutting Costs On Your Wedding

anna — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:00:11 +0000

Weddings are way too expensive.

Allison is an ABDPBT reader and an event planner from Toronto, and she recently asked me to share my thoughts on how best to avoid going into debt while planning a wedding. I told her that I hadn’t ever written on the topic before, but I’d be happy to do so because it’s a great idea for a post. Rather than addressing the topic of debt specifically, though, I’m going to concentrate on how to get a good wedding for less, and how and where to cut costs and stick to your budget, because, in my mind, the only way to stay out of debt, ever, is to make a commitment that you will not go into debt, no matter what. Without that commitment, it really doesn’t matter how frugal you want to be, because there will come a day where a problem arises and it just seems easier to pull out a credit card. When you’re planning a wedding, problems occur left and right, and the opportunities to try to throw money at the problem will just keep coming up. So the precursor to this list of cost-cutting tips for weddings is the golden rule of commit to never going into debt, no matter what because even if it seems like the world rests upon your ability to have the perfect wedding, the ugly truth is that it is just one day out of a lifetime, and that lifetime will be so much more pleasant if you don’t have debt.

Good Fellas. This is as close as my hair gets to that." title="annawedding" width="560" height="373" class="size-medium wp-image-5322" />

I asked for hair like Debi Mazar in Good Fellas. This is as close as my hair gets to that.

Take advantage of other people’s generosity, maintain your boundaries, and be considerate. Some people are luckier than others when it comes to financial assistance from their families with weddings. If your family is not able to contribute financially to your wedding, then you will need to realistically assess what kind of wedding you can pay for on your own, in cash, and leave them alone. Please do not ask your parents to go into debt to give you a storybook wedding: this is bad juju and not the way to start out a marriage. But if your family can afford to contribute, and they want to contribute, then by all means accept their generosity. Now is not the time for pride, but bear in mind that when people offer money, they sometimes think that buys them the right to have a say in decisions. This can, and does, lead to budget concerns — your family wants to invite more people, they want a different dinner choice, they insist on an open bar. It’s very hard to stick to a budget with too many cooks in the kitchen. So if you are going to get financial assistance from your family, make sure that everyone’s boundaries and expectations are in check before any money is accepted. It might seem cheap or tacky to talk about money this way, but believe me, you are going to rue the day you agreed to let your mom pick out your flower arrangements because she gave you a few thousand dollars. You would be surprised about how much flowers can cost.

Also, don’t forget that there are lots of ways people can help you with a wedding: maybe they have connections with vendors, maybe they can barter with people, maybe they have access to beautiful venue that they can help you get at a discount, or for free. Which reminds me, the above picture shows where I got married. That was an extraordinary example of how families can be generous with their time and resources — it is the view from my sister-in-law’s home. We had our wedding there — for free. Please don’t hate me.

Your Budget Is Your Budget. Accept It And Move On. Everybody has a wedding budget. Within that budget are a set of choices. You have to decide where you are willing to cut things, and what you want to spend more on. Nobody can really help you with this at the end of the day. For my wedding, I spent more on my dress but I was able to save on the location fee and alcohol (since I don’t drink this wasn’t tough — we offered beer, wine, and champagne to guests, but no open bar. But more on alcohol decisions later, that is a big budget line-item.) For some people, photography is most important, and others want lots of flowers. It’s up to you. But you should start out with a rough idea of how much each budget item will cost. Even if you get really cheap food, you still have to have enough money to feed all of your guests.

Beware of the Wedding Industrial Complex: It Eats Money Even When Its Already Stuffed. Any time you can keep the word “wedding” out of your negotiations, with anyone, over anything, you will save money. A white dress is just a white dress, until somebody says “wedding,” and then it’s 800% more expensive. The same goes for flowers, favors, cakes, bands, DJs, et cetera. It’s a scam. Stay away from vendors that talk about offering wedding-specific items — there’s no such thing as a wedding photographer. There are photographers. There are favors, not wedding favors. There are caterers, not wedding caterers. Just keep the wedding part out of your negotiations as much as possible, and keep the vendors on a need-to-know basis about this stuff. As far as the caterers know, they are providing food for a formal event with 100 people (or whatever). There’s no reason they need to know it’s a wedding. This may sound like paranoia, but it’s more accurate than you would believe.

The tulips bloomed.

Simple And Elegant Goes A Long Way. My flowers were white tulips that cost $0.88 per stem from an online vendor, and by arranging them in an unusual way, I got a great effect for almost no money. (We put them upside down and right side up, alternately, submerged in water, in round vases.) For innovative ideas in flower arranging techniques that you can rearrange, check out the lobbies of trendy hotels or restaurants — they usually have ideas that you can grab and recreate at home for less.

Crafting is your friend. The little details of a wedding can be really seductive when you first start planning a wedding, but it’s important not to go overboard on these little favors and other props, particularly if you have a tight budget. I did a lot of stuff for my wedding ahead of time since I like to do crafts, and if you’re going to do it I definitely recommend the DIY approach. I have no idea what it would have cost me to have all of these things made by a planner — I don’t want to know.

Use Craigslist to Find Vendors. At my wedding, we had a chef who used to work at Nobu making the food. We found her on Craigslist, and she cost about 1/10th of the estimate we got from another caterer (not coincidentally, that vendor was a “wedding caterer.”) This will require a little bit more footwork on your part, but not a ton. Just post a notice on Craigslist in the area of your ideal reception location and ask for references. You can get a good idea of a reasonable price by asking for estimates from all of these vendors, and if you’re in or near a big city, this is particularly crucial because there are tons of very talented people looking for work that will give you a good deal. You just have to find them.

I still love that damn cake.

If You Have Photoshop, Just Buy The JPGs From Your Photographer. We hired a photographer from Craigslist who had won a Pulitzer Prize for her photography, and she brought an assistant for the whole day, all for about $800. After the wedding, she gave us the CDs with all of the original photographs on it, along with some of her own edits. Since both me and my husband are pretty into computers, we knew we could put out our own photo edits that were as good as any that a professional photographer could do. We just needed a pro to actually take the pictures. This is more work, but in my experience it’s worth it because the markup on photographs is insane.

Oh sure, in pictures the weather looks perfect.

No Matter What, Stuff Will Go Wrong. Let It Go Wrong Without Your Debt. It rained on my wedding day, at the end of June. This really pissed me off, and the week before when people said it was going to rain, I was very grumpy. That morning I was in a fantastically bad mood. But the thing is, everything worked out in the end — it turns out that cloudy weather is the perfect lighting for pictures. Everything that goes wrong on that day will have a silver lining, or will become a story that you tell your children. You will be much more at peace with this idea if you don’t go to into debt trying to make your day “perfect.”

My hair looked better before the ceremony.

Professional Hair and Makeup Are Probably Optional. A bunch of people will disagree with me on this, but I think that getting professional hair and makeup is not a requirement for your wedding day. Hey! Stop hissing at me! Here’s the thing: when you put your appearance in somebody else’s hands, there is no guarantee you are going to end up looking the way you want. And yes, you want to look beautiful, and glamorous, but you also want your husband-to-be to know who you are when you’re walking down the aisle. In my case, I had a new person doing my hair and makeup since I was far from home, and things did not go as smoothly as they might have. In the end, I’m not sure that it’s always the best idea to spend money on hair and makeup.

Consider a Destination Wedding. We did not have a destination wedding per se, but we decided to have our wedding at my sister-in-law’s house in New York, and we live in Los Angeles. Not only did this give us a free location for the wedding, it also allowed us to invite a bunch of people that we were pretty sure would not come to the wedding. This is a kind of sneaky way to get around the problems with guest limits and parental expectations for invitees.

We danced into the proverbial fire.

Remember What Is Important. Too many people get caught up on the wedding and don’t think about the marriage. Weddings are fun, and fun to plan, and lots of fun to obsess over. But no matter how little you want to hear it, the wedding is just one day! You have a lifetime to spend with your new spouse, so start it off right!

"11 Tips For Cutting Costs On Your Wedding" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on November 09, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Adventures In Permission Marketing: The Anthro Card

anna — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:00:42 +0000

I don't know about you, but I'm dying to find out.

Somehow, I have become a person who buys clothing at Anthropologie. I cannot say that I ever thought this would happen. I have a pretty strict no-extraneous-fabric-flowers-on-clothing rule, and I’m not into flowy skirts or embroidered tights. But as we move out of the Naughts and the remainders of the unfortunate sartorial period hallmarked by the experimental ostentatious femininity of Sex and the City, I’m finding that Anthropologie stocks clothing reliably that is appropriate for my career as a mother (i.e. washable) and as a lazy bum (i.e. comfortable) but that I can still go outside in (i.e. not sweat pants). Plus, they offer some more intriguing takes on what are, basically, outfits comprised wholly of t-shirts and jeans.

Whatever.

I suppose it was only a matter of time: you cannot keep shopping at Urban Outfitters for much longer after you hit 35, unless you are very very specific in your choices, or refuse to let age force you to quit smoking hash. When they started stocking the Cute Overload book I knew I had moved out of their target demographic. Then, of course, there’s Banana Republic et al., but if you shop there for too long, well . . . how many oxfords and khakis can one have, really?

I was buying my pants yesterday, and the Anthropologie guy said, “Do you have an Anthro card?” And after I realized he was not talking about something for which a terror alert might be issued or that might require me to wear rubber gloves whilst sorting mail, I decided to listen to his pitch. I’ve talked about permission marketing here before, but I mostly don’t participate with companies in it (Daily Candy being the one notable exception) since my thought is that it’s rare that a company is going to offer me marketing materials that I actually want to read. I have to feel like I’m getting something out of the deal that is worhtwhile in order to sign up, and most opportunities just aren’t worth it for the occasional 20% off coupon or whatever. (And don’t get me started with the companies that require you to intentionally opt-out of these kinds of programs . . . drugstore.com, I’m scowling in your general direction.)

Besides, the Anthropologie guy assured me that this mysterious Anthro card would welcome me into the world of all things Antropologie. And all at once my mind started racing, because like I just admitted, I have apparently become somebody who shops at Anthropologie. Would I get the inside scoop on sales? New products and trends? An at-length explanation for why they have added an -ie suffix onto an English word that should end in -y? Who knew? I decided to sign up and see what happened.

I’ve only been an Anthro cardholder for one day, but already I’ve acquired several new things. Take this membership kit wrapped in a gratuitous felt bag made out of the kind of fabric one might happen upon, as if by magic, at a French flea market! Do the French even have fleas? I don’t know!

Hey look! Gratuitous packaging!

I have to wonder at this inclusion, since it’s precisely the kind of thing I don’t like to deal with at home (superfluous packaging that forces me to either feel guilty about throwing away or find some kind of alternative use for). On the other hand, it’s kind of nice to get something pretty to take home, for “free,” even when it’s useless. And I have to assume the Anthro Card team knows that customers might feel this way.

I wonder if this will get me past some kind of velveteen rope somewhere.

The inside of the fabric bag is filled with equally superfluous and expensive material. The card itself is nothing to write home about, but the pull-out flyer does a good job of creating the illusion of something handmade that is actually mass-produced. I have to assume that this cost quite a bit to produce. Which must have a little something to do with what “we” hold dear:

I don't know about you, but I'm dying to find out.

I’m still a little skeptical about whether or not this permission marketing will turn out well for me. The offerings seem a little paltry for me. From me, they will learn things about my buying and returning habits, which products sell well in what geographical area, what kinds of people are among their repeat clientele.

Yes. Yes. I hold this dear. I do! I do! Pick me!

I might get some discounts here and there. Some tips on cool ideas for Commodity Fetishism. Probably some fabric bags or something, too. And If I need to take stuff back and I’ve lost my receipt, no problem.

Old-fashioned service. Yes. What ever happened to that? Wait. Are you saying I'm old?

On the other hand, I want to encourage this kind of marketing. I like it so much more than the interuption format. At least I know this is something I signed up for, from a retailer that has products I tend to like. That alone is revolutionary. And I’d like to see more companies doing it, so I’ll sign up. One thing about the Anthro card that might be a good feature, though, is for those times when you get home and are confronted by this:

This is some newfangled version of a security tag they didn't have back in the olden days when I worked retail.

Maybe add a feature where a guy drives to your house with a security tag remover and fixes it for you? Just throwing out ideas for both of us to grow, Anthropologie.

"Adventures In Permission Marketing: The Anthro Card" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on November 06, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Why The Backlash Against Debit Cards Confuses And Perplexes Me

anna — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:12:35 +0000

Photo by anachronist84 at deviantART

I don’t have to tell you that I’m not a typical personal finance blogger: I don’t recycle my toilet paper rolls, and I use dryer sheets exclusively in the manner in which God intended, viz. to scent and soften mine and my family’s clothing as it gently tumbles in my natural-gas-guzzling dryer. To add insult to injury, I gleefully wash my clothing with Tide in my full size laundry machine, and have never even once attempted to use coffee grounds to “stop the bleeding.” So, as you might imagine, it’s not strange for me to read something in a personal finance blog that confuses or perplexes me. This happens so often, in fact, that I have a folder in Google Reader devoted to “Personal Finance Blogs That Often Confuse Or Perplex Me.” Really. I do.

You thought I was just being hyperbolic, huh?

The thing is, neither Guzzo The Contrarian nor Frank Curmudgeon are in my “Personal Finance Blogs That Usually Confuse And/Or Perplex Me” folder in Google Reader. As a matter of fact, they are both in the Google Reader Folder called “Good Personal Finance Blogs,” and that is in spite of the fact that Guzzo uses a [praise Allah!] summary feed!

Summary feeds will be the death of me.

Yet both of them have featured posts about how they hate debit cards in recent memory, and this fact alone is causing me to question my whole life’s epistemology.

Guzzo says it’s because he assumes htis is a means of the bank making money of its customers, which, touche, but isn’t that what credit card companies do, too? I know that, in theory, if you use your credit card and pay off the balance in full each month, this will not happen (provided you don’t have an anuual fee), but you would only have to miss one deadline, or not have enough to pay one time, for this to not be true. The odds are, you’ll end up paying interest fees at some point if you use a credit card. That’s how they stay in business. There are people who haven’t yet, but I think the people who never have and never will are very few and far-between. Frank’s complaint is that there’s no good reason to use a debit card, because if you overdraft, the bank will just charge you a huge overdraft fee, rather than denying the charge, so it could potentially end up being a more costly endeavor than running up credit card debt. I will acknowledge that debit cards would be better all around if there were no such thing as these exorbitant overdraft practices that banks have developed, but that’s like saying you shouldn’t write checks because if they bounce, they will cost you money.

Guzzo cites a joint NYT/Frontline piece on how banks use debit cards as a means of getting you to pay overdraft charges. So you overspend on your debit card, and they cover the overdraft, and then charge you an exorbitant rate for the “service” of doing this. Banks are scumbags. That’s what they do. Besides, isn’t this a problem with the concept of overdraft protection and its associated charges or keeping accurate banking records, rather than a problem with debit cards in the abstract? If you are tracking your money carefully — and I have to assume that Guzzo is — then this kind of overdraft charge should not ever happen. It has never happened to me, and I’m not even very careful. I use cash for much of what I do, and I also keep a general idea of how much money is in my account so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen. People who are more organized than I am even write these kinds of things down — infact, isn’t that what people did back in the olden days when we wrote those things called checks? Do you have a problem with the concept of checks and overdraft protection, too?

Other than the overdraft charges — which I think consumers really have to accept responsibility for, anyway — I don’t see how we are paying money for debit cards, exactly? I don’t pay a fee for using a debit card. The only time I’ve seen a fee is when you go to some nickel and diming gas station like Arco, and they’ll charge you 40 cents for using your ATM card. And that’s pretty much cheaper than any finance fee you’re going to find at a credit card company, but they don’t let you use your credit card at Arco anyway. At least with a debit card, there is in theory a finite number attached to how much one can overspend. At some point, they’re going to stop taking your card. If I were to use a credit card, I could run a tab up into the high five digits before anyone cut me off, and this was true back when I was a *graduate student* in *English*, too. I’d much rather risk a few hundies in overdraft protection fees than five figures of debt at a high APR.

The thing is, Frank and Guzzo — god love ‘em — are two of those annoying people who don’t understand why debt is so bad for some of us, because they were born with an ability to treat money responsibly. For them, it is far more likely that they might make an error about how much cash (exactly) is in their account at any given moment than it is to run up their credit card bills unnecessarily. I envy them. But the reason that people are using debit cards more and more is because of that balance system that is in place — overdraft fees are outrageous, but they are still better than dealing with massive credit card balances. Some of us just cannot take the risk.

"Why The Backlash Against Debit Cards Confuses And Perplexes Me" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on November 04, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

10 16 Ways To Make The Holidays Cheaper & Easier That Don’t Involve Giving Your Friends and Family Gifts They Will Immediately Throw Away — Revised And Expanded For 2009

anna — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:00:53 +0000

Photo by blatera at deviantART

I originally posted this post last year in response to Oprah’s annual “Favorite Things” show which, in 2008, featured gift ideas that cost “next to nothing.” I found the ideas shown on that show really not very good, and in general they supported the idea that homemade gifts suck. I mean, a box covered in pinecones is not something I want, unless Mini makes it for me, and even then it’s probably going to end up in a storage box. As I said last year, I think that to approach the holidays without gratuitous overspending requires us to think, not to glue-gun. So here are the ten realistic ideas I came up with last year for overhauling the holidays, plus a few more that I’ve gathered over the past year. Some will work for you, others won’t, but all of them are better than making silly things that are probably going to show up in somebody else’s trashcan.

Go giftless, or save gifts for just the little kids. Half of my extended family has agreed to a “no gifts” policy for the past few holiday seasons. I have a simple dream of this extending to the other half of the family in years to come, but so far negotiations have been at a stalemate. Some people are more attached to the idea of exchanging gifts than are others, but the important part is that we get together and celebrate, not that the festivities are centered around a gift exchange.

If you do decide to go giftless, it’s probably a wise policy to exclude small children from it, since it’s very tough to explain things like this to kids, particularly if they believe in Santa Claus. On the other hand, there may be no better time than a child’s early years to condition them to a simpler concept of Christmas — this is just one of those parenting things where your mileage may vary. As an adult, not exchanging gifts might seem almost shocking at first, but it will also feel like a huge relief. And going gift-less will not only save you money, it will also save you time (no shopping) and effort (less cleanup). For the treehuggers in my audience, you can even say that going giftless is easier on the environment, since no gifts means no wrapping paper, which means fewer dead trees. Go treeless for Christmas, and you might as well be starring in the next season of Life With Ed.

So if you can swing it, I highly recommend working out some kind of deal like this with your family, friends, coworkers, et cetera. You may have to be the trailblazer who suggests it, and if so, you will have to decide on the best spin for your family — emphasize that togetherness is most important; lament the over-commercialization of holidays; stress how broke you are; if you or your family is devoutly Christian, gently remind them that Christ was the first Marxist, whatever youthink might work. For particularly stubborn families who celebrate Christmas, youmight suggest a stockings-only policy the first year, if they think it’s too radical to go cold turkey.
Choose names. Another way to handle the large/extended/step family situation is to do the thing where you draw a name out of a bag and that’s the one gift you have to buy for the holidays. I’ve been trying to do this for years with my family, but they won’t agree to it, unfortunately. If you do this, then each person only has one gift responsibility, and you can set a price limit if you want. This seems like the best of all worlds, since it still involves gift-giving, and you get time to think about the person you’re giving to, instead of rushing around at the last second and picking up more bath products that the person will not use. And the act of drawing names, along with a large gift-opening ceremony, is precisely the kind of ritual that all of these annual gift-giving holidays are built upon.

Set a price limit for gifts and stick to it. You can tell people ahead of time that you want a toned down holiday seasons, and see if they’ll agree to smaller gifts or a price limit. Again, sometimes you have to be the trailblazer in these kinds of situations. Sometimes you have to be willing to say, “Look, money is tight this year, so we are thinking about having a much more scaled down celebration this year.” Most people will appreciate this kind of honesty, especially when it saves them money. So be the brave one. Be the bold one. People will admire you for it, especially these days.

Team Up. My brother and I teamed up on gifts for many years for various family members, and this saved me a lot of money and a lot of headaches. Depending on the gift situation, there may be somebody with whom you can team up, split the shopping and go for a slightly less expensive option by teaming up. For example, if you can afford to spend $20 on a step-sibling, you’re stuck with the usual CDs, gift cards, and bath products route. But if you team up, you can get a better gift for the same money, or a slightly better gift for less money per person. Even better: you don’t have to find as many gifts, because you’ve got somebody doing half of the list for you.

Wait until December 20th and later to buy gifts. Some of us will probably do this anyway, just out of sheer disorganization. Last year, there were many deep discounts around the time that Christmas got closer, since sales projections for the holiday season were so low. It is likely that things won’t be much better this year, and though this is not a foolproof plan, it’s worth a shot.

Consider alternative gifts that involve time rather than money. The old “gift coupon book” idea is one that you can recycle, although in my experience those coupon gifts never actually get used, and because of this they come across as bullshit when you give them. So what I would suggest is a more comprehensive approach–say you have a friend with a new baby. Make arrangements with her husband to take care of the baby for a specific night so they can get out of the house. Have a date already set up, make reservations for them, announce you are coming on that day. A similar tactic could be used for cleaning a friend’s house, doing their laundry, or any other kind of chore–again, have a specific time and day in mind when you offer. Other ideas include: organize a painting party for somebody who just moved into a new home or wants a redo; offer to petsit when your pet-loving friends go on vacation; offer your trade or skill as a gift if this is possible; or organize a dinner for a group of friends in lieu of gifts
Look for stores that offer “price adjustments.” I once worked for a major American apparel conglomerate that owns three extremely well-known clothing store chains. The company — as is the case with many large chains–had a policy of offering price adjustments on items that go on sale up until two weeks after you purchase the item, provided you bring in your receipt to get the credit. I don’t know if the company still has this policy, or if it is still two weeks, but it is definitely worth your time to ask the return policy on every item you buy. If a store offers a price adjustment, then wait until a few days before Christmas to gifts from that store, save the receipts, and then go in the day after Christmas (which, yeah, sucks, but saving money is not for the faint of heart!) and get back like 20% on your purchase, since nearly everything goes on sale the day after Christmas.

Sell old stuff on Ebay, Craigslist, Amazon, and/or have a Yard Sale to pay for holiday gifts. This one still involves you spending money on gifts, but instead of having all the money come out of your budget or (horror) go on a credit card, commit to raising all of the money for your holiday gifts from selling old stuff. This way, it will feel like found money, and you won’t have to give anything up in order to give presents. But you need to limit yourself to the funds you raise, or else the plan goes out the window.
Commit to not using credit cards, no matter what you do. If you are really committing to a financially sane future, your freedom from credit cards is never more important than during the holiday season. So many people buy gifts on credit cards and then have to face the music when they get their bills in January. This year, be OK with letting the Joneses “win.” Don’t use your credit cards–if you still have them–for anything, whatever you do. If you make it through the holiday season with just one idea intact, this is a good one to choose.
Ruthlessly pare down your gift list. Sure, it’s nice to bake cookies for your neighbors, or buy your kids’ teachers Starbucks cards. I used to be a teacher, so I know I loved it when I got these little holiday tokens. But we don’t have all this extra money this year, and in my mind, the kindness of the gesture is compromised when it has become an obligation. As things are these days, we are going around giving each other things out of a sense of HAVING TO, and that ruins everything.

So here’s my radical idea: let’s just stop, OK?

That’s right, I’ll be the one to finally stand up and say it: FUCK THESE PERIPHERAL GIFT RECIPIENTS! I know it sounds heartless, and I have nothing against spreading holiday cheer in theory. But, wherever possible, you need to save the gifts for people who are truly a part of your day-to-day lives. Some of these people are just not going to make the list this year. Like your hairdresser, for example (You already tip them! They are not your employees, they are service providers, so no more Christmas bonuses! Stop the insanity!), bosses (again, they are supposed to give YOU a bonus, not the other way around), dog washer, dry cleaner, lawyer, broker, whateverthehell. Friends and family only, OK? And yeah, if you have a little extra and you feel like being generous, then fine, but bear in mind that this is how these kinds of things start: one person starts giving their hairdresser a Christmas gift, and then everyone feels like they have to. If you think that they’ll think you’re rude, here’s an idea: Wait until after the holidays are over to go in! But I’m guessing they won’t even notice, anyway.
Think big, give small. One of my best friends often gives small gifts, and they are always among the best I receive. She has given me large gifts on occasion, sure, but throughout the time I’ve known her, she’s always been a great gift giver because she figures out exactly what I would like when she goes shopping, and finds things I would never be able to find on my own. One time, she got me a stationery set made out of old New York City subway maps–not only was it green before green was cool, it probably only cost $10 or so. But it was an awesome gift. One time she got me just a magnet, but it was a magnet that had a lot of meaning because of a series of inside jokes that we had going on between us. The way I picture this friend shopping is that she is just always on the alert for things that would please her friends, rather than buying something that seems like “enough” for the occasion. It’s a great way to think about gift-giving in terms of quality and not quantity.

Make Customized Photo Albums. Digital photography is fantastic in many ways, but as time goes by, people are keeping fewer and fewer actual photographs. One way to combat this and make a budget-friendly gift is to design a custom photo album and print it up as a gift from your family to both sets of grandparents, the aunts and uncles, etc. Each year, we make a year retrospective book of Mini’s life at blurb and give it to both sets of grandparents and several other people who are close to Mini. These books are really nice, and can be as fancy or as simple as you like — we usually can get a smaller sized hardcover book for around $40, which is not too expensive if you’re talking about a gift for two or more people in one. Other services like Shutterfly and Kodak have photo albums that are even more reasonably priced, though in my experience the ones put out by blurb are far superior to other brands (and I’m not being paid to say this, by the way).

Don’t Send Christmas Cards. Do I have to be the one to tell you this? Nobody cares about your Christmas cards. They are just one of those things that you get and then you feel uncomfortable about wanting to throw away. That’s why people string them up on ribbons and shit — they want to make a big thing about how they’re not throwing them away, even though they really want to throw them away. And if you have enough holiday news for a newsletter, maybe it’s time to start a blog for nobody to read. Christmas cards are a big waste of time, money, and paper. Don’t buy them (save money), don’t send them (save more $$) and just don’t worry about it (save hassle).

Put a cork on the decorations. You probably have enough decorations already. Don’t buy any more. sure, get a tree. But beyond that, eh. Just work with what you have. Nobody will know the difference.

Start saving in January. Is there a line-item for Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) in your budget year-round? There should be. Not only will you end up with the cash to pay for Christmas without using credit cards, you’ll also find that you spend less overall when you’re forced to think about it year round. Use a sub-account in ING for this purpose, and that way you can see how the Christmas fund is growing throughout the year.

Stop it with the baking. Listen, we’re all fat. We don’t need to go around handing out cookies to each other at Christmas. If you must bake, at least can it with the fruitcake. Nobody eats that shit except for my grandfather. If you need his address shoot me an email.

"10 16 Ways To Make The Holidays Cheaper & Easier That Don’t Involve Giving Your Friends and Family Gifts They Will Immediately Throw Away — Revised And Expanded For 2009" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on November 02, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Of Note This Week — Personal Finance Edition

anna — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:00:46 +0000

Photo via Ffffound!

Here are some of my favorite articles from this week in the world of personal finance. Enjoy at your leisure, and don’t forget to check out the ABDPBT, ABDPBT Tech, and ABDPBT Commodity Fetishism versions as well. If you have a link to suggest for next week, please email me at anna at abdpbt dot com and I’ll check it out.

According to Bankrate, you can use Twitter to save cash. What they don’t tell you is how much crap twitter spam you will have to wade through if you try to do this. It’s kind of like someone telling you to “use email to save money on pharmaceuticals.” Or to enhance penis size. But those MSM outlets are trying, god bless ‘em.

Explore the pitfalls of buying in bulk at Get Rich Slowly. None of this is news, but I enjoyed the anecdote about how the blogger’s kids started to revolt after being made to eat Puffins cereal at breakfast for six months straight. Perhaps a better title would be, “When Does It Stop Being Smart Home Economy And Start Being Child Abuse? Learn To Identify The Signs.” [Note to self: write that idea down.]

Bargaineering takes on the delicate subject of women outearning their husbands. How does Jim Wang, chief blogger at Bargaineering, feel about it? After a paragraph of hedges and rationalizations, he concludes that, under a certain set of conditions, he’d be totally fine with it.

"Of Note This Week — Personal Finance Edition" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on October 31, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

What Lady Gaga’s Poker Face Can Teach Us About Creativity And Marketing

anna — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:00:51 +0000

Yes, THE fame, what shall we do about THE fame?

How do you feel about Lady Gaga? Me? Eh. Her songs are good for exercising to, like most mustic put out by gay icons. But they aren’t fantastic, they have a good beat and if I weren’t tone deaf perhaps I could weigh in on whether or not she has a good voice, although those kinds of niceties dont’ really seem to matter all that much these days, what with the magic that can be done behind-the-scenes.

But we all know Lady Gaga, right? Mostly because of her crazy fashion antics and her outlandish stunts. She’s become part of the popular imagination by going to the MTV Music Video awards, wearing six different outfits, each crazier than the next, and spattering blood all overherself, hanging from a noose, on stage. And shortly thereafter, her tour with Kanye West was cancelled presumably in part because of Kanye’s stupid “Imma let you finish” move on that same awards show.

Photo via MTV

Why do we know Lady Gaga again? Is it the Madonna attention whore thing again? Yes, but with a twist.

I started thinking about Lady Gaga and how her fashion is super crazy, but it’s crazy in an extra peculiar way. It’s not just making a statement, it’s serving some kind of purpose for her. And I could not figue out what htis purpose was, other than the attention-getting, which is hardly a new thing for Lady Gaga. Until I started to notice a pattern between all of her costume changes. When you see Lady Gaga out during the day, she is always wearing sunglasses. This on its own is not strange.

Sunglasses go best with full shirts, Lady Gaga. Just FYI.

When you see Lady Gaga on stage or at an awards show, her outlandish outfit is always accented by sunglasses as well, or another device of some kind to hide either her eyes or her entire face. She became famous for singing a song that said, “You can’t read my poker face.” But of course we cannot read your poker face, Lady Gaga — you never let us see it.Why would somebody do this? I think Madonna was wondering the same thing, which is why when they appeared on Saturday Night Live together, Madonna used a part of the skit to wrestle with Lady Gaga and take off her glasses. And then it happened.

Lady Gaga's Poker Face.

We saw Lady Gaga’s Poker Face.

And I’ve seen faces that are less attractive, sure. But the thing with Lady Gaga’s eyes is not that they are so unattractive, but that they do not fit her image of super cool, enigmatic gay icon. They are kind of goofy eyes. They would be fine on somebody else, even a a character actress. They are kind of like a less pretty version of Susan Sarandon’s eyes. But they are not sexy and enigmatic, are they? I have to imagine that at some point she either figured this out ehrself of had somebody tell her, that she needed to figure out a way to make her look “pop,” and somebody, somewhere, said, “We’ve got to cover up those eyes!” and then the designers went crazy, because soemtimes the best thing you can do to boost creativity is to put restraints on yourself. Some of the best products, some of the best writing, some of the best solutions to everyday problems come out of this dilemma. And they kept working, and Lady Gaga became known as the girl with the crazy outfits, instead of the girl with the crazy eyes.

Only another master marketer and media manipulator like Madonna could figure it out. Which is why she pulled off her glasses. Not because she had to expose her, though that was probably a nice side-effect. But because she wanted to know if she was right. And she was.

Smart women, those two — I’m going to keep my eye on them.

"What Lady Gaga’s Poker Face Can Teach Us About Creativity And Marketing" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on October 30, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

6 Recent Print Media Headlines That Suck

anna — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:00:14 +0000

Newsweek seems to be a little hesitant to say the economy is getting better.

I’m not quite sure why this topic fascinates me so much, but I find tracking the print media in recent months to be an irresistible topic. Here are some of the worst headlines I’ve found in the print media recently. You’ll note that some of my reading habits are a little dated — what can I say? I think the fact that it took me almost two years to read some of these magazines might be an indication of something about why print is dying. But, to be honest, I’m too tired to figure out what — maybe you guys can help me.

“33 Things That Make Us Crazy.” I don’t like you forging this artificial relationship with me, Wired magazine. Like I’m going to read this list of stuff and think, “Wow, that makes me crazy, too,” and then become one of you? No thanks. Keep your crazy to yourself.

“Why Twitter Is Stupid.” Saying Twitter is stupid is like saying answering machines are stupid, or toasters are stupid. I mean, Twitter is a technology that is made up of years and years of web and computer development. It’s instantaneous and worldwide. It’s not stupid. It’s a lot smarter than you or I. Duh.

“The Case For Killing Granny.” Not only does this try to cash in on the psycho right
“Is Your Baby Racist?” No. I don’t think so . . . and if he is — well, I don’t want to know anything more about it than I have to. How do you even know my baby? Get out of here!

“Why College Should Only Take 3 Years.” What’s next? Why law school should only take 2 years? Why medical school should only require an extension class? Why pregnancy should only take 6 weeks? Why infants should be allowed to drive? WHERE WILL IT ALL END?!

“WHY THINGS SUCK!” Thanks, but I don’t really need somebody to explain to me why things suck. I do a pretty good job of figuring out this mystery on my own. But even if I did wonder about it, I’m not sure I’d want to spend my free time reading about it. Wait. Nevermind.

"6 Recent Print Media Headlines That Suck" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on October 26, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Why The Future of Blogvertising Is Display Advertising 2.0

anna — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:00:11 +0000

In LA, we like to take advertising to extremes.

Online marketers are becoming increasingly elaborate in their experiments with attracting and harnessing the attention of social media users. There is a ton of Twitter-pontificating and blog hand-wringing on this topic but all of it centers around pinning down the exact hoodoo voodoo for getting social media mavens to endorse your product without violating the regulations recently passed down by the FCC. Bloggers want to know how they’re going to make money from their blogs. Advertisers want to know how they’re going to get the attention of consumers who can block their ads or fast-forward through them. Everybody’s confused, and everybody’s convinced that these old skool methods don’t work anymore, so they’ve started throwing stuff against the wall to see what will stick.

The thing is, the solution for how to monetize a blog and the solution for how to best use online advertising space are one in the same, and it doesn’t involve creating microsites or funding product placements. Nor is it to insist on bigger, roll-out display ads, or to flood the market with cheap context adversiting. The solution now is what it has always been — display advertising — but a new form of it.

Display Advertising 2.0 is the name for a smarter, more cost-effective and a micro-targeted version of display advertising for superior products that is accessible to advertisers of all sizes and budgets. It works by doing a lot of upfront due diligence, and culminates in placing ads directly where they will be most appreciated: in the sidebars of the blogs (and message boards) frequented by their ideal consumers. From there, it spreads to the content column through organic discussion, not paid placement, and from there to other outlets — Twitter streams, Facebook pages, and so on, through word of mouth. It is designed to exploit the influence of a particular blogger’s community without compromising the integrity of the blogger’s content. And it cannot work unless we all — advertisers and bloggers looking to monetize — do our homework.

With Social Media, The Goal Is To Get Into The Content Column Without Looking Like You Had To Pay To Get There

Look at the ads in my sidebar right now: they are for Party City, Orowheat, and Chevy Equinox. I might go to Party City once or twice a year, and occasionally I’ll buy a loaf of Orowheat bread, but I don’t have any particular brand loyalty to either advertiser: they are both OK products, I suppose, but I could just as easily buy from somebody else. There’s nothing spectacular, in my opinion, about either product. I doubt that their placement in my sidebar will have any effect, good or bad, on my habits as a consumer. With Chevrolet, the situation is even worse, because never in a million years would I buy a car built by Chevrolet. I don’t buy American cars, because I think American cars are pieces of shit. And my readers might not feel the same way, but the likelihood is that there is some commonality between our collective opinions as consumers because they have come here to read what I have to say. So maybe they think American cars are OK, but they are probably not overly excited about Orowheat or Party City, is my guess. So putting ads for those companies in my sidebars is probably not a great ROI. Let’s face it. I’ll take their money for as long as they’ll give it to me, sure, but I don’t think they’re getting much from me overall. This is probably the first and last time I will every mention these kinds of brands in my content column, because they’re boring. Who cares about Orowheat? Who cares about Party City? Not me.

At present, the people who advertise through big blog networks like BlogHer are giant brands that people feel so-so about. These are brands that succeed because they are ubiquitous. I don’t see a revolutionary brand in my sidebar, I see brands that are already huge and intend to stay that way by flooding the market’s consciousness with placements across all kinds of media. These are brands that rely on me buying them (or from them) because that’s what choice I have. These brands use this kind of placement because it constructs the overall ubiquitousness of their brand for a relatively low price — consumers say, “let’s see, my stomach is upset, what should I buy?” and they buy Pepto Bismol (another advertiser in my sidebar), because that’s what people buy, right?

But what if I had a brand in my sidebar that was super exciting to me and, by assumption, to a big chunk of my readership? Wouldn’t I see it and feel compelled to talk about it — not because they are paying me, but because hey! did you see that? Or, failing that, wouldn’t one of my readers see the ad and want to talk about it? I started thinking about this for a couple of reasons: 1) because of a comment made by Kerry on a post the other day that ended up with a product making it into the content column through organic conversation, and 2) because of a post I clicked read (via the Federated Media Twitter stream) pointed out a reader’s comment that when she visited Notcot, she had to remember to turn off her ad blocker, because they were ads she wanted to see.

This is the kind of thing advertisers want to hear.

What advertisers want, ultimately, is to show up in the content column of a blog without looking like they paid to get there. This is the ideal placement, because the content is the focus of attention. When discussion of a product appears to have happened organically, then it is most effective. So how does a company get their product into the content column of a blog? Well, the old-fashioned way is to create an awesome product that people want to talk about. My own Commodity Fetishism blog features these kinds of products that I either recommend or that I want to try, and this is an ideal placement for advertisers because it is completely organic. I receive no compensation for these placements, and my readers trust that fact. A company wanting that kind of placement has to depend upon great product quality and a little bit of luck, which isn’t exactly a marketing plan.

Another way to make it into the content column is to sponsor events like the Zicam people did for The Broad Summit (as discussed in my last post). This kind of sponsorship is likely to lead to a discussion of some kind, because people take pictures and write recaps, and it inevitably comes up in conversation, whether by the blogger or by commenters. The only problem with this kind of placement is that you cannot guarantee that it’s going to result in favorable mentions, or any mention at all. Zicam got mentioned in my post because they sponsored an event, but I was being critical of the event, and though I doubt this had much of a negative effect on Zicam’s brand, this kind of placement is not exactly an ideal situation for all brands. And also, there are only so many events, and only so many bloggers out there who are invited to them. Brands would have to do a much better job of contacting bloggers and understanding micromarkets to exploit this method, and companies are just not equipped to handle this kind of thing at present, from what I can tell.

The last, and most effective way, I think, to make it into the content column is to find a way to get people to start talking about your product in the comments of a post by using a display ad that appears alongside the content that is super appealing to a blog’s audience. If my audience sees a display ad that is well-targeted to them, they will bring it up in the comments. They will say something like, hey look at that ad! That sounds cool. And then an organic discussion will take place in the comment section of my blog, and possibly this will spread to other outlets like Twitter, or to my readers’ blogs. This is the kind of thing you want to have happen, and in order for it to happen well, it is crucial to maintain the appearance of being objective. If you pay me directly to mention your product, it won’t work. If you write me an email about your product or send me a sample of your product, I might mention it, or I might not. Or I might say something bad. You have no control. What you need is a display ad that appeals directly to this micromarket, and you need to plaster my site with ads for it. That is how the conversation occurs, and that is how products are sold.

If I were running an ad agency, I would start pouring money into personnel that understand these markets. The best people to talk to about their markets are the bloggers themselves. Some will be more valuable than others in their ability to articulate the attributes of a certain market, just as some bloggers will be more valuable than others in terms of the size of their audience and the relationships they foster with it. If you have millions of readers, it doesn’t do an advertiser any good if they don’t trust your product recommendations, or trust the recommendations for products of all the community members of the blog. I think what advertisers need to do is to either employ somebody whose job it is to study the current (and by current I mean constantly updated — constantly) markets, who can tell you what Blog X’s market is, what their ages are, how many of them there are, how likely they are to buy a product when it’s mentioned favorably on the blog. Some of this information can be gleaned by surveys and the like, but they have to be much more scientifically administered than they used to be. What you are trying to guage here is influence, and this is not the same across blogs or across markets. A blogger might have a small readership that is very devoted: get the right product in that blogger’s sidebar ads, and people will talk about it, and then everybody will buy it. Even if it’s only a few hundred people, that is a huge return on a not-very-expensive placement.

More work has to be done on the front end of advertising. You need the person who can tell you 1) what the right product is and 2) who the right blogger is. These are people who read blogs and think about them, in every niche. These are bloggers. You can employ them as consultants with whom you have (very) regular meetings, or you can have somebody on staff who gives you constant updates. The blogosphere is constantly changing. there are new bloggers every day. there are people who quit blogging every day. There are people who have big readerships who start losing readers, or whose readerships change as they change. You need people who watch these changes. This is where the bulk of your money should go, as an advertiser: either to consultants through ad networks that do this for you, or to advertising companies that understand this and who are keeping their eyes on the blogosphere by participating in it, or in very isolated cases, directly to the bloggers themselves. The agencies that have done this and are continuing to do this now are the ones who will succeed in the changing social media marketplace.

"Why The Future of Blogvertising Is Display Advertising 2.0" was written by Anna Viele for ABDPBT Personal Finance and was originally posted on October 23, 2009. Copyright ®2009 Anna Viele for ABDPBT, Inc. and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.