Today on his Planning Startups Stories blog Tim Berry posted on the magic of Internet ads which are tailored specifically for target audiences, and almost, it seems, for individuals.

One of my favorite sites is Real Life Adventures on Gocomics.com They are right up front, letting visitors know that their free humor content is paid for by advertising. The part I find interesting is they let me/you/the viewer choose the types of ads we see. That is kind of fun, in a way. A dialog pops up listing categories such as Coffee & Dessert, or Child Care, or Flowers, Gardening, Home Design.

Then, as I view the site getting my minimum daily requirement of smiles and laughter, the ads which appear have a reasonable chance of being of interest to me. And if I’m interested I’m likely to click through.

To my mind this is pretty smart marketing. After all, I’ll never click on random ads for stuff I’ll never use.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software, Inc.