Real-life interaction is good. Ads are ads though regardless of the format.
There is a saying "Free cheese is only in mouse trap" :)

I thought Active Reports ads were pretty good!

I think it's a great idea.

more prizes and give-aways with the ads may do the trick also.. :-)

Whatever you need to do to keep the show coming! Actually I think I would be more receptive to hear developers talk about their product (infomercial like) than a 2 minute ad (which I occasionally fast forward thru anyway :blush:) Hmmm, maybe thats how I ended up with this rotisserie grill?!

It really comes down to the host of the show, if there attitude is "i need the $$ so i'll be really nice" then the ads will suck.

But if you question the product, have tried the product out, try and find out what it can and can't do, then everyone will benefit. Also suggest getting a developer of the product in for the ad, not just there salesman, could be more interesting,
with questions of "what were the main challenges etc", "what problems did you have porting your code from vb to dotnet" etc etc.


Just my usual 2 cents worth.

Aaron

Good idea! Get the vendors to give one away on the show.

I think thats a cool Idea. One other sugestion... Get rid of that "Girl" who does your show intro! She/He sounds really scary!

> if you question the product, have tried the product out, try and find out what it can and can't do, then everyone will benefit <

The problem is that it wouldn't be fair to the listeners for me to spend an hour or two with a product and form an opinion. That's why we've only had sponsors who have products we have used and like.

So, maybe an idea is for the vendor to bring along with them a developer who is using the product, and they can give a testimonial. That would be worth something to everybody, right?

I have nothing against ads, per se. Only against ads for stuff that is clearly only randomly thrown at me. Ads about products/services that are in line with my field of work deserve at least a minute or two of my time. Sometimes they actually have their intended effect with me: I learn about a product that does something I need to do.

So what about having the ads, sure, (5 minutes tops), but instead of having it just an audio version of a print ad, covering all the bullet points that I will find out the home page of the web site anyway, suggest something different to the advertiser. Like, letting them discuss why one key feature sets their product apart.

Instead of just, "It saves time! Look at the web site! It organizes your Rolodex! Look at the web site! We won an award! It walks the dog!" you have more depth to the ad, rather than breadth. "Out of four products in our market, ours is the only one that walks the dog <i>and</i> scoops the poop -- something you won't find up on the home page of our web site. How does it work? We'll tell you. We modified a wet vac by attaching a COM interface to it, and harnessed it to our dog walking engine, which was built entirely in C#. Both the walker and the scooper's functionality are exposed through a Web Service. The New York Dog Walking Association chose our product and used it to walk sixty dogs at once. Since our competitors don't scoop the poop, thirty dogs were unmanageable for them. Poop would've been everywhere. But our product kept the sidewalks poop-free for the the duration of the longest walk."

Well, I guess there's a good reason I'm a software wonk and not an ad man.

Good luck, I think it's a good idea.

That is a great idea! It will be much better than the current cheesy ads. Keep up the good work... .Net rocks! ;)

I like the developer using the product idea. Kind of like a product success story. Maybe if any listeners have had success with those products they could even write in or be incorporated in some how. I do get the sense that the ads aren't a sell your soul type situation where you let anyone advertise just to pay the bills.

PS I like the intro girl (in a purely platonic way)

Actually, I think hearing from different vendors (even though they are paying) is interesting. I especially like when you put your take on the matter.

Thanks for the great comments. I want to change the format, and I think this is a great way to do it.

I like cheese... Not so sure about poop though... Sounds like a good idea to me. Whatever keeps you in ribs and keeps the show coming.

Only if related to the topic of the show.

VC++: Intro_girl++;
VB: Intro_girl = Intro_girl + 1

I like the idea of giving some time to sponsors to talk about their products. Maybe you could ask for questions to be submitted on your blog that developers would like to ask the sponsor concerning the functionality of their products and then have the sponsor address those during the show.

I think it would be much better than the run-of-the-mill type ads, as long as it isn't just, like Alan McBee said, an "audio version of a print ad". Developers don't care about sales hype, because we know most of it is BS anyway.

Ads are ads, but given that we really want .Net Rocks to stay on the air (?) go for whatever you have to to keep it alive and kickin. BTW: Awesome show!

I don't mind the short ads, but your idea to do a more in depth spot on the company and it's product is a great idea especially if they start giving away products.

Carl,

Some of my favorite ads were the cheesy ones you use to have about Franklins.NEt, specially since you use to play beats I assume were created by you, some were really good. Like Tim Huc mentioned on a show once, listeners including myself cant wait to fly out to New London, CT and have lunch with you guys up there. Having said that, it is a great idea, what you're proposing. I am sure like most we'd rather have a few ads per show and keep a good thing going. After all if it bothers anyone that much than fasforward thru it. Also, I wanted to share with you and you can pass this on to the vendors, that most.NET components we have bought in my company have been a result of seeing them in some form of ad mostly through say, magazine ads. Meaning advertising does work and once you hear a name then if you need it you check them out.

The only potential problem I see is, that since it is not pre-recorded or the same everytime, that each subsequent week the sponsor would have less to say.

Just a small concern,

Like always keep on Rocking!!!

Thanks, Eddy.

I agree that we would not be able to do an extended segment with the same sponsor week after week. I imagine we'd still have some sponsors who would want to do the traditional ad spot (obviously for less $$) on a regular basis.

Maybe you could post who the sponsors are going to be in advance so we could send in some or our questions in advance. (The "Cheesy" ads are good too...)

Hey, I like the questions idea. Not just force fed info. Also, I'm sorry, but the intro girl just doesn't sound... right. She sounds like she's reading from a card and forcing a smile.

Maybe Datagrid Girl (Marcie Robillard) could do your intro.

I vote keep the intro girl.

I use Active Reports.net and really like it. It would be very cool to hear from their architect and/or main developers.

As snoop dog would say, "Keep it real..."

Ian