Seth Godin bemoans how cheap the ads are during non-prime-time spots. That is, they’re produced cheaply. They stink. On the other hand, an advertiser will pour millions of dollars into a Superbowl ad that runs only once. Because they don’t want to spend a lot of money producing an ad for a spot worth only a couple hundred bucks. But here’s why this logic is severely flawed, even if the ad runs only once in a cheap spot.

I didn’t do what I promised my wife I’d do. Because I screwed up.

She really wanted to see Rocky, because its inspirational story would really make her feel better right now. I really wanted to see Rocky, too. Because the last time I saw it was long before I knew how to write fiction myself, and I couldn’t learn anything from it. In fact, it was so long ago, I don’t even remember how the movie goes.

Ashley McKee at User Interface Engineering posted links to Tutorial Blog’s list of the 60 best standards compliant web site designs. And she asked, whether these web-site designs are usable, as well as visually appealing.

Well, Ashley. Firstly, let me weigh in on a comment by reader DJ, a comment that can hit home for a small-business owner. He says:

DreamHost, my favorite web host, yesterday announced that there had been a cyber-break-in at their facilities.

A very small subset of our user accounts have been compromised due to a security flaw in our web control panel software. We have already notified those of you affected directly via email…

The security flaw allowed the attackers to log into our customer web control panel with the access privileges of another user. From our web panel they were able to access individual user password information. The attackers also attempted to gain access to our central database and billing information but were ultimately thwarted in that attempt. No credit card information or customer personal information was obtained.

We will soon be making an official post about this situation and the steps being done to safeguard accounts in the future on the DreamHost blog…

Here’s the story of Marillion, an independent UK band. Most bands record demos, scrounge for gigs, and pray daily to be discovered by an A&R rep. The competition is fierce. And frequently, those chosen are the ones with the least talent. And most bands never make it, or break up and die long before they even have a chance.

Jim Logan points out that the world is full of crap marketing. And that’s your opportunity. Because the more crap is in the world, the easier it is to shine above it all. And there is more crap now than ever, because it is so cheap and easy to get on the web. But the whole story has an interesting implication that Jim missed.

Red or Green?

Wayne Hurlbert wrote about patterns of small business failure. One such failure is not knowing the true cost of doing business. Then when things get tough, the small business will cut corners, usually by cutting the marketing budget… And skimping on its website.

I disagree with Wayne, however, on one point. He says, “Cutting corners, at the expense of current and future customers, is not a wise idea.” But if things are getting tough, it might be better for the business to have fewer customers.

Let me explain what I mean.

Seth Godin advised his readers to blow up their websites’ home pages. Is the home page irrelevant? To answer that, I dug up a blog post I remembered reading a couple years ago on UIE’s site. Jared Spool and his associates at UIE actually do the scientific research on questions like this.

The answer is that your site’s home page is indeed important, but not in the way you may think. And it’s not the most important page on your site, even though it probably gets more traffic than any other page on your site.

Jim Logan yesterday ranted about the sleazy state of marketing today. He says marketers have stooped so low in their efforts to make a buck, and—what’s worse—customers actually expect it. And he asks, are we jaded? Are we doomed forever to be enslaved to the fine print in all the marketing materials we get?

I know I have become more skeptical in my old age. (Not that I’m “old” yet, but old enough to be skeptical.) And I’m certainly tired of all the promises too good to be true. And I’m tired of all the clueless sleazoids trying to get one more sale, at any cost, even that of a customer.

So, Jim, your phone story reminded me of one of my own.

Seth Godin yesterday echoed my philosophy on web stats. This is one of the 4 key elements that any website strategy needs. And it’s way simpler than the hype you hear in web-traffic circles. Because you should not maximize your web traffic. In fact, don’t even pay much attention to it.