On Tuesday, April 30, 2002, at 12:39 AM, Fidex Marketing wrote:
> ... > OK, well I accept your correction, it sounds logical. The incentive > program and ponzis are things I have never tried very hard to learn > about. You have told me who does NOT benefit from the incentive program. > It would be interesting to know who DOES benefit, for example what is > the largest amount of gold earned through the referral program by a > single account? > If I knew that, I wouldn't tell, but suffice it to say that the referral incentive program is good enough, especially for large merchants who plan to stay around a while, that I'm shocked it's not more well-known. Some of the math was done in front of the crowd at the recent conference, IIRC. The question to ask yourself is "do I trust Jim Ray or someone else regarding the incentive thing?" I think you should trust me, of course, but it's likely that someone else here will do the math, so you can judge for yourself who is being honest and who probably isn't. > Also I much appreciate your personal input JMR on this list. > Thanks, but that may be a minority view. > But that was not really the point I was making. You brought up the > incentive program as an example of e-gold's efforts at marketing. And I > said, well even if you have the greatest incentive program in the world, You said THAT?? (It IS, of course, so I'm glad you now agree!) > it is pretty lousy marketing to have *just* an incentive program (and no > I haven't forgotten the car stickers either) > "Napster" didn't have even THAT, and look how _IT_ grew! I think we can do just as well, if we're smart about explaining the benefits of e-gold, and if you do it right YOU should benefit! You (like many folks) seem to think that e-gold Ltd. might be better off if they had spent lots of money on ads. I disagree, I think it's good to concentrate resources on improving e-gold (and there are, of course, other expenses...). Marketing, like reputation and dispute resolution and arbitration and dozens of other things people may wish e-gold did, will not make the best base money the planet has ever seen, and that's what e-gold is doing, and doing right. e-gold is a _FAR_ better thing than Napster, but some good things are *subtle*. The benefits of "free" music are easy to explain. Few people have ever even thought about money in the way I need them to, so it's not easy (absent a disaster like Argentina's) to make them suddenly think that way now. I think the best marketing is the greatness of e-gold, once it's explained properly (and used for the right things!). Here's an example, http://www.radsfans.net/ Frankly, I think that e-gold could have saved Napster (and, of course, it could have given them an actual income). e-gold TipJars like Radsfans' are FAR easier to do than tipjars were when I contacted Napster. They didn't "have the time" to try e-gold then, I'm told. Evolution in action. Now there's Limewire, Morpheus, Gnutella, etc. and I WILL finally get through to one (and then all) of those. With http://www.fastsci.com and http://www.clicktwocents.com I think that music tipjars will really take off soon. Norse rocks! The Radiators are only the first conquest. Any band that gives away the right to tape shows (like the Grateful Dead did) now has a HUGE, _WORLDWIDE_ potential income source!!! Fans will tend to tip more than a record company would have paid any band, if behavior I've seen so far holds. Bands will notice this and respond accordingly. University students, once they discover that e-gold is also a more efficient way to do large transfers ("Mom, please send lots of money!") will drive the adoption, IMO. > The other thing is that confidence in the system is probably the biggest > marketing hurdle of all, yet nobody from e-gold takes the time to answer > questions on the subject ... ... I can't speak on some subjects, as you know. Others who can and do have recently spoken directly with a variety of people. I prefer not to characterize what others have said, though. Views and feedback, on this list or elsewhere, sometimes need to be taken with a grain of salt. I've always tried to be honest (and I note that your reply to the list was to private email...) when I'm in disagreement with someone, about my own motivations. Its safe to assume others have motivations as well. Sometimes, I have strong reasons to doubt that the ideas promulgated by others are motivated by honesty (instead of, say, jealousy?). Regarding confidence, I tend to trust individuals, not groups. I will give a hypothetical example of a high-reputation individual vs a group now (since I've believed this for over a decade and it's now fun to say 'I told you so!!'). If Warren Buffett (one of my heroes) says X and (pick any "big five" accounting firm) says Y, Jim Ray only believes X. Bottom line: I trust Doug Jackson and the team behind e-gold for various reasons to keep doing the right thing out of their own self-interest. I have felt this way since before Enron was among the top 10 corporations in the USA, and I feel that way now that they're either almost-dead or dead. JMR --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
