Blog

Pixels, anyone?

I had an opportunity to participate in a benefit organized to help out a fellow rider, who had suffered an accident a few weeks ago. The event itself was fun, with free live music and lots of partying going on, and it was great to see a lot of my friends whom I had kinda neglected while I slaved away at the keyboard producing this site for you. But the real fun for me was that I chose to make this my “coming out” event - the official unveiling of AustinMash! upon an unsuspecting public. And you know what? The reactions were great!

Check out my snazzy shirt!

Keep in mind this is a benefit for an injured biker, so the folk there were mainstream, real-life people from all walks of life, as opposed to the attendee list of, say, a webinar on the collaboration features of Microsoft’s VS.Net 2.0. For this reason, I was particularly interested in initial reactions to the pixel ad concept and its execution in AustinMash!

Well, there were the few people who don’t get this whole internet thing, and that was ok - great band, huh? But those that got it seemed genuinely surprised and enthused, and I did get a high level of interest from small business owners - yeah! It was especially gratifying when, at one point, I stepped away from my display, and observed someone I had talked to earlier showing someone else my site. Coooool.

The main idea was to kick the whole chicken-and-egg problem off center by donating some pixels to the silent auction. That way, the benefit benefits, and I get some ads for the site, which will hopefully form the nucleus of the snowball I’m trying to build. Plus of course, I get the word about my site out to all the other vendors at the event, and any other business owners or managers who attend.

Sounds like a plan, let’s go peddle some pixels !!