Gene,
Thank you for welcoming me to your site, I'm not here to get into a war of words with you. If you will allow me to clear up a couple of misconceptions that you have about me, or what I've done.
1.) My site not making money off banner ads has nothing to do with my traffic or lack thereof. I've run banners before, I even been approached to run banners, but I've come to the conclusion that they simply don't work.
For the record, when I've run banners -paid or unpaid -I've never done any tracking of their impressions or clicks, again, not because my site doesn't generate traffic, but because I simply didn't want to spend my day(s) worrying about serving ads, tracking their metrics and then having to answer to manufacturers when the banners or campaigns failed to perform to their expectation. At the same time I wasn't charging the bloated prices many sites in the industry charge for banners that ultimately don't work. My deal, when I experimented with banners was as follows (and everyone paid the same, there were no tiers):
- Campaigns ran for a period of 1 year.
- Manufacturers paid up front, and in full.
- The price was $5,000
- I asked five companies to sponsor my site and video channel, three did so with their wallets and two did so with production equipment.
- All five companies were asked by me to become sponsors because I could personally vouch for their products, for I was a customer of theirs first.
- I ran this experiment for 1 year, I have not chosen to repeat it, for, again, I think banners are a waste of time and a needless distraction that accomplishes little more than to clutter up one's website.
- I don't run ads because I do not live or make money off my site, I have another, or other jobs. I write on my site and choose to review equipment because it still brings me joy, and I generally like the community that makes up this hobby.
2.) With regards to my former employer, HomeTheaterReview.com and their review of the Lexicon BDP-30. First, I did not write that review. Second, I did not stand idly by. You have no idea what conversations took place behind the scenes with respect to that particular review or the day-to-day business operations. I didn't own HTR, so at the end of the day, my dissenting opinion was noted, but ultimately a different course of action was taken by management.
To your note about being a "hired marketing guy," not sure what you mean by this exactly. Prior to my working for Emotiva, or while I was employed by HTR (which is the time frame I believe you are referring to) I didn't work for any audio or video manufacturer. I designed banner ads for manufacturers that didn't have any, but that chose to advertise on HTR. I was not paid by them (the manufacturers) to do so, nor did I get any sort of monetary kick back from the money paid to HTR for running those campaigns. I was paid as a contract laborer (1099) for writing reviews and for graphic design services related to HTR. I've worked in this industry as a writer or editor for 10 years, in all those years I have never been on salary. I have never been paid benefits. I've never had health insurance. I've been responsible for my own taxes , etc. etc.
Obviously I didn't get into writing reviews to get rich. The most I have ever been paid by a publisher for a review has been $350. Most of the time I would earn between $50 - $250 per review. As Managing Editor of HTR I was guaranteed $500 a month, plus whatever I reviewed. Most months that meant I earned, on average, about $1,600 or $10/hour. I'm sorry, but if you or anyone want me to sell out, you're going to have to come at me with a lot more than $10/hour or $1,600 a month (on average).
3.) Have you heard Dolby Atmos? Have you personally setup an Atmos system and demoed it in your own room? The answer is no. You may be proven correct in many of your assumptions, Lord knows I agree with one of your assertions that people don't want, or aren't going to employ more speakers. But the fact still remains, neither you or I know for sure.
Moreover, I didn't send my most recent article to anyone at Dolby or the industry on a whole. I wrote it, I published it, I linked to it on the Emotiva forum (as I always do) with the disclaimer that the thoughts expressed below or within the article are my own. I then tweeted 4 times about it over the course of 2 days on my own twitter feed. I cannot help it if someone in the industry, or Dolby read it, linked to it, or did whatever with it. This is how I suspect the article came to your attention.
Please do not assume.
In conclusion, you can write, say or video whatever it is that you want as it pertains to Atmos or whatever. I merely made an observation, and as of this post, I don't believe my observation is false. You still have not heard Atmos for yourself, nor has anyone on your staff, therefor it's all speculation. You may think you're being balanced in your coverage, but the truth is, through your tone, your choice in words etc. you are coloring the conversation to a certain extent. It's fine, for we're all just people and as such we tend to have opinions and biases, but 100% objective you are not. No one is. Pure objectivity would've required you to write precisely what is being released, who is releasing it, when it will be released followed by the statement, I have not heard or witnessed said product for myself, therefor I have no comment on how successful or unsuccessful it is in its implementation. Now, that isn't very exciting, entertaining or perhaps even informative, so you do what every writer does, you editorialized. Fine. I just happened to disagree with your methods, that's all.
