SparkFun Electronics Commentsurn:uuid:214d0e4e-f1b1-d287-ce26-ac5b4c9f82492024-03-28T17:05:19-06:00SparkFun Electronicsanndreaboe on The State of SparkFun Advertisinganndreaboeurn:uuid:a429e108-8009-c6bf-d489-75bf2e17e5c02011-11-10T17:35:55-07:00<p>Not currently. We've tossed around the idea of a customer newsletter to only those who opt in, but we haven't found a good way to offer different content than what the blog currently offers. And we don't want to just regurgitate the same content in different media. We did a blog announcement and a few followup posts on the Microcontroller Contest with Instructables back when it was happening. The blog really is the best way to keep up on events. But thanks for the suggestion. It's good to know there's interest for this type of thing.</p>
greg5600k on The State of SparkFun Advertisinggreg5600kurn:uuid:bbfed9a6-a03d-189f-cb00-2114af7bdcf12011-11-08T02:38:43-07:00<p>Please change it guys! Grammar for $800! :-)</p>
Alex Louden on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingAlex Loudenurn:uuid:9e51ab50-13da-aaf2-e036-c66bf937a5b62011-11-02T22:37:32-06:00<p>Also, your comment count appears to be off. Title says 33 (which is correct), comments heading says 36.<br>
Furthermore, last time I commented Firefox tried to make me download a .json file.</p>
Alex Louden on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingAlex Loudenurn:uuid:84d890b3-1c78-e96e-f77d-4632b79003c82011-11-02T22:33:56-06:00<p>"We're SparkFun advertising started - and where it will go in the future."<br>
Should that not read "Where .." ?</p>
Demolishun on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingDemolishunurn:uuid:56c1a87c-4240-a705-907c-6aa53ce293992011-11-02T14:27:57-06:00<p>It is awesome none the less. Inside every person is hidden awesomeness. Have a great day.</p>
IllogicGate on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingIllogicGateurn:uuid:3bc756d8-da0f-3c92-2a70-f24aaec441df2011-11-02T14:21:58-06:00<p>I actually didn't notice that rhymed...</p>
Demolishun on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingDemolishunurn:uuid:39f81303-cab9-f41e-3653-060381843fd22011-11-02T14:19:50-06:00<p>If only it were so <em>simple</em>,<br>
As it may be a number 2^32 or <em>more</em>.<br>
Where as 32,767 might appear as a mere <em>dimple</em>.<br>
It really takes an understanding of what is at webpage <em>core</em>.<br>
I like your rhyme: could, would! Very clever.</p>
Demolishun on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingDemolishunurn:uuid:ab19fa3e-5554-1eb9-3233-d78a77d845382011-11-02T14:13:37-06:00<p>Oh cool! Hey, does your settings currently notify users of events like this? I found out about the logic contest, but I don't think I saw an email. I just something I saw on one of your new updates. If there is a way to opt in I would like to.</p>
IllogicGate on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingIllogicGateurn:uuid:862ad9dc-c933-c008-8ba2-43ee6b6d4c2c2011-11-02T14:10:25-06:00<p><em>!-- IE is the bane of my existence. --</em><br>
ROFL!!!</p>
IllogicGate on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingIllogicGateurn:uuid:4864a163-2e87-3e71-fa54-132fbea6b05d2011-11-02T14:03:21-06:00<p>Say, maybe SF should do funny coolabs (and I mean COOLabs) with The Brothers Chaps, hehe.</p>
IllogicGate on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingIllogicGateurn:uuid:87a1e2b8-3847-0e1a-0d95-da1744f3bf6f2011-11-02T14:00:18-06:00<p>If I could +32,767 (1 more and it would roll over and be -32,768) this comment, I would!</p>
RobertC. on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingRobertC.urn:uuid:0a291d11-47f9-2220-182c-81997cf9a6162011-11-02T12:25:12-06:00<p><a href="http://www.favbrowser.com/internet-explorer-falls-below-50-market-share-mark/" rel="nofollow">relevant</a></p>
Yvan256 on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingYvan256urn:uuid:534d6068-f730-3494-e151-249d5075f3552011-11-02T12:18:51-06:00<p>I just got a laugh from reading the source code of this Web page.<br>
Thanks. :D<br>
P.S.: you're not alone, we all hate IE.</p>
stilldavid on The State of SparkFun Advertisingstilldavidurn:uuid:722e141c-d1db-d84f-3957-40e2116b07462011-11-02T12:04:26-06:00<p>Right, right. And if you look at our code, you'll see some conditional IE comments and maybe even a few swear words ;)<br>
We dropped IE6 support about a year ago, and are considering similar for IE7 now that Google and others are moving in that direction.<br>
Thanks for your comments!</p>
Yvan256 on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingYvan256urn:uuid:ad5058e6-f61d-10e0-5eb6-4030f4ff95752011-11-02T12:02:26-06:00<p>But the IE issues can easily be worked around with IE-only conditional comments, which technically are valid comments as far as all other browsers and tools are concerned.<br>
Since you mentioned IE7, I assume you're lucky enough not to have to support IE6. ;-)</p>
stilldavid on The State of SparkFun Advertisingstilldavidurn:uuid:2c8fccb2-6b08-b3e8-a364-5e98d88f9f5e2011-11-02T11:45:29-06:00<p>I don't want to get in a standards battle, but by and large having a site pass an automated validator 100% is an exercise in futility.<br>
The character encoding is a known issue - we're working on getting everything moved to UTF-8, but it's a tough problem and requires a significant amount of downtime while we convert the data.<br>
The other errors, like having a <code>data</code> attribute on an anchor, are by and large forgivable as every modern browser can handle it. If there are site issues such as "I can't comment!" or "I'm getting a 502", that's another story, but site issues like "you're using a non-standard css definition to get the site to render in IE7" I will let pass.<br>
Having alt tags on images is another thing we're trying to make better (for obvious accessibility reasons), but we simply haven't gotten there yet.</p>
Yvan256 on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingYvan256urn:uuid:ff6ab22f-6e3d-f75f-f7d8-d4243d37881c2011-11-02T10:05:52-06:00<p>The character encoding probably has only one character wrong, could even be something invisible, I hope your text editor has a "gremlin zapper" like TextWrangler.<br>
Those missing alt attributes will be easy to fix. Even if an image doesn't have any alternative text it still needs to have an alt="" attribute.<br>
I'm wondering what those "data" elements on links are supposed to be?</p>
RobertC. on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingRobertC.urn:uuid:db572502-1cac-9877-019a-8b5ad29307592011-11-02T10:02:04-06:00<p>ah.</p>
anndreaboe on The State of SparkFun Advertisinganndreaboeurn:uuid:350b2047-966a-ddb9-9213-21e60c0d4cd02011-11-02T10:02:03-06:00<p>customer207, you made my day!!</p>
Yvan256 on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingYvan256urn:uuid:9a5c1acc-1c89-6c9b-7ac2-60bbfbec54752011-11-02T10:01:00-06:00<p>He could be referring to <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sparkfun.com%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0" rel="nofollow">these 79</a> errors.<br>
The number of errors changes with each new comment submitted.</p>
customer207 on The State of SparkFun Advertisingcustomer207urn:uuid:70ed5bf7-8ff5-d551-deaf-455b3686bf952011-11-02T09:43:49-06:00<p>Yep. Thats how I found out Sparkfun. Through Nuts And Volts. Before the ads, I never saw whole write-ups of projects by a store. Now everyone's doing it! SF has definitely been ahead of the curve.</p>
anndreaboe on The State of SparkFun Advertisinganndreaboeurn:uuid:c08a46ea-ef51-a0fd-a0df-869867d6e7e12011-11-02T09:36:05-06:00<p>Hack A Day has definitely thrown us some traffic spikes in the past. It's really encouraging to see how closely knit the community is, yet how quickly it is growing. Events like <a href="http://makerfaire.com/" rel="nofollow">Maker Faires</a>, local groups like <a href="http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Hackerspaces" rel="nofollow">hackerspaces</a>, and awesome content-packed community sites like <a href="http://hackaday.com/" rel="nofollow">Hack A Day</a> have really exposed a lot of people to the addiction of invention... as well as the compelling need to void warranties! We are truly grateful to be associated with such awesome creative folks!!</p>
RobertC. on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingRobertC.urn:uuid:9147a037-6fe0-b176-9977-de99e1359cff2011-11-02T09:35:25-06:00<p>like how?</p>
anndreaboe on The State of SparkFun Advertisinganndreaboeurn:uuid:503b1e8d-0ed7-471f-f81b-68173a0a979b2011-11-02T09:17:08-06:00<p>We didn't run the ads all the time. We more or less had to rotate the ads monthly in different publications, so unless you are an avid subscriber to those publications, you could have missed our ads. But they did still reach a fair amount of people. We have a lot more people subscribed to our blog now, so this is probably one of the best channels to feature you awesome inventors out there.<br>
Thanks for the compliments on the site! I'm sure IT, Marcomm, and RobertC are all grinning right now. :)</p>
anndreaboe on The State of SparkFun Advertisinganndreaboeurn:uuid:f84ed82c-4b3d-bc61-e22d-1b13b23c0e742011-11-02T09:09:07-06:00<p>We love Instructables and have worked with them in the past on a contest or two. The <a href="http://www.instructables.com/contest/micro/" rel="nofollow">Microcontroller Contest</a> was a lot of fun. We'd love to do another contest in the future too. Thanks for the suggestion.</p>
anndreaboe on The State of SparkFun Advertisinganndreaboeurn:uuid:e390a798-2c8f-e897-83dd-b6e08651f3012011-11-02T08:56:46-06:00<p>Thanks for kind words. I really enjoyed creating the ads and meeting the customers featured in them. You're right in that it can take a while to see the impact of a good campaign. We are hoping that if we continue to feature customers, just not in print, that we will still see that impact over time. Thanks again for the encouragement!</p>
TeslaFan on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingTeslaFanurn:uuid:579cf2ab-8dc7-a789-f273-cc347e280e9d2011-11-02T07:57:08-06:00<p>You have ads? I didn't even know.<br>
I found Sparkfun while looking for Arduino boards to buy online. You had the best site.<br>
I buy stuff (Other stuff, stuff that you don't stock) at other sites too, but your site is, hands down, the best commerce site on the web for this stuff. It's not even a contest.<br>
With your site, it's easy to find what you want right away, it's obvious how many are in stock, and there are links to the item's documentation right there.</p>
Unmitigated_fool on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingUnmitigated_foolurn:uuid:53fda45b-92fa-44a4-5603-6db0d7ab386a2011-11-01T23:55:44-06:00<p>You have web errors</p>
Demolishun on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingDemolishunurn:uuid:d058be81-2ea4-e0e7-6446-9883b6df239f2011-11-01T19:26:25-06:00<p>Here is a thought for advertising. Feature a hack/design of the week (like on a Monday) where you find/people submit a hack/design to a site like Instructables that features a Sparkfun product.<br>
If someone's project/tutorial is featured give them a kickback link where they can get free products or credit toward products. You give incentive to people to create with your products and you show people what they can be used for in the field.</p>
Demolishun on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingDemolishunurn:uuid:9ef3721e-6744-d6b4-ea4b-c8db4515cf2f2011-11-01T19:19:40-06:00<p>I did not know Sparkfun had an advertising campaign until after I got bored one day and flipped through your website. I honestly am not sure how I found Sparkfun. I think it was probably a Hack A Day article or something. That is the most likely. So send them some of that advert dollars if you have not already.</p>
Customer #220272 on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingCustomer #220272urn:uuid:e8d7d1e6-c390-a8de-df2f-fb3493f09be02011-11-01T19:03:55-06:00<p>I have been in the advertising industry for 17 years and the biggest misconception is advertising should yield an immediate increase in sales.<br>
Well... yes and no. That is what advertisers want but its not really how it works.<br>
The best way to look at it is to become known... recognition... To become familiar. SO when someone wants or needs your product "you" are the first company they consider and seek out. To stand out against your competition.<br>
"Your not selling beer at a sporting event or relying on impulse purchasing"<br>
You should see a gradual increase in sales but huge spikes in sales are unlikely. Smaller spikes are possible but usually hard to measure against normal sales.<br>
There are good and bad ways to advertise, I have seen a lot of companies throw away lots of money on bad advertising, poor choices. Mainly because they didn't understand their own products much less their industry and target markets. So far what I have seen Sparkfun doing looks good.<br>
Just keep in mind, it can take a long time for results from an advertising campaign to show results, track everything and keep an eye out for things that work well.<br>
So, don't sweat the small stuff and keep up the good work. ;)</p>
IllogicGate on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingIllogicGateurn:uuid:ba449a6c-f175-e431-5819-4ea99a4d0c6f2011-11-01T17:46:54-06:00<p>O Thx!</p>
RobertC. on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingRobertC.urn:uuid:889f8c9c-5268-b20f-1760-2973392230442011-11-01T17:46:28-06:00<p>link broken. include http:// in your link, or else it will default to www.sparkfun.com/....</p>
IllogicGate on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingIllogicGateurn:uuid:5abc8e65-444d-70ea-8ec3-75e679c8a9042011-11-01T17:44:41-06:00<p>I can just imagine <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/4gregs.html" rel="nofollow">Open Source Greg</a> saying "Open Source <em>aa<strong>AAlll</strong></em> the things"!</p>
TECH GEEK on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingTECH GEEKurn:uuid:6c01b453-f370-72f3-88e2-abeec1c1c4032011-11-01T13:28:49-06:00<p>Yea SparkFun!</p>
CF on The State of SparkFun AdvertisingCFurn:uuid:550c430c-8157-225b-b5e3-16bb11b628f82011-11-01T09:51:40-06:00<p>Yea red boxes!</p>