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Comment by Hisoka | Hacker News Reader

Isn't this just a fancy derivative of "fill this form out and we'll send you a free iPod?". Because that's all it is..

If you tell me people want achievements, well.. Achievements in games feel good because there's actual skill involved, and it feels like you mastered something. You can't say the same for doing random tasks online. You can't just throw a word like 'achievement' or 'score' on top of what you're doing, and think the effect will be the same.

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What's wrong with getting a free iPod for filling out a form? The problem with these types of companies is execution; they're usually really shady and have a lot "catches". If a company came along that could get rid of all that and do it right, wouldn't you be filling out forms too?

Nothing wrong, just that you're going to have difficulty finding advertisers that will agree to this type of advertising. You're not in any way solving the problem of finding relevant audiences for their ads. You're just throwing an incentive for random people to do things for prizes, and hope they will buy whatever the ad is about. But users just want the free goods.

The problem is not how to make users interested in an ad. The core problem is connecting an ad to a relevant audience. You can't fake interest in an ad that's not relevant to what you want at the point. People have tried that with FB ads, but the CTR are horrible, and people get pissed when they see the ad had nothing to do with the actual product.

You know, you're absolutely right. Any suggestions?

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