[Caution: contains strong language.]

I can't believe I'm the only one who considers advertising as an active negative signal. That is, if you're pushing ads, you are loudly telegraphing that your offering is not good enough to be discovered organically, and is therefore shit.

Paying for so-called influencers is even worse: if you do that, you are - and there's no kind way of putting this - paying for others to whore their opinions on your behalf.

If you want to make your wares visible in my sphere, find ways to make these appearances interesting, original, inventive and sufficiently unobtrusive. If you can't, tough. Take your toxic waste where it belongs.