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Almost sounds like he wants to be John Madden.

We're 25 days into 2010 Song-A-Day and hoo-boy, folks are feeling the immensity of the experience. It's no small feat creating, recording a song a day for a month as you can see from Jonathan Aronson's transformation:

Compared with previous years, the 2010 run has the most songs, the most variety, possibly the most talent and verve too. We've also been able to get the songs onto iTunes which has helped drive up the downloads: we'll have 24k downloads within 25 days and will likely finish the month with more than 30k downloads.

We're in the home-stretch. Keep on keepin' on!

Looks like my run with the Rubicon Project is about to end. They are starting to charge publishers a (laughable) $2000/month fee for using their network. I'd love to make more than $2k/mo over on NetScrap.com, but even with 100k impressions a month it's nowhere near that volume. This likely spells the end of my relationship with Rubicon.

Rubicon's service had a great promise: automatic optimization for the ad campaigns that run on your site. They claimed that they'd be able to run the highest-value ads through this optimization. Their system seemed to perform well for a few months, but like all networks the effective CPM eventually started to peter-out.

My guess is that Rubicon's continual focus on premium (read: large-volume) publishers is really driving this. Do they need to aim high-value ads toward their premium properties? Are the operational costs really catching up with their network? The ads on NetScrap.com make a little dough to cover part of the hosting costs. The returns haven't been that great though, maybe I'll just kill them all.

Rubicon Folks-

I am disappointed to read about these changes in your terms. Your decision to scrape small publishers off of your network by charging fees seems to be directly opposed to your 'power to the publisher' tagline. I hope the premium publishers you pursue will accept and understand this apparent disconnect between your claims and your actions.

Sincerely,
CG

Here's the notification from the Rubicon team:

Dear Customer,

It's been a growth-filled year at the Rubicon Project. We've expanded internationally to several continents, continued enhancing our technology and support offerings and welcomed hundreds of new customers to our developing global family.

Over a year ago, we narrowed our focus to concentrate on the premium publisher segment of the market -- tailoring our products, services and level of support to meet their needs. At that time we ceased taking on new sites that didn't meet minimum impression and managed revenue thresholds, but allowed existing small to mid-sized publisher customers to remain using the platform and services.

Despite great strides in developing and applying patent-pending technologies to the management of display inventory, due to the nature of the industry we operate in, there are a number of key elements that still require considerable amount of staff and resources. Primary among those are the development of new ad network relationships, applying resources to collect and consolidate stats from disparate ad networks, billing, responding to and resolving publisher inquires and managing a high level of overall ad quality. As we always strive to give the best to everyone we work with, we've continued to service small and mid-sized publishers, some running 25,000-100,000 impressions a month just as we do premium publishers running 50 million a month. The costs have really begun to add up and we've come to the realization that this simply isn't scalable given our existing basic fee structure.

Beginning January 1st, in order for publishers to continue to be able to access our technology platform and associated support services, we are instituting a requirement for a monthly minimum fee of $2,000, below which a publisher will have to make up the difference. By means of example, if your fee on managed revenue ends up being only $500 a month, you will be responsible for the additional $1,500 to make up for the costs associated with managing and supporting our, and your, business. We recognize these minimums are not going to work for all publishers. If you choose to pass on the new monthly minimum and close your account, we hope you will continue to keep us in mind as your traffic grows and it makes more economical sense for you.

One thing to consider when making your decision on how you would like to proceed, is how your traffic is currently allocated and whether you are serving all your Ad Networks through the Rubicon platform vs. outside of it. This additional traffic might help you meet the minimum monthly fee, while at the same time providing additional lift for your overall inventory.

If you would like to continue to access the Rubicon Project's technology and services, please let us know no later than December 18th by responding to globalsupport@rubiconproject.com Best Regards, the Rubicon Project

This email was sent to: *@netscrap.com*

This email was sent by: the Rubicon Project 1925 S Bundy Drive Los Angeles, CA 90025 USA

I put some notes together for a friend who is starting to look at surfboards on Craigslist. He's a beginner looking for something to ride while learning.

Maybe these tips will help you too? Here's what I like to do when I look at a used surfboard.

• It's hard to tell how big a board is in a picture. Make sure you get dimensions and those dimensions fit your body & style of surfing.
• Look at the fins, leash plug, and rails. Look for cracks that might be open.
• If you find a crack or a repaired ding, squeeze it a bit to see if there are soft spots nearby (to tell if it's waterlogged).
• If the board is a single-fin or a 2+1, look at the part of the big fin that would touch the ground. If the ground-facing tip is chewed up, one of the last owners may have been a little careless with where they put the board down.
• If the board is a 2+1, make sure those little sidebite fins are solid. If they're removable (usually with a hex wrench), see if the bolts are rusty. If they're glassed-on, just do the crack check.
• Make sure that the water-side of the board is smooth. This is the side you'll be sliding on. Dings, dents, bumps won't help you too much.
• Pick it up to see if it's reasonably balanced (some patches can be really heavy and throw off the board balance).
• Look from the tail toward the nose (and vice-versa). Sometimes you'll see a twist in a board. If you see something, ask about it.
• See if there's a serial number on the board (handy for tracking history).
• Of course, ask where the seller got it. Get the whole story of the board. This will come in handy at some point.
• Ask the seller where he/she surfed it. What worked, what didn't? Why are they unloading it? What will they be surfing next?
• Look for known shapers and brands. Bonus points are always awarded for investing in local shapers. These will all help with resale.

Sometimes a board will have some problems and it's just worth picking it up anyway. Sometimes the board looks great, but it's just a dud once it gets into the water. If you get stuck with a dud, you'll learn something.

What do you like to do when shopping for new gear?

A few years back, the Greacens hosted a halloween party and decided to put some spooky sounds together to complete the mood. A friend and I ad-libbed a few lines and performed some spookiness with random junk in my studio: sticks, a violin, and a few microphones.

The result: four minutes and six seconds of HELL.

Go ahead and download 20091015_hell_001.mp3 (~5mb) for your own nefarious purposes.

Blast it on the home hi-fi during the trick-or-treat hours and see how many kit-kats you have leftover. Let me know how you use HELL.

Enjoy! See you in hell.