*UPDATE: WE GOT A TON OF RESPONSES, THANK YOU, THE SURVEY IS NOW CLOSED!” Hello, fellow Autopians. Part of my role here is to find some advertising partners for the site that’ll fit with our readership. In order to do that, I need to know a little more about you. Please complete this survey and tell us a little about yourself. These are simple and anonymous questions like: How many cars do you own? Do you like to work on your own car? Were you once visited by a mermaid in a dream who offered you riches beyond your wildest dreams in exchange for one of your eyebrows?
I’m sorry, I’ve been informed I’m not allowed to ask that last question. I guess it’ll just remain a mystery and I’ll wake up, sweating, every morning haunted by the thought that those riches will never come and I just shaved my eyebrow for nothing.
[Editor’s Note: Please consider doing this! It’ll help us get advertisers, and I’m getting a little tired of eating dog food. Except that Ol’Roy Country Stew! Did you know there are actual peas and carrots in there? Heat that up, season to taste, and you got yourself a meal, baby! – JT]
Anyway, please answer this survey, once and honestly. The survey is also below if you’d like to answer it that way.
Thanks!
Anonymity was out the window when I listed my cars. Still, you guys rock and you’re off to a great start when it comes to interacting with your readership. Keep it up!
As everyone else here says too,please don’t fuck this up like that other site. It’s currently all commercials and no content, just click bait disguised as such..
Keep it simple.
Agreed it was weird to sign in for an anonymous survey but done! I expect advertising because hell, this is a business but please just keep it to automotive related things, like others have mentioned I don’t want ads for appliances or random stuff. I guess more of the MotorTrend/HotRod mentality where OBVIOUSLY placement of some of the brands or suppliers is sponsored but it’s just worked in organically to the content rather than an auto play video or flashy pop up.
I love where the site is headed and the general vibe, please just keep it in its niche including the ads, don’t sell that space to just anyone.
I’ll complete the survey because if I’m going to be advertised to (and in this day and age, there is no doubt that I WILL be advertised to), then the ads that I see might as well be relevant to me. (It’s the same reason I don’t freak out about Google or Facebook “selling my data” to advertisers.)
I agree with other commenters who prefer the advertising to be unobtrusive and to not interfere with the reading experience. I’ll add that those clickbait fake news type ads (Taboola?) that often appear at the bottom of articles on some news sites may be unobtrusive, but they just seem so trashy that they make their host site seem cheap, so I’d advise against those as well.
done, that was fun, hope it helps to grow this site and Jason can eat ramen instead of dinty more!
also feed davids/mercedes “questionable” car decisions!
Ads for car related stuff wouldn’t bother me. The old site likes to show ads for everything from weed gummies to kitchen appliances and vibrators, which would feel a little unnatural over here. I have nothing against those products but The Autopian should stay more car-focused IMO.
Well car-related stuff and Charmin TP ads on Torch’s scatalogically-themed articles.
Done. That was fun.
I put down Ardbeg as a sponsor because David needs it to relax from Jason’s creative writing.
It’s weird that I’m being asked to log in in order to complete a supposedly anonymous survey. Is there a particular reason why it’s set up that way, and how is it anonymous if I have to sign in for it?
That’s so Google can show you “targeted” ads. Guys just make the damn survey “clean.” Screw Google.
It’s because of Google’s bullshit. Has nothing to do with advertising except incidentally (which The Autopian can’t do shit about,) and everything to do with “that’s literally Google’s sole protection against one person filling out the form 35 times.”
Google engineers are not smart people. They are not even above average.
Lucky for me, I have five different Google accounts. Everyone, get ready for a long-running sponsorship by Extreme Restraints.
Only 5?
Pffft! Amateur.
Can we get a button to flag scam posts like this one?
Filled it out! Realized that my car lineup is a bit boring at the moment… I used to have 2 Infiniti G35s
I feel the same way. But I’ve decided I need a bigger garage and more money before I go down the project rabbit hole again.
Is “Saches” supposed to be Sachs?
I wondered the same thing, because “Saches” does not appear to exist, but I definitely just put Sachs bump stops on my car this week.
I assume the other possibility is that it’s deliberately fake just to screen for anyone who clicks everything regardless of whether they’ve actually heard of it, but if so then it’s unfortunate that the name is so close to an actual, well-known automotive entity.
I put a Saches in my hvac filter monthly
Anonymous survey that requires a google sign-in?
Where’s my inigo montoya gif? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
I see the same thing. That is a really weird decision. Oh well. If the survey is updated to not require Google or any other SSO I’d be very happy to take it at that time.
If I understand it correctly, the answers are not tied to their accounts, but you need to authenticate just to prove this is not a bot net or just one guy answering for everyone.
I myself posted my name, address and kinks between every three words, so good luck for them anonimizing that!
If you want good advertising advice try linking what car stuff are you doing this weekend to an advertiser who may have a connection. Or each writer has a list of products they actually use and would suggest to a friend. A different section that allows a person to shop from advertisers with a code that gets them a discount and advertiser knows it came from this site.
Oh crud were we supposed to recommend Ol’ Roy as an advertiser? Sorry I don’t get hints. I didn’t see where to put my social and credit cards so just put that in the how are we doing section.
Seriously though the Optima ads are fine, just don’t get all crazy with pop-up videos like other sites do, if I can’t scroll through your articles easily while “otherwise occupied” it defeats the purpose of ads that are to be seen while scrolling through your articles while “otherwise occupied”!
That reminds me, didn’t list it, Charmin may be a good fit for morning dump….
I did my best to make myself sound rich, dying to spend money, and super interested in advertisers! Ah shit, I wasn’t supposed to actually write that, better not somehow accidentally hit p
why do I have to sign into a google account to complete the survey? sadly, I don’t have one…
I saw no place for boats on the form. I have three, all 30+ years older than I am, undergoing restoration
For some reason I can’t get the survey to work. It won’t accept my entries and won’t move on to the next question after attempting an entry.
Is your device plugged in.
Is it turned on.
Do you have internet access.
Regards
Customer Service- Dhanushkodi, India
Don’t you mean Jim from Kentucky?
Likewise. I do get a popup saying I must sign in (even though I am already signed in to Autopian). It apparently wants me to sign in to google. No thanks.
same, harder than it needs to be.
why restricting like this?
you are getting bad data as a result.
fail
I considered the “number of cars” question to really mean “number of vehicles” and counted my motorcycle thusly.
This was a strangely enjoyable survey
What @FrankenCamry said: If a new advertiser uses a more intrusive method (autoplay videos, popover ads, etc.) they’ll likely be hated, regardless the product.
This, so very much. I know it has to be top of mind for you guys given the abominable experience on that other site that must not be named, but It’s all about how the advertisement is injected into the site. If it makes the excellent content too painful to access, it’s over.
I see that horse I’ve been beating is well and truly dead, so I’ll stop now. 🙂
Yep, seconded. One creative way to get sponsorship without intrusiveness would be having a different sponsor for the articles here (rotating weekly, monthly, quarterly). Like Shitbox Showdown, brought to you by General Motors or Federal Mogul ball joints. Or David Tracy’s Deep Dives, sponsored by Scuba Steve. You get the idea.
I think PB Blaster is already indebted to this site from DT’s articles.
Rock Auto would make a great sponsor for Shitbox Showdown. I know approximately 18% of my Corolla by weight comes from them.
Thumbs up for Rock Auto. ( How many Rock Auto magnets do you have stuck on your refrigerator? ) 🙂
Too many for the ‘fridge so have to rotate them 🙂
Mine are all in the garage, on the house circuit breaker panel door and the furnace ducts. I have… a lot.
I count 23, stuck on the air handler in my garage. 🙂
Yes, that is a perfect fit. Make it happen. I have so many magnets on my chest freezer in the garage…
Do they really need to advertise on a site where 99% of its readers already order from them?
For what it’s worth, I did suggest Rock Auto for that question regarding what company do you feel would fit well running ads here.
Many, many moons ago, there was a time I both frequented car sites and didn’t know RA existed.
I am really interested in an – anonymous of course- breakout of what the most common Autopian vehicles are, and the least common (cough, cough Torch’s Chinesium whatsit and little points of interest like – is there anyone more Smart-Car crazy than Mercedes out there? For a comparison with David’s fleet, well…. we would have to define a standard unit of decrepitude and unlikelihood to achieve roadworthiness , I imagine.
Hmmm… we know that ‘one Volkswagen’ is a unit of size, ‘ and ‘one Ferrari’ is a unit of a car’s likelihood to catch on fire…. what should we use?
JT, thanks for reminding me of the time a study concluded that the majority of premium chunk meat dog foods used better cuts of beef than Dinty Moore Beef Stew.
At any rate, I have completed my task, but have to say some of these responses need an “it depends on the content and style of the advertisement” answer. Optima has been a great sponsor from a reader experience standpoint. They’re highly visible without being intrusive. If a new advertiser uses a more intrusive method (autoplay videos, popover ads, etc.) they’ll likely be hated, regardless the product.
^^^THIS!!!^^^
Please, please, PLEASEEEEE do not get into video ads, especially the horrific, communist, fascist, satanic auto play ads!!!
To further expand on this point: I browse most sites with an adblocker (uBlock Origin), WITH THIS SITE A NOTABLE EXCEPTION, because the Optima ads are prominent but non-intrusive (and also because I want to support you guys). However, the more intrusive advertising methods FrankenCamry described would prompt me to turn the adblocker back on for this site too.
Dinty Moore is delicious, though. “Dog food for humans” should be their slogan.
For “How many cars do you own?”, you have “3-5” and “5 or more”. If you own 5, then which do you choose?
wow, y’all fixed it before I submitted my survey. impressive!
Fixed! 3-5
yes
Ok
Should we consider motorcycles “cars” for purposes of this survey? Big fan of Mercedes’ coverage on bike-specific stuff!
Yes! Updated
What about electric dicycles? What about hovercraft? What about the personal steam train that continuously tours my extensive landholdings?
I didn’t count my two-stroke pogo stick (a 1972 Hop Rod), so maybe I should retake the survey.
After that, It had to go google “Hop Rod”. No shit. It’s actually a thing. I grew up in the 70s and had never heard of it. Parents today would shit a chicken….
The TV commercials failed to mention that it quickly developed a reputation for breaking the rider’s thumbs when the engine misfired.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lutv8c2Kd6Y