November 12, 2007 at 2:18 pm
First, the content will run like any other article, on the front page, in the newsletter, comments welcome. We just want to call it out so you're aware it might be biased and that it's generated by someone that's selling the product.
Second, any vendor is welcome. Competition or not with Red Gate's products. Red Gate thinks their products (Red Gate pays me, but as of now, I'm not an employee), can compete and stand up to anyone else's, so anyone is welcome to submit a product.
Third, the one thing I will edit is any direct bashing of other products. Just as I don't want Red Gate to say that vendor X's competing product can't do something or does it poorly, the reverse is true. Other than that, I would like to see anyone "show off" their product's capabilities.
November 12, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Red Gate? Who's Red Gate? Sorry, but a decade plus of web surfing has programmed my brain to completely ignore any and all content that looks like advertising.
We're all big boys and girls here. I think most of us can separate the technical content from the marketing BS. And then unmercifully flame the latter. :w00t:
Q: What's the difference between a used car salesman and a software salesman?
A: The used car salesman knows when he's lying.
November 12, 2007 at 9:04 pm
I agree that advertisers should pay a premium. What would be cool is if the vendors had to solve problems that were submitted by and voted on by the community. So you take a pool like this one and get people to submit problems. The community get so vote for the problems that they would like to see solved. MAKE vendors submit solutions to the top two or three problems and I think everybody will be happy.
November 13, 2007 at 2:13 am
I'd be fine with it, I'm always interested in products that make my job easier and if it can benefit the DBA community and raise a few bucks for SSC then that's fine.
It's nice that you're being honest about why you're doing it too.
I do find the SQL Server Magazine site very unpleasant to use as it's so ad heavy (I hope it's ok for me to mention that) so it would be awful for such a fantastic site to go down that route.
One point I would raise was that I seem to recall a few years ago there were a couple of Flash type 'tutorials' from Redgate on backing up database (and other very simple tasks) etc which really were little more than adverts for Redgate tools so I'd like the technical level to be somewhat higher than that.
November 13, 2007 at 8:04 am
Can we keep the sponsored content separate from the regular member articles? I don't think it's a bad thing to have sponsored content, but it is my opinion that it should not slide under the radar along with "normal" content. I understand that the site needs to make money to stay online, but there should be limits to where the advertising content will appear.
Tim Mitchell, Microsoft Data Platform MVP
Data Warehouse and ETL Consultant
TimMitchell.net | @Tim_Mitchell | Tyleris.com
ETL Best Practices
November 13, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I like the idea. I have various white papers on my desktop. When i read one, i am immediately doubting, because it could be more marketing than technical. Once into the white paper, it should be apparant to me which camp this falls into.
Some of the best white papers are more stepping stones into understanding the product, why its this way, how i can use it. Granted, i may not see it the same way, but at least they tried.
I have a ton of procs ive written and use daily. If i show them off, some people will like them, others will not. We can choose.
There are a lot of products out there. They all say they are amazing. Show them off. Give me a video showing how to install it and use it. Give me a podcast talking about it. Good and bad. I like Red-Gate's SQL Compare, and have a document about it, and they describe how they use it, and their model for using it. Its a bit broader than the product, but shows how the product fits into the idea. Good for them. It kinda matches what we do here at my shop. So, it is helpful. Is another product better? Maybe. But I dont have a document describing the other product, and simply dont have time to find it out on my own.
Recently i saw a demo of a backup system called HyperBac. I wasn't interested. We have backup software. But after watching it, i became interested. Had i stumbled across an advert, i would have ignored it. Now, im interested in learning more.
If your stuff is great, show it off. Put the lights on it, and show it in the best light, but show it in action. Let's see it work. It may make me a believer.
November 13, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I like the idea, and some of the suggestions in this forum... Particularly about keeping the content separate. Maybe this section could have a quick search list by vendor if/when they start churning out more articles.
This all sounds very similar to the Quarterly magazine produced by AUSOUG, the Australian Oracle User Group which had such articles (albeit in printed form). It definitely gave readers a technical insight as to how certain products functioned.
I look forward to the early installments as my manager has asked for a "medium" term plan for 3rd party software budget requirements. 😎
November 14, 2007 at 11:21 am
Sponsored content can be extremely useful, provided that proper disclosure is in place and it's not just marketing hype. I think the approach you've outlined will work well.
One idea: In addition to the "prominent" logo and/or company name, you should have a consistent mark (either an icon or the words "Sponsored Content" or something) that is used to denote content that came from a third-party, just to set it off a bit more. I worked in the web division of a media company for several years, and that was something that became prominent in that industry as they started to accept sponsored content, just to make it easy to tell that the content may have an inherent bias.
Ed Leighton-Dick | Consultant | Microsoft Data Platform MVP | MCSE | PASS Regional Mentor
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