Linchpn

The "I" that can't go missing. Oh and If you do copy, copy right. Don't make silly mistakes. Try adding a couple of your own thoughts as well.

[linchpn]

Prevent hacking

Educate and send your data to a good school with a good syllabus and pray it can take good decisions in life.

[linchpn]

Linchpn- A brief history of time and lollipops

Since the Linchpn’s inception and first published print in 1645, It has strived tirelessly to continue publishing definitive and slightly disconcerting snarky commentary mostly on things which are definite and ...mundane.

While other blogs have taken the easier way out by linking to other blogs, focusing on fluff content, the Linchpn has focused on epochal topics which are highly subjective, through burning insufferable opinionated insights expounded meticulously using pithy one liners or 10,000 word novella’s which mostly no one has ever read.

While other blogs have been regular and focused on grammar, spelling, syntax and editing, The Linchpn has been true to Hemingway’s vision of writing drunk and “never” editing when sober.

At Linchpn we just sit in front of typewriters and bleed. It gets messy at times.

We just clean up and get going.

Topics/ themes/niches haven’t been a concern.

Neither has context or spelling.

<Tangent/>

Spell checks take time and are boring. So are tense and grammar checks.

<Tangent Ends />

Our rapier sharp intellect has been focused on the eternal search of elusive and subjective quality over quantity.

We do not post when there is nothing to post.

The silence is the Linchpn’s way of ensuring that we follow the adage of less is more.

While other blogs have focused on creating engagement , vision , commentary, dialogue, debate , thought leadership, and solved world hunger- the Linchpn has steadfastly disabled all SEO, banned SEM, banished comments, disabled social plug-ins, fired all creative designers, always keeping a 68% grey background - focusing maniacally on one thing.

What is the meaning of life and lollipops?

While other blogs have built email lists, guest posts, retargeting, lead gen magnets and focused on marketing - the linchpn marketers have been all sent on unpaid vacation forever.

Why?

Because our highly elitist audience of 5 people does not need all that. We know that. We understand why Bob Dylan said “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose”

We understand what it means, ACTUALLY.

We are all proud but not very proud of what has been achieved. It has been monastic dedication. Focusing on the core, taking a step back, always putting water under the bridge, being on the same page, cutting to the chase, raising the bar, coming back to square one, staying on our toes and crushing it every now and then.

By 2345 we will have 10 readers. We will not compromise. We will be steadfast.

We will continue to be lazy and awesome and impulsive.

Till the next op-ed

UnEdited with love and lollipops.

[linchpn]

Amazon, Google, Facebook and Header bidding - balancing the server and browser side

The tech is not new. But almost 3 year’s on, Amazon’s transparent ad marketplace  is changing the header bidding game slowly. Among the most popular server side products  in the ad industry,  server side bidding is slowly solving the latency issues browser side header bidding has faced, with slow page load times (where ad calls would be made on people’s browsers) by moving it to large servers hosted on the publisher’s end. 

And how many players can compete with Amazon server capacity?

Innovation in ad tech is ongoing. When header bidding came about three years ago, it kind of changed the bidding approach in automated advertising. Publishers could simultaneously offer inventory to multiple ad exchanges, before making calls to their ad servers. This changed the waterfall approach where bids were passed sequentially from one exchange to the other in the earlier days.

It also yielded better results. Per Digiday, 58% of users reported higher CPMs, 23% reported fewer passbacks and 31% reported higher yields. 

Great numbers in a playing field where ROI margins can be tight.

Now the slow but “gradually growing” new trend is server-side bidding (for Headers)  and a long term view is that  it will slowly replace browser side bidding completely.  

But there is a caveat.

With server-to-server wrappers, one vendor aggregates the bids from all the other vendors in a cloud environment. This means only the vendor collecting the bids has access to the user’s browser. Read monopoly and an unfair playing field for other publishers who are also screaming for attention and ad dollars.

This also means that other vendors have to sync their data to the aggregator’s data. 

This additional step can reduce match rates and give lower numbers of custom audiences mapped to CRM or pixel data. It is one reason why publishers are hesitant to adopt server-side bidding, since it can lower advertiser spends or hedge everything with one player.

With Google and Amazon, the two tech titans truly in the server side game, this is a bit more balanced because both of them have a lot of personal user data. Google has search data which defines intent, while Amazon has commerce data (which gives very clear indicators of people’s buying habits).

Google’s product is exchange bidding and it’s just rolling out (layered with all the data from its search, gmail, youtube usage) - and the only company which can realistically compete with it will be Amazon.

<Tangent/>

Facebook is also in the game but currently partnering Amazon, AppNexus, Index, Sonobi, Sortable and Media.net and also partnering PubMatic, AppNexus and Index in an open source prebid server side project titled prebid.js. 

This means that any publisher that has PreBid.js installed on their website can now access the new software that has server-to-server support built in, and then choose which header bidding partners they want to transact with, thus increasing their access to buyer-demand.

The fightback is clearly on. 

<Tangent/> ends.

It remains to be seen, how fast Amazon scales its ad (as well as ad-tech) offerings. It goes unnoticed in media which is mostly fixated on Jeff Bezos and AWS, but in less than a year,  21% the top 1000 websites in the US are using a hybrid mix of server side and browser side wrappers. 

Amazon (40.3%) is already 3rd in the list of bidders behind (Index 48% and AppNexus 47.9% - source serverbid)

With Google coming in with a dedicated cloud ad-tech (server-side) product, server-side bidding will have more takers and while advertisers are for now using a mix of browser and server side bidding, given Amazon and Google’s scale (and user data) , the question is how long before it all goes in server side, especially if benchmarks improve?

What would be the publisher distribution approach as well as revenue split then and who will actually control it?

Daily Active Users (DAU’s) dictate scale which dictate data which dictate aggregation and distribution power. 

Monopoly much?

Nah. Just business. 

[linchpn]

Some leaders

Lead by division.

By segregating messages and people

By controlling the narrative

By exercising power, through marginalising voices and removing access.

They can be successful as well.

Leave them.

Quickly.

Because if they are doing it to others, they will do it to you.

Soon.

Unless of course, you are actually like them.

Then it’s perfectly ok.

[linchpn]

Where I go wrong?

Everywhere in almost everything, at least once.

[linchpn]

Proving yourself

Should not be at the cost of prolonged unhappiness.

Not worth it- unless the cause and the leader is worth you, your failures and your inability.

You can use the same energy to be where you are accepted for who you are.

Rest doesn’t matter.

[linchpn]

Sometimes

It just doesn’t work. Realise it.

Conserve energy.

Quit.

The universe has another matrix for you- where it works - until it doesn’t.

You outlive your requirement.

[linchpn]

We need to prepare now

For the roles and the skills that will be relevant three years later. The job we have right now, is done. That story is over. That boat has sailed.

[linchpn]

Being successful

As defined normally (read promotions, senior positions, talking on stage etc - the glamour stuff we covet in a job) depends more on people and relationship skills, (than job skills)  especially if you want to grow within a company.

In a stable company, successful company folks can survive and grow at ease, if their perception, management and relationship game is on point. (until revenue starts falling, change is required and job skills become critical for new lines of revenue)

[linchpn]

Design thinking

On its own doesn’t solve anything.

As long as the company does not have the agility, apetite for change, and the right people and product policies in place to drive and celebrate the change, at speed.

Take change, speed and people and put them in the same room at the same time, and we can begin to appreciate, why it is so difficult.

[linchpn]

Salary

Is hardly calculated based on what we think we are worth - or our skill. It’s based on what a company/person/organisation thinks we are worth, based on multiple parameters at that time, within that context. 

There is actually no budget. 

[linchpn]

Why I like sports ?

Because nowhere else does the concept of a team manifest itself so clearly. In sport, within a span of 60-90 minutes people sacrifice for the team to win. 

Willingly.

The idea of winning eclipses everything else in that moment.

Companies that are successful, understand this and create a culture to drive this. Teams that understand this are teams worth working for. 

People who can make this happen are good leaders.

[linchpn]

There are people

Who can be good even when it does not suit them and there are people who are good only when it suits them. 

We just need to recognise these two types.

Everyone actually is good. It’s the time and context that matters.

[linchpn]

All jobs

Are more or less the same. In fact all jobs are mostly sales, as you grow higher up the ladder. Selling ideas, selling plans, selling how you can benefit someone else (for them to survive and/or grow).

Only once in a while there will be a truly revolutionary idea that changes the status quo.

[linchpn]

Technology companies

That sell media (contributing to more than 60% of the company share value ) are media companies. 

The PR machinery will be on overdrive to create a parallel “tech and innovation” narrative and great technology will be created to sell more media, but as long as ad units are the prime source of revenue, it is a media company.

Invest knowing this.

Build a company though, on perception and PR. Perception will drive media sales.

[linchpn]

The best marketing strategy

Is building a great product to start with.

[linchpn]

Writing

Is mostly practise.

So write. A lot.

Forget what people might think.

No one (mostly) cares. They have other stuff that preoccupies them.

Stop caring about what people want to read.

Or checking stats.

Or agonising over edits.

Or grammar. ( stay far away from anyone who says SEO)

Or dangling participles.

Write only about what interest you.

In the way you think.

Or talk.

Hit publish.

Disable comments.

Move on.