Last week, I looked out the window in my home office and noticed a spider had spun a web just outside my window. I found this interesting since it obviously took a lot of work for her to set up her web in that spot – there is a significant distance between the wall that juts out on the left side of the window and the landing area to my front door that is way to the right of my window. I started wondering, “Why on earth would this spider go to all that trouble of spinning a web there?” As I pondered this, I began to put together the pieces of the puzzle:
- Spiders eat insects (duh) – including moths
- Moths are drawn to light (another duh)
- I work in the evening quite often, after it gets dark (lightbulb moment!)
I live in a pretty woodsy area, and when it gets dark here, it gets DARK. When I work at night, there aren’t any other lights on other than the one in my office, which shines brightly through my window. The spider set up her web in front of my window because when I work late at night, it is a beacon for all types of insects, which she can then easily catch.
She set up her web where her target audience would gather.
Over the last few days, I’ve noticed the web has moved a little bit – probably due to repairs needing to be made after catching a meal – but it has remained right there in front of my window. She obviously has been doing well having set up shop in that location. My window spider is an out-of-the-box thinker.
So is James Bromley of MailOnline, a UK web news source. Earlier this week, John Zappe wrote a great article on ERE.net about a source code ‘job posting’ that appeared in the robot.txt file of www.dailymail.co.uk – seen here:
Talk about targeted marketing! Any of you sourcers recognize this concept? Using source code to hide a secret message? If you need a hint…. think about Rob’s Dog. And Jim’s Dog. Contests put on by two sourcing masterminds to see who can think outside the box to solve a problem and prove their professional skills. And in the case of MailOnline, to hopefully find an excellent SEO Manager. Brilliant!
Set up your sourcing campaigns where your target audience is sure to see them. You’ll have better luck ‘catching’ what you’re after!
By the way – we’re currently running a contest here on sourcecon.com – the prize will be a complimentary pass to SourceCon Fall 2010 in D.C. As of the time of this post, you’ve only got three hours left to get in on the action and qualify for the first round. The catch: finding the contest is actually part of the contest. I suggest you scan the website carefully…good luck!