How Gawker wants to monetize comments Wherein is described Gawker Social Media’s Bright Idea for Cashing In on Forums.

On the face of it, the idea is kind of repulsive: Sponsored posts. Company spokesman makes a pitch for the product, and engages commenters in discussion about it, inevitably bringing out ever-more information about the product.

Upon first hearing it described, I thought the idea was pretty lame, on top of repulsive. But when I got the link and read the article, it hit me what this could be: The return of the salesman.

That is, turning away from the present brutally-coercive broadcast advertising-centric sales model, back to personal selling between an honest to god human salesperson and a real human customer. Not “consumer” being force-fed irrelevant advertising, but “customer” playing the ancient human game of dickering with a salesman.

The interesting thing about a salesman interacting with customers on a forum is that there’s an audience, and that leverages the salesman’s efforts. It’s the old primate thing: monkey see, monkey do. The audience vicariously experiences being sold through watching other monkeys being sold. QVC, Tupperware parties, ad nauseum. So this is potentially not such a labor-intensive marketing method as you’d think, and thus a more cost-effective one.

Let’s see: Spam down. Employment up. What’s not to like?

BTW, I’m not proposing that the HabitableZone do any such thing. Just in case you were shuddering in anticipation. But personally, I’ve bitched and moaned endlessly over the years about spam in all its guises and all its delivery methods, so I’d welcome an alternative way to grease the economy without pounding me over the head with the blunt instrument of advertising.

Watcha think? Did I do a good job of selling the idea?