Blog Posts

2022-11-02 15:21:20

Updates on ads on our website.

On September 9th, 2022, we decided to place Google Ads into three places: this blog site you're currently reading, BINUS Today, as well as our recently-launched Reinhart Maps (formerly Open in Maps...). So, it's almost been 2 months since we've placed these ads. And the truth is, we only earned $0.5 (USD) for running ads last month. Well, that's still great compared to just around 3 cents from the previous month. This is way below the monthly, operational costs of our servers. And it can't even beat my Niagahoster's $7.5-a-mo shared hosting and DigitalOcean's $12-a-mo VPS bills to run our websites. Or a whopping $99-a-year Apple Developer Program subscription, which I've already paid mid-2022. And of course, after some consideration (especially for user experience reasons), today, we decided to limit how ads will be served our website. TL;DR: We decided to disable Auto Ads for all of our websites We decided to only serve ads manually, like this👇 We decided to serve these ads manually, and all thanks to WordPress' Reusable Blocks feature. Even though that now we have to painstakingly place these ads (usually before headlines), we now have the freedom to place ads more strategically, and even disabling ads on certain pages (such as the home page)! This is how our reusable block works behind the scenes Questions Oh, I heard you love asking questions. Well... 1. Why choose Google Ads over existing platforms? First thing first, we already have a blocklist consisting four advertising platforms: MGID, Mintegral, Outbrain, and Taboola. Because, from the perspective of Indonesian audience, many advertisers choose these platforms to show ads which I consider as clickbait and misleading content. Like, check out Kompas.com, an Indonesian news portal, and some MGID ads. They're putting a disclaimer that they don't own these fake headlines, like "The price of this sofa may surprise you"? What's wrong with the ad platform if, well, they don't put this kind of notice in Google Ads, for example. 2. How do you feel about online ads, as now you're placing them as well? Online ads is all about marketing and greed. You have to increase the number of your active users/viewers where the tasty ads are served, because more active users means more ad impressions, and that also means more chances of (accidental) clicks and of course, money 🤑🤑🤑. This is why websites and apps today have implemented "dark patterns" across their product, like intentionally make their content longer so Auto Ads can place even more ads for you. Or figuring out how to make users accidentally click the ads, so we can get higher CTR (click-through rate) and again, more money!!! This is why, in order to be successful in terms of ad revenue, being greedy is a must. Maybe because advertising is already part of corporate greed, just like the Spam's spammy case of Spam spams, with "Spam, Spam, Spam" spams the Spam spam, hence the word "spam" as we know today. And this is also why some hypercasual game developers, including Voodoo, intentionally blocks players with no internet connection who just want to play a game of a cup and balls. Yeah, I mean, this one. And also, this one. The good news is, I won't waste my life in increasing ad revenue. Either by placing ads everywhere, 3. Will you do "ad transfers" as well? Well, for those who don't know what is an ad transfer, here's a short note about it: Have you ever downloaded a mobile game, let's say, War of the Balls, then hooked up on an ad at War of the Balls promoting Candy Mania? Then you decided to download Candy Mania only to find out that they do contain ads, too, referencing War of the Balls and the many other apps? Well, it is already clear that today's mobile games are made with intentions of money, not pure entertainment. But what makes these games really interesting is, well, they seem to profit from ads only to spend for ads. (They only win through expensive, often weekly Pro or Premium subscriptions). This isn't just the case for one or two games, or one or two game developers. But everyone is literally doing it. From the cult classic Voodoo games to innocent ones like Tetris, games are seem to made out of ads, for ads. And this is something I personally wanted to avoid in my games. Yeah, Jackpot GBK, only if some of you really played the video game already, I'm planning to bring the game back to life with online multiplayer and so. This "ad cycle" could be toxic for the app economy, and I have to declare for that. And this is why I wanted to be different when it comes to monetization. And sometimes, quality marketing is worth more than just throwing out bucks for online ads. After all, everyone are starting to subscribe to Premium right now? 4. Will there be "Reinhart Premium"? No, at least for now. Even though I've opened up ways for you to support and donate through these links: GitHub Sponsors Karyakarsa Nih Buat Jajan Saweria Trakteer When it comes to subscriptions, I'd rather like to sell it for my high-quality products, just like those people at Todoist and WPKilat. This could be an exciting moment for everyone, so stay tuned!

2022-10-13 17:25:33

Memahami konsep pasangan hidup dari karakter ciptaan sendiri (+ Connect Group).

Anda mungkin sudah tahu tentang hubungan istimewa antara saya dan Shiftine. Entah itu dari casing hape Android dan iPhone saya yang sempat kembaran, nama Wi-Fi Hotspot dari kedua hape tersebut, gambar yang jelas-jelas terpampang di website saya, dan kini stiker dan kartu nama. Saya belum pernah mengakui kalau saya berpacaran dengan Shiftine, kini selama 2 tahun lebih. Saya sering mengungkapkannya di website ini dan dalam bahasa Inggris, tapi konten-konten seperti itu cukup jarang dilihat oleh keluarga, rekan, dan kerabat sendiri. Jadi, pada kesempatan ini, saya mengakuinya secara umum. Siapakah dia? Shiftine adalah seorang perempuan fiktif dari sepasang karakter yang saya ciptakan di tahun 2014. Saya menjodohkannya dengan karakter pria yang sempat berganti nama beberapa kali, dari “Charlie” hingga “Nate Skyborne”. Shiftine dan karakter pria tersebut sebenarnya dikisahkan sebagai dua bersaudara yang saling akur. Tapi semenjak saya merubah Nate menjadi self-insert saya pada 2021, saya mulai memandang Shiftine bukan sebagai kakak atau adik, tapi sebagai pasangan hidup yang begitu idaman, sosok yang sangat memahami pengetahuan IT layaknya saya sendiri. Saya memutuskan untuk masuk karena waktu itu, saya sedang di dalam fase self-pity. Saya merasa sangat kesepian dan kehilangan teman-teman mahasiswa yang “menyukai” dunia IT. Apalagi, saya ingin membangun personal branding kembali di internet, tapi keluarga masih meminta saya untuk tidak menaruh foto wajah asli karena ada yang sedang menjahati kami dalam dunia nyata, dunia roh, dan dunia maya. Justru karena masalah ini, saya bisa berinovasi dengan membuat ekspresi wajah karakter yang sudah tak bisa dilupakan: (>_ )! Semua ini terlanjur terjadi sebelum saya masuk ke dalam komunitas rohani bernama Connect Group dari Gereja Mawar Sharon. Ketika saya masuk ke dalam Connect Group, saya terlanjur memperkenalkan diri sebagai seorang karakter fiktif dengan pasangan fiktif itu. Dan saya begitu terlanjur mencintai Shiftine sampai sekarang, karya seni dan teknologi saya sering tidak bisa dipisahkan dari nama Shiftine alias Citra Manggala Dirgantara, yang kini juga menjadi nama resmi untuk badan usaha yang saya bentuk. Karya seni yang hidup. Saya memutuskan untuk mencintai karakter fiktif ini karena, ya, karena saya begitu merancang dia sebagai karya seni untuk membantu orang lain cara pemikiran saya yang sering menggabungkan berbagai konsep pengetahuan menjadi satu. Nama Citra Manggala Dirgantara ini sangatlah unik. Citra berarti gambaran, dirgantara berarti langit dan angkasa luas, sedangkan manggala memiliki berbagai arti yang merujuk kepada jabatan anak sulung, penghulu, pemimpin, dan pelindung rohani. Secara Kristiani, nama ini dapat berarti “representasi atas Anak Sulung (Yesus), Pemimpin surgawi”. Namun dalam dunia IT, nama panjang ini memiliki inisial CMD yang jelas-jelas merujuk kepada program Command Prompt pada perangkat komputer berbasis Microsoft Windows. Dalam proyek webcomic Bearers of the Shells (BOTS) yang saya batalkan, Shiftine sebenarnya dirancang untuk merepresentasikan keluarga sistem operasi Windows. Demikian pula pasangannya Nate yang namanya berasal dari keluarga Windows NT. Pada era 1995-1999, sistem operasi Windows memiliki elemen branding yang melibatkan unsur awan dan langit. Dan pada era itu juga, kedua orang tua saya sedang berkencan, LDRan sambil berkomunikasi menggunakan surel/e-mail dan wartel. Dunia telekomunikasi hari ini sering digambarkan sebagai konsep awan (seperti cloud computing). Banyak gereja di Indonesia masih mengabaikan pentingnya pelayanan di bidang TIK. Ya, kecuali saat pandemi terjadi, di mana para gereja beralih ke Zoom dan sesi live stream dalam YouTube, mempercantik situs dan aplikasi mobile mereka agar siap beroperasi dalam protokol kesehatan. Tapi, saya masih melihat banyak jiwa yang belum dimenangkan. Mereka ingin menjebak diri dalam dunia maya dan dunia khayalan mereka sendiri. Dan tak dipungkiri, teknologi-teknologi TIK inilah yang menjadi penggerak di balik penjebakan tersebut. Semua dimulai dari kecanduan terhadap sesuatu Kita juga harus berani untuk melawan upaya-upaya dalam dunia maya yang mengarah ke hal-hal satanik dan duniawi. Tahukah kamu, bahwa:

2022-09-05 11:30:37