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  1. Friday, August 17th, 5:22 ET

    What are the benefits and drawbacks of having a flat-rate subway system?

    Question: What are the benefits and drawbacks of having a flat-rate subway system?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    Benefits:

    • Easy to understand pricing
    • Ease of use cross-system (same card/charge for subways and busses)
    • Ease of station exit (no need to swipe on the way out)
    • Easy for employers to administer transportation benefits (as everyone pays the same)
    • Relatively easy for MTA to budget and set revenue expectations
    • Cost savings from not having to print materials and educate riders about zones, etc


    Drawbacks:

    • Riders pay the same for short trips as people using the subway for much longer trips, in effect, short commutes subsidize longer ones (this might be a Wash, as it benefits riders with very long commutes)
    • MTA has less data on where individual riders enter and exit the system - they’re only able to see entrances, tied to a specific Metrocard, and then aggregate exits throughout the system


    Wash (could be a benefit or drawback, depending on who you ask):

    • Riders don’t have to worry about being tracked from within the system, as the MTA (and police, etc) can only see where a Metrocard enters the system, not where it exited (If you have an EasyPay XPress Metrocard, you can export all your swipes into an Excel document - pretty interesting).


    Not that you asked, but personally, I like the single-pay system. Even though my commute is very short and I would probably pay less under a zone system, I like the simplicity of a single-pay system.

    Comments
  2. Friday, August 17th, 3:52 ET

    Which locksmiths in New York City actually take pride in working with keys and locks?

    Question: Which locksmiths in New York City actually take pride in working with keys and locks?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    You might try Greenwich Locksmiths. They have a long history and, if they can’t help you, at the very least, you’ll get to check out their cool store.

    Comments
  3. Friday, August 17th, 2:20 ET

    What are the DEP boats in the East River doing?

    Question: What are the DEP boats in the East River doing?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    Via a bit of research outside of Quora, I’ve been able to answer my own question.

    The boats are transporting “sludge” from New York City water treatment plants to “dewatering” plants. DEP only operates dewatering plants at 8 of the 14 treatment plants, so sludge from the plants without dewatering capabilities has to be transported via these ships. 

    The sludge, which is a byproduct of water treatment, is further “dewatered” making it a more managable solid. 

    The entire process is explained in detail, with pictures of the boats, here.

    Comments
  4. Friday, August 17th, 12:54 ET

    What should one look for in tenants when lending out parking space to tenants?

    Question: What should one look for in tenants when lending out parking space to tenants?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    I think it’s pretty simple:

    1. You’ll want to confirm that they have the intention and ability to pay
    2. That they won’t be parking an illegal vehicle in the spot
    3. That they won’t be parking an overly ugly or large vehicle in the spot (that might hurt your home’s curb appeal)
    4. You’ll want to find out when they’ll be using the spot (if they are using the spot to transfer glass bottles between two trucks at 3am every weeknight - that might be an issue)
    Comments
  5. Friday, August 17th, 11:12 ET

    Is it illegal to stop water supply of a resident wasting water?

    Question: Is it illegal to stop water supply of a resident wasting water?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    It would probably depend on where you are and the local regulations.

    I know that in most places in the US, this would be illegal. All regulations that I know of require that tenants be provided with running hot and cold water, among other things.

    Comments
  6. Thursday, August 16th, 5:26 ET

    Why is it always hotter at night than during the day in a place with no AC?

    Question: Why is it always hotter at night than during the day in a place with no AC?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    First, I disagree with the premise of the question - it’s not always hotter at night than during the day in a place with no AC.

    Heat tends to transfer or move from warmer to cooler areas. Your non-air conditioned apartment may spend all day baking in the sun, warming up your walls and floors. As the air temperature drops at night, which it usual does, the heat will radiate from the warmer surfaces, into the cooler air.

    You may feel heat coming off your floors and walls at night only because the air around you is cooler. 

    So, in reality, your place is actually cooler at night than it is during the day, but your structure is acting as a radiator. Once the temperatures have equalized, this effect should stop and the overall temperature will likely be lower than it was at, say, 2 pm the previous day.

    Comments
  7. Thursday, August 16th, 3:53 ET

    How do I politely ask someone to stop rescheduling/pushing back our phone meetings?

    Question: How do I politely ask someone to stop rescheduling/pushing back our phone meetings?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley: 

    Hi Susie Q,

    I know you have a busy schedule and we’ve had to push back our call a few times. Is there a better way for us to get in touch? Would you prefer I come by your office?

    The rescheduling has caused a bit of turmoil in my own schedule, so I’d love if were able to lock down a time. Let me know what you think.

    Thanks,


    Andrew

    Comments
  8. Thursday, August 16th, 2:18 ET

    What companies are working on contextual advertising solutions for video?

    Question: What companies are working on contextual advertising solutions for video?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    As Alex mentions, contextual understanding of a video is a difficult problem to solve. At Tremor Video, we do this by scanning the video, pulling out the topic or subjects that we think the video is addressing and then doing a whole bunch of things behind the scenes to understand what those topics actually mean.

    We spend a lot more resources scanning text webpages than we do scanning the videos, even though we only really care about the video. We do this so that we can understand the subject in context of current events, trends, etc.

    The bigger issue, I think, is what to do with that information.

    Contextual advertising in search, for example, is immediately addressable. If you search for the term “best laundry detergent,” it’s likely you’re in the market for a new laundry detergent and Tide would likely pay top dollar to tell you all about theirs.

    However, if you watch a news clip about how people in New York are doing more laundry themselves, as opposed to dropping it off at the cleaners, what does that actually mean? The subject or topic might be “laundry,” but the context is that the economy isn’t doing so well. That might be a better advertising opportunity for a budget brand detergent. 

    Or, you might not use the information for contextual targeting at all, but rather audience modeling. You might find that people who watch news clips about laundry (and the economy) tend to perform well against a certain type of interactive video creative unit, so you serve them more of those units.

    That’s taking contextual information that might not be immediately addressable (like search is) and finding ways to make it addressable (by increasing performance for brand advertisers). Video context is one of the signals that help us do that.

    Comments
  9. Thursday, August 16th, 12:51 ET

    How much could I realistically charge for the adspace on my web page?

    Question: How much could I realistically charge for the adspace on my web page?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    There are a few questions here, so I will try to answer each individually.

    To answer your last question, first… CPC vs CPM:

    It really depends on the performance of your audience. Since this is your first campaign, I’m guessing you don’t know how your audience performs. It’s probably wise that you avoid performance-based campaigns until you understand that better.

    I’d recommend you do one of two things:

    • Run your first campaign as CPM (or as a flat rate, explained below), because you know the expected outcome: (150,000 / 1000) * $CPM = How much money you’ll make.
    • Or, run some tests and see how your audience performs. If you have an audience that happens to click on ads a lot, you might do much better with a CPC campaign. There’s no way to know until you test it.


    As to how much money you can make… probably not a ton. You said you have 150K uniques, but you didn’t say how many impressions you have. I’ll assume you have 150K impressions (though, I’d guess it’s probably higher than that). 

    150,000 / 1000 = 150 millie

    Most display ads pay $0.10 up to, maybe, a few dollars. Even if you hit the high end and got $2 CPM for a display ad, you’d only make $300 per month. That’s:

    (150,000 / 1000) * 2 = $300

    If you were on the lower end, maybe $0.50:

    (150,000 / 1000) * .50 = $75

    Not too exciting, either way.

    If your content was video, not text, and you ran a video ad before your content, you might get $8-10 CPM, on the high end, from a network. That’s:

    (150,000 / 1000) * 8 = $1,200

    That’s much better, but still nothing to retire on. 

    Having no idea what your site is, what it’s about and who you are (and what your skills are), I’d recommend you look for advertiser who want to directly sponsor your site. 

    Go to brands directly (forget dealing with their agencies - you’re too small). Develop a media kit. Explain how they can own your highly sought after audience with custom creative for a full month. Then, charge them a lot of money. 

    These kinds of things go from a few hundred bucks to thousands. It all depends on you:

    1. Selling it (putting together the right story and marketing materials)
    2. Finding the right brand fit (this is key)
    3. Delivering performance

    If you do that, your customers will repeat. 

    You didn’t ask about this, and it may not fit your business at all, but there might be other approaches to monetization. If 150K unique people are visiting your site monthly, they obviously want what you have. Maybe you could charge them for it?

    If you charged $1 per month for access to whatever information you’re providing, and had a 10% conversion rate:

    150,000 * .1 = 15,000

    That’s $15,000 per month in recurring revenue. 

    Or, maybe you implement a freemium model where you run advertising, but offer users the chance to opt out for $1 per month. That might look something like:

    150,000 * .05 = 7,500 opt out, paying you $7,500 per month

    150,000 - 7,500 = 142,500 people left to show ads to

    You can do the math from there.

    Good luck.

    Comments
  10. Thursday, August 16th, 11:29 ET

    Will the new bikeshare program in NYC (CitiBike) be a hit or a flop?

    Question: Will the new bikeshare program in NYC (CitiBike) be a hit or a flop?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    I’m going to disagree with Mark and Corey. I think that the program will be successful enough to stick around, but I don’t think it’ll be a huge hit or change the way most people commute, for the following reasons:

    • As Corey mentioned, we have rain and snow. Did you know that we get more rain every year, in terms of inches, than Seattle? The weather in New York just isn’t all that great. If it’s not snowing or raining, it can be oppressively hot or bone chillingly cold. As I write this, it’s about 90 degrees out there - would you bike to work in 90 degree heat? If you do, I hope you don’t sit next to me.
    • Again, as Corey mentioned, it’s dangerous. I love riding my bike and, stupidly, I love the thrill of riding with and around traffic. But it’s super, super dangerous (that’s part of the the fun, right?). Beyond the actual risk of injury is the fear of it. I have many friends, including my fiancee, who won’t even get on a bike in the city. They literally won’t even try it.
    • It’s not cool. New York is a fashionable city. It won’t be cool to be on a CitiBank branded, clunky, heavy bike. Like it or not, that matters to a lot of people in this city.
    • We already have a really terrific transportation system. I’ve written before that, I think, the only people who will use these bikes are those who are already far from a subway station. For example, people in Greenpoint might find it useful to skip the G and head straight for the 7 train over the Pulaski bridge or the L train in Williamsburg. Or, people on the far east side of Manhattan, near York, may prefer a bike ride to Lex for the 4/5/6 over a 3 to 4 avenue block walk. But, in the grand scheme of things, that’s a pretty small population.
    • It’s expensive.


    So, in summary: It’ll cost you a lot of money, but you might be able to bike for 1/3 to 1/4 of the year. You won’t look cool doing it and you might die, but you will avoid being whisked underground in an air conditioned car, at high speed, right to your destination, if you’re not into that sort of thing.

    Comments
  11. Wednesday, August 15th, 5:29 ET

    What platform manages Pandoras mobile ads? What is it coded in?

    Question: What platform manages Pandoras mobile ads? What is it coded in?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    I’m not comfortable sharing all of the details, but I can tell you that they don’t use a single platform. Pandora relies on several pieces of software from different vendors to manage various part of the monetization life cycle. These include contract management, trafficking, fulfillment, reporting, optimization and various technologies to improve user experience and facilitate asset delivery over mobile networks.

    Comments
  12. Wednesday, August 15th, 3:59 ET

    Why can’t guys wear leggings?

    Question: Why can’t guys wear leggings?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    Of course they can. If they buy the proper size.

    Most don’t because leggings are considered women’s clothing. Just as most guys don’t wear dresses, many can and do.

    Comments
  13. Wednesday, August 15th, 2:27 ET

    What clothing brands are considered modest for men?

    Question: What clothing brands are considered modest for men?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley: 

    I’d recommend you look at Uniqlo for weekend/everyday basics. Items come in a variety of colors and are priced well.

    You should also consider Nordstrom. They are currently holding their half-yearly sale on menswear. Great deals to be had on basics. They also carry their own line of items under the Smartcare brand. Cuts are modern. Fabrics are good (not fantastic). Prices are more than fair.

    Comments
  14. Wednesday, August 15th, 12:43 ET

    Where can I shop online for simple, inexpensive mens clothing?

    Question: Where can I shop online for simple, inexpensive mens clothing?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    Nordstrom is having their half-yearly menswear sale currently. Some great deals there.

    Uniqlo is a great choice and they are rumored to be launching an online shopping option soon. 

    You might also check out Everlane. I’ve purchased a few of their v-neck t-shirts and was mostly happy with it.

    Comments
  15. Wednesday, August 15th, 11:14 ET

    Are there nice people in New York? How hard is it to make friends?

    Question: Are there nice people in New York? How hard is it to make friends?

    Answer from Andrew Baisley:

    In my experience, people are very friendly here and I have found it easy to make friends. I suppose it depends a lot on your own personality and how you approach the issue, but…

    • I’d agree it’s difficult to make friends on the street, on the subway or in an elevator. But I don’t think that’s unique to New York.
    • If you involve yourself in various activities - there are sports leagues, NY Cares, classes, networking events, bars, etc - you will find it easy to make friends.
    • You’ll make some really great friends in your career (because you probably share common interests), but I don’t agree with others that we (New Yorkers) work all the time. I work hard, but I have a lot of other aspects to my life.
    Comments
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Andrew Baisley

Director, Business Development at Tremor Video

Founder, Shopp.ly

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General thoughts about the industry I work in, my life in New York City, the music I'm listening to and links to websites that I find interesting.

This is a personal blog and, while I may occasionally write about my work, my views do not represent the views of my employer or business partners in any way.

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