Marketing the Root.net Attention Trust Recorder

Why do some companies obsess on marketing to the early adopter Tech Crunch crowd instead of reaching out directly to the mass of Internet users? If you have some geek-specific tool like blog-writing extension Performancing , then perhaps the focus is warranted. But if you’re Root.net, and you have a tool like the Attention Trust Recorder that would monetize the clickstreams of millions of users, why waste all your time on tech insiders – just make a direct pitch.

Behind the sometimes abstruse theorizing on the Attention Trust Economy lies a subsidiary (if not central), simple idea that the non-geek public has proven they can grasp. Get paid for something you would do anyway. There were some ISP’s and computer makers back in the late 90’s that gave people low-cost computers and/or free Internet service in exchange for recording a user’s Internet activity. While these services weren’t ultimately successful and the Root Exchange is an altogether different beast than pay-to-surf – my point is that the public proved they could understand an analogous proposition.