6 Responses

1. The Happy Rock

   21|Jul|2007 1

   Mark,

   I suspect this will get changed in the update, but the mission page looks a little awkward with the ad shifting the top paragraph over.

   I like the mission statement, if I were to write on for The Happy Rock, it would be about the same.

   I have been working on a redesign too, at it has been pretty simple to get some great looks(helps some being a programmer). If you append /test onto my url, you can take a peek at the work in progress.

   Let me know what you think.

   -The Happy Rock

   Thanks for the link

2. AmyL

   21|Jul|2007 2

   I don’t see how you’re conflicting anything. You have some expertise with the bank’s offerings, and are in a good position to compare with the credit union’s products now. Your loyalty is (and should be) to your current employer.

   The only way I would see any conflict would be one of the following conditions: 1)you were working for both institutions or 2) you spoke disrespectfully of your former employer.

   There’s nothing to stop you from just talking about the bank’s products….how would that be any different from another credit union employee looking up the bank’s services and discussing them with clients?

3. Mommy Zabs

   21|Jul|2007 3

   Do you mean conflict of interest because you are currently working at one of them, or because you are pitching a product you have interest in.

   if it is something you could get in trouble for at your job -DON’T DO IT!
   if it is something you are just worried about your readers for- DON’T WORRY! Go ahead

4. David Robarts

   21|Jul|2007 4

   I don’t think that you should compare products from companies that you work for without a clear disclaimer that you work for that company. You should probably talk to your current employer about what you would like to do so that you don’t get in trouble with them. Perhaps a better idea is to compare various “typical” products and what a consumer should look for when choosing that type of product. You should always disclose that you work in the industry providing that type of product.

5. David Robarts

   21|Jul|2007 5

   I agree that the ad on you mission page ought to go. The mission page should be about this site’s purpose. Only people that are interested in this site go there. I doubt you’ll see any lost revenue by removing ads from that page.

   I recently read of a blogger who removed ads from the page if the user was logged in or visits frequently enough (determined by a cookie). He said that his revenue from the ads barely changed and his community appreciated the removal of the ads. His theory is that most of the clicks on his ads come from people that land on the page from a search engine and didn’t find what they wanted, so by serving them ads he helped them continue to pursue their objective. Of course that takes a bit more understanding of the backend of your blog software to know how it would be implemented - since your blog is about finance you may or may not have such skills (I certainly haven’t explored how it would be implemented myself).

6. mark

   22|Jul|2007 6

   I fixed the mission statement and about me pages to not have the ad anymore. I think I’ll take your advice on the products David, and just do some more general guidlines of what I would look for if I was choosing another institution.