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The Advertisement, a tale of terror and redemption:

Ad buyer: I would like to sell my soul. Can I place an ad on your Web site?
Ad service rep: Sure. But if you want to increase the chance of your soul being sold, consider paying a little extra for our information networking service.

We started it because on the Web, information space is effectively infinite and very cheap to claim with your own site. We can’t sell space anymore. But we can sell ways to make sense of all the things floating in Web space and ways to connect those information islands for our customers.

Ad buyer: What?

Ad service rep: I’ll put your soul-for-sale ad on all major classified sites, monitor changes in the online classifieds landscape, alter or redistribute your ad to adapt to those changes, and hone your ad’s presentation.

Ad buyer: So you’ll put it on sites such as Craigslist, eBay, Google Base, Kijiji, Local.com, Olx, Edgeio and Dibs?

Ad service rep: Right. And we’ll add to the list as new sites come online.

Ad buyer: But doesn’t vFlyer do that already?

Ad service rep: Well, it posts one ad to several sites, but not all of them. I’ll also monitor your ad and modify it throughout the life of your contract in order to get the best results.

Ad buyer: How much?

Ad service rep: Well, there are 57,000 employees at daily newspapers, so $10 should cover it.

Ad buyer: Can’t you do it for free?

Ad service rep: Maybe, if you put our story-networks on your Web site, let us place ads on your ad, or produced the news for us.

Ad buyer: What’s a story-network?