Web Marketing Links for March 2001

In this issue: 61 articles and resources You may receive these via ASCII text e-mail from our autoresponder. mailto:

Banner Pricing Models

• Mike Wilke, "More Sites Adapt as Advertisers Look Toward Cost-Per-Click," Revolution, 3/7/2001. Says advertisers are increasingly unhappy with cost-per-thousand pricing, preferring cost-per-click strategy pioneered by LookSmart.com in 2000. Says branding is no longer the single driver in online advertising for Amazon, eBay, Gap and others.

Banner Ads (General)

• Terry Lefton, "The Great Flameout," The Industry Standard, 3/12/2001. Online advertising hasn't yet taken off the way the industry expected it would. 12% of media consumption is on the Internet, yet it earns only 3% of U.S. ad dollars. The reason: old-school ad buyers with big budgets don't believe in the web.
• Lawrence Pintak, "Return of the Dinosaurs," ChannelSeven, 3/8/2001. Observes that traditional ad agencies are back in the online loop. Says the big agencies want to be seen as full-service advertising solution providers rather than just banner salesmen, that Web ads need to have a place along with TV and other media.
• Chuck Bila, "Case Study: Banner Ads," iWork Advisor, 3/15/2001. How independent photographer Chris Rouviere drives traffic to his online business Photoshoot.net, a low-cost online photography course, using banner ad campaigns. Keys to success include sharp banner design, and fine-tuning according to measured results.

Branding On The Web

• Bryan Eisenberg, "Why Should I Buy From You?" ClickZ, 3/12/2001. If you want to sell online, you need a unique selling proposition or USP. This is a simple statement that tells your prospects why you are the only choice for them. How to develop a USP, and what to do with it once you've developed it.
• Pamela Parker, "7 From Seven Featuring Greg Stuart," ChannelSeven, 3/9/2001. Discusses how CPM (cost per thousand) is the right measurement for companies that want to influence consumer attitude, that other non-CPM (performance) pricing is right for marketers who want to influence customer behavior first, before attitude.
• Neil Cohen, "How to Create a Corporate ID," ClickZ, 3/6/2001. Tips for designing a logo for a web business, or getting the job done for you. Avoid design clichés like swooshes, ellipses, and little running men. Avoid trendy colors and typefaces that will look dated before long. And keep in mind the various media thelogo may appear in (letterhead, T-shirts).
• Susan Solomon, "A Brand Ain't Nothing but a Promise," ClickZ, 3/6/2001. Have you looked at your site as a brand reinforcer lately? Branding is more than a logo. You need a site that focuses on your core competency, presents fresh information constantly, and can be recognized as the best site of any in your category.

Classified Advertising On The Web

• "Hello, Webmaster-Get Me Rewrite," Business 2.0, 3/6/2001. Addresses myth that the Web is displacing newspaper classified ads. Reports on research finding that those searching online ads often read newspaper ads as well, describes groups of big newspaper companies banding together to post online ads.

New Online Ad Directions

• Chris Maher, "On Happily Disrupting the User Experience," ClickZ, 3/8/2001. Don't automatically reject the use of interstitial web ads because they might interrupt or annoy the viewer. They can be effective and appropriate. Make them brief and clever, and give visitors the option to participate, rather than forcing them to watch.
• Bob Woods, "Does The "E" In "E-Mail" Stand For "Ear?"," NewMedia, 3/8/2001. San Francisco's DigaCast is trying to transform the e-mail medium into an aural experience with Ad Mint and Ad Mint Mail, services that will enable marketers and Webcasters to insert and manage MP3-based audio advertisements into their playlists.
• David Haskin, "Users Want Wireless Ads . . . But," allNetDevices, 3/5/2001. A field study shows that consumers accept wireless advertising if the ads are interactive and if they provide a useful service, but that enthusiasm for the wireless ads decreased significantly as time wore on.
• Pamela Parker, "Wireless Rich Media: It's Not an Oxymoron," TurboAds, 3/7/2001. Examples of what is being done today on the leading edge of targeted advertising using multimedia and animation delivered to wireless phones and PDA's, and what will be possible soon. Focuses on California developers FunMail and IdeaRAGE.
• Phil Leggiere, "Online Advertising - Campaign of the Month - HP Swaps Stodgy Image for Beautiful Branding," Revolution, 2/1/2001. Describes printer's Web-based ad campaign "designed to create a unique interactive experience within a dynamic banner space." One ad allows users to change color, movement or frequency of a background graphic, another to design and fly an airplane.

E-Mail Marketing (Gen)

• Alex Sirota, "The Realities of Email Marketing," ClickZ, 3/16/2001. The basic best practices of email marketing: (1) make unsubscribing easy, (2) make messages relevant, (3) make messages interactive, and (4) pay attention to demographics.
• Kim MacPherson, "Database Marketing 101: Part 1," ClickZ, 3/12/2001. If you want customers to keep reading your follow-up emails and newsletters, you must send offers and discounts based on customers' selected areas of interest. If you aren't doing it already, here's how to get started.
• Debbie Weil, "Report From the Field: Email Marketing Best Practices," ClickZ, 3/7/2001. Ground-level tactical tips that apply to business-to-business and business-to-consumer email marketing: getting permission is obligatory, double opt-in or subscribe confirmation is essential, and allow users to opt out in every single message.
• Bruno Gralpois, "Five Myths About Email Marketing," ClickZ, 3/15/2001. Gain a better understanding of email marketing by questioning common misconceptions. Email is not just like direct mail, it requires special expertise. Email is not about messaging, its about inviting a dialogue. And email does not work well in isolation.
• Cara Beardi, "This party's just started," Advertising Age, 2/5/2001. Sees e-mail marketing category growing, but amid job cuts, losses and some consolidation. The slowdown affecting much of the Internet doesn't seem to have effected e-mail marketing as much. Growth projections.
• Kim MacPherson, "Strategies for Achieving Momentum: Part 2," ClickZ, 3/5/2001. Five steps to an ideal email marketing piece: (1) build trust (2) create involvement, emotional response (3) detail the benefits of your offer (4) close with a sense of urgency (deadline) (5) make it easy to commit (toll-free number etc.).

Collecting Customer Information

• Blake Rohrbacher, "Registration Greed Isn't Good," ClickZ, 3/28/2001. Don't force visitors to register at your site unless you can really serve them better once they're in your database. Building a marketing database by asking for registration demographics doesn't usually work out.
• Sean Carton, "Do You Know Your Customers?" ClickZ, 3/28/2001. Suggestions of simple, low-cost ways to get to know your online customers better. Take time to observe their behavior, ask them directly about their experiences, visit your own site as if you were a customer.

Newsletter & Discussion List Marketing

• Heidi Anderson, "Psst.. What's the Best Font for Your Newsletter?" ClickZ, 3/15/2001. Test marketing is the key to success. Dr. Ralph Wilson applied this principle to the choice of fonts for the HTML version of his Doctor Ebiz newsletter, and found that readers have distinct preferences, such as sans serif fonts for body text.
• "E-Newsletters Drive Site Traffic," AdWeek, 4/9/2001. According to a survey commissioned by Folio, over 200 of the top 500 magazines in the US distribute free online newsletters. Nearly all publishers saw this was a good or excellent way to drive traffic to their sites. As a source of revenue, 21% excellent,46% good source, and 34% believed enewsletters were a poor source of revenue.
• Heidi Anderson, "How Well Can Your Audience Read HTML?" ClickZ, 3/29/2001. HTML email gets good response rates and it allows you to build interactivity with your audience, but it depends on the HTML rendering capability of your audience's email programs. Results of a survey by WMT's Dr. Ralph Wilson show that 87% ofrecipients can read HTML quite well.

Opt-In & Targeted E-Mail Marketing

• James R. Borck, "Boost Customer Trust with Opt-in E-mail Marketing Campaigns," InfoWorld, 3/22/2001. Provides a set of suggestions for fostering customer confidence and relationships, including: set up clear objectives and deploy multitailored campaigns targeted to specific audiences; gain insight by reviewing results of campaigns.

Spam Updates

• Jodi Mardesich, "Too Much of a Good Thing," The Industry Standard, 3/12/2001. The increasing volume of spam email, as much as 22% of email in circulation, is causing response rates to email marketing campaigns to drop. Marketers respond by guarding their opt-in lists more carefully, and toning down the hype level of the pitch.

Case Studies/Models (Not E-Commerce)

• Lisa Bastian, "Best of The Web," Area Development, 3/1/2001. Reviews economic development websites of 55 domestic, 11 international and 8 utility entities. Ranked according to search function, site maps, indexes, links, contact information, preview descriptions and business headings. Links to all sites.

Website Content

• Nick Usborne, "Just Say No to Dead Fragments," ClickZ, 3/19/2001. If you want to differentiate your business, build sales, and increase loyalty, don't fall into the trap of writing your website copy in 'dead fragments' (boiled-down snippets of easy-to-read text). Write words with color and soul.

International Marketing

• Stephen Baker, "Bloody but Unbowed," Business Week, 3/19/2001. Details the difficulties of growing an Internet business in Europe, even for a European. Says Europe's borders "stretch high into cyberspace" despite the notion that the Internet transcends national boundaries. Optimistic about future, based on successes.
• Erika Morphy, "How Local Can You Go?" Global business Online, 3/1/2001. Describes Autobytel.com's expansion into Europe. Says "Basically the problem is that there are an infinite number of laws that might be applicable to any given website, and most of them you don't even know about." Reviews legal issues.
• Robin J. Phillips, "A Less-American World Wide Web," Business Week, 3/7/2001. Reports on survey showing the U.S. could be in danger of losing its lead as the most Web-savvy nation as young people all over the world are clicking onto the Internet in increasing numbers, especially in Australia, South Korea and Great Britain.
• Peg McDonald, "Global B2B-a KM perspective," KMWorld, 2/15/2001. Addresses the whys and hows of globalization, the legal hurdles and website design for international B2B. Offers five lessons for companies just entering the global marketplace. Sidebars on regulatory issues, Web design tips.
• David James, "China's New Cultural Revolution," Conquest, 3/1/2001. Details China's move to Internet and wireless Internet use. Says Japan's i-mode customers are increasing by 20,000 subscribers daily, predicts China will be similar. Notes China's laws regulating "subversive" content and record-keeping requirements.

Legal Issues (Copyright And Trademark)

• Matt Gallaway, "International Jurisdiction Soup," eCompany, 2/27/2001. Internet-based businesses in North America need to be aware of international legal concerns and interpretations, as suggested by recent cases in France (involving Yahoo!) and Italy (a child custody and defamation case).
• P.J. Connolly and Tom Yager, "Hands off the Internet?" InfoWorld, 3/26/2001. Reviews debate over the government's role in determining the future of the Web, challenge of where to draw the line between freedom and protection. Notes difficulties in determining what's a problem and when legislative action is justified.
• Tim Quirk, "The Money-Go-Round," Conquest, 3/1/2001. Explores the difficulty that Napster might have in migrating offshore to a location without copyright laws. Says that more than 120 countries have signed the Berne Convention treaty, applying law reciprocally with each other.
• John Perry Barlow, "Sense and Censor-Ability," Context, 2/1/2001. Says online censorship may be imminent. Warns how honorable motives in passing copyright laws, for example, could potentially prevent free flow of information by eliminating fair use in digital media, says power over information could become despotic.

Miscellaneous Web Marketing Articles

• Maryann Jones Thompson, "Scorecard for 2000," The Industry Standard, 3/19/2001. So how good are those Internet industry analysts who always seem to predict cheerleader numbers, now that the dotcom bubble has burst? It turns out: surprisingly good. A comparison of reality vs. predictions on online advertising and consumer e-commerce.
• Stovin Hayter, "Two cents worth - The future of the web is in your hands," Revolution, 2/1/2001. Calls handheld devices "the second coming of the web." Says they are cheaper and easier to use than PCs and a hundred times more portable. Predicts ads will be most successful when permission-based and personalized, where content and ads blend.
• Laurel Merlino, "Bull's Eye! Targeted Online Marketing," ZDNet E-Commerce, 3/13/2001. Extended comparison and report on outsourced services for online marketing, with numerous examples and case studies (NFL.com, Borders, Omaha Steaks, Culwell and Son). Covers email marketing, incentive marketing and CRM services, with summary chart.
• Jane M. Falla, "Picking Partners," Advisor, 3/1/2001. Says any good definition of e-business describes extending internal business operations outward to customers, suppliers, and partners. Asks "What is a partner?" Defines a partnership as one where both parties have the same risk/reward equation.

Marketing Research

• Katherine C. Adams, "Transforming information retrieval on the Web: a new direction," KMWorld, 2/15/2001. Offers research on and new solutions to "information anxiety" resulting from access to more data from the Internet than time to synthesize and integrate it. One is Active Semantic Memory (ASM) software system that mimics the human brain.

Privacy Issues

• Joe McKee, "Blame Canada on e-business going South," Conquest, 3/1/2001. Asks whether Canada's privacy legislation, Bill C-6, was to blame for America's dot-com collapse. Says much of the blame resides in Internet business plans built solely on collecting and selling customer data.
• "None of Your Business," Context, 2/1/2001. Debate on whether industry self-regulation will preserve personal privacy. Presents opposing views on data gathering, privacy policy statements, federal legislation, databases of companies that have gone out of business, other issues.
• TOM KEATING, "A Case Of Techno-Paranoia," Communications Solutions, 3/1/2001. Provides opinions on emerging Internet technologies, including a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) "presence detection" HTML code contained in an e-mail message, GPS (global positioning system) and location-based commerce.

Trust Enhancement

• Kim Brooks, "Practicing Trust-Based Marketing," ClickZ, 3/26/2001. How to convey that your online business is trustworthy: use honest language, inclusive advertising, reliable site design, invite telephone contact, and provide thorough policy statements.

Public Relations

• Chuck Bila, "News Release Marketing: When Less Equals More," iWork Advisor, 1/18/2001. Case study and advice from a sole proprietor software developer who has developed high traffic and good sales results at his website using electronically-distributed press releases. How to write them well, how to distribute them effectively.
• Susan Solomon, "What Does the Media Think of Your Site?" ClickZ, 3/20/2001. Pointers for providing good content for the media on your site, which will lead to good PR value and coverage. Put contact information and addresses up front, create a full media section, with profiles and history as well as releases, keep materialcurrent, and if possible provide downloadable images, video, and audio for reporters.

Promoting Your Website (Gen)

• Eric Ward, "A Linking-Campaign Primer," ClickZ, 3/15/2001. How to manage an in-bound link campaign (building reciprocal links with compatible sites). Do it yourself or in-house, because there are too many areas where little mistakes can happen. With a list of details to observe.

Search Engine Techniques

• Paul J. Bruemmer, "AltaVista: Ready for Takeoff," ClickZ, 3/14/2001. The AltaVista search site is tackling its mission with renewed vigor and innovation, so now is a good time to review and revise your approach to getting listed well. This means complying with AltaVista's listing rules, which are clearly stated online.
• "J.K. Bowman's Spider Food," . One of the best information sites regarding search engine optimization. Free monthly "Spider Report" e-mail newsletter. Links to resources and forums.
• Eric Ward, "How to Build a Free and Fast Link-Alert Service," ClickZ, 3/29/2001. How to build an automatic tracker that will let you know when another site has linked to your site. Use one of several webpage change-alert services, such as the free TrackEngine, to monitor an in-bound link search page at a site such as AltaVista. Whenthe search page changes, it means there's a new link to your site, and TrackEngine notifies you.
• Danny Sullivan, "Buying Your Way to the Top," ClickZ, 3/21/2001. An overview of the many ways you can pay your way to the top of search engine listings, including: banner ad buys and content partnerships; paid placement, such as pay-per-click; paid inclusion; and paid submission programs. With a chart of which searchsites offer which paid options.
• Jill Whalen and Heather Lloyd-Martin, "Writing and Ranking for the Search Engines," ClickZ, 3/7/2001. Before all the snappy META tag and submission techniques that everyone goes on about, the most important element of getting good placement at search engines is writing keyword-rich copy that the search engines love. An introduction.

Building Communities: Chat, Forums

• Roger O. Crockett, "Chat Me Up...Please," Business Week, 3/19/2001. Says instant messaging on e-commerce sites pleases customers and boosts sales. Describes experiences of Web stores such as Land's End and Travelocity.com. Calls instant messaging the "killer app for attracting users to websites."
• Evan I. Schwartz, "Real Community is Possible," Business 2.0, 3/6/2001. Says there is something valuable behind the concept of online community, provided it is used to support a real business objective. Reviews mistakes, successes such as zagat.com which saw printed directory sales increase with access to online information.
• Joanne Kaufman, "iVillage: Learned the Hard Way," Fortune Small Business, 3/1/2001. Race. Speed. Crash. Online network's office races said to describe the company's rapid growth and subsequent plunge. Describes founder's insight into Internet-based women's community, future plans for troubled company.

Business Website Design

• Sean Carton, "It May Flash, but It Doesn't Streak," ClickZ, 3/14/2001. Do yourself and your visitors a favor, skip the flashy Flash intros and the cool bells and whistles. Consumers don't give a hoot about them, and they get in the way of doing business.
• Cheryl Bentsen, "Creative Tension," Darwin, 3/1/2001. Presents sampling of current thinking of designers for and against using flash technology: what works, what doesn't, trends. Questions whether usability should be the driving force in Web design or has it been given more prominence than it deserves.
• Gerry McGovern, "Web Branding for Dummies," ClickZ, 3/22/2001. Keep your site design simple, functional, and focused on your customers' needs. You brand on the Web with content, not with fancy logos and swirling animations. Yahoo! and Napster didn't become brands on the tip of everyone's tongue by using cool designs, they did it with great content, stuff people wanted.