JOHN SUMSER,
E D I T O R
LINDA WILSON,
R E P O R T E R
S P O N S O R S
Find out more
About
IBN
Articles
Archives
8 Corners of ECommerce
Hall Of Fame
8 Corners of ECommerce
Types
of Links
Red Herring
H
C I Readlist
Webstyle guide
The
Pilot
Daily Webnews
I
A Daily
Webcatcher
Professor
Pete
Ad
Tutorial
Advert
World
TRADEWINDS
WebMaster
Mag
HT
Marcom
Dave-Net
A1 Index
Telecosm
Submit It
Suggestions?
The advertising
industry is on
the verge of
being shattered
into a thousand
fragments due to
the knowledge explosion
and the proliferation
of new technologies.
There are no
more grand theories
that hold sway
over the entire
industry.
Michael Strangelove
Advertising is
one of the minor
arts, so don't
be intimidated
by it. Try
not to lose
your sense of
playfulness.
Keep it fun.
Robert Bly
Reality
is more
complex
than
it seems.
John Gall
The System
is its own
best
explanation.
John Gall
It's better to
do a few things
really well than
than to do
a lot of things
badly.
If you can't
make the necessary
commitments of
time and energy
to your
electronic
marketing
efforts
scale back
your plan.
John Sumser
Suggestions?
All material on this
website is the
property of IBN
(The Internet Business Network)
You may download
a copy for personal
use. Redistribution
without permission
is strictly
prohibited.
All material on
this site is
© 1995. 1996 by IBN
OUR HOME
|
...
|
January 5, 1997, 1996 Weekend Reading Starting last week, we
introduced a new feature called Weekend Reading. Every weekend
we will point out 3-4 articles that have appeared on the web in
the previous week that in our humble opinion are "must reads".
We will surf through the popular publications and marketing web
sites and provide links to the best articles that focus on web
marketing and design.
- Web
Sites Drowning in Deluge of E-mail from
NetMarketing
Many business when creating a site get caught
up in attracting traffic without planning for the
results of such traffic. This article examines how sites deal
with the incredible amount of email they can attract and the
costs of answering such email. This is a good case study that
discusses an cautionary aspect of marketing that rarely gets
attention. - 1996 Review of
the Year from NUA Internet Surveys
While reluctant to
mention yet another article which reviews the last year, there is
a lot which can be learned from taking stock of where we have
been and where we are going. NUA publishes a monthly analysis
and list of pointers to the major surveys about the Internet.
This special edition, is an indepth analysis of the facts and
firgures that have emerged from sources like Forrester, and the
Gartner Group in 1996. While this a lengthy report, make sure you skim
the chapters on The Internet Marketing Opportunity, Internet
Market Sectors, and Online Advertising.
- Beyond
the Banner from Wired
This articles examines the current general
disatisfaction with banner advertising and discusses companies
that are finding new ways to advertise as well as sites that
are providing alternative methods of sponsorship.
--Linda Wilson
January 4, 1997
Two Great Research Tools
With all of the clutter on the web, the last thing you need is a search tool that gives you thousands of answers to a single question. As good as the current search engines are, we get headaches just thinking about running a query that gives us endless strings of gobbledygook in response. Here are two very useful attempts to deal with the clutter
Profusion allows you to search all of the major web databases simultaneously. It then processes all of the results to give you a single readout of the answers to your query with duplicates removed. If you have a little patience, it will even verufy that the links work before handing you a result. (In some of our recent research, we're seeing 50% broken links in search results). Finally, Profusion allows you to repeat queries over time and tailor them for relevance. It's really very useful.
Companies on the Net is a handy database that includes lots of information searchable by keyword. At the simplest level of the search possibilities, it returns company names and domain names. In more complex searches, it returns the company URL. Very useful.
January 3, 1997
AltaVista Accepts Ads
AltaVista was
created to showcase Digital's
search technology and therefore was the only search engine that
didn't display banner advertising. Despite previous concerns
that advertising would slow down AltaVista's performance or
disenchant users, Digital has recruited Doubleclick to market
their banner space. Doubleclick will sell keywords starting at
$60/CPM. Keywords range form $50 - $60/CPM depending on the
search engine, so AltaVista will be considered one of the more
expensive search engines.
--Linda Wilson
January 2, 1997
NetMailer
If you have ever tried to send one email to many people with out the
help of a service provider, you have probably realized after much
frustration, that there is no way to hide your email list from each
recipient. Many marketers want to send an email update or newsletter to
previous visitors to their site, but you can be sure that you will have
angry recipients if you allow everyone on your list the opportunity to
see and therefore "borrow" your mailing list. NetMailer form Alpha Software is a
reasonably priced tool that overcomes this difficulty. An added feature
allows you to import names from a database into their program. Taking
into consideration the negative side to mass emailing, the site has
included an article
on their site addressing the responsible use of their software which
gives a list of elements every email should include. This software will
also be a good tool for marketers who are distributing their own press
releases.
--Linda Wilson
January 1, 1997
Site Promoter
As soon as you make a declaration someone comes along and proves you
wrong. The numerous sites on the web that provide links and instruction
on how to promote your site, are a clear example of the mediocrity we
discussed in yesterday's column. The Site Promoter however,
is a excellent example of innovation. They have taken a concept already
prolific on the web and have done it right. Instead of a list of
unedited links to promote your site (often a thinly veiled attempt to
overwhelm the user and encourage purchase of promotion services), they
have organized promotion into a step by step process, ensuring you cover
all the bases and driving home that point that the only "trick" to site
promotion is thoroughness.
There are several lessons to learn from this site. First, the simplicity
of this site's design, using limited colors and simple layout created a
site that is easy to navigate, and professional looking. Secondly, the
site does one thing and does it well. They have taken one service, the
information you need to promote your site, and presented it concisely
and in a well-organized format, foreseeing every aspect the user may or
can use. While this site gets high marks for content, its
comprehensiveness makes it extremely convenient. Even marketers who feel
they know all they need to know about site promotion will be able to use
this site as a marketing checklist ensuring nothing is forgotten.
Definitely a "Cool Tool" for marketers.
--Linda Wilson
December 31, 1996
Mediocrity in 1996
Last year on December 30th, we voted the now defunct Internet Marketing
Mailing List as the Cool Tool of 1995. Unfortunately after its demise,
nothing has really emerged to really fill its shoes. Other lists were
created to take it's place (described in an article on the Who's Marketing Online site). We recommend
either the IMARCOM list or the Internet Sales Discussion
List. Regardless, the Internet Marketing List has left a void that
hasn't really been filled.
As for picking The Cool Tool of 1996, after much discussion we felt
there was no clear stand out. Mediocrity was the ascendant in 1996. We
predict that some solid players will emerge in 1997. 1996 was a year of
beginnings. On-line advertising started to take shape and evolve, and
banner exchanges offered alternatives for site that couldn't afford
advertising. There were major changes at the search engines, including
Excite's purchase of Magellan and WebCrawler, and the results of these
changes have not been felt. Other marketing resources were introduced
but most were improved on. We feel that it is premature to declare a
winner in any category. It would be like trying to predict the end of a
story. The strongest contender in 1996 was lack of imagination -- the
year started out with great promise but it has yet to be realized. Being
optimists though we'll say the jury's out and adopt a wait and see
attitude.
--Linda Wilson
December 30, 1996
Three Wishes for 1997
It is difficult to make predictions for an industry where developments
and change happen four times faster than in any other business.
Therefore, we offer a wish list of things we would like to see in 1997.
- Multimedia Email. Currently you can send HTML formatted mail
to users of Netscape Mail, and they will be able to see the images and
formatted text as the author intended. But unfortunately for marketers,
email readers with this capability is limited, and therefore to send out
a newsletter in HTML would annoy most readers. However, if this
technology was adopted by the major email readers, marketers could send
out attractive newsletters and motivational pieces to large lists of
people, and use formatted email to create an image or create an
impression beyond words.
- Pay per use models. Many sites that pay for content want the
user to pay a monthly fee for access to information. When a site is used
regularly, this model makes sense, but there are many sites we have
wanted to utilize for research on an infrequent or one-time basis, but
have been able to do so because the cost for my usage is prohibitive. We
would like to see more sites offer the ability to pay per use.
- The Search Engines to Say What They Mean and do What They
Say. We have researched the search engines in depth, spoke to key
people at each company, and read their help files, but unfortunately the
statements the search engines make about how they rank pages isn't worth
the HTML it's coded with. Case in point: A few months ago a client
called asking us to take a look at their META Tags. Infoseek was
ignoring them and they wanted to know why. After careful investigation,
it was discovered that even though the client had implemented their META
Tags four months previously, Infoseek had not updated their catalog,
other than to add new pages. Therefore, changes made to pages in the
last four months were not reflected in their database, despite Infoseek
reporting that they updated their entire catalog every 4-6 weeks. We
would like to see the search engines communicate more about their
heavily guarded algorithms that rank sites for relevancy and let
marketers in on the big secret. We'll play by the rules just let us know
what they are.
--Linda Wilson
Take a look at the Archives.
We've indexed all the past issues with topic pointers.
Check out the Archives....75
Weeks of Back issues including:
|
Week Ending December 29, 1996 Including:
- Forum One
- New Domain Names
- New weekend Feature
- Navigator 4.0
- Cascasing Style Sheets
|
Week Ending December 22, 1996 Including:
- Staying Abreast
- Project Cool
- Personal Casting
- Look Smart
- Demographics
| Week Ending December 15, 1996 Including:
- New Ad Age Supplement
- Marketing Awards
- Reference.com
- Media Bistro
- Cows at TUCOWS
|
Week Ending December 08, 1996 Including:
- Lycos Changes
- Websites That Suck
- Ultra Whatsit
- Excite
- Web University
|
Week Ending December 01, 1996 Including:
- Internet Commercials
- More About Search Engines
- Convenience Is King
- PR Update
- Evolution of Search Engines
- Pathfinder Turns 2
|
Week Ending November 24, 1996 Including:
- Fundamentals
- Notable Bookmarks
- Web Digest for Marketers
- Effective Banners
- Internet Fever
- GIF Wizard
|
Week Ending November 17, 1996 Including:
- Fundamentals
- Sharrow
- Advertising Tools
- More Fundamentals
- Wilson Internet Services
- Editor and Publisher Interactive
|
Week Ending November 10, 1996 Including:
- Gamelan
- Design Excellence
- Java
- Superscape
- The New 5 Ps
| Week Ending November 3, 1996 Including:
- Office Humor
- High End and Personal
- Net Post
- Types of Links Redux
- Who's Marketing Online
|
Week Ending October 27, 1996 Including:
- WiReD IPO
- Art and The Zen of Websites
- Stalker Page
- Dave Winer
- Killer Websites
|
Week Ending October 20, 1996 Including:
- The SOS
- Do You Need A Website?
- Big Boy Internets
- 809 Phone Scam
- Advertising Resources
|
Week Ending October 13, 1996 Including:
- Little Email Things
- Snorkeling The Web
- Red Herring
- Webmaster, Inc
|
Week Ending October 6, 1996 Including:
- Len Duffy Interview
- Marketing On The Web
- Small Competitors
- The Personal Touch
- Integrating The Web Into Your Marketing
|
Week Ending September 29, 1996 Including:
- How Much Will Your Website Cost?
- The Jimmy Stewart Approach
- Product Development
- Components of Marketing
- Back In The Saddle Again
- Much, Much More
|
Complete Indexed Archives(17 months of marketing and design)
|
Contacting Us
Call, fax, write, email. We'd love to talk about your
project.
All material on this site is © 1995, 1996
by IBN (The Internet
Business Network), Mill Valley, CA 94941
|