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


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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


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February 15, 1997

Weekend Reading

Here is this weekend's "must-reads".

  • Tools & Techniques for Creating and Publishing Video on Your Web Site from Web Review
    If you have wondered what is involved in adding video to your web site this is a good place to start. This comprehensive article provides a list of necessary equipment and then outlines the steps involved.
  • Grand Design from PC Magazine Online
    The current issue of PC Magazine Online provides a wealth of useful information. They review web-page editors, graphics utilities, digital cameras, and flatbed scanners in their cover story. This issue also includes the winners of their personal web site design contest. While these winners did not create business sites, it is still beneficial to look at the winning pages for design ideas and inspiration.
  • Focus Your Site on the Customer from NetMarketing
    This article takes us back to the basics by reminding us of the focus of our site. It is easy to become too close to our sites, and loose sight of the customer's experience. This article asserts that marketers who mistake the real target are asking for failure.
  • --Linda Wilson

February 14, 1997

Denounce

Attention is the basic currency of the Web. If no one pays attention to your work, it goes nowhere. This is Marketing 101. Denounce is a solid play by Birdrock Media to build brand recognition through the delivery of humor.

Rather than an investment in advertising and "click rates", Birdrock Media draws traffic to its site by delivering hilarious parodies of standard Press Releases. Their cleverness is augmented by the fact that the parodies target and celebrate their clients and customers. Given the huge volume of noise and yammering on the web, self-parody is a solid approach to traffic development.

--John Sumser

February 12, 1997

More Search Engine Announcements

On Friday we wrote about the increasing competition among search engines. We referred to the announcements from Lycos and Excite that were made last week. Lycos introduced Stock Find, and Excite announced NewsTracker. This week announcements were made byYahoo, AltaVista, and Lycos (again).

Yahoo made two announcements, the first being the introduction of Yahoo! Classifieds, a free classified advertising service. Yahoo's second announcement is an endorsement of BackWeb, one of the current push technologies currently vying for market dominance (for more information on push technology see our Dec. 16 column). In addition to delivering Yahoo specific content, Yahoo will offer a channel guide, a kind of TV Guide of BackWeb channels.

AltaVista has introduced LiveTopics which allows users to further refine their search. After you perform a search, AltaVista will present you with a list of topics which are dynamically generated from words that occur frequently in the documents that match your initial search criteria. You are then asked to select additional words that should be included or excluded from your search. The process takes longer and it is best used for general searches rather than something highly targeted. It is easy to over refine your search and end up with no documents matching your query.

Lycos' announcement this week introduced Lycos France, an addition to their European offerings which includes Germany and Sweden. Since ad revenues are doing well on each of these engines the companies are looking for more product to sell -- namely the number of people who will see an advertiser's banner. --Linda Wilson

February 11, 1997

The Mining Co: A New Web Navigation Debuts

Yesterday marked the launch of a new approach to web navigation. The Mining Company has been described as a cross between an online service and a directory. This new Internet venture is seeking to recruit up to 4,000 specialists they refer to as Web Guides who will each operate a different topic specific site. The Mining Company has already signed up 160 Web Guides, whose specialties range from professional basketball to the more web-marketing oriented Ads Online." By April, when the site officially moves out of beta, The Mining Company plans to have 500 sites available.

The Web Guides are paid a nominal amount but can share in a portion of the ad revenues their site obtains. Given current dissatisfaction by consumers of traditional navigation methods, this site could be very successful. The site is likely to be initially marketed as a navigation tool. However, the regular scheduled updating of site content combined with magazine-like site content should ensure repeat visits by users. Advertisers will likely appreciate the unique targeting ability of this model as well. --Linda Wilson

February 10, 1997

Searching for Images

One of the ways search engines fall short is in the indexing of images. Looking for graphics and clipart on the web has traditionally been something the search engines did not address. However, recently HotBot and Lycos have added this functionality. You can also search FileZ for FTP sites or search AltaVista for sites that make reference to clipart. WebPlaces has combined these methods on one page for ease of use. Different search boxes are provided for each search engine with tips for each to ensure the best results. WebPlaces also provides a Clipart Review which allows browsing of clipart archives by category. --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 February 16, 1997 Including:
  • Finding Images
  • The Mining Co
  • Search Engine Stuff
  • Denounce
  • Weekend Reading
Week Ending February 09, 1997 Including:
  • Webmaster Secrets
  • New Search Engine Services
  • Learning From Others' Mistakes II
  • Learning From Others' Mistakes
  • Weekend Reading
Week Ending February 02, 1997 Including:
  • Purpose First
  • Ad Auction
  • 123 Domain Me
  • Publicity
  • Weekend Reading
Week Ending January 26, 1997 Including:
  • Drowning In Links
  • Ad Tutorial
  • Internet News
  • Cookies
  • Weekend Reading
Week Ending January 19, 1997 Including:
  • Finding Online Marketing Info
  • Microscope
  • Promotion Tools
  • Bad Form Email
  • Weekend Reading
Week Ending January 12, 1997 Including:
  • Ad Placement
  • Oooops
  • Odd Bedfellows
  • Advertising Advice
  • Weekend Reading
Complete Indexed Archives(19 months of marketing and design) Complete Indexed Archives(19 months of marketing and design)

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All material on this site is © 1995, 1996 by IBN (The Internet Business Network), Mill Valley, CA 94941