RE: Salon.com and taller ads

From: Brandi Jasmine <brandi_at_brandijasmine.com>
Date: Thu 19 Apr 2001 09:18:35 -0600

MICHAEL MARTINEZ <Michael_at_xenite.org> WROTE:

>So you're not going to make a fortune selling access to
>syndicated content. I can run all the same headlines on

But you can make a *living* at it. I do. Well, almost <g>.

>my site for free thanks to Moreover, and if they start
>charging someone else will come along and give me free
>access to the news feeds.

True, but then you don't have enough traffic to leverage
for significant ad sales, or to make an aggregator pay
off. If you did, you'd want those clicks/views, and
you'd be willing to pay for sticky content. Self-
syndicators like myself though, we recognize that
stickiness is not always important to our clients, so
the smart ones offer "free" versions, like Moreover,
where we keep the ads for ourselves. My horoscope
content is available free, for-pay and on a rev-split
model so that I can please just about anyone. The key
is flexibility.

>You can't just bury your head in the prospectus and say,
>"Oh, yeah! If we all agree to charge for content, the
>people will pay."

You are right there - that idea is moronic, and there
are examples left, right and centre of companies going
out of business or flip-flopping when they have
lost their audience (Yahoo Auctions for one).

Then there is the flip side - companies that don't
charge readers, but try to apply the nutcrackers to their
content providers. Themestream, a major "self-syndication"
site went out of business after only a month of "crack-down"
policies designed to squeeze revenue out of their content
providers. People defected left right and centre.
Themestream failed to see that by setting caps and
unreasonable pay policies that they would not only lose
contributors - but as most of the readership were also
contributors ... well, they managed to strangle themselves
with both hands.

>Give it up. It's time to be innovative. If the business

There is always much more imitation than innovation. The
entire e-business sector is suffering a serious shortage
of testicular fortitude right now. The more innovative
you are the less likely you are to attract funding or
advertising dollars.

>community is really going to profit from the Internet on
>a widespread scale, it has to get rid of the pipe dreams
>and find some real methods of generating revenues.

Or maybe we need to recognize that just like the print,
television and radio equivalents you can't necessarily
measure ROI in terms of direct sales to the web site alone.
A lot of the clicks and mortar companies fail to see that
their online work may pay off in higher sales at their
STORES - not necessarily on their web sites. When I went
looking for a new printer I researched it online but I
bought it at a local store. The company whose ads I
clicked on to find my new printer will see those clicks
as "failed" in today's mind-set and that's wrong-headed.

Kind regards,

Brandi Jasmine
Writer, Digital Photographer, Illustrator
        www.brandijasmine.com
www.astrology.ca - www.twostar.com
      brandi_at_brandijasmine.com



Received on Thu Apr 19 2001 - 10:18:35 CDT