NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> VARIATION ON NEW FORM OF ADVERTISING IDEA
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> VARIATION ON NEW FORM OF ADVERTISING IDEA
Roger_Onslow_at_compsys.com.au
29 Oct 96 17:56:40 EAT
I've been lurking and watching this group for a time -- as I am a learner
rather than a teacher regarding www and advertising/marketing, I have not
posted anything until now.
At 12:35 PM 10/24/96, juan_at_camacho.com (Juan Camacho) wrote:
> if you want to really get fancy, the sender could
> instead send the message WITHOUT a sig. file to the advertising network's
> mail server. At which point the server on the ad network side would then
> attach a sig. file and proceed to forward the message WITH an advertising
> message sig. to the appropriate forum. In this way, the process is
> automated, ads can be rotated and advertiser messages can be targeted for
> the intended forums.
This sounds pretty much what GeoCities does with its free eMail account that it
offers to users who set up their (free) web site on GeoCities. GeoCities
generates a multipart message, the header of which is a GeoCities add, and the
remainder your original message.
This seems like a good idea -- set up a mail server offering free accounts and
everyone who uses it sends out advertising material for your site (or any other
advertising material you choose). Of course, one would ensure that part of the
conditions for accepting this free mail service was that you agree to have the
advertising attached. Your mail logs could then be used to measure "hits".
Something similar might be possible with a free web site, only it would be more
difficult to automate I imagine (ie. user maintains his/her html, but when
users visit you (somehow) automatically add a banner ad to the site) Perhaps
one could do something with frames? Or could one just count on the integrity
of your subscribers to include the appropriate code in their html (again a
condition of having a free web page on your server).
NOTE: The only technical problem with the way they do it is that Microsoft
Internet Mail does not understand the format that GeoCities uses and one has to
take a non-obvious step to read the actual message (otherwise only the banner
ad is present). Apparently GeoCities use a netscape product to generate the
message so I don't know whether it is a NetScape or Microsoft bug.
Roger Onslow <Roger_Onslow_at_compsys.com.au>
Software Development Manager
Computer Systems Australia - Quisine Division
Makers of "Quisine Insite" and "QKMS" Kitchen and Cabinet Design and
Manufacturing systems
"Quisine - Designing for the Future"
eMail: Quisine_at_compsys.com.au , web page: http://www.compsys.com.au
