ONLINE-ADS>> The Value of Awards

BULMASH.COM Sales (sales_at_bulmash.com)
Sat, 23 Aug 1997 00:30:04 -0800

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Archive Home Page
• Search
• Next message: Ray Taylor: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> One to One"
• Previous message: Gary Bolles: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Direct response pricing"
• Next in thread: Tara Calishain: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> The Value of Awards"

I'd like to bring up a topic which has become of interest to me
lately... Awards as a way of marketing your site.

Now, in the beginning (early '96), I was happy to get any award for my
little site. I wore the badges with pride and hoped against hope to get
Cool Site of the Day one day. Lately, it really seems to me that
awards that _seem_ like they'd be great are essentially meaningless in
terms of generating traffic.

It may be an oversaturation of Site of the Day genre, or it may be
that the boom in online advertising and link exchanges is consuming
more consumer time so less people spend time surfing based on
recommendations and more time based on ad clicks.

To-wit, my site was picked as the site to see for August 13th by the
WGN morning news. Off the link at their site, I have received to date
(according to my referrer logs) all of 9 visitors. Now, I can boast a
five-star rating from them (they actually use a different symbol, but
I got five out of five) and it's a nice medal for my chest, but in
terms of actual visitors, it seems to have had little impact.

I talked to one big site and they even named some _major_ awards they
had won that didn't impact their traffic significantly. The only one
they said made a real difference was Netscape's "What's Cool" page.

Now, when I actually have time to actively promote my site, I spend it
on trying to contact the print media because it seems that their
recommendations are a heck of a lot more meaningful and effective on
average.

I'm interested in points of view on this. Is it just me, or does
this jibe with your experience?

-Greg Bulmash
The WASHED-UPdate; As seen in People, Newsweek, Us and Wired!
Online Media Kit: <http://www.bulmash.com/washed/sponsor.html>
YOUR WEEKLY ANSWER TO "WHERE ARE THEY NOW?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This week's Online Advertising Discussion List sponsor:

Win a Free Ad in Larry Chase's Web Digest For Marketers!
All details will be in the Sept 1st issue.
Subscribe now at http://wdfm.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Online Advertising Discussion List To Unsubscribe send UNSUBSCRIBE
http://www.o-a.com/ to online-ads-request_at_o-a.com

• Archive Home Page
• Search
• Next message: Ray Taylor: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> One to One"
• Previous message: Gary Bolles: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Direct response pricing"
• Next in thread: Tara Calishain: "Re: ONLINE-ADS>> The Value of Awards"

With an archive of more than 14,000 postings, since 1996 the Online Advertising Discussion List has been the Internet's leading forum focused on professional discussion of online advertising and online media buying and selling strategies, results, studies, tools, and media coverage. If you wish to join the discussion list, please use this link to sign up on the home page of the Online Advertising Discussion List.