NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Peter Bull's hypothetical
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Peter Bull's hypothetical
Alan M. Evans (al_at_matrix-media.com)
Thu, 04 Dec 1997 07:46:03 -0500
As a lurker from the corner the recent debate on content vs. creation has
aroused my interest enough to make my first post. Recently <Alan Ferguson
alan_at_5line.com> made some pertinent comments in response to a posting from
<markwelch_at_ca-probate.com>
>The issues with banners is much greater than that, it's the whole idea that
>banner advertising is the only way to go, it's not. IMHO they're still
>annoying and intrusive and a dying vehicle for effective online advertising
>for the majority of businesses, especially those that want to reach their
>prime market, local folk.
>Peter's insight into local internet marketing is right on, if you want to
>reach a local market it helps to have content that is targeted to that
>market exclusively. This of course limits the traffic and basically shuts
>out most sites like ours from participating in the ad networks. Peter's
>hypothetical is certainly going to make more sense as time goes on and the
>efforts to support content with banner ads is finally acknowledged as a
>losing proposition. While Peter's idea may work, it probably would have
>some problems, just ask the folks at _at_bigger.net, they tried a similar
>scheme with free lifetime access with an extra browser window for banner
>ads (local?), are they still there?
The banner issue I think has been done to death but the interesting
comments here are the ones about the majority of businesses want to reach
their local markets. This is true of course based on the fact that most
businesses are relatively small and are regional and community based.
While recognizing this fact, it is difficult to build a profitable revenue
generating online business armed with this information alone. The way I
have addressed this is to develop a site that responds to the needs of
national regional and community based interests.
By focusing on a particular demographic or portion of the population we (my
partners and I) have developed a vehicle which can respond to all of these
issues. Our site Senior World Online is the repurposement of a traditional
publication, Senior World Newsmagazine, published in Southern California,
formerly by Kendell Communications, now by Age Wave Communications, Corp.
targeting active seniors ages 50 and up. The site content is National in
scope but broken down into regions where content germane to each of the
areas is published. As the site grows, visitors to the site will be able
to drill down to the local level, and through a number of advertising and
promotional methods see local business represented in the advertising mix.
At the highest levels of the site the much larger national businesses will
dominate. This will allow establishments like local restaurants, as well
as regional chains to finally have a compelling reason to get online. Also
the opportunity is there for the larger product manufacturers or retailers
to promote themselves through this venue as well.
The site http://www.seniorworld.com provides free event listings in a
multitude of categories but also offers paid classified advertising,
content specific button advertising, sponsorable sections, business and
service directories (very valuable for promoting local businesses) and
special sections for featured industries or markets like Health
Care/Maintenance organizations which will allow side-side comparisons of
services and pricing.
This type of site will be effective because it provides service, it is
targeted, it's dedicated to its constituency and is community based. The
ISP is not the proper vehicle to support this level of activity. It is not
within their expertise nor likely to be of great interest to them.
Regards,
____________________________________
Alan M. Evans, President
Matrix Intermedia Corp.
Intelliscape Web Design & Consulting
ph/fax: 518-458-8789
marketing_at_matrix-media.com
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