Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Internet Search Behavior

cnorman_at_best.com
Tue, 31 Mar 1998 17:49:17 -0800 (PST)

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"Matt Carkci" <matt_at_netprofit-mag.com> wrote:

> I'm I off-my-rocker with this idea of a marketing co-op for small
> Internet retailers?

I don't think you are. In fact, I'm trying to put together something very
similar, though without much success. I run a long-standing,
well-respected health mailing list and a homepage with a lot of content.
Although I don't get lots of visitors (maybe 10k page views a month), those
that come are very specialized. On the mailing list people are constantly
looking for products to buy and most have trouble leaving their homes so
they're looking for mail order. A lot of my readers and site visitors are
small sellers of various things and need a place to advertise.

I don't allow advertising on the mailing list itself so I created the
Immune Marketplace, a set of banner and line ads for a small setup fee and
a monthly charge. Despite very low rates (too low I'm told) and tons of
letters asking for help "promoting" products, I have only a handful of
advertisers. Most people who write me want to be promoted for free; when I
offer to sell them an ad they either never write back or argue with me that
I'm hurting my subscribers by not telling them about this wonderful product
of theirs. I do web design as well and am selling cheap space on my
account for people who don't already have web pages or for those who can't
afford an account of their own.

I'm also not getting the page views on the marketplace that I was hoping
for. Yahoo hasn't added the page and not too many people have been
clicking from elsewhere in my site. The good news is a very high
clickthrough rate from people who actually see the ads. The people who
take the trouble are the most motivated to buy or at least to seek out
product information.

Frankly, I'm not doing very well with this. I have a good number of web
design customers but my advertising business is limping along. I simply
don't have the experience or know-how in business to make this work and I
can't afford to hire someone (well, not at the usual rates). I need to
find out how to advertise my service inexpensively to both shoppers and
advertisers. I'll probably start with Mark Welch's seminar this month, if
my health permits it. I plan to get a domain name soon which may help
some.

Comments are welcome.

Immune Marketplace: http://www.best.com/~cnorman/marketplace/
Immune Home Page: http://www.best.com/~immune

Cyndi

--
_______________________________________________________________________________
"There's nothing wrong with me.  Maybe there's                     Cyndi Norman
something wrong with the universe." (ST:TNG)                   cnorman_at_best.com
__________________________________________________ http://www.best.com/~cnorman


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