RE: word of mouth on the internet

From: Kim Brooks <kbrooks_at_bardo-brooks.com>
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 17:24:37 -0500 (CDT)

TIM SMITH WROTE:
>>Do you ever open an .exe file from a non-trusted source?

TO WHICH MARK J. WELCH REPLIED:
>>I do not think that Tim is being unreasonably paranoid, nor
>>that I am being unreasonable. It's just prudent -- and in
>>99% of situations there is never any need to use anything
>>other than HTML, which truly represents a practical
>>"universal file format."

Hear! Hear!

HTML is universal and harmless. And Email is even more
universal and harmless.

I never open executables -- partly because they are
dangerous, partly because they are generally (let's put it
kindly) useless.

I will open HTML most of the time. but I will open email
almost every time. That's why I vote for email-based
word-of-mouth schemes. Look at what it did for Hotmail.
Especially good examples: sites that offer "email this
story to someone" options. Or my own example: we devised a
"pyramid reward" system for a music site. If a participant
gets 10 friends to register at the site, then the bringer
gets a free CD. It's cheaper than paying $1 a
click-through. It's more focussed than even targetted
advertising since friends will automatically contact those
that have similar taste in music. It's email-based, so it's
immensely universal and completely push. I wrote an article
on organic marketing, a fancier form of word-of-mouth, a
while back at http://www.searchz.com/clickz/102698.shtml,
that covered these ideas and few more.

Kim Brooks

Bardo-Brooks Marketing
kbrooks_at_bardo-brooks.com

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Received on Thu May 20 1999 - 18:24:49 CDT