From: cyber...@mindspring.com (Richard Diegel)
Subject: ADVERTISE ON CYBER MALL - THE REAL THING
Date: 1995/06/21
Message-ID: <cyberdsn.233.00476ABA@mindspring.com>
X-Deja-AN: 104926295
organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc.
newsgroups: biz.marketplace.international


If you are wondering whether advertising on the WWW is 
a good idea or not, please read this -

If it gets to long, skip to the end.

By Lawrence Aragon 

Copyright 1995 Ziff Davis Publishing Company L.P. All 
Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced 
in any form without permission. 

Where's the beef? Tastes great, less filling. Please 
don't squeeze the Charmin. You remember them -- some 
of the most memorable slogans of America's always-so-pop 
culture. Now Get ready for one more: Catch the Web. 

The World-Wide Web, that is. And this is one catchphrase 
you'd better start singing over and over in your head. 
The Web is emerging as the next major venue, not just 
for advertising but for virtually every way to reach 
customers. "Advertising, marketing, and distribution 
will morph over time," says Gene DeRose, president of 
New York new- media research firm Jupiter Communications. 
Adds Scott Donaton, executive editor of interactive and 
new media for Advertising Age: "Eventually, it will create 
a direct dialogue between buyer and seller that really 
hasn't been there before."

Information technology companies such as AT&T, CompuServe, 
Gateway, IBM, Oracle, and Sun are rushing to test the
boundaries of this new medium. And they are beginning to 
redefine marketing and advertising as we know them. Consider this:
Rather than using the content of a magazine as a gateway to 
an ad, IBM plans to use print ads to tease customers to its Web
site and volumes of company-generated information. The Web is 
transforming advertisers into content providers in their own
right. 

Nobody is predicting that the Web will lure as many marketing 
dollars as newspapers ($32 billion), television ($31 billion), or
direct mail ($27 billion) just yet. But even if a mere 1 percent 
of the $138 billion in total U.S. ad spending flows onto the Web,
that's still plenty of green to begin the great commercialization 
of the Internet. And just look at the lure: Some 6 million users,
with higher incomes and education levels than most Americans, surf 
about 21,000 Web servers today. "By the year 2000, there will probably 
be 50 million users and maybe 250,000 servers," predicts Marc Benioff, 
vice president of client/server systems for Oracle Systems. "It's the 
largest and fastest-growing opportunity in the world today."

The race to capitalize on that opportunity is in full swing. 
Along with the hardware and software producers now taking
advantage of high foot traffic on their own Web sites, content 
publishers, including Wired magazine, Time, CMP, newspapers
such as the San Jose Mercury News, and Ziff-Davis Publishing 
(which produces PC Week) are selling space on their home
pages. Just as fast as these venues come on-line, companies 
are jumping onto them. HotWired, the on-line sister of Wired
magazine, has landed 15 "spons ors," including AT&T, IBM, and 
Stolichnaya Vodka. Meanwhile, Gateway 2000, Insight, NetScape, 
and Oracle have glommed onto Ziff-Davis' web site, ZDNet, which 
began accepting ads this month. 

In the near term, technology companies have the most to gain, 
says Mark Kvamme, president of CKS Group, a Cupertino,
Calif., advertising and new-media agency. The reason is 
obvious. Net surfers must be technologically savvy as a 
prerequisite. In the long term, however, the user base will 
broaden. That means companies that ignore the Web could 
disenfranchise themselves from the mass market, as children 
of the PC generation start spending as much time surfing the 
Web as they do vegging out in front of the TV.

A number models are emerging for using the Net to reach, sell, 
and distribute. The first, and most obvious, is derivative of
traditional advertising. Web site owners are selling spots, or 
"sponsorships," for electronic display ads. The cost? At the low
end, the San Jose Mercury News' charges $100 per day for a minimum 
of one month on its home page. On the high end is HotWired, which 
charges $30,000 for a two-month run. In all cases, sponsors get a 
button that floats around, with hyperlinks to their own home page.

A Big Hit But don't think sponsorship is relegated to traditional 
content providers. You can also buy space on directories or
query services. Stanford grad students Jerry Yang and David 
Filo plan to offer space as a way to commercialize "Yahoo,"
which attracts some 2 million hits a day with its compendium 
of hot Web sites. In addition, Yang and Filo, who just got venture
capital funding in April, could conceivably sell space to companies 
that want to be the first "hit" that comes up on a directory search, 
Yang says.

What's more, hardware and software vendors aren't letting publishers 
scoop up all the ad revenue. IT vendors "are clearly going to 
copy the publishing model," says Rosalind Resnick, president 
of on-line consulting firm Interactive Communications.
NetScape, a Web browser developer with a site that attracts 
5 million hits a day, is landing the likes of AT&T, MasterCard,
and Sun Microsystems, all willing to shell out $40,000 for a 
three-month spot. The month-old effort is already breaking even,
says Hugh Hemp el, director of electronic marketing for NetScape. 
But the company isn't really in it for the revenue. Hempel
claims its home page is really a showcase. "It would be pretty 
stupid for us to take our stuff to other people and say, 'You can
do business on the Web,' and we're not doing it ourselves."

Anything Goes Sponsorships aren't the only way to go. 
Oracle plans to open the Oracle Store on its home page 
within six months, and will likely allow third-party 
vendors to display their wares -- for a price, says 
Oracle's Benioff. One possibility is for the company 
to charge a royalty on third-party software objects 
sold through the store. IBM is also considering creating
some sort of cybermall where it and other companies can 
show their wares and advertise, says Carolyn Chin, general manager
of IBM's ele ctronic commerce service.

Big Blue is also using the Web to get more bang from 
its ad buck. This month it will post content-rich versions 
of its "Solutions for a Small Planet" print ads on its 
home page. IBM will soon tease the site in magazine 
advertisements. "The idea is to extend the reach we're 
getting through the print medium by providing more depth 
and content," says Lauren Flaherty, director of IBM
brand advertising. Think of it: A user notes a URL in 
an ad, jumps onto the Web site, and pulls down gobs of 
information abouI BM products.

Other new forms of reaching out to customers are popping 
up, too. One comes from Spry, recently purchased by H&R Block,
owner of CompuServe. It's relying on the cachet of more 
than 30 big name Web site operators, such as USA Today, ESPN,
and General Electric. Spry splashes their logos onto the 
installation screen for its Mosaic in a Box browser and 
sets its home pages as the browser's default. It's a 
win-win deal. The companies give away the product as a 
promotion, and Spry entices customers to CompuServe' s 
new Internet service. David Pool, executive vice president 
of Spry's CompuServe Internet Division, is gushing over 
the results. Spry gets at least triple the response it 
receives from direct mail, he says. 

What's next? Anything goes. With the proliferation of 
low-cost ISDN and other high-bandwidth technologies, you'll 
certainly see popular television ad concepts migrate to the 
Web, such as infomercials. Also expect the advent of glitzy 
virtual-reality-type spots. 

Of course, the question remains: Does advertising on the 
Web work? Benioff is ecstatic about the early results from Oracle's
posting on ZDNet. More than 20,000 people have downloaded the 
company's Workgroup 2000 software for a 90-day free
trial, he says. "We're betting the Workgroup 2000 strategy 
on the success of the Internet," he says. Even when the users aren't
buying, Oracle gets valuable exposure. "If you have 100,000 people 
looking at your home page, that's 100,000 impressions a
day," he says. "What' s that worth to us? It's not even 
quantifiable."

Others, such as 3Com, are just as happy with early results. 
3Com is advertising on CMP's TechWeb and GolfWeb. It wants
to increase its exposure, deliver more information to current 
and potential customers, and generate sales leads, says Bridget
McNiel, 3Com's director of marketing programs. McNiel says 
she believes Web ads will be an important part of her
company's future. Right now, they account for less than 
5 percent of 3Com's ad budget, but she says she could envision that
growing to 20 percent.

Content providers also point to promising results. ZDNet 
has found users are spending between 3 to 7 minutes on some on-line
ads, says Celia Canfield, executive director of ZD Interactive. 
Although many users may be lingering just out of curiosity,
Canfield contends Web users are an "information-hungry group." 

That means to keep them coming back, advertisers must post 
compelling content. "Any marketer that goes up there has to put
up information that is valuable in its own right," asserts 
Ad Age's Donaton. "They almost have to be content providers." And
they must also be subtle. "The conventional wisdom in 
advertising is that intrusive is good -- make it annoying, like Mr.
Whipple," says Robert Broadwater, managing director of digital 
media for investment banker Veronis Suhler & Associates.
"But if you make it annoying, I won't stay around to hear 
the second word. I'm gone."

Maybe the best sign that Web advertising works is that HotWired 
raised its rates in January -- from $30,000 for three months
to $30,000 for two. And the hike isn't turning prospects off. 
It expects five more sponsors, for 20, by year's end, says Rick
Boyce, HotWired's ad director. 

If HotWired is raising its rates, others are sure to follow. 
And they'll likely get away with it. After all, they're the only ones
offering a solution for how to make money from something that's 
been given away for years. Nearly everybody is betting on the
commercialization of the Net. For that to happen, they're going 
to need a keystone such as advertising -- just like print, radio,
and television. Advertising on the Web. It's the real thing. 

--------------------------------------------------------------

If you are ready to start advertising via the WWW check this out -

THE FOLLOWING IS AN INFORMATION PACKAGE 
FROM CYBER DESIGN. IT INCLUDES WWW PAGE 
DESIGN AND MAINTENANCE ON YOUR SERVER,
OR HOW YOU CAN BECOME A PART OF CYBER MALL.
					
1) CYBER DESIGN

Welcome,

Our goal at Cyber Design is to provide people 
and companies with a way to become an active 
part of the Internet.  The Internet is having 
an enormous impact on our lives.  

Our focus at Cyber Design is to provide people 
and companies with an economical way  to join 
the world on the Internet.  In 1995 millions of 
people and companies will join the Internet.  
Our goals are to provide easy design, developement 
and advertising access for those who want to advertise 
and have a presense on the Internet via the WWW.  


Sincerely,

Richard S. Diegel
President Cyber Design


CYBER DESIGN'S
PRICE LIST


Cyber Design can provide you with a total package 
allowing your company to conduct business on the 
Internet.  Our services range from design and 
developement to Internet connections and maintenance.

PAGE RATES

$35.OO per page (text)
$15.00 per graphic (already saved to format)

HOURLY RATES

Graphic design - $75.00/hr.
HTML maintenance - $75.00/hr. 

SPACE RENTAL

$25.00/mo. up to 1/2meg.
$35.00/mo. 1/2meg. -3megs. 
$65.00/mo 3-10megs.
Over 10 megs by quote

Note* All package deals include hyperlinks if necessary.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSLATIONS

We have the capability to translate your Web Page into foriegn languages. This 
is priced as a per job basis depending on the type of ad you are translating.


2) CYBER MALL

CYBER MALL - AD RATES

Our rates are -MUCH LOWER THAN PRINT ADVERTISING RATES! 
And ten times more effective!

Be smart, be among the first to join the information revolution. 
Advertise on the Cyber Mall. As of March 1, 1995, our rates
are as follows: 
               
                                
Full Page             $75/mo   Size of a legal sheet of paper                  

Half Page             $40/mo   Size of a standard sheet of paper                     

Set up                $35/one time

We also create, consult with you and help you design your Home Pages. 
All you need to do is send us some adcopy by EMAIL and we'll take it 
from there!



INFORMATION FROM CYBER MALL CONCERNING WWW PAGE AD

Steps -

1) Email your Adcopy using the format below. 
   (includes (1) header graphic or logo if
   desired)

2) After it is reviewed you will be billed via
   Email.

3) Once we recieve your payment we will upload
   your ad.

Your information would be uploaded to my space on the 
server I use at Mindspring.

Just send me the information you want to put on your 
page and I will add the proper HTML and upload it.

For contact info. I will set up an Email link, plus 
your phone number and address. 

My WWW page URL is -

Cyber Mall-

http://www.mindspring.com/~cyberdsn/cybermall/CMALL.HTML


Here is a good format to use for your Adcopy -

Company name:_________________________________


Description of company:
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

Description of company services, products and prices:
 ______________________________________________
 ______________________________________________
 ______________________________________________

Contact information:
 ______________________________________________
 ______________________________________________
 ______________________________________________


I will advertise on a regular basis to the appropriate 
newsgroups, and link to the appropriate WWW directories.

However, feel free to advertise your individual page
in whatever fashion you like, because I will be advertising
on a collective basis. (I have all kinds of useful info to
use for this).

We reserve the right to use our moral discretion about
the products, and or services being offered. And the right 
to refuse service to anyone.
 
I look forward to hearing back from you!


Richard Diegel 
Email cyber...@mindspring.com
Phone (404)242-2042