Wow! Today we celebrate our tenth issue. It is also the issue in which we break the 1,000 subscriber mark! Now things can start to happen... I want to turn up the heat on those promotion tips. Send them in to me, at mailto:jreimer@islandnet.com. I will give you and your site full credit if I use it...

As a way to celebrate these milestones, we have an extra large issue today. It is, in fact, the biggest issue to date!

A big thanks go out to Jim Wilson from the VirtualPROMOTE Gazette. Recently the Informer was mentioned in it, and as a result, we received a few hundred more subscribe requests. In return for this, I'd like to get you all to subscribe to the VirtualPROMOTE Gazette. It really does have a lot of good information in it. You can subscribe by visiting http://www.islandnet.com/~jreimer/informer/. That's all there is to it! If you still don't want to receive this newsletter, then just follow the unsubscribe instructions at the end of this newsletter.

Pro-active Marketing on the Internet
by Tom Vassos

So you're trying to sell something on the Internet? What is it? A book? An airline ticket? A web page creation service? A consulting service? A jar of spaghetti sauce?

Before designing your Internet marketing plan, let's try to explore what you must really sell prior to that first book, newspaper, Internet service or jar of sauce.

Everyone that's selling on the Internet must first be successful at selling (or more accurately, "capturing") two things: "Personal Bandwidth" and "Visual Real Estate(sm)". Let me explain.

Every prospective buyer of our products and services has a finite amount of personal bandwidth available to hear your marketing message. Since they must eat, drink, sleep and work for a living, this will be some amount of time less than 24 hours per day. Let's say that the average user is online for 10 hours per week.

The more of this bandwidth that you can "capture", the higher the probability that you will be able to sell them something (or at least positively influence your brand image in their mind). If you can capture their attention for several minutes or several hours, your chances of selling them something will be much greater than if they simply browsed your Web site for a few seconds.

The next item you must capture to be successful is their "visual real estate". Each user chooses the content (Web pages, discussion group notes, etc.) that will appear on their 15 inches of real estate - the display screen sitting on their desk (or in my case, lap). The more of this real estate that you can capture, the better your chance of selling this person something.

The reason I am viewing this as real estate is to try to get you to break away from the misconception that you must only use techniques to try to capture 100% of their real estate. Yes, it is nice when someone visits your Web site, because for that moment, your content fills 100% of their display screen. In a moment, however, I'll review advances that may allow you to capture 5 or 10% of this real estate, on an ongoing basis throughout the day, week or month.

Real estate can also refer to content you're able to convince the user to print out on their printer, or to receive on their fax machine. The concepts of bandwidth and real estate are closely tied together. The more paper real estate you capture, the more likely you will capture a higher percentage of their bandwidth (regardless of whether they're online or not).

Well now that we've covered this theoretical aspect of marketing on the Internet, let's review several specific strategies for maximizing the bandwidth and real estate that you can capture.

The first step taken by most companies to sell goods on the Internet is the creation of a Web site. In fact, this is often the only strategy the company will take. They wait for visitors to find the site and then hope that they'll find the content so compelling that they'll voluntarily come back to the site on a regular basis. I call this approach an "Inbound Marketing Strategy(sm)".

Advice that is often given to Web site creators is that they must constantly update their content to encourage users to visit frequently. But how does the user know that your content has been updated? What is in place to trigger the user to even think of coming back to your site?

Think about the quicklist/bookmark list you have created on your Web browser. I personally have about 150 sites bookmarked, but I have never once returned to 95% of those sites.

If you base your entire Internet marketing strategy around the creation of your Web site, you will not maximize your share of users' bandwidth and real estate. To do this, you must have a pro-active "Internet Outbound Strategy" in place.

An outbound marketing strategy refers to any technique on the Internet that is pro-active and takes you to the consumer, rather than being inactive, waiting for the consumer to come to you.

Good examples of "Outbound Marketing Strategies" include the use of e-mailed Newsletters/E-zines, "Reminder Notices", "Profiled Information Streams(sm)", Discussion Lists, and getting "WebWired(sm)" (i.e., registering your Web site at hundreds of directories, search engines, cybermalls, etc.).

REMINDER NOTICES

Reminder notices (via e-mail) typically highlight activities about the company, new announcements, highlights of additions to their Web site, specific URLs where detailed information can be found, etc.

For example, C|Net and HotWired both use reminder notices to maintain visibility with their readers. C|Net has over 600,000 people on their mailing list, and HotWired has over 150,000 people on their distribution list. I personally subscribe to both lists, but never visit the Web site unless there is something specific in their reminder notice that is of interest to me. These reminder notices have a major impact on driving traffic to their respective Web sites.

"PROFILED INFORMATION STREAMS"

"Profiled information streams" refers to customized information which is sent to each subscriber, based on their own personal information needs. Each customer creates a "profile" requesting specific types of information. Then, on an ongoing basis, they receive any information which meets the needs of their specific profile.

This approach is most relevant when a company has a wide range of offerings, and customers require timely information on an ongoing basis. At IBM we have implemented this type of profiling capability (iSource) where customers can subscribe to receive announcement letters regarding specific products, services and technologies.

NEWSLETTERS AND E-ZINES (ELECTRONIC MAGAZINES)

Newsletters/E-zines can also have an impact, acting as an extension to the Web site with the objectives of strengthening the brand image, increasing sales, and creating a sense of community with readers.

For example, almost a year ago, I found a Web site that sells lobster called "Lobster Direct" . Since it was an interesting site, I added it to my quickList/bookmark list. However, I have never been back to the site. Who has the time? While at the site however, I subscribed to their free newsletter.

I have now received several issues of their newsletter, and although I have not yet placed an order, I have been positively influenced by the company, and will likely place an order soon.

The newsletter has kept my interest for a number of reasons. They have a "Jokes of the Month" section where they poke fun at themselves (i.e., Canadian Maritimers). They have a draw every month for free lobster (which keeps me from unsubscribing). They try to interact with their customers through lobster-related fun-filled surveys. They provide lobster recipes, and of course they try to sell me some lobster.

DISCUSSION GROUP PARTICIPATION/CREATION

Participation in relevant discussion groups (lists) is also important. For this technique to be successful, the list members must be part of your target market. You must add value to the list through direct participation with the group. Your signature file must be compelling, and relevant to the type of group you are participating in.

This approach will keep your name and your company name in front of your target market on a regular basis. This can be a powerful tool for building your brand image.

Something else that you may also want to consider is the creation of a new USENET or e-mail discussion group. This discussion could be unmoderated or moderated, meaning that you can control the content the list members see. Through your own discussion group, you can support your customers, market to customers and prospects, or simply research the marketplace by staying close to your customers.

One strategy for leveraging this type of exposure is to assign an individual(s) in your company or department to become the Internet Communications Specialist. This person could maintain your presence on certain appropriate lists, create new lists where appropriate, or use USENET search tools to locate and respond to relevant posts across several lists.

GETTING "WEBWIRED"

A common myth about the creation of Web pages is that "if you build it, they will come." I can tell you, they won't.

To build traffic to your site, one of the things you must do is register your site in several places. You must register in the Internet directories and search engines that are used as jump sites by users to find Web pages. You can also register in several online cybermalls and other Web sites for free.

Altogether there are over 200 places where you can register your site to get fully "WebWired". To help you sort through this process, I have identified several resources that will help: http://www.interlog.com/~bxi/diamond9.htm

SUMMARY

One major advantage of outbound strategies via e-mail is that almost 100% of Internet users have e-mail access. However, probably only about 60% of users have access to the Web, which is the backbone to most Internet inbound strategies.

Of course, the key to a viable outbound strategy is that it must be totally based on the customer's desire to receive your information. The rules of marketing "netiquette" must be followed.

It's unfortunate that most companies base their total Internet strategy on inbound approaches without considering the use of outbound approaches. An Internet outbound marketing strategy is an ideal way to pro-actively build relationships with customers, rather than hoping they'll come back to your Web site one day.

Brought to you by: World Wide Information Outlet at http://certificate.net/wwio/, a NEW way of sharing information online - FREEWare Content. TOM VASSOS (B.E.S., M.B.A.)

Tom has been with IBM since 1979 in various marketing and management positions. He is currently the Internet Strategies Manager for IBM Canada.

Tom is the author of the book "Strategic Internet Marketing" which is also being translated into Japanese, Polish and Spanish (Estrategias de Mercadotecnia en Internet).

He has written articles about the Internet that have been distributed to over 55 countries. He has taught marketing and technology courses at the University of Toronto since 1983. He is currently teaching "Strategic Internet Marketing" in the MBA program and in the Strategic Leadership program.

Tom has spoken at Internet conferences and events in several countries and continents around the world, and is a business ambassador for the Ontario Government.

Visit his home page at http://www.interlog.com/~jac

Last week's special section, called "Bookmarkable Bookmarks", seemed to go across really well. I received many emails from people saying they wanted it to be made into a regular feature. So, here it is. Every week I will feature five to ten new sites (usually on a promotion related theme) for you to visit. As always, send me your comments and suggestions.

Sweetin Company
They offer hand search engine submission services for you. Sure, it's not free, but if you don't have the time to do it yourself, I recommend trying them out. There is quite a bit of good free information over there, too... http://www.sweetincompany.com

Rank This!
A really good program for determining the ranking of your site in the top search engines. http://www.rankthis.com

Position Agent
Another ranking program. Not as good, but it works. http://www.positionagent.com/

Scorecheck
Yet another ranking program. Never tried it, just heard it was good. http://www.scorecheck/home.html

1st Steps: Marketing And Design Daily
Great site, great tips and articles, and an occasional newsletter. http://www.interbiznet.com/nomad.html

Clickz.com
Another site with cool daily articles, except that these have articles exclusively to do with advertising/marketing. Very well done. http://www.clickz.com

Let me know if you have any suggestions for future
"Bookmarkable Bookmarks". Again, my email is mailto:jreimer@islandnet.com.

Build It & They Will Come!
by Terry Delosh

How many times have read? Put your business in front of 60 million people, build a home page, buy a home page and they will knock your doors down. Folks, I have to let you know that people selling you this are selling you hype. Not unlike mailorder, internet sites take marketing to get people to the site. This article will deal with the aspect of banner ads as one phase of the marketing process to help bring traffic to your site.

True, the internet is alive and bustling with business. However, just because you put up a web page don't expect that is the total answer to your marketing efforts online. No, my friends there is a lot more not being told to you then what is being sold to you. This method is just one of many ways to promote your site, however an effective one if used correctly to help start building your traffic count.

Personally , Let me say this....you need to understand that putting up pages won't make you an overnight success. If you are in a home business and use mailorder as a way of doing business, then the internet is a great way to supplement your efforts to building your customer base. I publish a sweepstakes newsletter and have done so for 5 years. I put my pages up in April of 1997 to supplement my newsletter for my many subscribers who are online and to introduce myself to new people. Learning immediately that people didn't flock to my site, I started to look at banners as a way to introduce new people to our site.

First off, you can build a page, you can have a page built for you, or you can rent space in a mall doesn't matter how you get there but I do agree that you should be on the web and get your business there. However, you must market your efforts to make them successful.

Just what am I talking about you might ask? First off, true enough there are 60 million people out there but the most important aspect is don't get lost in the crowd. With all those people and all the pages out there, how do you get them to your site? There are many lonely sites out there on the web and perhaps you have one of them. I have built a steady stream of traffic to my pages and share this information with you to help you.

One very successful technique of getting people to your site is the use of banner advertising. Banners can be seen on many webpages. You can buy banner space or you can exchange banners. You can also host banners. How do you get started you may ask?

There are several banner networks on the internet and the ones I mention here are just a few of them. They include Link Exchange, Trade Banners, and Paramount Banner network. You join these exchanges and post the html they give you on your page or pages . In exchange they will post your banner on a rotating basis on other websites. Of course you have to have traffic to build credit to earn showings of your banners on other sites.

But, Terry I don't have a banner you say? This is not usually a problem, once you join the network they have normally have a list of people who will make you a banner. Yes, that is right they will design a banner at no cost for you to submit to the exchanges. Great way to build traffic is have a banner built that is short and to the point. One that creates interest. Just take a look at the many many banners on the internet for ideas. Check out pages that deal in similar products to yours and you will get ideas on how to put your banner together. Here are the addresses of banner exchanges that we work with , you of course can locate others simply by searching them out and a little research.

Link Exchange: http://www.linkexchange.com Trade Banners: http://resource-marketing.com Paramount : http://www.jeopardypro.com/paramount/

To learn about each banner exchange network simply go to the addresses and read the member information and if they interest you join up, you will receive a membership number and account.

What about building your own banner you may ask? Well I have a couple of places you can actually build your own banner. Here you can build them quite easily and then load them into your directory for display. I have used these services to build banners for my products or services! You can get them done instantly, select the colors of your choice and generally rework them till you find them satisfactory. You will also find more information on banner building at these services to help you along.

Banner Generator: http://www.coder.com Creative Connectivity http://www.crecon.com/banners.html

Does your site have enough traffic to warrant hosting banners and getting paid for hosting them? If so, you may want to check out Safe Audit. There are others but this service is one of the most popular out there and has a good system to select a banner or banners to host and get paid by the click through or order. I personally have started using this service and although you won't make a lot of money doing this, you will make a few dollars and you can choose the banners you want to host. It is a good way to generate a few dollars. Keep in mind you need to have enough traffic on your site to make money doing this. Also Safe Banner will host your product on other sites and you pay a commission for each order that is sold through Safe Audit.

Safe Banner Audit: http://www.safe-audit.com/

Internet marketing offers an exciting opportunity to introduce people to your products or services. Banners is only one way of bringing traffic to your site and a great way to get your site advertised on other sites by the use of exchange. I recommend using banners to bring new traffic to your site. My site has steadily grown each month and in September our home page took over 8,000 hits on just the home page.

I hope this banner article has given you some ideas of how to get started and use banners to build traffic to your site. Of course, this in itself is not the magic marketing solution only one of many steps you will need to take to build traffic to your site. I have a series of other methods which I will present over the coming months for you to learn more on marketing your site on the internet.

Brought to you by: World Wide Information Outlet at http://certificate.net/wwio/, a NEW way of sharing information online - FREEWare Content.

Mr. Delosh publishes "Sweeping the USA" monthly sweepstakes newsletter You can also email him at delosh@slic.com or visit his website at: http://members.tripod.com/~TDelosh/index.html

Q. "You don't recommend free email addresses, especially for business use, "as they make you look EXTREMELY unprofessional", so Where can I get e-mail addresses for a professional using, would you please provide me with a list?"

A. It depends on how professional looking you want to get. For most people, the address your Internet Service Provider (ISP) gives you should be "professional enough". For example, mine is "jreimer@islandnet.com". For some really serious about doing business on the 'Net, however, you might like to get your own domain name, so you can get an even more professional address. For example, yourname@yourcompany.com. Consult your ISP about this, too.

Q. "This is more of a comment on last weeks question and answer. There are definite good points to having a free email address, you know! For those who don't have a POP mail account, for example. All you need is internet for email. Also, I have a Hotmail address and I can use it to check my POP Mail at school! This is very useful to me sometimes. I used it quite a bit. Otherwise, I prefer my other address for the professionalism. There is another bad thing about free e-mails that you forgot to mention, too, and that is that there is absolutely no way to track them. With normal e-mails you can figure out the ISP. You also missed two other free email address providers: Bigfoot http://www.bigfoot.com and Juno http://www.juno.com"

A. Very good points, all of them. I don't think there is anything more I need to say on this subject...

Q. "I was wondering if you had any advice for me about promoting my site, I don't want to go through the search engine submittings and banner advertising has proven not to work. I just want to get visitors that are interested in the service that I provide.

As far as reciprocal links, I have tried but since I am only starting out at this no one wants to link me (and the sites that will are not worth it)

Any suggestions or referrals will be appreciated."

Q. Whew! You've ruled out the three most used forms of promotion there. I'll try to give you some more ideas. Have you tried:

+ Promoting your sites in the newsgroups. By this I am not saying you should post a message blatantly posting an ad for your site, or anything like that. I am saying that you should join in on discussions, posting quality messages in response to people's questions. Make sure you always put a "signature file" on all your posts. This should include your name, email address, site URL, and a short description. Try to keep it to under 6 lines.

+ For that matter, you should include your signature file in every piece of outgoing mail you send. I find it to be one of the best promotional methods there is.

+ Give the search engines a chance. You really only need to work on the top eight, it's really not that big a thing. Visit the new section on Promotion World that's all about how to get listed on the search engines, at

+ Follow all the tips I give you every week in this newsletter!

Send me your (preferably promotion related) questions! I might answer them in the next issue... mailto:jreimer@islandnet.com

Note: I know this doesn't have much to do with website promotion and all that, but I thought it was so interesting I just had to put it in here. So, here it is.

***************

The ITBC NEWS provides monthly insight into important changes in Internet Technology, on-line Commerce and the latest Internet developments. Short and Sweet!
********************************************************
===================== ITBC NEWS ========================
THE INTERNET TECHNOLOGY & BUSINESS CENTER NEWS
================ http://www.itbc.com ===================
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

o---> PUSH TECHNOLOGY - SOUND THE ALARM, I SMELL A RAT!

PUSH Defined = The Delivery of information directly to a user/viewers desktop, without them having to go out on the Web and PULL it in.
...........

I've been watching with keen interest, the new battlefield of competing and emerging PUSH technologies between the two big Browser manufacturers.

After some recent startling discoveries, I strongly suspect that PUSH could eventually become as closed as any large TV channel. That is, closed to anyone other than those with very deep pockets.

Allow me to explain ....

I recently received a free CD, offering the latest version of what will remain an unnamed Web Browser, as well as other free webmaster goodies.

Upon closer reading of the cover jacket that came with the CD, I discovered some not so fine print that stated:

"ALL CHANNEL SELECTIONS, FOR THOSE WISHING TO OPERATE A PUSH CHANNEL,WILL BE AT THE SOLE DISCRETION of the BROWSER COMPANY" (who shall also remain unnamed - it rhymes with Mike Rosoff :-).

Now lets examine this a little further.

PUSH ... we're told, is the greatest thing since sliced bread, it's THE future of the Internet, and the future will be controlled by one company! ... Yikes!!! where are the *open* standards here?

Without too much imagination, you can see where this is headed. This ONE unnamed company, turned TV mogul of the future, dominating once FREE access to information, and offering paid air time for those wishing to push information to their captive audience of 80+ million computer users (when TV's and computers merge over the coming years, this number will be dramatically higher).

As the Internet bandwidth increases, it will be just a matter of time until we're seeing everything come down this PUSH tube. Audio, Video, Movies, perhaps enough bandwidth to displace television as the mega advertising medium, in as little as 10 years from now.

So what can we do to prevent any one company from highjacking the future of this converging worldwide communications medium we call the Internet?

Firstly, realize that your FREE software may have a serious hidden price. Free usually means someone is attempting to gain marketshare and once gained and the competition laid to rest, the software will likely no longer be free. Secondly, and this is the most important issue, support only those technologies that create *truly open* standards available to any and all businesses.

If we value the opportunity created by the Internet for small business to compete with the big boys in a global environment, then we need to know that this new found freedom is now at risk. In order to preserve it, we must all become discerning shoppers before jumping on any single PUSH technology bandwagon.

BIG Business has entered the Net and in the tradition of the past telecom giants, there is much salivating over the potential to reap huge rewards by dominating this new PUSH method of information distribution.

---------------------------------------------------
ITBC NEWS is written by Orion Engar MAILTO:webmaster@itbc.com
Director of The Internet Technology & Business Center
Web Development, Interactive Content and Marketing Solutions
Copyright 1996, 1997 http://www.itbc.com
----------------------------------------------------

Are you having trouble getting the right visitors to your web page? Targeting is something you hear from banner exchanges or banner ad companies, but it can mean so much more. Most search engines and directories deal with all sites, but there are some only deal with sites about certain subjects or are published by people from certain places. For example, a few issues back Josh gave the URLs of some directories of sites from Alaska and Canada. Submitting for these regional and subject specific search engines and directories can bring a lot of the right traffic to your web page.

What if there is not a directory like that for your page? If there isn't, decide if your subject is too broad or not. If it isn't to broad, create your own directory of web pages along your subject. Your directory will help in two main ways. First, a lot of targeted reciprocal links. Second, you are bringing people interested in your subject closer together on the web. Search engines and directories get tons of hits just for linking the web together.

Other ways to target your hits. Be very careful when submitting your page to a web directory or search engine. This is why hand submission is better. You should think each submission through carefully to get them right. Make sure your keywords are correct and cover your subject completely. Carefully choose your category and any sub-categories. The same should go with any banner exchange you might use. The keywords here are careful and think. Trading links is a good way to advertise your page. Any time you come across a similar web page you should offer to trade links.

Wanted! Any information leading to a new search engine or directory. So if you know of anything, please let us know via e-mail.

--Eat Mor
spycow@voy.net
http://www.vol.com/~spycow/advertise/
Web Page Advertising

I hope you have found this issue of the Informer helpful and enjoyable. If you really want to unsubscribe from this newsletter, (shame on you!), send email to informer@oaknetpub.com with REMOVE in the BODY of the message.

If you want to get your friends to subscribe, tell them to email informer@oaknetpub.com with SUBSCRIBE in the BODY of the message. Thanks!

Newsletter Credits:

Joshua Reimer, Editor (Big Boss)
jreimer@islandnet.com
http://www.islandnet.com/~jreimer/

Eat Mor, Official Tip Finder
spycow@voy.net
http://www.vol.com/~spycow/advertise/

I am hanging out for your emails! Email is what every webmaster looks forward to. Send me your comments and suggestions! They will be much appreciated.

And now for the manditory legal stuff:

This newsletter is copyright 1997 Joshua Reimer. No part may be reproduced without permission. Joshua Reimer and Promotion World are not responsible in any way for any loss or damage that may befall you if you use the tips and tricks contained in this newsletter. Hopefully none will, but we just have to cover all our bases!

This newsletter is "Made In Canada"!