Alloy.com, eBrandedBooks, Powerize, ScreamingMedia, Meckler

CONTENTBIZ.COM
BiWeekly News & Tips for
Marketing Content Online

1. News: Alloy.com, eBrandedBooks, Powerize, ScreamingMedia, Meckler

2. Marketing Tactics: Giving Away Free Chapter Samples

3. Syndication: CW Henderson's NewsRX.com

4. Email Marketing: Phillips' Best Subject Line

5. Resources: MMP's Online Publishing News

6. Staffing/Career: Tips on Hiring Internet Marketers

7. Letterbox: Andy Pickup, Publisher, Wall Street Transcript

** Note: Please pass this issue on to friends, but do so in its entirety so people know where the stories came from and how they can subscribe too. Thanks!

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NEWS
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* And If You're a Good Little Web Site Maybe You Can Go Offline Someday

The "clicks and mortar" trend of online companies sprouting offline subsidiaries is showing up in the content world now too. Web site Alloy Online (http://www.alloy.com) which includes online auctions, content, shopping and community for teens just struck a deal with Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers to publish a series of 12 Alloy-branded hard copy books. Content will include submissions made by actual teens to the Web site. In the meantime, eBranded Books (http://www.ebrandedbooks.com) an e-books publisher has announced, "if a book sells well online [it will] help publish the book in paper."

* We May Hate Their Newsletter, But Boy Are They Good at Alliances

Powerize.com, who ContentBiz.com ripped in our last issue (Feb 15, 2000) for doing an email newsletter so bad their visitors must hate them for it, proved this week they have what it takes to succeed where it really counts on the Internet -- incredibly aggressive alliance-making abilities. Powerize (http://www.powerize.com) a business content and news aggregator which already had an alliance with famed b2b homeland VerticalNet.com, has added spanking new alliances to be a content provider for CNBC.com, FoxMarketWire.com, Netscape Netcenter, Upside Today, MyCity.com, eMind.com and IBM Intellectual Property Network. This deal affects thousands of trade publishers from ABA Banking Journal to Zachs Industry Reports, many of whom might not know their distribution deals with Powerize are getting their content so widely distributed.

* ScreamingMedia.com, Party On Dude

Yowser! ScreamingMedia, an online content aggregator and distributor, has upped the recruiting ante for sales reps these days by offering them free cocktails and hors d'oeuves along with their job interviews at their ScreamingMedia "Sales Rush" party last week. How are we going to keep them on the farm now that they've seen Paree?

* Alan Meckler Just Sick and Tired of the Offline World

Poor, poor Alan Meckler. After getting mega-rich from founding Meckler Media, home of Internet World Trade Shows and print magazine, he's just had it with the offline content biz world. In several recent interviews he's said, "I don't miss being in the trade show industry" and vehemently asserts that his Internet.com site will never have offline ancillaries; and, will never use offline direct marketing for traffic generation as enough new traffic is generated virally through pass-long copies of the site's 70+ emailed newsletters. Kinda makes the offline world feel like a member of the First Wives Club, huh?

* Congratulate us! ContentBiz.com Celebrates 300 Subscriber Mark

Today ContentBiz.com is 30 days old and 300 subscribers strong. Thank you all so much for subscribing -- and please tell all your friends to join too!

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MARKETING TACTICS
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Giving Away Free Chapter Samples to Entice Surfers to Pop for the Whole Book: John Grisham, 1to1 Marketing, Robbin Zeff

Very few offline publishers have made a success of direct marketing content by giving away single free samples -- Lawrence Ragan Communications and Communications Briefings most notably among them. In fact most direct marketing test campaigns prove the old line is true: "Sell the sizzle, not the steak."

But these days many online marketers, such as those behind the official John Grisham Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/features/grisham/home.html) now being heavily promoted through banner ads on Yahoo, are offering sample book and report chapters. Is the Internet different from traditional direct marketing? Or are Internet marketers either too lazy, or too unskilled as yet, to do effective "sizzle" copywriting? We suspect it's a little of all of the above.

Famed relationship marketing gurus, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers were among the first to test free sample chapter giveaways back in 1997 when they offered readers of their free company newsletter a link to a sample chapter of their then latest book, Enterprise One to One.

Although they weren't able to gather precise response data from the campaign, the marketing team felt "confident it did raise sales." So, when promoting their latest book, One to One Manager this past October, the team went full out offering a free chapter not only through their house newsletter; but also through an alliance with FirstUSA's Web site; and, during a weeklong event at Web site ClickZ.com's email discussion group. "Don and Martha personally participated in the forum the entire week," One to One spokesperson Kathryn Kavicky said, "The conversation was geared around the book and anyone who wanted to tune in could download the free chapter prior to sending in questions. Responses were wonderful. You can tell people were reading the book by the precise nature of their questions." ContentBiz.com readers (and anyone else with an Internet connection) can get this free chapter sample at http://www.1to1.com

Robbin Zeff, author of Advertising on the Internet, 2nd edition also believes mentioning her book's free chapter offer in related email discussion groups made a difference in her sales. She says, "I had between 50-150 download requests, but I don't have data on how that affected sales. The advice I would give is to have the tracking set up beforehand." To learn more about Robbin's book go to www.zeff.com.

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SYNDICATION/LICENSING
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CW Henderson's Brave New World as NewsRX.com

In a world where most traditional publishers have a hard time converting to the new Internet economy, we predict that publisher Charles Henderson will be the flag-bearing example that proves the rule.

Charles, who's been publishing print newsletters for health professionals such as Cancer Weekly, AIDs Weekly and Gene Therapy Weekly for the past 16 years under the company name CW Henderson, is one of those guys who just can't resist pushing the envelope of technology. After a development and testing period of several years and at least four major Web site revamps, CW Henderson has emerged from its chrysalis, a beautiful new butterfly, renamed NewsRX.com.

NewsRX.com's products and services include a news database with more than 100,000 articles, an automated "DataDroid" health news story collection robot, personalized news services and a series of customizable newswires available for syndication to both consumer and professional health Web sites. To learn more in general check out http://www.NewsRxOrders.com. For content licensing information go to: http://www.NewsRx.com/default.asp?target=maincontentlicensingabout
To see related press releases (which are remarkable in mentioning every possible keyword an online news surfer might search under to retrieve them) go to http://www.NewsRx.com/default.asp?target=manhomeabout and http://www.businesswire.com/cnn/newsrx.htm

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EMAIL MARKETING
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The Little Subject Line That Could: Phillips Publishing's Email Campaign for Michael Murphy

You've probably heard that a week in normal time is like a year in Internet Time. Which means Phillips Publishing's email marketing campaign for the consumer investment newsletter, "Michael Murphy's Technology Investing Online" is now something like 36 Internet years old, handily beating Wall Street Journal's famous "Two Young Men" direct mail package which has only been around since 1974, a mere 26 normal years!

Phillips' campaign first emailed in the Spring of 1999 features the subject line "Five Tech Stocks Every Investor Must Own." And in a world where everything's changing at warp speed, this subject line has remained the same; and it's still pulling orders! Phillips has emailed the campaign several times to Investools' opt-in "Advisory Membership" list. We advise you to go sign yourself up for this list at http://www.investools.com even if you care nothing for investing tips. You just want to be sure to be on the list to collect your personal sample when Phillips' Murphy campaign drops again -- as it almost certainly will. This is definitely one for your "swipe file."

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RESOURCES
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ContentBiz.com -- Only With a Posh Accent

We urge you to check out Online Publishing News at http://www.mmp.co.uk/subscribe.htm
This British "fortnightly" newsletter covers many of the same topics ContentBiz.com does only with a European perspective. If you are a B-to-B publisher selling to Europe, or your Web site gets a significant number of European surfers, you definitely should subscribe to this emailed newsletter from MMP an e-publishing consultancy based in the UK (who, by the way, are not in any way related to the publishers of ContentBiz.com, we're just good friends.) The newsletter is complimentary, or as we say in America, a freebie.

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STAFFING/CAREER
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Tips for Publishers on Hiring Internet Marketing Staff

It's invariable. These days everybody we meet pops the question, "Do you know any Internet marketers we could hire?" Nope. We don't. Haven't you heard, it's negative unemployment here in Internet marketing-land? And even if we knew someone, most publishers, who are infamous for paying marketers less than the professional average and almost never offer equity to employees, don't stand a chance of attracting them.

That said, are you willing to settle for someone less experienced?

Maryann Klees, Marketing Manager for Alexander Hamilton Institute (http://www.ahipubs.com) a B-to-B publisher offers ContentBiz.com readers the following tips from her just-concluded, successful search for an Internet marketing coordinator:


* Even a fairly small publisher should have an Internet-marketing-specific staffer these days. What with handling emailed newsletters, testing an email marketing program, tracking the competition, selling content piecemeal (aka "by the drink") and researching and coordinating other opportunities, there's too much stuff for your regular marketing staff to handle. Plus, they probably aren't qualified.

* Check the listings for similar jobs at MonsterBoard.com to get an idea of how to word your classified ad for a marketer.

* Ads in small local papers may work better than big city papers. Maryann's ad in the tiny Bergen Record garnered a far better response than her ad in the Star Ledger, a major local paper.

* If you are not willing to pay $50-$65k don't expect to be able to hire someone with much (if any) professional Internet marketing experience.

* Consider hiring someone who is a serious Internet hobbyist even if their professional record isn't related. You'll give them a chance to break into professional Internet marketing while taking advantage of their expertise. The person Maryann hired had been an AOL chat group host and created and promoted some great Web sites all as a strictly after-work hobby. Maryann says, "If they're already inclined, you can teach your marketing and sales approach and your business model, easier than you can teach someone to go on Internet and research and know how search engines work, etc."

* Look for personality types who are "willing to walk the gray area," inventive and good at dealing with interruptions and quickly changing priorities well without lots of supervision. They also have to be a great research hound and very good at getting along with other people -- both your internal staff and potential Web partners.

* Expect to screen out a lot of unqualified applicants including people who only want to do Web site design and people with zero related experience hoping you'll train them on the Internet such as one of Maryann's applicants who said, "I work at Macy's right now, but I'm interested in the Internet."

Looking for higher-level candidates?

OK so you're desperate, you need a top Internet marketer and you are willing to pay the going rate (i.e. over 50k for 2+ years of related experience, on up) PLUS equity or a really sweet cash bonus. Here's ContentBiz.com's handy guide:

* San Francisco-Area: good luck. There are so many dot coms fighting for marketers that the bottom of the barrel has already been scraped and then some. Your best bet is to pay Ken Davis of the Silicon Valley marketers club, 4Marketeers, $150 to send out an emailed job announcement for you to his list of more than 1,500 marketers. http://www.4marketeers.com

* New York: dry laugh. Ever seen how many frantic Internet-marketer-employer wanna-bes are posting ads in Silicon Alley Daily? Your best bet is to place a free ad in AIM's job hotline that a lot of New Yorkers read. Warning: they only accept ads for jobs over $60k. Go to http://www.interactivehq.com

* DC: Tough but not impossible. First place a free ad with Netpreneur's ActionList Job Hotline at http://www.netpreneur.org. Then when you've given up there, take the easy road and call Julie Perlmutter at The Creative Network at 202.265.1522. She knows more than 1,000 DC area marketers who might work for you ... with the right persuasion. Yes, a headhunting fee is involved.

* USA: (shameless self promotion) place a classified with the great ezine you are reading right now! It's just $49. You'll reach a guaranteed circ of at least 300 publishers and marketers keenly interested in marketing content on the Web. Contact annehillsholland@hotmail.com or call 202.232.6830 today.

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LETTERBOX
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NOTE: Send us your letters! ContentBiz.com will happily publish notes of interest to our readership. Email annehillsholland@hotmail.com.

"Thanks for the mention [in Feb 15, 2000 issue], but I would caution you making such sweeping conclusions from The Wall Street Transcript. We are a very reputable news service (37 years), and we include real information in our releases, based on proprietary discussions with leading financial advisors. The release itself is a news event in our view. To suggest as you do that simply throwing out press releases is an easy way of marketing is somewhat misleading. If the press releases do not contain anything (per se) of interest to anyone, then they will not get read or distributed."

Andy Pickup, Publisher
Wall Street Transcript
(212) 952 7437
pickup@twst.com, http://www.twst.com

FOLLOW-UP: Andy's right. ContentBiz.com never meant to imply releases without news value are a good policy. In fact, the more "junk" press releases there are out there the less value the rest of ours appear to have. So, kids please use your Businesswire account wisely!

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Copyright 2000, ContentBiz.com

Please send your stories, comments and advertising inquiries to:

Anne Holland, Publisher
ContentBiz.com
annehillsholland@hotmail.com or 202.232.6830