January 22, 2002
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1. Free Map of Online Content World Avail.
2. US News Publisher's Personal Blog Sells Ads
3. Now You Can Add Your Comments to ContentBlog
4. First Opt-In Email Publisher to Be Audited
5. How to Enter Circulation Marketing Awards
6. Ex-Hoovers Marketer Avail for Consulting
7. Selling Analyst Access vs. Written Reports
8. Advice for Online Ad Sellers
***** THIS WEEK'S CONTENTBLOG
[01/18/2002 2:38PM] FREE MAP OF ONLINE CONTENT WORLD AVAIL.
InfoCommerce Report, a monthly newsletter "for and about people
who are building a new industry -- one that merges database
content with digital distribution" has a fun free map offer on
their Web site. The 11x14" map shows how the content world fits
together ... from owners to syndicators to Web portals. Their
site is built using frames (arrrgh) so I can't give you a direct
link, just go to the home page and look for the map link on the
left nav bar.
However, I was alarmed by one thing today -- InfoCommerce Report
emailed me a survey link to 8 "easy" questions. Aside from the
fact that the questions are not easy (remind me to do a special
report on user-friendly surveys), one in particular made my hair
stand on end, "HOW VALUABLE WOULD IT BE FOR YOUR COMPANY . . . to
find and capture Web-based information on people, including job
title and email address?"
OK that would be what spammers do. Harvesting email addresses
online is unsavory to say the least, selling them to others as
part of your business model is beyond slimy and possibly illegal
in some states and countries. I know we're all urgently trying to
find ways to make more money with content these days. But that's
no excuse. http://www.infocommercereport.com/
[01/18/02 10:49AM] US NEWS PUBLISHER'S PERSONAL BLOG SELLS ADS
US News & World Report is running a seriously clever new ad
campaign to catch the eyes of media buyers. It's a spin on the
whole personal Blog phenomenon.
To see it for yourself, check out their button ad on the home
page of Media Life Magazine. Like many from the old print
publishing industry, I have a secret fetish for fonts that look
like old-fashion typewriter typeface, so the button immediately
captured my eye and then my heart.
The click through isn't quite as wonderful, but still a nice
effort. It's a Blog-like "Publishers Notebook" purportedly
written by Bill Holiber, the Publisher of U.S.News & World Report
himself. The tone is on-purpose casual, down to non-capitalized
"i"s scattered throughout.
I (hey you know it's me writing this, so I don't need to get cute
w/ non-caps) think the content itself is still a little too
salesly - look how great we are -- to be taken seriously. But
then most mag publishers come from a sales background and can't
help themselves. It's knee-jerk. With any luck somebody from the
pub will get back to me and say if it's a real Blog or not. I'll
keep ya posted.
P.S. Media Life's been having some server problems recently, so I
don't think their written-out URL works right now. Just use
http://207.168.215.165/ to get there and you should be fine.
[01/17/02 8:21PM] NOW YOU CAN ADD YOUR COMMENTS TO CONTENTBLOG
I just added comments so you can put your notes right into the
Blogs here.
It was harder than I thought it would be because a heck of a lot
of the folks offering free blog comments services as a hobby have
gone under, or ceased taking new blogs, because there's so much
demand and none of these folks (who are invariably techies) have
a clue about how to ask for money for the service. Turns out
there are now more than 360,000 people publishing via
Blogger.com, and tens of thousands more publishing blogs with
competitors. That's a 300% growth rate over the past nine months.
So, if you are a techie and can get cheap server space, and can
also market your comments service, this would be a nice home-
based business. You could conceivably pull in more than $100k a
year offering pretty-cheap comment tech services.
I'm using YACCs who will no doubt shortly cease accepting free
users too, so grab them while you can if you want comments on
your Blog. YACCs is at http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs
[01/17/02 4:37PM] FIRST OPT-IN EZINE PUBLISHER TO BE AUDITED
A lot of ezine publishers have told me, "Oh we'll never have to
be audited like magazines are, because advertisers can count
their clicks and see the results." Nice dream, but I kinda
doubted life was gonna stay that way forever (especially when it
comes to trade pubs that sell ads based on job title and buying
responsibility.)
Anyway, Nick Maranda over at BetterGolf.net just emailed me their
announcement that they are "the first company in the world to
have an electronic "magazine" or "newsletter" circulation
audited.The audit was performed by ABCi, which is the Interactive
branch of the Audit Bureau of Circulation." The audit confirmed
the ezine has 856,000 opt-in subscribers. Nick's hoping the audit
helps position the ezine more credibly in the eyes of traditional
magazine advertisers, some of whom found the ezine's growth rate
of more than 800 new opt-ins each day "difficult to accept."
For more info on BetterGolf's biz, check out our year-old-but-
good Case Study on them.
http://www.bettergolf.net
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1064
[01/17/02 6:36AM] HOW TO ENTER CIRCULATION MARKETING AWARDS
Circulation Management magazine just snail mailed entry forms for
the annual Circulation Excellence Awards. Two new awards this
year -- Most Effective Use of the Internet for Marketing a
Consumer Magazine and a B-to-B Magazine. Only printed magazines with
a 50% or more US circ can apply, and there doesn't appear to be
an online entry form. To get an entry form call 203.358.4169 or
email cmedit@primediabusiness.com
[01/17/02 6:23AM] EX-HOOVERS MARKETER AVAIL FOR CONSULTING
Michael Gallagher, who formerly headed up marketing for several
content companies including Hoovers, Powerize, and Amazing Media,
just emailed in that he's open for consulting gigs for a short
time period. Michael's acquiring a company of his own in a few
months (it's been his longstanding goal) but until then, if you
need help with marketing, lead generation, product development or
general content business strategy, contact him at cell: 703-626-
3228 or mgallagher@worldnet.att.net.
[01/16/02 3:46PM] SELLING ANALYST ACCESS VS WRITTEN REPORTS
Thanks to Raging Bull co-founder, Bill Martin (aka Raging Bill),
who sent in a link to the NY Times article It's Not What They Know, but Whom. (OK now I have to breathe for a Zen moment, and
reflect on the beauty of their headline's grammer, coupled with
the stupidity of the wording which reveals so little nobody would
ever click on it alone or search for its keywords in a zillion
years.)
Anyway, if you are in or tracking the research business, this is
an article worth reading. At a time when folks like Forrester,
Jupiter and IDC are cutting back or floundering for more revenue
models (see my earlier blogs), a small research firm, has dumped
their unprofitable industry guidebooks publishing biz in favor of
a consulting model where institutional investors and others can
call their analysts (often independent consultants working on a
by-the-hour basis). Clients pay $48,000-$70,000 for unlimited
access to consultants for three-six months.
In my experience selling consultant access of this type,
admittedly in conjunction with a report sale, about 80% of
clients only called once, and the remaining 20% called daily and
were such a pain that consultants loathed them. Anyway, it' s a
cool article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/23/business/yourmoney/23RESE.html
[01/15/02 7:00AM] ADVICE FOR ONLINE AD SELLERS
Excerpted from an essay entitled, "10 Things I Hope to be
Grateful for in 2002" by Jeff Minsky VP/Director of Media
Convergence RappDigital, that his PR guy just emailed over:
"4. Faster response times from sellers. While I am sure there are
many sellers that would ask for planners to return their calls
more often and in timely fashion, I refer to when a buy is made.
If you pitch an agency on how great your media will perform and
how wonderful the service will be, you probably should make sure
you follow up on this or the buy will never be made again. How
much more so when a major ad partnership is negotiated with a
"portal" site? If you get the multi-million dollar buy, please
make sure that you staff up properly, and not just with Sr. Level
employees, but people who do the actual work as well."
