June 14, 2001
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(((((((((( From MarketingSherpa.com
ContentBiz June 14, 2001 Vol II, Issue 22
((((((((((
Free subscriptions at http://www.contentbiz.com
PRACTICAL NEWS:
- The Week: Anne's Take on the eBook Sales Debate
- Trouble Ahead as Trade Magazines Prefer Opt-Out to Gather Email
Name Rental "Permissions"
CASE STUDY: O'Reilly Rallies its 50 Most Influential Fans to
Spread the Buzz Online
INTERVIEW: Should Publishers Worry About Ad Blocking Software?
Bill Dimm, Producer SaveTheFreeWeb.com, Gives Us a Reality Check
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PRACTICAL NEWS
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* This Week: Anne's Take on the eBook Sales Debate
On May 31st research firm Ipsos-NPD released news saying that 72%
of Internet users they surveyed are not very or not at all likely
to ever buy an eBook. Lots of publishing rags picked up this
unhappy news.
Thing is, is it really so unhappy? According to the Washington
Post a 1999 Gallup Poll found that only 7% of Americans were
"voracious readers" and 59% read less than 10 books a year.
Seems to me that the types of people who are most likely to buy
eBooks are those voracious readers. And even if they are only 7%
of the population, they probably account for more like 70% of
book expenditures. Frequent book buyers are the people to survey
to see if eBooks will fly -- not "average" Internet users!
And how about business vs. consumer eBooks? Professional
publishers from Gartner Group to Ken Evoy have proven beyond a
shadow of a doubt that if you have compelling content,
businesspeople often prefer to get a digital version -- simply
for speed and convenience. (Yes, then they usually print that
version out rather than read hundreds of pages on a screen. Does
that make it less an eBook?)
But forget my opinions, what really matters is sales. So next
week I'm interviewing Scott Pendergrast of eBookstore Fictionwise
who have sold "over 3.65 billion words since June 1st 2000."
Got any questions you'd like me to ask Scott? Email them over to
me by Monday morning 9am ET! editor@contentbiz.com
BTW: Reader input on my last week's column about Inside.com was
summed up neatly by Joe J. Esposito of Portable CEO who wrote,
"Sell subscriptions to niches, sell advertising to mass markets."
Thanks Joe!
http://www.ipsosnpd.com/index2.html
http://www.fictionwise.com
* Trouble Ahead as Trade Magazines Prefer Opt-Out to Gather Email
Name Rental "Permissions"
As a proponent of opt-in versus opt-out email name gathering, Tom
Kraemer, CMP Media's Group Director of Customer Relationship
Marketing, was very much the odd man out at this week's
Circulation Management Conference & Expo in New York.
Practically everyone else openly said they felt the world was
moving toward opt-out as a standard. Which pretty much puts the
trade magazine world completely at odds with most of the clients
who rent names from them (not to mention new potential laws and
ISP-approved activities.)
Opt-out is more profitable for the trades in the short run
because they can gather more names quickly and fling them onto
the still-hungry rental market. One show attendee told us,
"Circulation people report to publishers who are from ad sales
backgrounds and are really just short-term, bottom-line oriented.
They got a taste of what email rentals could deliver and now they
won't give circulation people the chance to be more ethical."
Deb Goldstein of IDG Lists, who is widely acknowledged to be the
mother of the trade magazine email list rental industry, made her
position clear in a recent posting on the AD-Marketing email
discussion group saying, "It is up to the Publication [at the
name gathering point] to decide where they want to make it an
opt-out or opt-in permission-based question. What is essential
though, is that in the process, it is clear to the person that
they are giving permission for third-party E-Mail. To me, that is
how you define permission - is the person fully aware that you
are asking."
In fact, many email marketers would agree with her and be very
pleased to rent lists that gathered names using those precepts.
Trouble is, many publishers hear "opt-out is ok" and ignore the
part about "fully aware." While researching this article we
randomly looked at the forms that gather email rental names for
about a dozen trades published by prominent publishers. Only one
mentioned the fact that our email address might be rented out.
So, the practice of gathering and renting names without revealing
you'll do so may be industry standard.
We smell a rental market backlash just waiting to happen.
Links --
Circulation Management - http://www.circman.com
Ad Marketing Discussion Group
http://www.netpreneur.org/connect/am/default.html
Want to learn more about the differences between opt-in and opt-
out, or the legal and ISP-related dilemmas surrounding email
lists? Check out our 21 page report, "Spam & Privacy Information
for B-to-B Marketers"
http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1620
(((((
CASE STUDY: O'Reilly Rallies its 50 Most Influential Fans to
Spread the Buzz Online
(((((
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CHALLENGE
After a year of solid networking, last August Simone
Paddock, Online Evangelist for technical book publisher O'Reilly,
had contacts with almost anyone who counted in the community --
including influential writers, book reviewers, forum moderators,
webloggers and related-site webmasters. Now she had to turn
those connections into cash.
At this stage, most marketers would have automatically launched
an affiliate program like Amazon's. But Paddock passionately
felt this was the wrong direction. She says, " A typical
affiliate program is mostly based on the exchange of click-rate
traffic vs. micro payments. Not only would such a model have
completely missed the point of what I was trying to do, but I
didn't want to be pressed into a conventional and widely-known
format.
"I wanted something that would truly benefit both O'Reilly and
the Evangelists in equal ways, as well as serve the technical
community at large through a wider dissemination of worthwhile
information. I needed it to be unique, useful, versatile, and
engaging, but most of all make a positive impact."
CAMPAIGN
Paddock had already been working one-on-one with her
contacts to encourage grassroots online promotions -- such as
getting influential book reviewers to mention O'Reilly books.
She says, "I noticed though that my efforts needed more
structure, my contacts lacked a sense of community around
O'Reilly."
O'Reilly already operated a popular User Group Program (see link
below) so Paddock was well aware of the value of community in
online buzz creation. After two months of research and careful
thought, Paddock launched a new community for her most
influential connections: The O'Reilly Evangelist Program.
Membership in the Program is by invitation-only, which gives it
an exclusive feel and shields it from abuse. Membership benefits
include free samples of the latest O'Reilly books, 25% discount
on O'Reilly events and a weekly email newsletter featuring news
briefs. (In fact the newsletter is so well produced that we
invite all ContentBiz readers to check it out as an example of
Best Practices in promotional newsletter writing. See below for
a link to a sample copy.)
In exchange, members are asked to add sample-chapter links to
their own sites and/or email newsletters; write book reviews;
join the conversation when online discussion groups mention
O'Reilly; run contests for promotional O'Reilly tchotchkes; and
send O'Reilly lots of useful feedback about what the community's
needs are. How did Paddock get all these great ideas for online
guerilla marketing? By asking her Evangelists for them!
RESULTS
More than 50 influential journalists, web site
producers, book reviewers and discussion group moderators have
enthusiastically joined O'Reilly's Evangelist Program so far.
Paddock says their favorite benefit is "most definitely the free
books." The weekly newsletter also turned out to be one of the
most valued perks because it's both informative and entertaining.
Specific book and event ticket sales resulting from the Program
are hard to measure. However, Paddock says, "Most Evangelists
tell me how grateful their friends and peers are for recommending
O'Reilly books that have helped them resolve specific technical
problems." In addition, Paddock says, "Certain sites have a huge
readership, and getting a review posted there due to an
Evangelist's effort can make quite a difference in the sales of
that particular book."
Last, but not least, Paddock has gained invaluable insights into
the likes and dislikes of O'Reilly's marketplace as a whole
because Evangelists reflect the voice of the greater community.
For example, she recently surveyed her Evangelists in order to
"crystallize a clear picture of the importance of usenet to our
customers, the rules that were expected to be observed when
posting, and found that despite the extremely high
spam&flame/content ratio, newsgroups still remained a valuable
resource for people with very specific information needs."
So, although running the Program takes about 75% of her time
these days, Paddock feels the investment has been well worth it.
LINKS: Want to see a sample of Paddock's Evangelist Newsletter?
We've posted a recent issue on our site just for you to check out
and steal ideas from:
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1715
Here's a link to O'Reilly's Evangelist Program Web page. Paddock
wanted us to be sure to give O'Reilly's Creative Director Edie
Freeman credit for inventing the wonderful "Telescope Guy" logo
and Designer Laura Schmier credit for the site's easy-to-read,
pleasant look.
http://evangelists.oreilly.com
O'Reilly's User Group Program
http://ug.oreilly.com
ContentBiz Case Study on How the Princeton University Press Does
Guerrilla Marketing Online:
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1383
(((((
INTERVIEW: Should Publishers Worry About Ad Blocking Software?
(((((
A debate has been raging among content industry pundits since ad
blocking software company interMute recently announced it would
be on multiple millions of PCs by the end of 2002. Some people
say publishers with Web ad revenues should be very, very worried
about this. Others say anyone kicking up a fuss is just a fear
monger. We turned to Bill Dimm for a reality check.
Dimm is CEO of HotNeuron (the folks behind MagPortal.com who we
reported on last week.) Dimm spent the past few months
researching the ad blocking debate thoroughly, and even launched
a site focused on the topic called "SaveTheFreeWeb.com" as a
public service for executives in the Web publishing industry.
Q: How can a publisher figure out how many of their site's ads
are being blocked?
A: If you're using a server like Doubleclick, there's almost no
way to measure it. You can only measure if you're serving your
own ads.
I checked MagPortal's server logs for the names of about a dozen
different ad blocking packages to see if they are identified when
visitors surf. The only one that even hints that it's there is
Web Washer, and Web Washer users can turn that off. So you
usually can't tell if your visitors are using ad blockers. One
of my proposals on SavetheFreeWeb.com is that we force ad
blockers to add a user agent so webmasters know how many are
coming through.
Q: While an installed base of 5-10 million sounds like a lot,
isn't it just a tiny percent of the half a billion Internet users
forecast to be online by 2002?
A: While I don't know the details of interMute's marketing
plan, I suspect that most of the growth in their user base will
come from cutting distribution deals with modem and PC
manufacturers in the United States. So the relevant number to
most Americans is the percentage of U.S. users employing ad
blockers. That number seems like 5% by the end of 2002 for
AdSubtract if we assume 10 million "users".
That 10 million is highly speculative. In a recent
SiliconValley.com article interMute's President said his product
would be bundled with 20 million PCs and modems by the end of the
year. Either interMute has little confidence that a high
percentage of those 20 million bundlings will result in actual
"users" or their projections are all over the place.
Also, AdSubtract is just one of many programs. While interMute
has made a lot of noise about distribution deals lately, it is
well behind Web Washer (based in Germany) for total distribution
so far. Web Washer claims over 4 million downloads.
Q: Before you had to download ad blocking software, so most
people didn't bother to go download it. Now that it's bundled in
with your PC or modem, which makes it easier to start using, is
the threat bigger?
A: That's what worries me about the ad blocking issue. Before
users were too lazy to bother downloading it. Now things could
get turned around because people are too lazy to uninstall it.
The important question is whether or not there is a significant
risk that rapid change could occur. Makers of ad-blocking
software can estimate how many users of the free version of their
product will upgrade to a premium version (to block pop-ups, for
example) and compute how much they can afford to spend to acquire
users of the free versions of their software. They can then pay
this money to PC manufacturers to have the software pre-
installed.
Some of these companies have access to significant capital (Web
Washer is a spin-off from Siemens AG, and Norton Internet
Security is from Symantec). How many people would use ad-
blocking software if it was already installed on their computer?
What if it was already turned on by default?
Q: And all the intrusive ads publishers are being asked to run
these days like pop-ups and audio-rich media ads are going to
make users want to keep that ad blocking software on?
A: Users' attitudes toward banner ads have been hurt by some of
the rather stupid advertising that has occured because people
have emphasized clickthroughs ("Punch the Monkey" and "You have
an important message") instead of brand building and informing.
See SaveTheFreeWeb.com for my "No Obnoxious Ads" proposal.
NOTE: Want to learn more about this topic, or join the debate
yourself? SaveTheFreeWeb.com features links to the best articles
on this topic, plus message boards and his aforementioned
proposals.
http://savethefreeweb.com
Last week's article on Dimm's MagPortal business:
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1700
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