MagazineOutlet.com; uBrandit; Blosm.com; TheStandard.com; Broadcast Email Resource

*** MarketingSherpa.com's CONTENTBIZ.com ***
Practical News & Case Studies on Marketing, Syndicating &
Selling Content Online
August 22, 2000 Volume I, Issue 18

PLEASE FORWARD (WITHOUT CUTTING) THANKS!

1. NEWS: MagazineOutlet.com, Engage’s B-to-B , Blosm.com,
TheStandard, PrairieWire, The May Report, Broadcast Emails
2. More Headlines
3. CASE STUDY: How MarketingSherpa Hit 20,000 in 4 Months
4. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: UBrandIt's CEO on Growing ecommerce
Sales for Magazine and Newsletter Publishers

* Get your own free subscription today at:
http://www.contentbiz.com Thank you!

*****
NEWS
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* Synapse Group's MagazineOutlet.com is #1 Fastest Growing
Web Site in America Last Week

Wow! Last week MagazineOutlet.com went from 124,000 unique
users to more than 2 million. Rysa Ferdon, VP
SynapseConnect the division which runs MagazineOutlet.com,
could only give us muted expressions of joy because the
company is currently in its silent period before going
public (s1 filed late July),"We're very pleased that the
quality and execution of partnerships that we signed over
the past six months have really started to generate the
volume and traffic response they are worthy of." She
promises ContentBiz.com a full, detailed exclusive
interview as soon as she's able to.

In related news, business is also booming for the company's
online B-to-B initiative, FreeBizMag.com which funnels
prospective trade magazine readers from such partner sites
as Bloomberg through a patent-pending "universal
questionnaire." Most major BPA audited, control-circ trade
publishers are already using the site to generate new
qualified subscriptions, including Cahners, Penton,
Advanstar and PrimeMedia. Publishers pay $5 per new
subscriber (or less depending on how good a negotiator you
are.) Web sites hosting FreeBizMag.com newsstands are
compensated on either a per-click or commission basis.
Wanna get involved? Publishers contact Dave Rock, director
of Publisher Relations at 203.614.2502, sites contact VP
Michael Borchetta at 203.614.2583.
http://www.newsub.com/index.html

* Engage's B-to-B Urgently Seeks Partnerships with Healthcare
Publishers

Do you publish a Web site and/or ezine for healthcare or
pharmaceutical professionals? Joanne Curry, General
Manager at Engage's Business Media told us today that she's
"anxious to sign up more publishers in this vertical. We
are oversubscribed, there are far more marketing dollars
than we can provide impressions for." Even sites with
monthly impressions as low as 50,000 will be accepted into
this network. The process takes very little time -- Engage
can be selling and placing banner and ezine ads for you in
an hour! To learn more, go to:
http://216.251.229.35/EBM_template.cfm?nav=5&sub_nav=31
or http://www.engage.com

* Blosm Launches Digital Slush Pile for Published-Writer
Wanna-Bes

The whole digital publishing era has uncovered gazillions
of people whose deepest passion is to become a published
author. Now Blosm.com offers them a chance to get their
work rated by visiting readers ... and maybe even noticed
by print publishers. Participating publishers (who seem to
be mainly non-fiction experts) include folks from John
Wiley & Sons and IDG. Blosm's biz model is based on
charging wanna-bes to upload their work to be rated at the
site. (Right now during the beta testing period it's
free.) We like the sense of humor displayed in Blosm's
FAQs and their very useful info on copyright laws. While
yes, they are building a business on people's dreams, this
is not a slimy site promising instant riches like many
we're seen.
http://www.blosm.com
http://www.blosm.com/content1/copyrightFAQ.htm

* TheStandard.com Learns How Ezine Publishing is Different
from Cable TV

Used to be business ezine publishing was kinda like cable.
You could push the envelope a bit further than with regular
print trade magazines. TheStandard.com learned last week
to their dismay that these wild times are gone now. When
they featured the Web site name FuckedCompany.com in their
Shop Grok ezine's subject line, reader complaints forced
TheStandard.com to email a public apology to its more than
80,000 readers on Friday. ContentBiz.com's sister ezine
MarketingtoSmallBiz.com has also put FuckedCompany.com in a
subject line, but did not receive any complaints. Still
it's obvious we also will need to watch our step a bit more
from now on.
http://www.thestandard.com

* Two Internet Biz Ezines Duke it Out in the Windy City

While traditionally Internet biz trade pubs have been
located on either of the digital coasts, the past year's
rise in B-to-B ecommerce has given rise to a new publishing
hotspot -- Chicago-land. The area now boasts not one, but
two, prominent ezines, both of which are gaining national
readership and advertisers: The May Report and PrairieWire.
http://www.prairiewire.com
http://www.themayreport.com

* FOLLOW-UP: Broadcast Email Services

Thanks to our sharp-eyed reader Sarah Stambler who wrote in
to say last week's Case Study on AIS' reader survey which
helped them determine their ezine pass-along readership:
"E-mail technology can do all that for you and
scientifically too. No guess work or surveys needed. I
suggest Lowder work with a state of the art email provider."

Stambler is the author of "A Buyer's Guide to Email Service
Bureaus and Software Vendors." More info at
http://www.mwt.com/email.htm. There are heck of a lot of
broadcast email software providers out there, from
FloNetwork to MessageMedia. While we at ContentBiz.com
don't even pretend to be technical experts, here are two of
the resources we usually rely on when confronted with
related questions:
1. http://www.list-universe.com - a free-access Web site
with heaps of information specifically for ezine publishers.
2. "Poor Richard's Email Publishing" - a useful hands-on
book (five stars at Amazon.com!) that's packed with tips.

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Writing and Publishing Industry News

Looking for concise new stories about the latest ebook,
publishing and writing-related news? The Write News
provides original news articles, plus links to news
headlines from other media companies. A free,
weekly email edition is also available.
Visit us at: http://www.writenews.com/
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* Advertising.com to Launch B-to-B Ad Network - Publishers &
Advertisers Sought
http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=714

* Slimy Spammer Rips Off Intellectual Property from USA
Today, RevNet and OnlineProfits.com
http://www.marketingtowebmarketers.com/sample.cfm?contentID=704

* MEDIA BUY OF THE WEEK: dbusiness.com Opens Up Local
Markets
http://www.marketingtosmallbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=696

* HSR B-to-B 's Richard Segal on What Works for "Blue Chip"
Companies Marketing Online
http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=708

* FREE MARKETING NEWS HEADLINES FOR YOUR SITE:
You can run headlines from any of MarketingSherpa.com's six
news channels (including ContentBiz) on your site or
intranet for free! Learn more at:
http://www.isyndicate.com/directory/partners/all/marketingsherpa.html

*****
CASE STUDY: MarketingSherpa.com
*****
EARN YOUR STRIPES IN THE NEW DIGITAL ECONOMY!
*********************************************
Enlist in Digital Commerce Boot Camp
A one-day intensive workshop for digital content executives
At Internet Content East
New York City
October 2, 2000
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Editor's Note: Ok, this may seem like Shameless Self
Promotion, but actually it's not. (well not "shameless" at
least) It all started when a subscriber emailed us asking
"What are the tactics that helped you grow your online
circulation?" As we thought about it, we figured you might
be curious too.... So here's the answer, so far at least!

CHALLENGE
MarketingSherpa.com, a start-up online B-to-B
publisher with a teensy marketing budget needed to grow a
serious-enough circulation to attract major advertisers.
The Company's target market -- professionals in the
Internet marketing and advertising industry with big
marketing budgets -- was a tough nut to crack, both because
there were several well-entrenched competitors and because
this target market "gets way too much email already!"
Publisher & CEO Anne Holland filled us in on the details.

CAMPAIGN
"First we started with our personal contacts. We
sent personal emails to almost 1,000 industry players
either I or someone on my team knew. We asked them to
forward the message to their friends and a lot of them did,
which made a huge difference in our initial circulation.
For example, my one pal at Oxygen got a bunch of other
Oxygen.com marketers and VPs to sign up for
eMarketingtoHer.com's very first issue."

Next each of MarketingSherpa.com's far-flung staff, in
Washington DC, New York and London, were required to attend
at least two industry events a month to spread the word in
person. "If you meet someone at a party," Holland
explains, "and they think you're cool, then they will pay
attention to your follow-up email the next day and even
forward it to all their friends. So we got subscriptions
from a lot of busy marketers who normally don't reply to
email marketing."

The Company also began partnerships with MoreOver.com,
Desktop News and iSyndicate's Express Service to distribute
its hotlinked headlines across the Web. "Whenever one of
our hotlinked headlines is carried by another major ezine
or site, we see a greater jump in circulation than we do
with regular online advertising."

Last but not least, MarketingSherpa.com's site was
specifically developed with subscription generation and
viral marketing in mind. "Every single page has a
subscription box in the upper left corner," says Holland,
"and you can forward every single story to friends.”

RESULTS
Just four months after launching, the network of
sites now boasts a weekly readership in excess of 20,000
including marketing leaders from VerticalNet, the
WashingtonPost.com, iVillage, CarsDirect.com, ClickAction
and MediaMetrix. MarketingSherpa was named "Site of the
Week" by The Economist's eBusinessForum in July.

COST: The site itself, including an online content
management system and eight total email lists, was
developed by Matrix Group International for less than
$20,000. Other marketing efforts cost "mostly just staff
time and some T&E."

http://www.marketingsherpa.com
http://www.matrixgroup.net

*****
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Jeff Phillips of UBrandit.com
*****
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ATTN: PUBLISHERS & MARKETERS: FREE MEDIA PRO NEWSLETTER

MEDIA PROFESSIONAL boils down the most interesting consumer
trends, promotion tips, marketing resources and Internet
job sites each month into a snappy 10-page package you can
receive free via email. Since 1995, our 3,800+ subscribers
have trusted our ability to sort the pearls from the dreck.
For your free subscription, email a request to
mediaprofl@oaknetpub.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the
body, or go to http://www.accessabc.com/main/youngmedia.htm
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Just in case you were wondering, nope Jeff Phillips, CEO of
UBrandit.com, is not one of the people pictured on his
Company’s Web site. He’s also completely unrelated to Tom
Phillips of Phillips Publishing fame. He does, however,
help some very big content companies - including Hearst and
Primedia, make more money online. Here’s our exclusive
interview:

Q: You’re selling subscriptions to financial newsletters
via your StockStudy.com and Newsletterz.com sites. These
are both sites that other Web sites can brand as parts of
their own through your private labeling program. How did
that come about and how’s it working?

Phillips: About 60 newsletters contribute articles on daily
or weekly basis to the StockStudy site. I began building
it three years ago because I wanted to track my portfolio
my way and at the time there were only two portfolio
managers online. Now there are thousands out there today.
I realized the key wasn’t building the best financial site
because every time you finished programming, somebody would
come out with something better. It was no win situation.

But I kept on getting calls from other companies saying
‘We’d like to have our own stock site.’ So that’s where
co-branding idea came where our users users believe they
are on other web sites. We realized we didn’t need to be
#1 destination site on web. We’d just have to have a whole
bunch of affiliates running our branded sites as their own
and we’d grow. Now we have over 600 partners branding this
site as their own, more than of whom 100 are radio
stations. And I expect that to grow.

I added in the publications to enhance the content of the
site about 18 months ago. People can view back issues,
trial different offers, etc. When we invented
Newsletterz.com, we were just having fun, we didn’t even
know about newsletters.com!

Q: Are newsletter subscription sales a big part of your
revenue stream?

Phillips: No, in fact I have doubts about the
Newsletters.com business plan. We know how many newsletter
subs we are selling….

You see, a lot of people who subscribe to these financial
newsletters are offline type people. That’s why
TheStreet.com is having trouble selling their content.
We’re not expecting a lot of sales from this. We just
think it’s great added content and it gives exposure to
publishers without much work.

We’re forwarding subscription enquiries on to the
publishers and don’t charge them for that. Full
subscription sales are transmitted directly to publisher.
Our system reroutes them directly to their subscription
departments.

We do make a small amount from trial sales. We allow
people to pick 10 newsletters for a month or five for three
months for $14.95-$34.95. The newsletter writers fulfill
these trials for free so we make a little money. But
really the whole point of the deals for us was just to get
content for the site.

Q: What do you mean when you say financial newsletter
subscribers are offline people?

Phillips: There are definitely two types of people. Your
number of people on the Web who are willing to pay for
subscriptions is much lower because there’s so much free
information on the web. So, I think for time being we’re
seeing less and less people willing to pay.

However I think many people don’t realize it’s a true
possibility that markets won’t do well in future. As soon
as they wake up one day and see they lost 30-40% of their
money they may be willing to pay again! Every online
brokerage firm these days is pushing you to be your own
boss, be your own trader. When the market goes the other
way, a lot of people may call their broker again -- but I
could be wrong.

In general if you’re marketing online for a print version,
you’ll do better via direct mail. If you’re selling online
recommendations you’d better give them something online.

Q: Ok, if you’re not making money from selling
subscriptions, what is your business model?

Phillips: It’s predominantly based on advertising.
Sponsors with joint ventures brand out the site, plus their
sales online brokers sell across this. We sell very
targeted advertising across a very large network of sites.
Some of our radio station partners sell sponsorship
packages with on-air ads included.

The radio stations aren’t just excited about running the
site, it’s also a very sticky application for them.
Imagine if they can pull 10,000 listeners to check their
portfolios with their branded financial section. People
will visit frequently. Every station wants one!

Q: When you acquired ClickSmart, you began to sell a large
quantity of books online through their relationships with
big consumer magazine publishers. How does this work?

Phillips: ClickSmart works with more than 200 magazine
publishers. For example, when Readers Digest print version
has book review it says ‘you can visit us online to buy
this book or call this 800# to get a copy now.” ClickSmart
powers that for the publishers.

The magazines are excited about it. We have Hearst,
Primedia Special Interest, Conde Nast, Childrens Television
WorkShop and others under agreement to handle their book
reviews or extra ad space, selling books, music and videos.
We also have agreements with about 50 television stations.

Q: When that Reader’s Digest reader orders a book through
this service, is it fulfilled in Readers Digest packaging
and can Reader’s Digest do inserts for cross-sales within
the packages?

Phillips: Yes, ClickSmart can handle special fulfillment.
You can do your own inserts publicizing subscription
specials, renewal offers … anything you want.

Lots of the magazines expressed an interest in having their
own book club. With ClickSmart, you pick the books we’ll
print the inserts and you can set up your own book club!
It’s much easier than setting up your own thing by
yourself. We have a full range of a million and a half
books to choose from.

Q: You also offer a private-label ISP service. Why would a
magazine want to offer their readers ISP services? That
seems kinda far fetched.

A: You have to realize, it’s not just about selling things,
it’s about making your site stickier. Most offline media
companies’ Web sites are hit and miss. Nobody goes back,
there’s nothing there. If Readers Digest offered their
subscribers ISP services at a low price -- $13.95 a month -
- then their homepage becomes a true gateway.

Our partners look at ecommerce as a way to make lots of
money, but it really shouldn’t be looked at that way.
Imagine, if you can aggregate the same number of site
visitors that you have subscribing to your offline
magazine, you can make some real money on your Web site
from advertisers. But you have to have the traffic to do
this.

Say your magazine is called Blue Sky. Your ISP service
will be Blue Sky.com -- the entire portal is branded out
for you. We’ll handle the billing and customer service.
You’ll get a portal, plus you’re the locked in start-up
page for your customers. People will start at your home
page day after day. We’re charging Blue Sky $13.95 per
customer. You can charge whatever you’d like. We have
people who charge their customers only $5.95 per month or
let their clients have free Internet access because they
spend so much money with them!

Q: Who in the media industry are you looking to partner
with next?

Phillips: One of our weakest areas that we haven’t targeted
but we have to target is newspapers. We’re doing a bigger
push into these groups.

We’ve seen a lot of newspapers do deals where there’s a
branded front end that then sends their traffic to go shop
at a bunch of affiliate sites. As soon as you hit ‘Books’
it opens another browser and sends you at Amazon. We’re
not an affiliate middleman that way. You can simply use
our 800#s and our privately labeled ecommerce site section
to fulfill your orders.

Q: What percent of your orders from mentions in print
publications ceom through the 800 number versus the Web
site?

Phillips: Currently in the magazine environment, the
fulfillment tends to go 80% phone and 20% Web. However for
radio (we’ve done specials for stations) it runs much
closer to 50/50%. So it depends on the medium.

Q: And it’s changing?

Phillips: And it’s changing.

http://www.ubrandit.com

*****
CONTENTBIZ.COM INFO
*****

For a media kit/advertising information:
Allison@marketingsherpa.com
973.992.5330

To Contact the Editor:
editor@contentbiz.com

Publisher:
Anne Holland
anneh@marketingsherpa.com
202.232.6830

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