[11131] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Advertising on the Internet FAQ
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Micheal Strangelove)
Tue Mar 22 07:46:43 1994
From: mstrange@fonorola.net (Micheal Strangelove)
To: sackman@plains.nodak.edu
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 94 12:11:12 EST
Newsgroups:
alt.online-services, biz.comp.services, biz.misc,
alt.internet.services, alt.business.misc
misc.answers, news.answers
Distribution: World
Subject: Advertising on the Internet FAQ
Organization: Strangelove Internet Enterprises,
Inc.
Followup-To: poster
Reply-To: Mstrange@Fonorola.Net
Summary:
This document contains a selection of Frequently
Asked Questions (and their answers) about
Internet-facilitated advertising. It should be
read by anyone using the Internet for commercial
purposes.
Archive-name: Advertising-FAQ
Last-Modified: n/a
Version: 1.0
Frequency: monthly
ADVERTISING ON THE INTERNET FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Version 1.0 - 6 March, 1994
*** COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This document is Copyright (C) 1994 by Strangelove
Internet Enterprises, Inc., all rights reserved.
Permission for non-commercial distribution is
hereby granted, provided that this file is
distributed intact, including this copyright
notice and the version information above.
Permission for commercial distribution may be
obtained from the Strangelove Internet
Enterprises, Inc. Please feel free to distribute
this document on commercial networks (AOL,
Compuserve, Delphi, ...) and on bulletin boards.
HOW TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR
Michael Strangelove can be contacted by e-mail to
Mstrange@Fonorola.Net
or by postal mail to
SIE Inc
208 Somerset Street East, Suite A
Ottawa, Ontario
CANADA
K1N 6V2
Tel: 613-565-0982
FAX: 613-569-4433
INTRODUCTION
Advertisers spend billions of dollars every year
to communicate their message to potential
consumers. Now businesses are discovering that
they can advertise to the Internet community at a
fraction of the cost of traditional methods. With
tens of millions of electronic mail users out
there in cyberspace today, Internet advertising is
an intriguing opportunity not to be overlooked.
When 1998 roles around and there are one hundred
million consumers on the Internet, we may see many
ad agencies and advertising-supported magazines go
under as businesses learn to communicate directly
to consumers in cyberspace.
How can a consultant, corporation, or an
entrepreneur effectively use electronic mail to
communicate to Internet user? The following
document is intended to identify and answer
frequently asked questions about Internet-
facilitated marketing. This FAQ is based on the
book, "How to Advertise on the Internet: An
Introduction to Internet-Facilitated Marketing"
(April 1994). If there are question you have about
Internet advertising that are not addressed here,
or if you have comments about how to improve this
document, please feel free to contact me at
Mstrange@Fonorola.Net.
Potential advertisers take note -- do your
homework before blasting onto the Internet. This
virtual community has some very strong feelings
about inappropriate activity, and the penalties
for incorrect advertising methods could be
international hate mail to you, your boss, and
your stock holders.
Nota Bene: It is the intention of the author to
promote the responsible business use of the
Internet. Businesses will be making extensive use
of the Internet for marketing and advertising,
regardless of how Internet members feel about the
non-commercial origins of the Internet. The
Internet is not destined to be a TechnoUtopia, but
simply a microcosm of global society, with all its
warts and flowers. This FAQ is intended as a
proactive measure to ensure that the commercial
Internet user has adequate information about
Internet culture so as to contribute to the
ongoing development of Electric Gaia.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS FAQ:
Is Advertising Allowed on the Internet?
Is Advertising on the Internet New?
Is the Internet a Mass Market?
Is Unsolicited Advertising Permitted?
Can I Send an E-Ad to Every Internet User?
INTERNET ADVERTISING TIPS:
Find Out What is Acceptable
Post Only to Appropriate Forums
Keep it Short
Avoid Sensationalism
Create Your Own Forum
Interact with the Internet Community
IS ADVERTISING ALLOWED ON THE INTERNET?
It is surprising how many people still see the
Internet as a non-commercial, academic, and
technical environment. Over fifty percent of the
Internet is populated by commercial users (that
equals five to ten million commercial users). The
commercial Internet is the fastest growing part of
cyberspace, which is doubling in size every year.
There are more business users of the Internet than
the total number of all the users of all
commercial networks combined.
Over three years ago the US National Science
Foundation lifted restrictions against commercial
use of the Internet's American backbone. Now an
Internet address on business cards is the latest
craze. As the Internet is not owned by any one
company or nation, the only real restrictions
placed upon users are by the consensus of the
virtual community itself. The trick to effective
Internet advertising is taking the time to learn
what is and is not acceptable within any one of
the more than 7,000 online conferences.
The one major exception to this is any Internet
users who have academic accounts provided by their
university or research institute. It is almost
certain that if you have an academic Internet
account, you are forbidden to engage in commercial
activity over your university's Internet
connection. This may also hold true for many
FreeNets -- if you are uncertain about local
authorized use policy, ask your Internet provider
or system postmaster.
It should be noted that Usenet is no less
commercial than the rest of the Internet. Gone
forever are the days when the Internet was a
private club for the techno-elite.
IS ADVERTISING ON THE INTERNET NEW?
Even among many long-time Internet users, there is
a perception that Internet advertising is a new
phenomenon. It is not. In the mid eighties, when
the Internet was largely an academic, scientific,
and technical community, commercial activity was
still allowed if it was in support of research
efforts. This meant that right from the first days
of the Internet, there were software developers,
publishers, consultants, and technicians hawking
their wares to the academic community. Advertising
has been taking place on the Internet since its
beginning. The problem facing the Internet
community is that the bigger the community gets
(and it is going to be mindbogglingly big), the
more it will attract the attention of advertising
agencies.
IS THE INTERNET A MASS MARKET?
For quite some time to come, the Internet will
never represent a mass market such as TV where
content is controlled and packaged to a limited
number of predefined and demographically
homogenous audiences consisting of millions of
views. There are no mass markets on the Internet -
- only micro communities with distinct histories,
rules, and concerns. These communities are
gathered into thousands of discussion forums
ranging from hundreds to thousands of
participants, but there are no groups of
"millions." The challenge of the Internet-
facilitated business is to find a way to reach
these virtual communities on their terms,
respecting their local customs. The Internet is
big, very big, but it is not a mass market that
can be easily reached through mass mailing.
IS UNSOLICITED ADVERTISING PERMITTED?
Unsolicited advertising does indeed take place
every day on the Net, and there even exists one
company that sells access to over one million
Internet addresses for direct e-mail advertising.
Unsolicited advertising is a gray area of Internet
culture, and therefore requires very careful
planning and execution to avoid the wrath of an
extremely vocal community.
Unsolicited advertising has been taking place on
the Internet for quite some time, but must be done
with extreme caution. There is no one to tell you
not to send unsolicited commercial e-mail on the
Internet, but if you send out 10,000 annoying
advertisements, be prepared to receive 10,000
complaints. Also, companies that disregard
Internet users' wishes are likely to find that the
Internet community has a long memory (as any
"oral" culture does) and is quite capable of
engaging in anti-advertising campaigns and
boycotts.
In this new interactive, digital, wired-to-the-
bellybutton world, bulk unsolicited advertising is
unnecessary, bad netiquette, and simply lazy --
particularly when there are so many creative
alternatives. The author has no wish to support
the rise of "door-to-door" salespeople in
cyberspace and therefore is intentionally
censoring contact information from this FAQ on
firms that sell Internet e-mail addresses and
consult in bulk unsolicited e-mail advertising.
CAN I SEND AN E-AD TO EVERY INTERNET USER?
As Editor of THE INTERNET BUSINESS JOURNAL,
Aneurin Bosley is frequently asked if it is
possible to send an electronic mail advertisement
(E-Ad) to every user on the Internet. I always
find it somewhat disturbing that there are
companies out there who would want to do this.
Fortunately for the Internet, it is not possible
to send an E-Ad to every person on the Internet.
Unfortunately for the Internet, it is probably
only a matter of time before some sick mind
figures out a method of simultaneously annoying
every Internet user. For now at least, there is no
way to post an e-mail message to every Internet
user, nor, in this writers opinion, should such a
tool be developed.
INTERNET ADVERTISING TIPS
FIND OUT WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE
Within some Internet forums, any commercial
activity, no matter how subtle, is unacceptable
and will be met with a strong negative response
(usually called "flaming"). Take the time to
"listen in" to the forum to which you intend to
post. Notice what other people post and what the
grouprquote s reaction is to commercial messages.
If a press release or product announcement is met
with intense flaming, then do not risk alienating
this group of Internet users with your commercial
message.
POST ONLY TO APPROPRIATE FORUMS
Begin your market research by identifying the
appropriate online conferences (also called
forums, lists, or newsgroups). If you are a
selling purebred dogs, do not post your message to
the cat lover's list. Some forums have FAQ files
(Frequently Asked Questions). Read these files to
determine the nature of the forum and acceptable
use policies.
KEEP IT SHORT
Avoid posting long e-mail messages. Your product
or service announcements should never exceed two
screens in length (about 50 lines long). Many
individuals on the Internet receive a considerable
amount of e-mail, so your message must be short
and to the point if it is going to be read at all.
You can note in your posting that further details
are available upon request.
AVOID SENSATIONALISM
The Internet community is content oriented,
whereas most advertisers deal in style, metaphor,
image, and hype. Traditional advertising copy will
not go over well at all on the Net. The Internet
community appreciates quality, filtered
information, so find a way to add value to your
message. Coach your message within a commentary on
industry trends, create an electronic newsletter
that provides a range of related information,
enter into dialogue with the forum about
surrounding issues. Remember that nothing is more
obvious in low ASCII than empty hype.
CREATE YOUR OWN FORUM
It is possible to create a Usenet newsgroup for
discussion of your products (Usenet is received by
most Internet users and contains over six thousand
newsgroups). Many companies have already done so,
such as ZEOS, which has a newsgroup called
biz.zeos.general. This is a form of passive
Internet-facilitated marketing. Passive
advertising allows a business to create a forum on
the Internet and invite the rest of the Internet
to join in. By creating your own forum, moderating
the submissions (filtering out irrelevant
postings), and providing high quality information,
not only about your products but about your
particular commercial sector, you will establish a
growing readership in much the same way that
newsstand magazines function.
INTERACT WITH THE INTERNET COMMUNITY
For the immediate future, the costs of Internet-
facilitated advertising will not be associated
with expensive visual productions (at least until
the domination of Mosaic and similar tools), but
with the labor required to dialogue with the
desired market areas found within over seven
thousand discussion forums. This labor factor for
truly responsible, responsive, and effective
Internet advertising will become a critical
consideration as the staggering Internet growth
rate pushes these numbers to tens of thousands of
forums and hundreds of millions of users over the
next decade.
The business world is going to have to learn a new
language when it communicates to the Internet
community -- the language of content-based,
interactive, community-oriented dialogue.
Unidirectional pontificating coming from the lofty
heights of corporate sales and marketing offices
will only alienate the typical Internet user. To
be fully accepted by the majority of Internet
users, a business will need to participate in the
virtual communities they wish to reach. This means
that business must be willing and prepared to
enter into dialogue in an appropriate manner on
the appropriate forums. Unlike any other medium
familiar to advertisers, the Internet is fully bi-
directional -- be prepared to answer for your
product or service if it is less than 100%
satisfactory. The Internet user will not hesitate
to tell you otherwise, as well as tell the rest of
the Internet community!
A WORD OF WARNING
Most advertisers will fail at their initial
attempt at Internet-facilitated advertising. This
is not at all surprising in light of the fact that
most advertising in any medium is woefully
ineffective, mind-bogglingly boring, and
uncreative at best -- deceptive and annoying at
worst.
Why will advertisers fail when they succumb to the
seduction of the virgin fields of the Internet?
Traditional advertising will fail to achieve
results on the Internet because this virtual
community is oriented towards content. In
contrast, advertisers usually focus on image and
style -- broad archetypes delivered to mass
audiences. But the language of the Internet, for
the majority of its population, and for some time
to come, is low ASCII (Aa-Zz, 1-9 text plus a few
miscellaneous characters). More than being a
mainly text-based environment, the Internet is
first and foremost an oral culture, were the
keyboard mediates the spoken word to a complex
matrix of subcultures among users numbering in the
tens of millions. Sensitivity to Internet culture
will define success for any business entering into
this global matrix. Remember that today's Internet
arose out of a non-commercial environment. Be
forewarned -- The Internet is not television, not
the post office, and certainly not yours to do
with it as you please.
IN THE NEXT EDITION:
The next edition of this FAQ will feature
questions and answers about the ultility of Mosaic
as the first "killer app" for
the Internet-facilitated advertiser.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Strangelove (Mstrange@Fonorola.Net) is
founder and CEO of Strangelove Internet
Enterprises, Inc., publishers of THE INTERNET
BUSINESS JOURNAL, Internet Advertising Review, and
ELECTROPOLIS: Government Online. Michael writes a
regular column about the Internet in ONLINE ACCESS
and has coauthored, with Diane Kovacs, The
Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and
Academic Discussion Lists (Association of Research
Libraries, 1993, Third Edition). Michael is also
author of the new book, How to Advertise on the
Internet: An Introduction to Internet-Facilitated
Marketing. Sample copies of THE INTERNET BUSINESS
JOURNAL are available upon request. In his spare
time, Michael is completing a Ph.D at the
University of Ottawa. Stay tuned for the return of
Dr. Strangelove, coming to an Internet near you.
