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  Web User SurveyInternet StatisticsWho's MarketingHow Users Find the WebSound Internet AdviceMarketing with FAQsSponsor & Pay LinksUsenet AdvertisingE-mail SignaturesHow To Sell CakeRules for SuccessWho is SucceedingAbout the AuthorWeb User Survey A survey of demographics and buying behaviors of Web users found at the Georgia Institute of Technology. From the survey, a breakdown: Gender: 82% Male 16% FemaleAverage age: 35 Average income: $69,000 Marital: 46% single 50% marriedEducation: 61% college graduates Misc: 24% with 2 or more dependents, 86% No. American 10% EuropeanWhat do Webbies do on the Web? Browsing: 83% Entertainment:57% Work/Business: 50% Business research: 38% Academic research: 34% Shopping: 11%.  Web Statistics Courtesy of ActivMedia, the following statistics are of marketers offering non-Internet related products or services. (Web development services are not likely to be included.) THE NUMBER of online marketers has grown exponentially in the last year. Open Market Commercial Sites Index listed 588 commercial WWW sites at the end of September, 1994. As of April 19, 1996, that number stands at 25,595. How's Business? From the same survey, average sales figures total $3,260 per month per marketer. Of that, 21% had sales greater than $10,000 generated via the Web during the prior month. Of those, 2% generated more than $100,000 with !% generating more than $1 million from their site. Companies with a major presence on private online services tend to sell more there than on the World Wide Web currently. However, costs tend to be higher. Many companies maintain presences on private online and Internet sites to reach a wider audience. ??????Who's Marketing? Who's Marketing What? Two of the first places to list your marketing page, and sites that answer this question are: MecklerwebColorado State Universityholy  How users find out about the WWW: Most users find out about the WWW from other Web pages (94.28%). Other popular sources are friends (53.12%), magazines (64.94%) and Usenet (46.13%). More users in Europe find out about the WWW from Usenet than do users in the U.S. (4.32% more). More users in the U.S. find out about the WWW from friends (7.36% more) and other sources (4.32% more). Fewer weekend users find out about the WWW from friends than do weekday users (5.01% less). A smaller percentage of females find out about the WWW from Usenet (37.06% vs. 50.07%) and magazines (59.12% vs. 66.88%) than do males. These figures are composites. Many differ between hemispheres and between weekdays and weekends. "If you can't  sell it, keep sitting on it before you give it away" are the only words I recall of a raunchy blues song reflecting conventional pre-Internet wisdom. Nothing, however, turns browsers into buyers faster than free samples, and more than a few companies have made their fortunes online by giving away free samples.I am using a freely-downloaded Netscape browser and may soon pay $5,000 for a not-so-free Netscape Commerce Server. Innumerable hard disks contain the freely-downloaded virus scanner from the premier anti-virus company on the Net, McAfee, which got that way by giving away its software and charging for site licenses. Do you have any idea how much companies are paying for those ads we view when we freely use Yahoo, GNN, and other search engines to find what we are looking for? Seems like the latest Internet wisdom is nothing more than some of the oldest: It is better to give than to receive.  Just the FAQs In addition to registering with all the search engines, find and establish links to FAQ and list providers. Many people have taken it upon themselves to keep lists of Frequently Asked Questions and resources on a particular topic. Our skate page is listed on the inline skating FAQ; our dog figurines page is listed on the canines FAQ, etc. And then return the favor for your browsers. Offer them access to that same page that listed you, even if they include listings of your competitors. $$$$Pay Links Links have become a business in itself. One company promises to pay us $20 a month for each link we install to each of their clients' Web page. They charge the client $25, I believe. Their clients? Intrinsically boring sites such as banks, insurance companies and the like who need to pay for traffic. Usenet  advertising is generally frowned upon, prohibited and/or downright dangerous to your server as well as your business. Advertise once on a Usenet and you are likely to get "told." Advertise twice and you will be flamed. Advertise thrice and risk having your server swamped with hate mail and your Internet account disconnected. Still, you can advertise on Usenet if you remember the addage: it is better to give than to receive. What have you to give? Information. As a shopkeeper, you are an expert. Yes, of course you are! Give expert advice often in response to a posted question together with your accreditation your site location! Sign Here Don't forget the simple addition of a signature to your e-mail messages. I include an ad for GUI 'N Da Hood in the "signature" of every e-mail I send. Cake & Icing There are two ways to market a chocolate cake, I recall from an advertising class in 1963. One is to market a recipe favored by nine out of ten palates. The other is to market a recipe favored by one out of ten palates. The former is the choice of mega- marketers with shelf space galore. The latter is often a void to be filled by niche marketers who sometimes grow into mega-marketers themselves. The Web is ideal for seat-of-the-pants niche marketers. Why? Low startup. Low overhead. Low inventory. Very direct and inexpensive marketing. 3Rules for Success The three rules of becoming a successful site are: Content, content, and content. Under no circumstance should a browser leave your site wondering "Where's the beef?" Fulfill your promise and fulfill it fast. Do not permit fancy graphics and formatting to detract from the substance. About the Author In addition to being an Internet Marketing Consultant, Michael Devlyn is also the owner of GUI 'N Da Hood , the Net's eclectic mall with room for big imaginations and small budgets. Michael can be reached by e-mail at gui@dnai.com, or by telephone at 510.655.3450. GUI 'N Da Hood's Eclectic Mall Site Promoter, step-by-step Arab World & Islamic ResourcesMuttsUp! Find Your Dog!Home of Midnight Surfer CoffeeSkates Away Has Everything!Telegraph Avenue CraftsGigglebyteLAX LacrosseUp Yours! So Many Suspenders!Softwear, stand-out computer ties |
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30 Million Penguins   ow to find one among thirty million penguins? This is the dilemma of the Internet marketer. To simply be on the Internet among thirty million others is hardly the kind of attention conducive to successful marketing. Can we improve the odds affordably? What works what doesn'tand for whom?Internet marketing generally means via the World Wide Web. A Web page or an entire Web catalogue, is a fairly straightforward proposition. Large and small graphics, click and fill shopping baskets, even secure and automatic credit card transactions are all tried and true technologies. Internet marketing usually accrues the most benefits to small and medium-size concerns. Reasoning: it is a new market place where companies can become known through advertising and services. Larger companies already have a presence in traditional market places. Marketing can take several forms, from simple advertising to immediate product delivery. If your product is essentially data, e.g. computer software or survey information, delivery can be as automatic and immediate as a vending machine. What works? What sells? A few goods and services are naturals for the Net, others require more creativity. What do you want from the Internet in the first place? Will that aim be worth the effort necessary to be successful? Make no mistake, in lieu of money, effort is absolutely essential to successfully market on the Internet. Think not for a moment that all you need is a Web page and the world will flock to your door. Indeed, this is one area where money without effort may not be worth, well, the money. Selling ItWhat do the survey figures suggest? Lots of well-heeled people on the Web who hate to shop? Let's put that to work for us. Like it or not, people have to shop. Make it easy. Make it convenient. Utilize the advantage of desktop shopping. Offer convenient payment and quick delivery. Save male shoppers the time and hassle of going to the mall and they will lavish money on you. For many women, going to the mall is a treat, not a hassle. Women need to feel more related, more connected to the experience of shopping. For women, shopping in the real world is often a social experience. This may mean an actual voice to speak with or referrals from friends or acquaintances. As a man, I am not in my element discussing the shopping preferences of women and will end this thread with this limited advice: make women comfortable shopping with you. Gain their trust. Encourage their involvement. Explain products and policies clearly. Offer unusual merchandise.
Ready to consider marketing?Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Your first problem is inertia. Only 11% of Webbies shop on the Web. Let's start with that bit of dismal information and go from there. According to surveys, Webbies think first about browsing, secondly about entertainment, and last about shopping. Catch them browsing. Entertain them. Turn them into shoppers. How? Ah, that is the stuff of creativity and genius. When you see it done you say to yourself "How simple! I could have thought of that!" Well, now's your chance to think of it. Specific strategies for capturing, entertaining and selling browsers require more imagination than money. What are you selling? What is intrinsically entertaining about your product? What pun, game, musical connection or characters easily tie in with your product or service? What kind of hypertext links can you make? Specific StrategiesAn interesting, curious or catchy name for your location helps. For the name of our mall, we choose "GUI 'N Da Hood" as both catchy and descriptive. As a Web site, we represent our neighbor-"HOOD" employing a Graphic User Interface. Our stores similarly strive for catchy yet descriptive names that get noticed in search lists. One entertaining commercial site is The Speak to Me Catalogue, featuring talking toothbrushes, key chains, calculators, etc. Each product may be sound-tested online before you buy, including the Brushy-Brushy toothbrush for children. A perfect marriage of entertainment and commerce. Entertainment comes in many forms. We have recently added comics to our site, and plan to add more. Although results from the hit counter are gratifying, it is too early to evaluate the wisdom of this move. What Have You Got To Give?You're probably an expert at something. Give expert advice. Use your Web page to ballyhoo your expertise and give away your knowledge in whatever format works for you. An author recently inquired about marketing her book about empowering women who have cancer to take control over their therapy basically an autobiography of becoming expert in that subject. What has she to give away? Paragraphs and even chapters from her book.Cindy Tittle Moore began collecting Internet pet information in 1992. Today she maintains one of the largest pet indexes on the Net, as well as many of their FAQs. In Cindy's case, her passion for animals turned into expertise. ConnectingMany Webbies are simply too busy to locate related interests. Others haven't the foggiest idea where to look. Some are lonely, self-centered and/or socially awkward. What are they seeking online? Connections. The kind of connections lacking in their non-cyber lives. We know this from the explosive growth of the chat rooms on AOL and other online services as well as IRCs. How do we make this work for us? Your business may be providing connections. Want to meet fellow skaters in Walnut Creek? Perhaps sister quilters in Orem, Utah? Connections. What about a subject-specific calendar? For example, list each bluegrass performance in the Western US by artist, date, city and theater. Provide and profit. Hand-holding. Be prepared to do much more customer hand-holding than you ever dreamed. Online shopping may be mysterious and scary to a large number of people. On the other hand, some form of hand-holding may be just your product your ticket to fame and fortune. Dread shopping online? Call Wanda for free phobia counseling! And then shop at the sites that pay Wanda for referrals.What to SellWhat to sell? Price and well-known brands. We bought a Sony 15 monitor from an Internet marketer in Massachusetts (3,000 miles away) for $30 less (including shipping) than was offered by the local CompUSA. No question it was the same thing. An Internet marketer is often in a position to offer the best price. He or she may have problems with inventory and delivery but rarely with price. We are informed that the cheapest seller of Macintosh hardware is a high school student in Florida who employs his classmates to ship from his garage the products he sells on the Web. Travel sells well on the Web. In fact, according to a recent ActivMedia survey (bottom of page) travel is the best selling item on the Web. Remembering the pies her Oregon grandmother made, a young browser took her memories to the search engine where she found GUI's offering of huckleberry jam. Huckleberry jam actually brings us back to our penguins. As much as we like the stuff, we never thought we would sell much huckleberry jam. Why include it in our product menu? It is another way of luring customers to our mall along with rollerblades, lacrosse, suspenders, dog figures, folk crafts, comics, etc. Each item catches a different eye for a different reason. The result is a lot of traffic.Ever go to the supermarket for one or two items and walk out with bags full of other things? Ours is the same idea. "Hey, I haven't tasted that since I was a kid! But, wow, look at those skates!" The connection with penguins? Just another way to make your penguin stand out. 30 million penguins is no less a problem for million dollar marketers than it is for you. While many deep pocket marketers spend fortunes advertising at the top of search engines, the search results themselves make no distinction between Betty's Boutique and the Mega Mall. Each is selling the same widget, Betty's usually for less. So far, search engines are fairly egalitarian, as are the home pages they find. That is, your store can look at least as good as the Mega Mall. Linking PenguinsWhat you cannot do as well as Mega Shopping Network is pay for hypertext-ad links. Here, you must get creative before the big fish swallow you. You must become part of a bigger fish by mutually linking with many other little fish. What other little fish? Related traffic sites. Remember, most browsers find their way to one Web site from another. That means links. Our gourmet page sells coffee, Pacific Northwest wild berry products, and garlic products from Gilroy. We solicited mutual links with two complementary but not competitive vendors the Imperial Salmon House in British Columbia and a maple syrup vendor in Quebec. Our skate shop has mutual links with a bicycle shop in Florida and a music mall in Ohio. We also added a link with a mystery writer with two rollerblading sleuths.If you have the bucks, incidentally, a presence on a large service provider such as Prodigy or CompuServe may be warranted. Last I checked, their fees for this started at $10,000 with a fat percentage of sales. Finally, I refer you to a couple of comprehensive publications on the issue: How to Advertise on the Internet by Michael Strangelove and Guerilla Marketing Online by Jay Conrad Levinson and Charles Rubin. Remember: Provide and prosper! |
 Who is SucceedingReproduced by permission of the author, ActivMedia, Inc. Telephone: 800.539.9481 FEWER THAN half a billion dollars in revenues were generated on the Web during 1995. Up 2100% over 1994. A similar growth rate would bring Web sales to $8 billion in 1996. Currently, most online revenues are divided among fewer than a thousand companies. Those who would like to be among the few who split that pot would do well to read Case Studies of Successful Online Marketers. |
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 Below are percentages of online marketers with some sales the previous month, by sector: Computer: 42% Consumer: 57% Manufacturing/Other: 22% Business/Professional: 29% Publishing/Media: 43% Real Estate: 27% Travel: 71% |
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