

  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-facili-
  tated advertising. This is not at all surprising in light of the fact 
  that most advertising in any medium is woefully ineffective, mind-boggl-
  ingly 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). 

