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March 4th, 2004 Edition PR Insight... So you've been charged with hiring a PR firm. Or maybe it's your first day in your newly created position of "PR Director" for your company Trends Report:  Welcome to the Dangers of Banners…Again To paraphrase, we haven't learned from our history as in industry, and unfortunately we might be doomed to repeat it. Digital Thoughts:  Creating a New System It's only been 10 years since the first commercial advertisements appeared on web-pages. Good old-fashioned online marketing DentalPlans.com has become the largest dental coverage website on the internet due to good old-fashioned online marketing and promoting. Top Offers From Top Networks Top offerers form these top networks. R.O.Wise Networks, Adteractive, Digital Moses, eMarketMakers, LynxTrack and Azoogle

Published every Thursday, Digital Moses Confidential is a content-driven newsletter serving the online marketing industry. Please direct questions or comments to editor@digitalmoses.com GET YOUR COPY TODAY! To Advertise with us contact editor@digitalmoses.com

DM Confidential Classifieds   Banner Inventory Needed Looking for quality banner inventory for cpm, cpc and cpl campaigns banners@digitalmoses.com Co-Reg Publishers needed Publishers wanted for opt in, double opt in, and opt to pop placements. please contact co-reg@digitalmoses.com Experienced Online Media Buyer - Long Island.  To help grow existing web properties. CPA marketing a must.  Team player, detail-oriented, communicator.   Salary, Bonus, benefits + 401K.  Send resumes to Jenn@IntermarkMedia.com InternetJungle   -   Your one stop shop to get you download distribution. ActvieX, Bundle's, Stand Alone, POP, Email etc… If you have a product  you are looking to distribute legally and honestly through downloadable software channels. Email: dag@interenetjungle.com

Digital Thoughts:  Creating a New System By Sam Harrelson It's only been 10 years since the first commercial advertisements appeared on web-pages.  As I've remarked in past issues, it's been a remarkable ten years for an industry, full of ups and downs, bubbles and pops ( http://www.dmconfidential.com/back.htm).  However, our industry has been rather slow to develop new and attractive models of advertising and marketing in the online direct response sphere.  William Blake, in his famous work Jerusalem, writes:  I must Create a System or be enslav'd by another Man's. I will not Reason & Compare:  my business is the Create. Blake was radically independent, and created an entire set of myths to compensate for his worldview.  These myths told the story of humanity attempting to free itself from the specter of self-hood or repression by using the instrument of imagination.  This imagination is divine and the only part of humanity that survived the "fall" of Adam and Eve. Great literature has applications in all forms of life, and its application to online direct marketing is no different.  Although Blake was appealing to an awakening of the imaginative part of humanity, we can still draw a few essential truths from these lines and apply them to online marketing.  1.  Creativity is important, yet undervalued in online DR.  While we stress the ingenuity of our sphere of direct marketing, yet value ingenuity and creativity very little.  Conferences at the DMA and AdTech rarely touch on the need for new models.  Newsletters such as this one rarely make the clarion call for exciting new models for all tiers of advertisers.  Ingenuity is essential for any industry to flourish.  With an industry this new and relying on such new technologies, we must incorporate a healthy amount of entrepreneurship and ingenuity into our shared space.  Otherwise, we will wither on the vine.  2.  We must create new soluble models of online advertising/marketing.  In the ten years of direct online marketing (starting with the first banners in 1994), we have seen several models rise and become the next big things.  Those include email, pops, co-regs, and now search.  The much touted Rich Media phase never took hold in the online marketing space (many would say for good reason).  However, we need to actively search, hypothesize and find new models for advertising online.  It is true that models need time to mature and find their own identity and footing within the online marketing world.  Metrics have to be measured out, and converts have to be made.  Nevertheless, our industry must have a strong enough foundation to allow for the brightest and boldest among us to shoot for the moon and aim for heights not reached by previous models.   3.  Our business is not only to perform (reason & compare) but also to create!  As direct online advertisers and marketers, we must not only deploy campaigns and work for their success (and our profitability), but we must create.  The seemingly simple model of search took the marketing world by storm in 2003 as email did in 1999 and 2000.  There is an expectation from advertisers in our space that we must continually evaluate the metrics of the past, the lessons learned, the money made, and then invent, create and imagine the next profitable model.  That expectation is as good a reason as any for us in the direct marketing world to get our creative ducks in a row, and end our short period of complacency.  As an industry, we'd do well to take the words of Blake (and others calling for imagination) to heart.  Industries thrive on ingenuity, vision and creative responses to the market.  The market demands this sort of entrepreneurial revelation, and our industry should encourage that by looking towards the future and examining the lessons of the past. Sam Harrelson is the Co-Editor of the Digital Moses Confidential.  Please send questions/comments/suggestions to sam@digitalmoses.com return to top

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PR Insight… by Peter Shankman So you've been charged with hiring a PR firm. Or maybe it's your first day in your newly created position of "PR Director" for your company. Either way, you're about to hear the one phrase that anyone in your position comes to dread: "So when can we expect some press?" Of course, answering that is like answering, "So, when do you think we'll win the lottery?" There's no true answer. One of the best ways (if not the only way) to handle a situation like this is to sit down with your boss, or superior or client, as the case may be, and discuss the dreaded "e" word, expectations. Managing expectations may be one of the hardest jobs of a PR pro's life, after actually getting the press to listen to you. Everyone wants more, and they can't all understand why they're not the most important story in the world. Your job, before you make your first call to the media, is to explain to your superiors exactly what's achievable, what's possible, and what's completely insane. How to train upper management to be PR savvy - The short list The following list, while not set in stone, is a good starting point. Use these ideas to help convince the boss that while you might not be the feature of USA Today tomorrow, that hit in the trade journal that caters exactly to your market is a darn good start. 1) Is this important to anyone in the world outside of these walls? The fact is, while it might be the greatest day in the history of your company because you landed a $350,000 account, look at it in the scope of the world. Microsoft probably spends that much on discarded paper towels every day. While it's a great announcement, and probably worthy of a mention in the trade press that specifically covers your industry, it's not a Second Coming story. ("Second Coming stories" is an old-school newsman's term for the second coming of God, or some other major event.) 2) Is there actual news, or are you just touting nothing again? Are you releasing a product? Do you have something new? Is there something to this release that's actually going to make anyone say "Oh, check that out?" If there's nothing to the release but the appointment of a new CFO, don't expect front-page news. 3) Sometimes, the Muskegon Chronicle is more important than The New York Times. If you're announcing the start of a new employee, unless that employee is coming from AT&T where he was the CEO, don't expect play in the majors. But, what about that person's hometown? Local papers just love the "local boy makes good" angle, and might devote more space to the hiring of that person than the NY Times ever would. Plus, it introduces an entire new segment of the population to your company. No, it's not the Times, but it's not the worst thing in the world, either. 4) Six months from now still doesn't mean "now." Just because a product is on schedule to launch in six months, doesn't mean that the press release should go out now. This is called a Vapor release, and the only assurance you're going to get from it is that the reporter won't care when the product actually does ship, because he'll be too busy remembering how you led him on with a Vapor release six months ago. Always wait until the product is in hand before you start talking about it. 5) Agriculture reporters do not cover high-tech. Political reporters do not cover fashion. When the boss wants to know why you haven't sent your press release out to at least 8,000 journalists, explain that bigger doesn't always equal better. Just because you've issued it, doesn't mean they're going to write about it -- try issuing the release to only the reporters that are going to care. 6) Reaction? We don't do "reaction." Don't send out a release because your competitor sent out a release. That's called a reaction release, and is guaranteed to wind up in the trash. Unless the competition is outright lying, and you can prove it, on tape, with full motion video, let the hoopla die down before you send out your next release. 7) Because your name isn't "Sean Penn," that's why. When the boss wants to know why he isn't featured as the lead paragraph in the new press release, it's your job to explain to the boss, as delicately as possible, that although you know he's an amazing person, the world doesn't have a clue as to who he is - and leading off a release with his name, probably isn't the best way to get your story placed. The end result: Press is obtainable, the boss can be made happy, and life can move at a reasonable pace. All it takes is the managing of a few key expectations. Peter Shankman is CEO of The Geek Factory, a PR Firm in New York City with clients around the globe. The Geek Factory specializes in entertainment and consumer clients. return to top

Lovett movie review corner What if your entire reality was nothing more than an elaborately constructed lie? All of your friends, co-workers, your spouse, even your parents are merely actors; and the community in which you live is actually a vast man-made set complete with a computer-guided weather control system. Nothing in your world happens by chance - in fact, every person you've ever met, every milestone you've ever achieved, every move you've ever made has been calculated and set in motion by an unseen engineer who has been observing you from the moment you were born. Your entire existence has been manufactured and manipulated without your knowledge - and broadcast live, twenty-four hours a day, to millions of television sets across the globe. Welcome to The Truman Show, Peter Weir's oddly prophetic 1998 film that not only foreshadowed the reality television craze but brilliantly illustrated its ultimate extreme. Jim Carrey turns in the most thoughtful performance of his career as the unwitting star of the show, Truman Burbank, an insurance salesman who trudges through his meticulously staged world completely oblivious to the fact that thousands of hidden cameras are recording his every step - and yet feels an irrepressible desire to break free from the beautiful prison that he isn't even aware he's in. The script, written by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca) is provocative, darkly comic, and played to perfection by Carrey as well as an understated supporting cast that includes Laura Linney as Truman's product-hawking wife, Meryl; Noel Emmerich as his trusty six-pack toting buddy, Marlon; and Ed Harris as the visionary mastermind behind it all, Christof, who learns that no matter how carefully orchestrated we want life to be, true reality is defined by its unpredictable nature. Evan Lovett is a Syndication Coordinator at eMarketMakers, elovett@emarketmakers.com

Trends Report:  Welcome to the Dangers of Banners…Again by Sam Harrelson To paraphrase, we haven't learned from our history as in industry, and unfortunately we might be doomed to repeat it.  While pops and email have received the bulk of consumer, governmental and media disdain, a danger looms constantly on the periphery of our industry.  We are all familiar with the fraud-wrought ppc market and how this marketing approach can be manipulated to produce inflated statistics and results.  However, the potentially fraud-laden banner market has been able to maintain its below-the-radar status, even though it has an impact just as deep as the other models in terms of its potential damage to advertisers interested in our space. For the most part, large portals and networks offering banner ads are more than reputable and offer a good service to both advertiser and publisher.  These sites have long been a foundation for the online direct response space, and still provide quality ads for website placements, benefiting both publishers and advertisers.  However, the networks composed of smaller sites and publishers do have a recognizable level of fraud that the market needs to shine a light on for its own good.   In the past, banners lost favor with many advertisers due to shady publishers who ran the ads on their sites and performed less-than-honest tactics to inflate numbers.  Such practices included incentivized clicks, mechanical clicks, popping the click path, and placing the banner on sites that were not approved by the advertiser.  These practices were easy to carry out, hard to track, and ultimately a set-back to online direct response marketing because many top-tier advertisers became disillusioned with the space and decided to spend their advertising and media-buying dollars elsewhere.  After the bubble burst, those of us in the online direct marketing world did somewhat of a double-take on our practices and had the best intentions to have a reform that would insure the long-term culpability of our industry.  However, like bulk commercial email and pops, the banner space hasn't learned much from the past, even though that past is very recent.  There is still a good deal of fraud, shady practices, and downright untruthful performances in the banner sphere of direct online marketing at the present.  These practices breed mistrust with clients, whether you have a legit website that honors placement preferences and marketing agendas or don't.  For the most part, it is hard for the advertiser to track where these bad-practices are being generated, which is frustrating for advertisers and leads to a general feeling of uneasiness.  That we allow this behavior to transpire in the industry without much discussion, and haven't learned from the past does not bode well for our sector of direct marketing. Even when dealing with larger sites that are established and have a good reputation for banner placements and low-frequencies of fraudulent clicks, there is still a feeling of the game being rigged against the advertiser.  Even with the implied transparency that these larger sites offer, there is still the air of mystery as to where an advertiser's banner might end up.  With the thousands of affiliates composing these sites, the oversight judging these sites is minimal at best.  What is the solution to this trend that has been an unspoken part of the industry for so long?  There is a need for real transparency, including a technology that can successfully parse the logs and allow advertisers to see  exactly where the traffic is coming from, where their banners are being placed and exactly which affiliates are placing them. Sam Harrelson is co-editor of the Digital Moses Confidential.  Please send any comments or questions to sam@digitalmoses.com   return to top

Banners of all sizes, mini-sites, pops, splash pages, email newsletters, animated interactive banners. 24 hour turn-around. Contact Michael at mm@maridium.com AOL IM: maridium

Top Offers Top Networks Adteractive, Inc. Top Offers:   New and Improved DirectEducation.net :   $15.00 CPA EDU lead! - Action: Submit a Lead - CPA: contact us - Conversion:  7-11% from the click. ($1.00-$1.50+ EPC) - Real-time reporting, no charge backs. Note: All major Online Universities work with DirectEducation - these brands, the high CPA along with a great site design make this one of the best EDU deals out there.     LowRateSource.com : $7.50 - 5 Drop Downs Mortgage Form! - Action: 5 Drop Downs, Submit any Combination of Page 1! - CPA:  Contact us - Conversion:  20-30% from the click. ($1.50-$2.00+ EPC) - Real-time reporting, no charge backs. Note: Lowratesource offers the highest bounty and conversion for this type of mortgage offer. Try the original 5 drop down only deal - great creative available.     AllianceWarranty.com : $6.00 -  Short form Auto Warranty! Action: Submit Page 1! - CPA:  $6.00 - Conversion:  20-30% from the click. ($1.00-$1.50+ EPC) - Real-time reporting, no charge backs. Note: This is the highest converting Debt deal available. Unlimited Inventory. Try it  - you will like it!     FastCashNet.com : $6.50 - One Page Cash Advance!  - Action: Submit Page 1! - CPA:  $6.00 - Conversion:  20-30% from the click. ($1.00-$1.50+ EPC) - Real-time reporting, no charge backs. Note: This is the highest converting Debt deal available. Unlimited Inventory. Try it  - you will like it!   Other clients include Columbia House, Universtiy of Phoenix,  iWon, AIU, Kennedy Western, Netflix, Chase, Discover, Ameriquest and more!   All at the guaranteed highest payouts around. Come join the original Ad R.O.Wise Networks Fast payments, exceptional affiliate support, exclusive offers, and unique creatives. We offer custom bounties for volume above our  published rates.  Contact an R.O.Wise rep to discuss all our offers.  Join our  rapidly expanding  network of web and email publishers today.   eDiets CPA: $40 "Banners & Pops only" The TOP Atkins Diet offer is back. If you haven't run this already, you are missing out. With the current low carb crave, this is the best converting diet offer we ever had. We're paying you for every credit card sign up.   Home Academics Exclusive CPA: $12 Home Academics brings you the top degrees and certification classes from fully accredited online universities. You can choose from programs in: Business, Engineering, Healthcare, Finance, Marketing, Technology & More!  We are paying out $12 for a full university lead.    Easy Auto Financing Exclusive CPA: $6.50 (increased bounty) Easyautofinancing.com is the leader in providing finance solutions to individuals with any credit situation. Our application is short, free and takes only 1 minute to complete.   Ipsos Exclusive "Banners & Pops only" CPA:   $2  Great Converting Survey Panel The Ipsos i-Say Panel, an online survey panel.  Members will be automatically entered into Ipsos "New Member" Sweepstakes for $1,000! Each time they complete a survey, they will have a chance to win cash &/or prizes. In addition, each month they're on their panel, they'll be entered into their monthly half & half draw for $250 and an additional $250 is donated to the charity of their choice.   My mortgage helper Exclusive CPA:   $5  30% conversion from the click Hot creatives and easy conversion for exclusive mortgage offer.  Five simple drop down fields on first page for an easyconversion.  We pay on 100% of all leads   eMarketMakers Top Offers: Kaplan - Extremely Professional Education offer from Kaplan! For both online and offline degrees. Performs really well to all demographics! Degrees include Business, Criminal Justice and Financial Planning. 1-page form pays $12 CPA. Auto-Dealers USA: EXCLUSIVE, best performing AutoQuote site on the net. Pays $4.50 on completion of two-minute form. Converts between 8% to 14% off of Clicks. Great new March Madness creative! American Life Direct Applications: A great offer just got better! The only online life insurance offer where you get paid off 4 fields on the first page! $3 for 4 fields! Now, the ONLY online life insurance company with 10-minute (or less) approval, is an even better than ever. eTerm - Great NEW CPC Term Life Insurance offer! Very good creative guarantees to generate a LOT of clicks! Guaranteed CPC Winner! Many other new CPC's offers now available. Co-Registration Offers (Opt-Ins; Opt-Outs; Custom Co-Reg) - Over 30 Co-Reg offers to choose from. Paying up to $0.03 for opt-outs! Custom co-reg deals, opt-ins... you name it! Inquire at info@emarketmakers.com   Exclusive Azoogle Ads.com Offers: #622    *NEW*   EducationProvider .com   CPA:      $12.50        Current Stats: $1. 2 5   eCPC EducationProvider brings all of the top online schools together onto a single site - offering users lots of information about many different schools and programs. This offer tracks in realtime with no chargebacks. #448 Find Romance - The BEST Performing Dating Deal! CPA:      $3.45 Current Stats : $0.60 - $0.80   eCPC, 18% conversion from the click You will be paid on GROSS leads for only the FIRST PAGE of the registration. There are NO chargebacks. This offer is converting at as much as $0.80 eCPC, whereas other dating offers have a hard time hitting $0.20 eCPC. If you have done well with dating offers in the past, you MUST run this offer. Find Romance is an offline dating service that matches real singles with one another, this is NOT an online dating site. #426 Extended Warranty Provider     CPA:   $ 6 . 00   Current Stats: 0.80 eCPC, 16% conversion from the click Extended Warranty Provider is a VERY easy Lead Gen offer where the consumer only needs to fill out the first page of the registration to obtain a FREE Quote on extended warranty for their vehicle. This offer pays on Gross leads in Realtime # 588     AudioBookClub!   CPA:     $20.00   Current Stats: $ 1 . 00   eCPC,    5 % conversion   >From the click . An exclusive new advertiser, it pays out on gross leads, in real-time with no chargebacks. Consumers are offered 4 audio books for only .99 cents, with a free player. #453 LowRateAdvisors – 5 drop downs, 1st page lead! CPA:      $ 7.50 Current Stats: $2.00   eCPC   , 20% conversion from the click. All that is required for a lead is for the user to select from the 5 dropdowns on the landing page and you will be paid the CPA. LowRateAdvisors allows users to save money on their mortgage, and other debts they may have. This is by far THE EASIEST lead form that you can possibly have. No further action from the user is required for you to be paid, just the 5 drop-downs.     LynxTrack  Top Offers: Auction Your Junk and Convert It to Cash     Payout: $23 CPA Everyone has a garage full of junk. Now it's easier than ever to convert your junk into cash! Learn how with this $99.95 kit for only $19.95 (includes a $495 website building kit too!). Current conversion rates are between 2.6% and 5.8% off the click, with an eCPC ranging from $0.72-$1.52!   $20 Gift Card (Multiple Brands)   Payout $11.50 CPA   Great conversions, high income can be yours! Our '$20 GiftCard' offers are hotter than ever, and converting like crazy. There's a unique offer for virtually every lifestyle, and every online consumer profile imaginable: JCPenney, Bath & Body Works, Applebee's, Bed Bath & Beyond, KB Toys, WalMart, Foot Locker and more! Combined conversions for these offers currently average around 1.3% off the click -- but they are HUGE clickers (depending on the list of course)! In fact, we've seen them click as high as 65% of opens! (Conversion range is .7% to 1.8% off the click, 30% to 65% click rate on opens.)   GEVALIA  $82 retail value for only $14.95. PAYOUT: $7.00 CPA This offer includes programmable coffee maker, SS Travel Mug, SS scoop, and two boxes of famous Gevalia. Terrific value!   Gevalia has been a solid performer, year in and year out. Schedule this offer to your file every 2 to 3 months! NEW!  FREE Bath & Body Works Gift Card -- $20 value   PAYOUT: $11.50 CPA Attention Moms -- Pamper Yourself!  Can be used at any Bath & Body Works store, for any merchandise.  Expect .7% - 1.8% off the click, with a VERY high click rate (from 30%-65% of opens!)   Check out this offer now!   FREECDSUPERSTORE: Websters 2004 – FREE!  Payout: 30% Rev Share Expect numbers above $2 eCPC!   Millenium edition contains tens of thousands of videos, photos, animations and sound files.  Great creative and high conversions!   Contacts: Doug Walker  310.861.8788  doug@hydragroup.com   AIM: Camden110 Scott Steele  310.861.8788  scott@hydragroup.com   AIM: Production71 Zac Brandenberg  310.861.8788  zac@hydragroup.com  AIM: zzllbb     DigitalMoseS  Top Offers: Degreematch - $4.00 CPL: DM Exclusive, this campaign pays on the First Page, 7-8 fields, No Scrubs!   Net Money Wizard  - $10.00 CPL: Accepts leads From all 50 states, accepts home purchase leads that others don't, which account for about 40% of all conversions, no chargebacks! You will get paid on anybody that comes in and fills out the form. 18%-22% click to conversion.   NMW Cash Advance - $5.60 CPL: Short, one-step form - No chargebacks!  Over 20% click to conversion.  This is a high-volume, fast-growing market!   Robert G. Allen - $40 CPA - This offer features the advice of the very well known Robert G. Allen. It has been converting around 1.3%. This is a high payout, and ECPM's are great! Cost to end user is $39.95.   BestDegreeGuide - a 100 page plus complimentary ebook. Download is free, and no registration is required. test it today Contact: Dave Paynter, dave@digitalmoses.com  201.394.6191 for additional information

Good old-fashioned online marketing By Evan Weber DentalPlans.com has become the largest dental coverage website on the internet due to good old-fashioned online marketing and promoting.  We made a conscious decision sometime early in 2003 to ‘get away' from sending opt-in emails because of the rapidly changing landscape of internet marketing.  Yes, it's easy to deploy millions of emails per day with various legitimate email marketing outfits, but we were looking for more long-term, sustainable traffic as opposed to the ‘quick fix' email provides.   And, with the new Can-Spam laws, there was just too much headache associated with mailing huge volume on a continual basis.  So, we focused much of our efforts on our affiliate program and search engine traffic. DentalPlans.com has maintained and operated a successful affiliate program for almost 4 years.  We have 2 full-time affiliate managers that handle all of our in-house affiliates as well as the affiliates brought to us by third-party companies like Commission Junction and Befree.  The great thing about having a large affiliate base is that the traffic your affiliates generate for your site becomes the foundation that never goes away and keeps producing.  The key is to recruit more and more affiliates and get them to produce sales/leads to the best of their ability for your company.  Where do you find these great affiliates you may ask?  Well, there are a few places you can look.  But first, you have to have your offer/product where it needs to be conversion-wise so your affiliates will make money promoting your offer.  You can have a great product, but if your website is lacking in design or functionality for the user, then your affiliates will not make the return on investment they were looking for and move on to try something else. First place to look for affiliates without a doubt is www.ABestWeb.com.  This website, owned by a really cool guy named Haiko, is truly a marvel.  We opened our own ‘forum' there several months ago and have really benefited From the exposure it gave our program.  Having your own branded forum on this site allows affiliates to communicate freely about your program to your affiliate manager as well as to other affiliates that represent your program and are having success or issues.  The successful affiliates relate their stories of how well they are doing with your program to the entire affiliate community, which encourages others to join your program.  It also allows them to vent their displeasure with your program and suggest ways to make your program better.  Which you had better listen to or else! If you can't go out and hire full-time affiliate managers to run your program, you can hire what's called an affiliate consultant.  Of course, another place to find good affiliates is in the big affiliate networks like CJ or Linkshare.  In fact, just being one of their advertisers will bring affiliates to you, especially if the offer is unique and converts well. The other way to get your offer out there would have to be the search engines.  Google and Overture are the 2 largest and best producing pay-per-click search engines.  As far as the smaller ppc search engines, all I can says is they haven't worked too well for us. So to summarize, build up your affiliate program, make your website the best it can be, and initiate keywords campaigns and you are sure to drive traffic to your site and make your CEO a happy camper!  Any question, please do not hesitate to call me. Evan Weber, Director of Marketing DentalPlans.com, Inc. evan@dentalplans.com 954-923-1487 x.105 return to top

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