GOODIES TO GO! ™
November 29, 1999 — Newsletter #56

Greetings, Weekend Silicon Warriors,

I’m writing this newsletter on Black Friday, the day
retailers traditionally go “into the black”. This morning
I heard that the average US shopper buys 25 Christmas
presents for 10 different people from nine stores. I don’t
know that I’ll buy 25, but I do know that I won’t visit one
store. This year, I’m an online guy. CBS Marketwatch.com is
predicting that over 23 million people will do just what
I’m doing.

I also think this year I’m going to buy my wife a millennium
gift. Yes, I know it’s a retailer-created gimmick, but who
cares? Tis’ better to give than to receive.

Did you hear…

According to ZDNet, during the month of October, the Web
attained one billion hits per day. Gosh!

Chenming Hu, a professor electrical engineering and
computer sciences at the University of California, Berkeley
has apparently set a new world record. He’s created a new
form of transistor semiconductor that will, supposedly,
hold 400 times the data of previous chips. If it’s the case,
look for future CPU’s to make the current 500Mhz versions
look like snails in molasses.

It seems I can’t get through two newsletters without warning
of a new virus. Well, here’s another one for you. Prilissa
is a new Trojan Horse virus that works somewhat like Melissa,
but will lie dormant until Christmas when it explodes and
does damage. Go to your virus protection software home page
and get the latest updates to check your machine.

Didn’t your mother tell you that e-mail wasn’t secure?!?! If
not, here’s more proof. Former emphasis on former Internet
Service provider and online bookseller Interloc Inc, has been
told to pay a quarter million US in fines after being found
guilty of intercepting e-mails and recording user’s passwords.
That’s scary, huh?

Now onto today’s topic…

It was a few years ago, but I remember taking what amounted
to a basic business class. The professor was great in that
she taught by asking questions and then directed the
student’s answers down the correct path. She asked:

“Would you pay a dollar for a Snickers candy bar?”

The immediate answer was “no” because Snickers candy bars
were only 50 cents. Then she added:

“What if someone brought it to you?”

A couple of us kept our “no” answer, but many changed their
mind. It was worth 50 cents to not deal with the hassle of
getting up and buying a candy bar, when for only double the
price someone would bring it to you.

She then asked:

“Would you like to hear a commercial every time you make
a phone call?”

Again, the rousing chorus of “no”.

“What if the cost of the call, thus your bill, was cut in
half if only you listened to a five second ad when you made
the call?”

Uhhhhh…yeah. OK.

Now we return to present day. I was going through my e-mail
this morning and there it was. Each 200 new e-mails contains
at least one request for me to package up the Goodies site
and make it available for download so the pages could be
read off line. I always answer no because that would mean
only one visit to the site to download the items. That
would mean only one viewing of my banner ads. That would
mean a severe drop in banner ad views, advertisers drop
out, no money coming in to pay for servers, Goodies
becomes a pay-for site.

Would you rather see no banner ads and pay for HTML
Goodies, or would you rather see banner ads and have
HTML Goodies remain free to all?

Would you pay a dollar for a Snickers bar?

As Jerry Reed sang in his song “U.S. Male”, I said all that
to say all this…

The Web is a place where advertising abounds and as much as
people complain about the number of banner ads, I’m not so
sure they would want the alternative. As I stress again and
again, to run a serious domain on the Web is rather expensive.
Those banner ads keep it all free to you.

What I have always wanted to know is how people would react
if the advertising banner shoe were on the other foot. What
if you, the end user, could have banner ads work in your favor?
What if you could basically do what I do and post banner ads
to help pay for the things you do on the Web? Sure, you hate
looking at banner ads…but would you use them?

Would you listen to the five-second advertisement before
making that phone call in order to drop your bill?

First you paid to use e-mail. Then came the free e-mails like
Hotmail and Yahoo mail. Now the progression continues. You
can get paid to send e-mail.

A Denver-based company named Epidemic Marketing has decided
to try just that. If you sign up with Epidemic, your e-mail
will be sent with an advertisement attached to it. If the
recipient of the e-mail clicks on the advertiser’s
link…you get money.

Sounds like a deal, huh? Would you do it?

Furthermore, Epidemic Marketing offers the ability to set
up what they call “epiGroups”. This is intended to capitalize
(no pun intended) on group buying power. For instance, a
middle school can make it so that every single e-mail that
leaves their server carries the ads. All the money they make
will go towards helping the school. It’s an e-mail fund-raiser.

Epidemic Marketing CEO Kelly Wanser puts her spin on the
concept by stating: “This empowers individual e-mail users
to share in advertising and direct marketing revenue.”

Is there a down side? I think so.

To begin with, you need to download a small program so that
Epidemic can have access to your e-mail so that it can attach
the ads. They claim your content is safe. I have no reason
to not believe the company, but it still makes me a
little nervous. They also claim they’ll not know who the
recipient will be. Hmmm…

Once the ad leaves Epidemic, it’s really up to you who will
get it. Will Epidemic allow pornographic sites to advertise?
If so how will that look when you send an e-mail letter to
your five-year-old niece in Baltimore?

Can anyone else see groups of students getting together and
sending massive amounts of e-mail around the University hub
each clicking on whatever happens to show up in their
mailboxes just to get the cash?

Can anyone else see this becoming a spam-creator? I can just
see my e-mail box filling with “Please click this link”
subject lines from young people trying to make their money.

And really…how much cash can you make? I have three sources
that each reported this story, USA TODAY Tech, CBS News, and
CBS Marketwatch so I am pretty sure this is a legitimate deal.
What I couldn’t find was Epidemic Marketing. The company
started up in April, but doesn’t yet have a presence on
the Web, at least not one that I could find. I want to know
how much you really make (or get taken off of your ISP bill)
for using the service.

I’m going to base my cash-flow thinking on another similar
deal, Bannermania. This is much the same as described above.
You put a Bannermania banner on your site and every time
someone clicks on it, you get a penny.

Let’s pretend that a penny is the sum Epidemic Marketing
is offering for a click. I would actually be floored if it
was more. Taking the normal $20 fee to sign up for an ISP,
you would need to have 2000 click-throughs to break even.
I would suggest that even the most hardened group of college
students would give up on trying to do that once a month.

So, now we come to the realization that you won’t get your
e-mail for free, but you might get a buck or two off a month.
However, in the process of getting your buck, you’ve provided
Epidemic Marketing with a great deal more cash. If they’re
giving you a penny for the click through, I’ll guess they’re
getting at least the same if not more.

Is it worth it to you? Would you attach advertisements to
your e-mail? If what I describe above is true, many of you
might still stand by your guns and say no.

But this is only the beginning. Soon advertising deals will
be struck between ISP’s and businesses that actually will
allow you to get your e-mail for free, or better yet you
make a little bread. You get $20 a month to put in your pocket
and the ISP gets $40 from your reader’s clicks. It’s going to
happen. Maybe Epidemic Marketing is just that: Free e-mail
plus cash. I doubt it but what if it is?

What if attaching advertisements to your e-mail could actually
make you a few bucks. Then what?

Would you pay a dollar for a Snickers bar?

Would you attach advertisements to your e-mail for profit?

Is that your final answer?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That’s that. Thanks for reading. Last week’s newsletter
produced a ton of e-mail. I can’t wait to see what happens
with this puppy.

Joe Burns, Ph.D.

And Remember: You’ve heard the term “slush fund” referring
to extra money set aside by politicians. You may think that
“slush” means icy water. Nope. It comes from a time when
sailors would cook all their pork before leaving for sea.
The pork was put into barrels and covered with pork fat
known as “slush”. After the sailing trip had ended,
the sailors sold the slush for a few extra bucks they
called…a slush fund.