From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Fri Apr 05 10:41:37 2002
Subject:Re: Filtering email names/List Status

Casey,

>I think the money is generated when you actually click on the
>ads. I don`t know if this is true for Yahoo. At other sites I visit
>their money comes from clicking on the ads and visiting the
>sponsers. I do spend about 30 minutes a week clicking on ads and
>visiting sponsers in an attempt to keep the sites I visit free. I
>also sometimes buy something from these sponsers and I use the portal
>the site provided, that way, there is a record of the transaction and
>the site get paid.
>
>Click on some of those banners folks and keep
>Yahoo free. Casey

Yes that's how it works in the short term. But let's back up a bit: If you owned a business and advertised on Yahoo, you wouldn't really care about how many hits you get; you'd care about how much merchandise you sold, right? There's an implied relationship between number of hits to a site and number of sales, but in practice, the two don't have to match up at all. Lots of people might visit your site through banner ads, yet few might actually purchase items. That means that your monthly ad bill to Yahoo would be fairly high, but your increase in sales might be zero. So, for a couple of months, Yahoo would get a big check from you, then when you realized that the banner ads weren't helping your business, you'd go elsewhere for your advertising.

The truth is, banner ads tend to produce more lurkers than buyers. That's why Yahoo and other portals are getting into financial trouble, and why they're looking for other ways to fix their bottom line.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions™ http://music.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com