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On Tue, 4 Oct 1994 jvncnet!marketplace.com!owner-online-news@dowv wrote:

> To: online-news@marketplace.com
> From: Edward Vielmetti 
> Subject: Re: What's a Fair Price for Sponsors?
 
>    Howdy!  I'm co-editor of an e-pub of general interest to business-minded
>    readers.  It turns out our angle seems to be of medium high interest to some
>    potential sponsors.   We're estimating 2,000 gentle readers will subscribe to
>    our free pub  in our first three months on-line.  Any ideas on how to
>    establish a fair price for sponsors?
    
>    One clue:  2K per issue seems high to several of the folks we've talked with.

Actually, I was surprised at the low estimate.  Business publications are
usually quite hot.  In mailing list form, you could reach 2000 very
quickly.  Beyond that, you may want to distribute as a newsgroup (1
posting per site vs. one posting per reader).  Offer the publication in
e-mail, newsgroup, and Mosaic form.
 
> Somewhere between a penny and a nickel per reader per issue sounds right -
> that would be between $20 and $100 per issue (or $260-$1300 for a 3 month
> gig).  That's a cost of somewhere between $10 and $50 per thousand readers.

When yellow pages service was started in the U.K., they charged a "hit
fee".  There was a set-up fee (about $100) and each "hit" was worth 50 cents.

Add a 1 paragraph "to get more" at the end, using your pop and address. 
You forward the queries to the sponsor, they pay a fee.  What they are
willing to pay depends on what they are selling and how much follow-up is
required.  It's kind of like a "reader service card".  If you are generating
orders for a product costing $30 each, or producing highly qualified
buyers who order $100 worth with one followup reply, a 5% "commission"
is in order.  Figure about $1 per "hit".

> Cost per thousand users is going to be less than a radio spot,
> but since it's more targetted you should be able to get more,
> but since people get cranky about seeing too much crap in their
> mailbox you have to be careful.

Make ad placement strategic.  If the story is about Microsoft, then include
the ad for Microsoft.  Provide HTML reference and e-mail (yours not
theirs), so that they can get the "brochure" containing direct contact
information for all of the appropriate services.

> --Ed

	Rex Ballard
	(personal posting)




From jvncnet!marketplace.com!owner-online-news Fri Sep 30 12:29:55 1994
To: online-news@marketplace.com