Our site, Mutual Funds Online (<a href="<a href="http://www.mfmag.com">http://www.mfmag.com</a>">http://www.mfmag.com</a>) is a large, commercial
site (60,000 hits per day) that hasn't had much luck promoting in print.
The on-line accessory to hardcopy Mutual Funds Magazine, a
350,000-paid-circ national monthly, we've got the entire issue up, plus a
screenable fund database, interactive performance calculator, blah, blah,
blah. Anyway, we bought a 1/4-page weekend spot in Investor's Business
Daily back in May. (The first ever for IBD, I think). 300 visits. Our own
1/3-page ad a month later drew another 300 visits over a 4-week period.
Not great, but not terrible either. If those same 300 called an 800# to
buy a magazine subscription, the economics aren't so terrible.
Later, we considered the Wall Street Journal's ADNET. Did anyone notice
the disaster they had on their hands in their first 8-page rollout? The
WSJ tried selling pages in the next monthly section by trumpeting the fact
that their adnet web site (all the print buyers listed on a web page) drew
1,500 hits per hour the day the 8 pages ran. Sheesh - we get 3,000 hits
per hour at midnight! Needless to say, the WSJ hasn't again sold anywhere
near 8 pages, and nearly every financial site buying in the first run
dropped out for the second run.
Now, online advertising is a different story. When we announce new content
each month to the misc.invest.funds newsgroup, for example, traffic
doubles from 40,000 hits a day to 80,000 hits, holds for a week or two,
then tails off until we post again. Or, a link on a hot site, such as a
story on us done by C-Net Online, can produce equally dramatic results.
I think the key is that print ads might work if the site has features that
are compelling and *have no print analog*. If you have heavy editorial,
however, and you're buying print, you're reaching an audience that likely
*prefers* editorial in print, not web-html.
----
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Talk with Dave Taylor, TONIGHT! Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 6 pm Pacific/9 pm Eastern
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