Re: UKNM: Link Dragon : problems with promotion

[Neil Durrant]

Hi Simon,


I'd advise a degree of caution over email lists!


Even those that claim 100% opt-in you really need to check out the list

broker carefully. Postmasterdirect have proved reliable with a few test runs

I have placed but they can be a little expensive.


You may find classified ads in appropriate newsletters are worth testing.


Dependent on your business model you may find an affiliate program generates

you cost effective traffic. Do you have an indicator or best guess of a

registrants future value?


If so you can create a program offering a bounty payment per registration.

I've seen an increasing number of programs recently working to this model

which are proving very popular.


Before you go down this route you really need to be confident of your

figures. You dont want hundreds maybe thousands of sites directing

registartions to you to discover under estimated the users net worth!


Regards

Neil Durrant

www.affiliatemarketing.co.uk



----- Original Message -----

From: Simon Tew <

simontewkeycrown [dot] com

>

To: <

uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

>

Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 10:38 PM

Subject: UKNM: Link Dragon : problems with promotion



> Hi All,

>

> Wondering if anyone can come up with some smart ideas to promote a web

service.

>

> I've designed and developed a FREE online bookmark manager called Link

Dragon, at <http://www.linkdragon.com> - without selling the service to you

guys 'n gals too hard it allows you to access your web bookmarks from

anywhere on the internet - very useful if you regularly use several

computers or even just to backup your links.

>

> There are already some players in this market (they launched end of '99),

with page-based services, by which I mean, if you imagine a hierarchy of

folders and links, you have to jump to a new page every time you move within

the hierarchy, which can be very, very slow. Their interfaces are pretty

crappy too.

>

> Link Dragon scores over these services because it isn't page-based - it's

rapid and much easier-to-use. However, whereas the other services are minted

with VC cash, I have very, very little - my service is better, but that

means diddly because I can't promote it, nor can I get VC cash because I

don't yet have the user-base.

>

> Link Dragon has had some very positive reviews - it was Site of the Month

in PC Pro magazine in the UK for November (?? - why DO computer magazines

operate in a time-warp ??) - a magazine with a readership of 165,000ish.

>

> Rather perplexingly, the number of registrations has hardly changed - we

got a much better response from an email newsletter sent out to Java

developers when we won an Editor's Choice award from the JARS Java Review

Service.

>

> So the question is this - am I wasting my time trying to get (paper-based)

journalists to feature Link Dragon ? - they hardly ever respond (obviously

they get 1000's of emails a day), but then it occurs to me that unless

somebody has the article right by their side whilst they're on the net, even

a great review is unlikely to trigger the desired response, i.e. a

registration.

>

> I'm thinking that the way to go might be with targetted email, but I have

a whole load of concerns about this. Firstly, I hate spam as much as the

next person - I swear if I get another email for the Internet Spy I'm going

to cry !!

>

> Whilst I can see the positive side, i.e. email seemed to produce a good

response when it came from a reputable source (JARS), I'm very conscious

that a campaign like this could (a) alienate large numbers of users and give

Link Dragon a bad reputation, and (b) result in a tidal-wave of hate-mail

descending on my poor PC.

>

> Does anybody have experience with targetted email to promote a web service

? What was your experience - good ? bad ? indifferent ?

>

> What about the practicalities - how can you organise something like this,

and how do you have confidence that your 'targetted email' isn't being

handled the same way as the dreaded Internet Spy.

>

> Any comments, suggestions, (and registrations - Link Dragon at

http://www.linkdragon.com gratefully received.

>

> Thanks, Simon



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 looking for useful books about the new media biz?

 check out the UKNM books page for some suggestions:

 http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing/books.shtml

 Email suggestions to:

helpchinwag [dot] com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing or

helpchinwag [dot] com