ContentBlog: Ancestry to Hit 550+ Paid eSubs; Cool Job Opening; Case Study Link

1. Ancestry to Hit 550 Paids + Seeks VP Marketing
2. Wanna Speak at the ContentBiz Show??
3. Tips on Publishing a Blog
4. Blogger to Start Charging
5. Should Sites Add CPA Rules to Media Kits?
6. Great Online Subscription Tech Case Study
7. Site Demographic Audits Critical for Ad Sales
8. Flu Crushes Daily Blog
9. Text Email: Abilities vs. Preferences


***** THIS WEEK'S CONTENTBLOG

[01/29/02 7:20PM] ANCESTRY TO HIT 550K PAIDS + SEEKS VP MKTG

Craig Sherman, Chief Profit Officer for My Family Inc., just
called up to share the news that in a matter of days their
Ancestry.com site will be hitting 550,000 PAID subscribers! (When
I last reported, they had hit 500k around Dec 5th. OK, so why is
Salon issuing happy-face press releases about hitting a measly
35k subs after 7 months of effort??)

Sherman was a very popular speaker at last year's Selling
Subscriptions event, and is definitely considering coming back
this year to share what he's learned.

He also asked me to tell you that he's got a new VP Marketing job
opening. Details:

MyFamily.com is both cash-flow positive and EBITDA profitable (so
it's a safe dot-com.) Responsibilities include growing revenue
base across all product categories: MyFamily, Ancestry and
Rootsweb internet subscriptions, Ancestry Magazine subscriptions,
and books and CDs. Branding, pricing strategies, database
marketing, customer retention, market research, department P&L
management, etc. You must have a consumer direct marketing
background to qualify. The job is located in Provo Utah, which is
a University town surrounded by mountains, 45 minutes from Salt
Lake City and 10 minutes from Sundance Ski resort.

Interested? Send a resume and cover letter to Jeff Weber, head of
HR at MyFamily.com, inc. at: jweber@myfamilyinc.com.

[01/29/02 7:06PM] WANNA SPEAK AT THE CONTENTBIZ SHOW??

I'm starting to put together the speaker list for the Second
Annual ContentBiz Selling Subscriptions to Internet Content
Summit to be held in NYC May 17th. The focus will be on hands-on
experts who have lead and/or marketed content-based Web sites and
email newsletters which are sold on a subscription basis. So, if
you'd like to nominate someone, let me know at
anneh@marketingsherpa.com

[01/28/02 1:36PM] TIPS ON PUBLISHING A BLOG

Ezine-Tips just published an article they asked me to write all
about my experiences as a Blog writer. It's quick, and I included
tips for other email and Web publishers who are considering
starting a Blog as an alternate content channel.

[01/28/02 7:30AM] BLOGGER TO START CHARGING

Steve Outing, who covers the online media biz for Editor &
Publisher and Poynter, just broke the news in his eMedia Tidbits
group Blog that Blogger won't be free for "commercial" users much
longer. Still $35 a year is not much. I'll gladly pay-up.
http://www.poynter.org/tidbits/2002_01_20_tidbitsarchive.htm#9050773

[01/25/02 1:48PM] SHOULD SITES ADD CPA RULES TO MEDIA KITS?

Just got off the phone with the Chief Marketing Officer for
Orbitz who told me they ONLY do ROI-based media buys (i.e. CPA).
A thoroughly unprofessional anger rose in me on behalf of all the
publishers who are fighting the fight to keep CPM alive online.
(You know the arguments -- branding's not paid for, the publisher
can't control the conversion to sales or creative, it's not fair
.... blah-de-blah ad nauseum.)

But then I forced myself to forget kneejerk reactions and really
listen to his point of view (after all that's my job.) He said
something interesting, "Why should we treat online like
traditional media, when it's better than traditional media?" And
I remembered our own experience recently when a newsletter
publisher we run ads with decided to switch from an affiliate
relationship with us to a straight pay-for-the-ad deal. After we
tallied results, that publisher would have made three times more
money if they had stuck with the affiliate deal!

So, OK, thanks to Michael Sands at Orbitz, I'm now undecided on
the whole CPA vs CPM front. There probably isn't any right
answer. The only real problematic spot I see is that less
knowledgeable marketers than Sands may try to use his example to
bludgeon media owners into accepting CPA when it's not a good
idea. Namely when the marketer's creative or offer sucks, when
the campaign is branding vs. direct response, when the landing
page is a worthless conversion vehicle, or when they don't have
decent measurement systems in place.

Maybe what online publishers need to do is add a new section to
their media kits specifically explaining what hoops a marketer
must jump through to be considered for a CPA deal. What the
ground rules are. So, if you can make more money in certain
circumstances with CPA, you are set up to do so. But it's clear
up front what the ground rules are for accepting deals.

It would also be nice to see some guidance from any of the
related associations to their members on which CPA deals to
accept and how to do so safely. Plus an outreach educational
campaign to CPA media buyers explaining what they have to live up
to in terms of measurement, creative, etc., to make this work.
All I see now is a lot of rearguard action -- people screaming
"No! No!"

[01/25/02 9:33AM] GREAT ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION TECH CASE STUDY

Scholarly publications have been hit hard over the past few years
by free content on the Web, rising print production and
fulfillment costs, and tight academic library budgets. For some
the ability to sell subscriptions to online versions can mean the
difference between staying alive or going under. Here's a great Case
Study that details how Sociological Research Online
transitioned to a paid $150 per year electronic subscription
model. Even if you're not in scholarly publishing, you may find
the technical details of how the journal handles IP
authentication useful.

Best quote, "Subscriptions are a necessary evil. In order to
maintain the quality and secure the future of the journal some
income is required." You can say that again.
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_9/peters/index.html

[01/25/02 8:28AM] SITE DEMOGRAPHIC AUDITS CRITICAL FOR SALES

I completely, utterly agree with online ad sales consultant
Leslie Laredo quoted in today's Media Life Magazine, "My big
concern right now is moving to more of an audience understanding,
understanding who the audience is on your site versus
impressions. It’s hugely important for the industry." Audience
audits and 3rd party-conducted surveys are going to become more
critical for many sites selling media online.
http://207.168.215.165/news2002/jan02/jan21/5_fri/news4friday.html


[01/24/02 12:58PM] FLU CRUSHES DAILY BLOG

Am now learning why a daily Blog publishing schedule is not so
smart. Am sick as a dog and still have this week's regular
ContentBiz issue to stagger through. Unfortunately Blogs, unlike
standard editorial, are not something you can ask another writer
to cover for you 'cause part of it's about "real voice."

She-who-yearns-for-bed

[01/22/02 9:10AM] TEXT EMAIL: ABILITIES VS. PREFERENCES

Wow several hundred of you have already taken the survey I
published this morning. Thanks!! I'll be posting some comments
about results here for you when the survey is over. In the
meantime, please be reassured that when we say that we'll be
offering an HTML version of the newsletter soon -- that does not
mean the text-only version will ever go away. It's great to hear
that so many people prefer text -- I do too.

Which brings me to an important point for ezine publishers --
HTML vs. text-only preferences are not about what the readers'
email systems can actually read. They are about what the readers
themselves prefer to see on their in-box screens. And boy do
people have strong preferences! You may get higher ad clicks
short-term with HTML, but I'll bet you get longer lifetime open-
rates and readership if you let people who want text, get it
easily.