On Thu, 21 Apr 94 11:21:45 EDT, [log in to unmask] (Nti User) wrote:
>        What follows is an advertisement for an educational video tape on
>the Internet. If you are bothered by advertisements on the network,
>kindly delete message now.
 
1) Thanks for the warning; that helps a *little*
 
2) I don't think any of us are inherently against *informative advertising*
(yours is a case in point) posted to lists and newsgroups FOR WHICH THEY
ARE APPROPRIATE <--THAT is the KEY!
 
Social Science Data (where I saw it) does NOT seem to me to be an
appropriate list :-(  HELP-NET, info-nets, and similar lists/newsgroups,
from my point of view (but I am NOT the owner of any of those), would be
more appropriate (and MUCH more likely to be read by your apparent target
audience).
 
Your effort to provide a useful service is appreciated.  We also would
appreciate discretion in selecting places to advertise.  It seems to me
that you have two good reasons of your own for caring where your ad appears
(apart from annoying people who aren't interested in your service).
 
1) As the Carter & Seigel law firm are learning, annoyed Internet users can
send enough reverse junk mail (endless complaints and flames) to literally
bring whole systems to a standstill (a small fraction of 22+ million
Internet users is a LARGE number).  In short, poorly placed ads can create
a LOT of work for you culling through responses that are NOT going to
generate a single sale.  I expect Internet users will, over time, develop
fairly sophisticated subject lines and opening paragraphs so that you won't
be able to tell flames from interested responses without receiving,
opening, and reading a screen or two of every reply (and some people might
'automate' their flames so that you hear from them every hour or so for
several days).
 
2) List owners already are adding address filters that will block ANY
posting you may send to their list.  If you become identified as a poor net
citizen, the cyberspace community that's capable of providing you with lots
of useful resources at little cost will simply shun you.
 
Given the nature of your ad, I would expect you to already know how to
contact list owners about the purpose of their lists in order to determine
whether the information in the ad is suitable.  Those of us who own lists
would encourage you to agressively educate other commercial providers about
how to carefully target their ads as well (may you make a fortune doing so
:-)
 
You are invited to participate in the own-going discussion about how to
deal with advertising on lists (especially when the ads have nothing to do
with the topic) on the List owners' list: [log in to unmask]
 
/s Murphy A. Sewall <[log in to unmask]> (203) 486-2489 voice
   Professor of Marketing                          (203) 486-5246 fax