Marketing on the Internet
When marketing through printed media, a lot of effort is spent on identifying "potential customers"-- finding the right magazine, targeted advertising, etc.

Printed advertisements are limited to a very small message: you barely have the room to identify your product and company. Providing a service or useful information to the reader is secondary to providing graphics to attract attention. Printed ads also require a "shotgun" approach: attract the attention of many, and a few will be potential customers. You must get your message into their hands. This method requires emphasis on distributing the message.

On the Internet, I think the emphasis should be on "attracting." I believe that this is done most effectively by giving potential customers a reason to visit a WWW site. Mib Software wants to be an attraction by providing content related to my software products, a service to the Internet community, or by helping to cope with the information explosion by organizing and presenting information.

In the case of software and consulting businesses, potential customers often identify themselves to the world by asking for help in a Usenet group. By providing a helpful response, and a pointer to the WWW site, the person and others will become aware of the cooperative nature and the existence of Mib Software. A lot of "free advice" will go out, but the payback will be in getting my name known and associated with being a help, not a shameless self-promoter.

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