Marketing & SEO Discussion List - LED Digest

The Next Wave of Ecommerce Discussion Lists

“The topic is to remain focused on the issues concerning advertising on the Net and Web. If you buy and / or sell any form of Internet Advertising, you should join. I personally subscribe to John Audette's, Glenn Fleishman's and Kim Bayne's lists. They are all very good. Advertising issues have sprung up on each of these lists recently, and my intention is to help keep those lists focused on Sales (selling merchandise, services, etc.) and Marketing (PR, web-links, image, etc.) issues, respectively, and to create a centralized location for advertising issues to be discussed. It is also my hope that this will help take -some- of the load off of these fine people, whose lists continue to grow beyond (easy) manageability (I would imagine).” For the format and function of the discussion list, I am initially going to borrow heavily and emulate aspects of John, Glenn and Kim's approach -- why reinvent the wheel, right?”

Online Ads would last just two months under Fadden’s leadership; it was purchased by Tenagra, an Internet marketing agency its first summer. The list then saw a string of moderators come and go, including Richard Hoy, George Williams, and Donna Stryk, until it was brought under the leadership of Cliff Kurtzman (the founder of Tenagra) who still moderates the list today.

The early days of Online Ads were filled with rich discussions of Internet marketing and commerce, with prominent figures such as Mark Welch, Andy Bourland, Leo Sheiner, Allan Gardyne, and others making contributions. From its beginnings with just a few hundred subscribers, the list soared in size nearing 30,000 prior to the Internet collapse. Cliff, now CEO of the firm ADASTRO, remembers list slowdowns during the crash:

“The period from 2001 through 2003 was as trying a time for the list as it was for the online advertising industry as a whole. If it were not from steady support from two key sponsors, the list would probably not still be around today. 2005 saw continued improvement in activity and subscriber levels as well as sponsorships... Posting activity in 2006 however has slowed. Current subscriber levels are at around 3750.”

You can browse archives and subscribe on this page [new window]. Discussions are sporadic and rather sparse. Is this a signal of fading interest in email discussion lists? Cliff senses that the format, “has become rather antiquated in light of the more collaborative environments made feasible by Web 2.0.” True as that is, deeper study of the situation points to other factors contributing to the disinterest in Online Ads, such as its small size and relative obscurity (a shame considering its significant tradition). Regardless, it’s unfortunate that Online Ads isn’t seeing more activity, and we're hopeful that at some point it will experience a rebirth.

By the time Online Ads had seen its fifth moderator, I-Sales was just hitting its stride under the guidance of John Audette. In 1995 John was excited by the surge in enthusiasm over Internet communications and was in the midst of launching what would eventually become his major life's work, Multimedia Marketing Group, or MMG. At the close of Glenn's list, John posted with the announcement of a new list:

From: John Audette
Subject: Taking on the mantle - I-Sales
Date: June 10 1996
Glenn...

Since it looks like you're just forwarding these on I guess I should toss the I-Sales hat into the ring:
** The Internet-Sales Discussion List **
Spun off from Internet Marketing in November, 1995.
Over 2,200 subscribers from 58 countries discussing online sales (and marketing) issues.

Regards,
John Audette.....Moderator
Internet-Sales Discussion List

I-Sales had already been published for nearly 6 months at the time of this posting, and was beginning to see steady activity. Discussions had started slowly and deliberately, but with the continual persistence and raw energy of John imbuing I-Sales, the community grew and prospered, enjoying thousands of issues and many years of publication. John, the epitome of a sharp mind joined with dogged persistence, spent long hours scouring the 'Net learning everything he could about design and promotional methodologies. Industry leaders contributed to the I-Sales community and discussions were characterized by high quality and the thirst for ecommerce knowledge. At the time of its sale with Adventive in 2003, I-Sales had nearly 20,000 subscribers.

A fragment from his second post ever to INET-Marketing, and one of his first contributions to any discussion list in the brave new world of the Internet, sums up John Audette's personality and approach well:

From: John Audette
Subject: Re: Sponsorship
Date: April 26, 1995

Sometimes I think that those of us involved in this brave new digital world walk a decidedly thin line: on the one hand we have to avoid falling into cognitive traps based on prior experience; but on the other hand we have to avoid predicting revolutionary overnight change in human behavior due to exploding technology. Do you suppose human behavior has *really* changed all that much in the past several thousand years?

This kind of engaging thinking is what led many of the INET-Marketing faithful to migrate to John's I-Sales list. Consider these comments, made in May of 1995:

This is a little self-serving, but my company has done *extensive  research* on designing Web pages (much of it here) that attract 'em, hold 'em and bring 'em back. We believe that the holy grail is *content.*

By providing useful, maybe even valuable, content that is updated on a regular basis, we hope to attract 'em, hold 'em and bring 'em back. There's (brochure) information about MMG, but only if you want it, and only around the edges.

That John was able to penetrate into the importance of quality content back in the mid-1990s is truly exceptional. And while the methods of deployment of these ideas has changed markedly during the evolution of the 'Net, their fundamental truth remains intact.

Next: The Dawn of the I-Sales Era