Advertising on the World Wide Web

The best way to find out about advertising at Webstart Communications is to try it. All you need do is send us a banner and a URL to link to. The banner should be gif or jpg up to 70 pixels high and 500 pixels wide. Send this information to <>. We can chat a bit about options if you wish or you can let us pick appropriate options, but that is essentially it. We will place your ad and send you a click through log showing who linked to your site through ours. This is data that you can correlate with your own referer log if you wish (some of our sponsors do - thanks folks) to corroborate the log. If you would like to read a bit more about Web advertising before giving it a try, feel free to peruse our Web Advertising Tutorial.

Webstart offers a variety of advertising options to focus a sponsors message to receptive readers. The direct contact available on the Web between the reader and our server's advertising policy and logging software allows us to focus a sponsor's message much beyond the traditional advertising approach of including an advertising message with related content (which we also support, of course). In the sections below we describe many of the advertising options we have available and how they help focus our sponsors' messages.

Each of our advertising options comes with "view" and "click" logging. We account and can report each time your page is viewed and each time a reader chooses to click through to your site. Our Server Side Include policy and logging software selects banners to minimize repeat viewings and handles reporting. Most of our advertising is charged by the page view (sometimes referred to as an "impression", but not a "hit"), but we also do click through (typically $.25 to $.35 per click through depending on the nature of the ad) and fixed time charging in some cases (e.g. map gif or key word search ads).

At Webstart we specialize in advertising for relatively small sites. We accept banner ad orders for as little as 10k impressions = $50. With our typical mix of sponsors we are able to deliver up to 30k impressions per week ($150) for each sponsor (though we can deliver somewhat more in special situations). We offer volume discounts for larger advertising orders (e.g. $300 for 80k impressions and steeper discounts for larger orders).

Below we list many of the advertising options that we support along with current pricing where available:

1. Background banner advertising: This is the simplest and least expensive method of delivering an advertising message. It is also our most popular form of advertising - see Banners for some sample past banner runs. If you do not yet have a banner and would like us to develop one for you, we can develop static banners for $75 and animated banners for $100 in most cases (though Webstart will only run animated banners that terminate with four or less repeats). If you would like us to develop a banner for you, please describe your desired banner in a request to <>.

   Sponsors in the background banner category are interested in reaching as wide an audience as possible. Background sponsors can select major content categories (e.g. Computers and Communications or California) with no additional charge. These banners are intended for a wide audience and are not otherwise filtered.

   We currently charge One-half cent per page view (= an "impression") for such background banners, with volume discounts available (e.g. $300 for 80k impressions).

2. Focused banners: There are a variety of parameters that we receive from readers that we can use to select from sponsor messages of likely interest including:
   • DNS domain: One popular DNS selection is by IP country code. With such National Focus Advertising we can show banners just to readers reaching our site from a given country - even displaying the banner in the native language for that country. Approximately 30 percent of the Webstart page views are delivered outside the United States.

     Other domains of possible interest include .edu for an academic focus, .gov for a government focus, etc.

   • Search Pattern: We can match sponsors up with key words searched by our readers. For example a banner can be displayed when a reader searches for "hotel" or "limousine" or "restaurant" or "car" or "Internet" or "real estate" or "consult" or ...

   We typically charge three cents per page view for banner advertising focused as above. This rate holds for any focus that selects down to one half of one percent of our page views. For even more focused banner ads we charge five cents per page view, but with so much focus a banner will get so few page views that each is a special case.

   Banner size: up to 70 pixels high and up to 500 pixels wide. There is a 20 percent surcharge for imagemaps. The sponsor supplies the banner and if applicable the map file - though as noted above we can develop banners for sponsors.

   We are somewhat selective about the animated banners that we will run. Continuously running animations are acceptable only if they are VERY subtle - almost subliminal. Beyond that we accept banners that are animated for up to about 5-6 seconds. All banners with substantive animations must terminate and leave a fixed image after such a short animated sequence.

3. Logos: The idea of logo ads is that they are smaller - less distracting for the reader and less costly for the sponsor - and long running, providing the sponsor a long term presence but little direct product or service content. They assume that name recognitions is sufficient (e.g. from past banner ads) and that the reminder of a presence is an effective advertising message. We are currently placing such logos at the bottom of our pages. We charge .1 cent per page view (5 times less than for a banner ad). Such logos are limited to 50 pixels in height and width.

4. Map image advertising: There are a number of options for advertising on our maps. One is to simply include an image at an appropriate location on a map which will link to the sponsors page and message if selected. We currently charge $25 per month for images up to roughly 45x45 pixels with contracts up to six months. We return click through logs for map image advertising just as we do with banner ads.

5. Map Real Estate advertising: An additional form of map advertising that we currently support is that of linking unlabeled areas of a map to real estate agencies covering a given area. For otherwise uncovered areas we provide such listings free. If you represent a real estate organization that has listings for a currently unmapped area of one of our maps, let us know and we will link to your site from that area of the map. Examples of real estate linkages can be found on our area maps such as those for the San Francisco Bay Area and for the Sacramento Area.

   For already linked areas we use competitive bidding to decide the price for a given area. The minimum charge for an area is $25/mo. The maximum contract for such a linkage is 3 months. Anyone willing to pay more than is currently being paid for a region can have any portion of that region (minimum $5/mo. increments). If you are interested in being linked from an area already taken, send a message to <> and we will return the going rate for the area. A rough description of an area is adequate for a first contact.

6. Enhanced listings: Many of the Webstart page sets include databases of listed Web sites. For such listings we offer the opportunity of providing an enhanced listing (e.g. bold, italics, etc. - no blinking). For such simple enhancements we charge $25/year. More substantial enhanced listings (e.g. those including graphics) are handled on a case by case basis.

At Webstart we recognize that the World Wide Web is a new advertising medium. We work with our sponsors to help them make the most of this new medium. We are flexible about most of our advertising methods and enjoy working with our sponsors to deliver their message.

Thank You for your interest in advertising with Webstart Communications!

Please send any further correspondence about advertising to <>.

Webstart Communications
2835 Benvenue Avenue
Berkeley, California
94705-2103
(510) 548-4590