Placing classified ads on-line

Learning the market is as important as fancy display of classified advertising, said New Media Director Bryan Burnett of the Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C.

He identified the strategic issues as: choosing which ads to put on-line, as upsells or free as value added; selecting how many days' worth, such as today's, yesterday's and last Sunday's; posting simple text or ads sortable in a relational database; and creating easy navigation.

Burnett identified AdOne and InfiNet as two advanced database providers and called on classified front-end vendors to help by creating structured relational databases for entry. While larger metros find value in Edgil and Pantheon products, smaller papers are building inside. Web and database integration software such as Cold Fusion 3.0 can help, he said.

Operational considerations are time versus value balance, he said. The time it takes to extract files from billing systems, loading time for logos compared to their lack of searchability and taking ad orders on-line are local considerations. Training the advertising staff to sell on-line can also be a balance between time invested and success.

The Herald-Sun's on-line classifieds use AdSeek, using Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro for database building and viewer. It employs PhDBase as the full-text search engine and X-Works as a fast rewrite mechanism for the Web.

A production of The Cole Group, Copyright (c) 1997, All Rights Reserved.

Last updated: 25 June 1997.

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