Internet Affiliate Programs

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Web Advertising

Web advertising, not to mention the Internet itself, finds itself in a

stage of relative infancy and therefore provides marketers with novel

challenges and situations which need to be dealt with caution . The realm

of Web advertising is unchartered terri tory! In terms of South Africa,

the country finds itsef somewhat behind technologically. However, this may

not prove to be a disadvantage as the uncertain nature of Web advertising

may make a policy of 'watching and learning' most viable. What

implications will this new technology have for marketing? What is the

nature of Web advertising? How can a business use the medium effectively ?

Where is all this going ? These questions appear to be most pertinent in

the process of understanding interact ive marketing on the Internet.

The qualified opinion of John Matthee, a Web site designer employed by

Adept Internet (an Internet service provider), was sought in accumulation

of a large sum of the following data. This seems appropriate as the

novelty of Web advertising at this stage h as led to generral lack of

academic data in the practicalities of advertising via this medium.

2) THE INTERNET: AN INTRODUCTION

2.1) Original development of the Internet What was originally created by

the US military to provide a secure means of communication in case of

nuclear war, which has now become known as the Internet, has metamorphosed

into the strategic global communications tool of our era. The end of the

cold w ar left this massive installed structure - initially dubbed

ARPANET- without much of a purpose. Soon universities, major corporations

and governments began to piggyback on to the global framework, extending

its reach and commercialising it. Known as the N et to aficionados, the

Availability of cheap, accessible and easy-to-use Net access points

throughout the world has seen the number of global Internet users increase

dramatically each month. While the convenience of electronic mail was

initial catalyst for Internet growth world wide, it's the emergence of the

World Wide Web (WWW) multimedia interface that has captured the attention

of prospective users across the globe. The resources available on the WWW

are as varied as they are extensive. There hundreds of thousands of sites

which can be broadly categorised under topics such as sport,

entertainment, finance and many more (Perlman, 1996).

2.2) Development of Internet in South Africa Perlman (1996, p 29) ventured

that 'South Africa is major global Internet player. It currently rates in

the top 15 in the world terms of Internet growth rates.' Local user

numbers are certainly fueled by universities, companies and schools. The

genesis of South Africa's rapid Internet growth seems to stem from UniNet,

the Internet service offered to the countries major tertiary institutions

and steered from Rhod es University. This explains the phenomenon whereby

the majority of local Internet entrepreneurs - many of them are under

thirty and already multi-millionaires - come from tertiary education

backgrounds where they were weaned on readily available Internet

access. Popular 'browser' client software for navigating the multimedia

WWW includes Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer. On the other end,

there exist approximately 30 local companies which call themselves ISP's

(Internet Service Providers), which operate in similar fashion to a

cellular company such as Vodacom, providing either dial-up connections to

the Internet and/or leased line connectivity to companies. This has led to

the explosion of a number of related ventures, such as companies who speci

alise in producing multimedia web pages (such as Adept Internet), Internet

commerce, cable companies and modem suppliers (Perlman, 1996).

2.3) Technological Implications for Marketing Joseph (1996, p. 29)

concisely described the situation as such: ' Marketing, like most business

disciplines, is undergoing a period of change as a direct result of the

information revolution. The rapidly declining costs of and increasing

power of information processing technology is altering the in which

customers and businesses relate to each other. Marketers, however should

be cautious not to attempt a quantum leap from more traditional meth ods

as this is sure to bring issues such as lack expertise to the fore which

could prove disastrous (Steyn, 1996). Essentially, the point is that as a

marketing drive, the additional