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And, for a little while, this model did work -- thanks to the vast amount of money that other websites (flush with venture capital) spent on promoting themselves.

Of course when the bum fell out of the dot-com industry, the vast majority of those VC-rich startups disappeared almost overnight -- along with their advertising dollars.

As anyone producing an online publication will tell you, the years from late 2000 to 2003 were very difficult ones. The Internet was no longer seen as *the* place to be and even the effectiveness of online ads was called into question.

A number of advertisers and websites responded to this by using more aggressive tactics like pop-ups/unders, interstitials, much larger banners, etc. This however, simply left an even nastier taste in the mouths of many websurfers and further demoted web-based ads down the list of places to spend your advertising dollars.

Others turned to spam, figuring that it was cheaper and (if you listen to those who run the spam servers) more effective than web-based promotions.

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But now, if reports are to be believed, we're seeing a very significant renaissance in web-based advertising.

Figures out of the USA show that some US$2.3 billion was spent buying online ads in the first quarter of this year already -- a 39 percent increase over the same period last year.

I think it would be a pretty safe guess that this demand for online advertising has been driven by the growth in online retail sales. I recall just a few short years ago when the launch of local e-retailer Flying Pig was big news. Now you can buy just about anything you want from the convenience of your web-browser and having an online checkout is becoming the norm rather than the exception in the retail world.

All these retailers need to promote their online stores and there's no better or more effective way to do it than through online advertising.

And suddenly it's the website's that carry these ads that are calling the tune and those advertisers demanding those really annoying advertising formats like pop-ups are being given the bum's-rush.

This has to be very good news for web-surfers. Although the result of this surge in demand is almost certainly going to be that we end up seeing more advertising, at least it will be the type we can more easily ignore.

One would also hope that at least the ads we're accosted with are better targeted to the content being displayed. As I mentioned in a previous column, we have Google's AdSense to thank for an increase in accurate targeting -- let's hope that other advertising networks wake up to the importance of this.

Let's also hope that this abundance of advertising dollars will spawn a surge in the number of really good online publications.

Prime's Poll Is Dead -- RIP
It looks as if Prime has given up on maintaining its daily news poll.

Maybe my article and the small spurt of traffic that it might have generated have overwhelmed them.

Maybe they just figured it wasn't worth the hassle.

Too bad -- they were the only news broadcaster to make an attempt to interact with their audience through the web.

This is a real shame. After my experience with 7am.com I *know* that there's huge potential for synergy between broadcast and web presences -- and that synergy goes far beyond just stuffing your top stories on a webpage.

Which NZ broadcaster will be the first to realise this?

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