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| AZINET I N T E R N E T P U B L I S H I N G G U I D E L I N E S | |
AZINET provides services such as web page development,
consultation, system engineering, web servers, and
programming to companies and organizations who want to
take advantage of the new Internet media. Details of
AZINET pricing can be found in AZINET Internet Services Price List. This document is intended to acquaint AZINET customers
with the possibilities and challenges of the Internet as
a business tool and publishing medium and to explain the
services that can be provided by AZINET as well as the
processes involved. Although many different modes of
communication are used on the Internet, the most
important are the World Wide Web and electronic
mail (E-mail) which will therefore be covered in
the most detail. In the web system, the viewer uses a display
software program known as a browser to display
information transmitted from a web site or server.
Because it is easy to use and supports color graphics,
the web is the most important Internet publishing method.
The publisher pays for server space to house his material
and for a connection between the server and Internet. The
viewer provides for his own computer, software, and
connection to the Internet. The Internet is therefore
jointly supported by publishers and viewers. The Internet
is world wide; any viewer can view material on any server
regardless of distance. I N T E R N E T M E D I A O V E R V I E W The internet represents a completely new kind of publishing medium relative to earlier media such as print and video and has major differences from traditional media in a number of areas. In order to take maximum advantage of this new medium it is necessary to understand these differences and build on the strong features of the medium while working around the weaknesses. AZINET personnel will be assisting you in these areas but an understanding of the underlying principles will help you to understand our recommendations for suggested copy as well as improve the effectiveness of your material.
One of the major strengths of the internet relative to
print media is that the cost of presenting large amounts
of information is so low. It is easily feasible to
present 10 or 100 times as much information to a viewer
as could possibly be done with most print publishing and
advertising. Publishers should therefore consider
providing much more detail in web pages than usually
provided in print media. Because of the low distribution
cost, the cost of developing the material dominates.
AZINET specializes in developing techniques for reducing
the cost of producing on-line material and maximizing the
use of existing material.
Another advantage of the Internet relative to print is the ability to update content rapidly and at low cost. Where the print "Yellow Pages" and industry registries are issued once per year and are probably months old when issued, Internet material can be easily updated more often. Some Internet sites are updated several times a day. The rapid response capability can be used to update prices and content and to therefore increase repeat visits to the site (e.g. "Check back for our weekly special!").
Another complementary major strength is the degree to which viewers can control their access to information. Because of the "Hypertext" system used with the web, viewers can easily jump from page to page or even to different locations within a page, much more easily than a person reading a newspaper or magazine. The viewer has more choice of which material to view and can handle a larger amount of information. In most cases, information not selected is not even transmitted.
Because it is all being done by computers, we provide
users of the AZINET server systems detailed statistics
(see appendix) regarding viewer access to their
information. Statistics can include data on which pages
are being read, which pictures are being viewed, and to
some extent data on the locations of the viewers. Viewers can be explicitly asked for comments which can be supplied with very little viewer effort. Solicited viewer input can range from detailed questionnaires via fill out forms to simple polls which require only seconds of viewer time to complete. AZINET can assist in providing viewer inputs in machine readable form or as statistical reports.
Costs of Internet communications are completely independent of distance. It is essentially no harder to communicate with a site or person in Japan than one across the street. Compare this with the telephone system, mail, telex, etc. This unique feature of the Internet allows publishers access to an international audience at no extra cost.
Browser software is used in the viewer's computer to display web information. There are many different programs in use with varying levels of compatibility although Netscape and Microsoft are becoming dominant. The on-line services AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy all provide web access with their own software. Development of this software is a fiercely competitive activity and improvements are being made continuously. AZINET monitors these developments to ensure that customer information will display well on the majority of browsers while taking advantage of improvements as they become generally available. |
I N T E R N E T
A D V E R T I S I N G The web can be used for advertising in a number of different ways as described below:
A simple internet presence can be created by putting up a web page containing basic information about your organization such as address, telephone numbers, purpose of the organization, etc. Such a page would not need to be changed often and could operate for years very inexpensively. Web users searching for your company name would find you. Web users searching for companies in your category and location would find you, not just your competition.
A major application of the web is to provide
additional detail to readers of print advertising. In a recent issue of Newsweek Magazine, there were 31
major (full page or better) advertisements which provided
some means for customers to obtain more information. Eleven (35 percent) provided an 800 number and
additional information to be mailed. Fourteen (45 percent) provided an 800 number and a
web page address. Six ads (19 percent) provided only
a web page address. The web page only advertisers included Lockheed
Martin, Ford, Toyota, and KOA. The advertisers in the last two groups (64 percent)
have discovered that:
Web pages can be used to obtain independent metrics on print advertising. Print ads in different publications could have different web page addresses pointing to essentially the same information (possibly adjusted for the demographics of the print publication). Access statistics could then be used to assess print ad performance.
It is possible to purchase advertising on the web usually in the form of a small graphic which (when clicked) directs viewers to a home page. This advertising is placed on high traffic sites such as the search engines and currently costs about $25000 per million "impressions".
One viewer access to one file is referred to as a "hit". Counting home page hits is approximately like counting requests for a brochure received by phone or through "bingo" cards since every hit represents some interest on someone's part. Hits on other files referenced by the home page can be used to determine popularity of different parts of the material. Home page hits are not the same as "impressions" which do not connote any indication of interest. |
Unlike earlier Internet and on-line communications
systems, the web system generates a display similar to a
newsletter. The display can have embedded color pictures
and logos, proportional type spacing, different size
type, type effects such as bold or italic,
and even different "paper" or background
designs. However, it is not currently possible to do many
sophisticated print techniques such as different type
fonts, kerning, wraparound text, etc. The effects and page layout design are controlled by a
programming system called Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML). The HTML codes are mixed with the text portion of
the information to be displayed. Pictures, logos, and
art, in digitized form are kept in separate computer
files until transmitted to the browser and displayed.
HTML is being continuously extended to provide more and
better effects. In contrast to a print newsletter, details of the
actual appearance of a web display are somewhat dependent
on the particular hardware and software used by the
viewer. AZINET designs pages to display well on a variety
of viewing systems. Web pages can have hypertext links which are
specially marked portions of text or images. When the
viewer selects the link with a mouse click, another page
or image is displayed. The new page can have yet more
links. The browser has a "back up" button for
returning to a previous page. A web "page" can be longer than one physical
page but is loaded (with its embedded images) by the
viewer software as one operation. Normally, the browser
displays the top of the page and can then be manually
scrolled down the page. The "home" page is the normal point of entry and is the "default" page that will be displayed if no page address is given (e.g. http://azinet.com/yourcompany/). Home pages normally have references to several other pages that can be selected and loaded by a viewer mouse click or can be directly accessed by viewer address entry (e.g. http://azinet.com/yourcompany/page2.html). Any page can be linked to any other page or even to a page on another site.
Customer text for use in web pages being designed by AZINET should be supplied on computer diskette in any common word processor format. Alternately we can manually enter text or use our scanning equipment to input text directly from clean printed copy.
Unlike print media it does not cost extra to publish
full color graphics on the internet. Graphics imbedded in
web pages can be photographs, logos, or art items. Many viewers are connect to the internet with a slow
modem so the sizes of graphic files need to be limited to
allow for a reasonable download time. Also keep in mind
that some studies indicate that as many as 15 percent of
viewers currently "turn off" graphics entirely.
As modems and computers improve, larger and more complex
graphics will reach a larger audience. Graphic data is transmitted to the browser in
compressed digital form from the server. AZINET uses a
scanner to convert the graphic into a digital disk file.
The scanner accepts color or b/w hard copy which should
be at least 3 X 5 inches but no more than 8 X 10 inches.
(The size of the picture to be displayed can be adjusted
as necessary after scanning.) We recommend that only
relatively small photographs be imbedded on pages to
reduce display time. Additional, larger or higher
resolution images, can be provided for transmission at
the option of the viewer if desired (e.g. "Click
here to see a full size image"). Logos and artwork generally can be somewhat larger
than photographs if desired. As inexpensive and fast graphics capable printers proliferate, an increasing number of viewers will want to print paper copies of web pages for later study, especially if the content is complex such as product descriptions. AZINET designs your pages in a manner ensuring good appearance on a black and white printer.
The web system allows the use of on-line, fill-in-the-blank forms which can be used for ordering, questionnaires, surveys, requests for additional information to be mailed, requests to be put on mailing list or e-mail list, etc. Programming to create and process forms is substantially more complex than for non-form web pages. Forms have a "submit" button which causes the viewer supplied information to be sent back to the server where it can be recorded and/or transmitted to another location by e-mail. AZINET can design and program on-line forms to meet your needs. |
Most viewers will use search engine services such as Infoseek and Lycos to find information on the internet by doing a search for keywords. The search engines index billions of words of information stored on thousands of web sites around the world and search this index for specific keywords in seconds. Millions of such searches are performed every day. AZINET will ensure that your information is included in the data indexed by the search engines. This search situation has some important consequences for web publishers desiring to reach the maximum possible audience as follows.
It is important that your information contain any key words or phrases that might be used by a person searching for your product or information. Searches on any but the most arcane words generally produce hundreds of "hits" and therefore it is critical that your information be ranked near the top by the search engine's "relevance" criteria. The key words and phrases can be located anywhere in your copy. AZINET personnel will assist you in optimizing your copy for the search engines.
The search engines usually display to the viewer the first few lines of text content on each of the pages that were found based on the key word search. Viewers then decide based on the sample few lines whether to look at the page or continue searching. It is therefore extremely important that the first few lines of each page contain the best and most enticing description of the product or information to be found on the page.
If you are specifically interested in reaching people who speak a foreign language you may want to have a foreign language version of at least part of your material.
Since it is possible that a page other than your home page could be found by a search, all secondary pages should have a "return to home page" reference to allow such a viewer to access your entire content. |
The following is a list of the fraction of the viewers
accessing a particular site (percent) In 1995 by location
of the accessing person. This site, developed by AZINET
personnel, was technical in nature and had international
appeal but no foreign language content. We expect that
current viewership has increased U.S. and Canadian access
because of the rapid growth of on-line services and
access providers. Access Location Percent On-line services and U.S. Commercial employees 45 Educational Institutions 15 Government and Military Employees 8 Japan 8 Canada 5 United Kingdom 3 Germany 2 Sweden 2 Italy 2 Netherlands 1 Australia 1 France 1 Israel 1 All Other Foreign 8 Some random 1995 demographic data:
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An Internet server or "web site" is a
computing system which holds the information to be
published and sends it to viewers on their request.
AZINET provides server services to customers on a monthly
basis. Two types of server are available. The shared
server shares an internet address with AZINET and
other AZINET customers. Your home page Internet address
would be: http://www.azinet.com/yourcompany The customer unique server has a home
page internet address unique to your company or
organization such as: http://yourcompany.com/ In this case the registered domain name
"yourcompany.com" becomes the intellectual
property of your company and must be registered with the
central Internet authorities. This name must be unique
and must not infringe on another's trademark or service
mark. (Non-profit organizations have domain names such as
"yourorg.org". Educational organizations have
domain names such as "yourschool.edu".) With either server option, AZINET provides the
following services:
Information can be transmitted to and stored on a
server from a remote location via the Internet. AZINET
will perform uploading of any web pages developed or
maintained by AZINET. |
AZINET I
N T E R N E T P U B L I S H I N G Information to be published on AZINET servers must
meet the following standards:
In addition any information to be published on the shared AZINET server must meet reasonable standards of good taste. AZINET reserves the right to decline any offensive material on the shared server with full refund of unused funds. |
Since virtually everybody who can access a web page
also has e-mail capability, viewers will expect web
publishers to be able to receive e-mail and reply via
e-mail. AZINET can assist you in selecting equipment,
software, and services to allow your personnel to work
with e-mail. AZINET company unique servers can be programmed to
redirect employee e-mail. For example, Bob at XYZCorp has
an e-mail account on an on-line service with an e-mail
address of bob2233@aol.com. We can program the server so
that mail coming to the server at bob@XYZCorp.com will be
automatically redirected to bob2233@aol.com. Bob and
other employees can then put their XYZCorp e-mail
addresses on their business cards and in on-line
material. Similarly, companies sharing the AZINET server
can have a company e-mail address such as
XYZCorp@azinet.com if desired. It requires less than one tenth the effort to send an e-mail message as to write a letter and there is no postage cost or delivery delay. The cost and delay issue is even greater if the writer is in a foreign country. We therefore recommend that companies put their e-mail addresses on print advertising and business cards and plan to use e-mail as an effective business tool.
It is possible for an AZINET server to have a list of e-mail addresses associated with a list address such that e-mail sent to the list address is resent to everybody on the list. In addition, an automated system can be set up allowing people to add themselves to the list by sending a certain e-mail message to a designated address. This can be used effectively in situations such as "If you would like to be notified when we come out with a new product, add yourself to our e-mail list". Imagine, a completely automated system that develops a list of people interested in your products! E-mailings to the list can be done at very low cost. |
C O M P A N Y P R I V A T E I N F O R M A T I O N AZINET servers can be used to hold information a
company desires to make available to employees (at work,
at their homes, or in the field) or to customers, but not
to the general public. This information is accessed using
ordinary browsers or on-line services by entry of a
password. Very sensitive information should not be placed on a server unless encrypted. AZINET can provide encrypting options. |
C A T A L O G S ,
O R D E R I N G S Y S T E M S , AZINET has developed software to simplify the construction of on-line catalogs and ordering systems. In addition, if your company has catalog information in a computer format, we may be able to apply these software techniques to translate your existing data to a format that can be used with the web at relatively low cost. Ordering systems allow customers to select merchandise by a simple point and click technique and automatically generate purchase orders for transmission to your company where they can be directly entered into your computer system. This approach adds to convenience on the part of the customer, reduces company effort, and reduces the chance of error on both ends of the transaction. Similar techniques can be used to generate databases of part lists, stock items, etc. for use by your company personnel and customers. |
A D V A N C E D T E C H N I Q U E S New techniques are being developed continuously, especially improvements in browser software which allow better information display. The most significant changes expected in the coming months involve the use of the internet for direct purchase of consumer items and information.
There is currently a widespread concern that sending credit card information through the internet will increase a mail-order purchaser's risk. There is actually no evidence to this effect. We expect this concern to soon be eliminated by credit card company announcements holding purchasers harmless from any loss resulting from internet transmission of credit card data.
AZINET anticipates that browser modifications will be made to allow much easier credit card purchase of mail-order merchandise over the internet; essentially "click here and you've bought it". It will then be significantly easier to purchase merchandise over the internet than by traditional mail-order means.
Another expected new development is the capability for transferring small amounts of money (in the range of $.01 to $10.00 per transaction) which cannot be economically done using the existing credit card system. This will allow the sale of information "by the page" (Click here to view this weeks newsletter on [whatever subject] for $.25) and represents a major new publishing paradigm.
Many companies are working on techniques for improving
display capability to include video, music, sound, slide
shows, and animation. In addition, there are efforts
underway to allow more editorial control over page layout
and presentation. AZINET is excited about helping companies take
advantage of these new developments when they become
mature. We are dedicated to keeping abreast of web
technology so that we can bring our customers the best
information capabilities possible. This document is copyrighted ©1996 by AZINET Inc. and
is for the use of AZINET customers only. All rights
reserved. |
AZINET S E R V E R S T A T I S T I C S R E P O R T S The AZINET servers keep records of each item requested by browsers. The records include the time of the request, which item (file) was requested, and the Internet address of the requesting computer. AZINET provides customers with statistical reports regarding their material as follows.
The request statistics indicate the total number of times someone has requested each of the items (files) of your material during the indicated reporting period. Normally, your home page will have the highest number of "hits". The proportionate number of hits on your other material can provide important clues regarding the popularity of various items as well as the effectiveness of the material organization and presentation.
The domain name tells the country of the requester for
foreign users or, for US users is one of the following:
In some cases it is not possible to obtain a domain
name and the request is logged as a "numerical
domain". The domain report indicates in the left column the total number of requests from the indicated domain and in the second column the number of unique host computers making the requests. For example if Joe College using the host computer physics.umd.edu calls up your home page and then clicks on two secondary pages, that counts as three requests. If each page had your company logo, that would be a fourth request since the browser only requests the logo file once. If each page also had a different photo, they would represent three more requests (since photos and logos are in separate files) for a total of seven requests from Joe. Joe would then represent seven requests in the left column and one (1) in the second (unique hosts) column. Other people besides Joe could be using the host "physics.umd.edu" so the unique hosts column generally underreports the number of people looking at the material. The on-line services have millions of users sharing relatively few hosts.
The weekly statistics indicate the total number of requests per week during the period and therefore shows total popularity of your material as a function of time.
Statistics are made available to customers over the Internet as a special web page. Reports can be faxed or mailed at extra cost. A Z I N E T Copyright © 1996, 1997 Azinet LLC |