Internet Content Providers Offer Rewards For InformationInternet Content Providers Offer Rewards For Information

Banner ads attract about as many paying customers as a man on a street corner wearing a sandwich board. Pop-up ads raise surfers' ire rather than their urge to spend. And spam commercial E-mails are generally considered as annoying as screeching on a chalk board.

So naturally, news sites have struggled to find a way to pay their bills without depriving consumers of the free content they know and love. Some, like Salon.com, have put some of their content in a pay-only, subscription section while still leaving enough free articles so as not to alienate viewers. But those programs have met with only middling success, attracting some paying customers, but not enough to cover the bills.

Content providers have hit on a new way to make a few bucks; offering readers rewards in return for giving direct value to advertisers. Beginning last month, Salon launched a program in which users who view a four-page, interactive ad for Mercedes-Benz receive a free day pass to Salon's premium content. Mercedes pays the site extra ad dollars for the captive viewers, and Salon potentially attracts more readers to its paid subscriptions. Economist.com has jumped on board the reward program bandwagon, offering a one-year subscription to certain users who provide some demographic information to companies, including Oracle.

"These kind of deals potentially work well for everybody," says David Hallerman, an analyst with eMarketer, an Internet statistics research firm. "I think you're going to see a lot more of this." But are reward programs a good way for nonmedia businesses to attract customers online? "The reward has to be some kind of product or service that's of no cost to the company," Hallerman says. "I don't know how effective it will be once it adds cost due to what's being given away."