• by February 8, 2001

By Ken Liebeskind

B2B publishers have been slow to generate revenue from their websites, but tht's beginning to change. And one approach - online directory listings - shows more promise than other online ad formats.

Online directories, or buyer's guides, are detailed listings of advertisers presented on a separate page of a publisher's website. The listings, highlighted in bold type, can be clicked to mini websites, which are usually created by the publisher as a service to the advertiser.

Advertisers pay a monthly fee for their listing, which differentiates it from other CPM-based forms of online advertising.

Paperloop, a San Francisco company formed last year that publishes Pulp and Paper and Pulp and Paper International, trade magazines for the paper industry, worked with Mediabrains.com, a New York firm that provides online directories. Paperloop.com, the company's website, has an e-marketplace page with search buttons that take users to online directories that list advertisers in different product categories. Each advertiser's name can be clicked on to take users to a mini website, complete with four-color photos, text about the company and clickable links to specific product information. There is contact information at the bottom of the site.

"We offer companies the opportunity to enhance their presence in the online buyer's guide," says Karen Murray, Paperloop's e-marketplace director. The benefit to being there is that the entire paper industry visits Paperloop's site. "We're everywhere, so you don't have to be," Murray says.

Thirty-nine companies are currently listed in Paperloop's online directory. They pay $1,000 per month for their listings, Murray says.

Mediabrains.com hosts the servers for the online directories, which are databases that hold company advertising information. They can be easily updated by the companies. "Our project managers create the sites with the flick of a switch," Murray says. "All we do is add data in the database they provide for us."

Erik Matlick, President of Mediabrains.com, compares online directory advertising to the product listings that have been on sites like Yahoo and CNET for years. "But it's new to the B2B space," he says, indicating it's the first time B2B publishers have had the opportunity to list their advertisers this way.

Matlick says there are two types of advertising available on the online directories. The enhanced listings, which Paperloop uses, and sponsorships, which are larger ads that can also appear on a directory page.

Mediabrains.com, founded in 1997 as InfoXpress.com, provides online directories for many major B2B publishing companies, including Cahners Business Information, Forbes.com, Hachette Filipacchi and Ziff-Davis.

Murray says Paperloop.com sells other kinds of online advertising, including banners, sponsorships and sponsorships of email newsletters, but online directory advertising is becoming the leader. "It's the newest form of advertising, but will