By Brent Applegate
In April of 2005, CNET announced the launch of its BNET.com website. I recently spoke with Jay Guleck, BNET’s managing director, to find out how BNET can be utilized to market white papers and generate leads.
While most white paper advertising and syndication services are targeted at technology specialists, BNET appeals to business leaders such as the CEO, CFO or human resource manager. Guleck explains, “Our mission is to serve business leaders who are trying to solve business problems.”
A business-focused, 50,000-strong white paper directory is at the core of BNET. White papers are organized by job function and industry, such as human resources/recruiting or financial services/commercial banking.
There are two ways to get your white papers on BNET: the free route and sponsor route. Free white papers are only accepted by editor prescreening. Sponsored papers get premium placement and leads. Sponsorship is based on a pay-for-performance model. Sponsors indicate how many registered downloads they want for their white papers. BNET determines pricing and places sponsored white papers in premium positions throughout the site and in newsletters to achieve the desired number of registered downloads. Guleck notes that sponsorship costs may vary widely, from as low as $3,000 to as high as $100,000 per month.
BNET editors have hand-selected the majority of the white papers that currently reside on BNET. They use the site’s “Business Interest Index,” a monthly gauge of the BNET community’s favorite topics as measured by site activity, to guide their choices. Guleck emphasizes that the long-term plan is to maintain a mix of vendor-sponsored and editor-selected white papers.
The BNET site distinguishes itself from other white paper repositories by choosing to be more of a stand-alone site than a syndication source for other sites. While Guleck does not rule out such a move in the future, sponsored BNET white papers are not cross-promoted on other CNET properties such as www.cnet.com, www.techrepublic.com, www.zdnet.com and www.ITPapers.com. The BNET site also includes blogs and audiocasts, which may draw readers to the site.
BNET’s challenge will certainly be to acquire and maintain mindshare with busy business professionals who may not be familiar with their site. Still, BNET is blazing new ground to extend the reach of white paper marketing to new audiences. Check out BNET if you hope to reach business decision-makers or want to focus on certain less technical job functions or industries. For more information, visit www.BNET.com.DISCUSSION: Discuss this topic at the WhitePaperSource forum.
