By Brent Applegate
Your company has a new killer app — a breakthrough you know will change your industry. The dilemma is that only YOU know about it. How do you get your white paper in front your audience? One solution is to pay someone to do just that; otherwise known as white paper publishing and syndication. This article provides a brief overview of the services provided by three of the top players in the white paper publishing space: Bitpipe, Inc., KnowledgeStorm and CNET’s IT Papers. Each company has a unique approach and one may be right for you.
Bitpipe, Inc. – www.bitpipe.com
Boston-based Bitpipe, Inc. takes the lead among the three in the area of syndication. Bitpipe provides the “guts” that make white paper searches possible from many popular sites. Search for specialized white papers on a site such as Federal Computer Weekly (FCW.com) and the results are provided by Bitpipe. The Bitpipe network includes more than 80 syndication partners and search engines that drive traffic through its white paper directories, including Forbes, InformationWeek, TechWeb and VARbusiness. According to Bitpipe’s PR Director Mary Kelly, over 870,000 visitors search for white papers using Bitpipe each month.
Pricing is based on a flat fee with no charge per click or lead. Bitpipe will promote your company’s white papers and other product collateral starting at $3,495 annually via its Product Promotion Program. Bitpipe provides you with reader leads, detailed monthly traffic reports, featured placement on partner sites and a minimum lead guarantee. One innovative feature exclusive to Bitpipe is its X-stream wrapper option. This technology displays a sign-in page embedded in an Adobe PDF file, which must be completed before viewing a white paper. Thus, if anyone forwards your paper, you receive updated lead information.
KnowledgeStorm – www.knowledgestorm.com
As the name implies, accessing the KnowledgeStorm directory unleashes a veritable torrent of information. The 5-year-old directory receives the most visitors of the three, estimated at 1.6 million per month. KnowledgeStorm provides a very extensive directory, with more than 800 categories of IT content. A distinguishing feature of KnowledgeStorm is its large and dedicated user base, which directly accesses the site. Remaining traffic arrives via 26 syndication partners, including WSJ Startup Journal, TechTarget and InfoWorld, as well as traditional search engines.
According to Executive VP of Product Technology and Marketing Jeffrey Ramminger, “KnowledgeStorm’s heritage is really in solutions info. We have evolved over time to include more research in the form of white papers.” Listing on their directory is costly. The basic service begins at around $7,000 annually for a single listing with unlimited leads. Large enterprise firms may pay $100,000 or more.
With much traffic come many leads. While slightly more than 10% of KnowledgeStorm clients take advantage of its lead management services (where it prescreens white paper requestors), many IT providers must use CRM software to avoid being overloaded with leads.
IT Papers – www.itpapers.com
The newest entrant of the three is IT Papers, an offering from the CNET family, which owns business IT sites such as News.com, TechRepublic and ZDNet. CNET acquired IT Papers in 2002 as a vehicle to provide more vendor content to its readers. Enjoying an article about Linux on Tech Republic? Links at the end of the article direct you to relevant white papers in the IT Papers directory.
Peter Spande of CNET marketing credits the “extremely tight linkage between white papers and editorial content” for the 250,000 to 300,000 visitors per month that visit IT Papers. While IT vendors can submit material to IT Papers without charge, Spande notes that IT Papers is most effective when used in sponsorship mode. You are charged for sponsorship based on the number of white papers you wish to promote and the number of registered visitors you hope will download your papers. IT Papers promotes your content primarily within the CNET network to achieve your desired number of downloads. Those registered as “students” or other non-buyers do not count against the committed number of downloads. Sponsorship begins at around $1,000 per month, and can rise to 6 or 7 figures for enterprise-level providers.
You Make the Call
These three sites differ not so much in usability, but in the strategy employed to promote your white paper. If your focus is in a niche served by Bitpipe’s large syndication network, it can be a cost-effective way to get your white paper in front of the right people. KnowledgeStorm has the broadest reach and exposure, which is of benefit as long as you are set up to handle the resulting interest. With IT Papers, you have the most control over how much and where your papers are promoted. White paper directories are more than just dusty repositories; they can and should be an important part of your successful white paper marketing campaign. Stay tuned for future analysis of these and other white paper publishing and syndication outlets.
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