Ad $ From the Web? No Sure Bet

Where to spend your advertising dollars? Oh the web of course? Think again. 2010 Marketing reminds business that the toolbox of advertising options includes many options, and some work better than others for different businesses. For the full story from the New York Times, click here. For anyone with a crazy idea for a Web business, the way to make it pay was once obvious: get a lot of visitors and sell ads. Since 2004, venture investors have put $5.1 billion into 828 Web start-up companies, and most of them are supported by ads, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Now advertisers have cut back their online spending. So Web start-ups are searching for new ways to make money, like selling real, or virtual, goods or asking customers to buy subscriptions.