Internet ad work clicking for two grads from SEMO

Former Southeast Missouri State University students Josh Barsch and John Pozzoli are heading a Phoenix-based company that is cashing in on a relatively new and innovative kind of marketing strategy -- it's called "online keyword advertising" and it's expected to be a $7 billion industry by 2007.

"This is the next big thing," said Josh Barsch, president and CEO of StraightForward Media. "We're just like an advertising agency. But we deal in pay-per-click."

Pay-per-click search advertising, Barsch said, is the most effective way to acquire new customers via the Internet. Barsch said that pay-per-click involves customers paying firms like his to make sure their Web pages are placed at the top of the page.

Businesses contact companies like Barsch's and present a list of "keywords." For example, if someone from this area contacted the company and told him "Cape Girardeau attorney," then Barsch can make sure when those words are typed into search engines, then that lawyer's Web address would be at the top of the page.

StraightForward Media uses the big four search engines, Google, AOL, Yahoo and MSN. Keywords range from 5 cents to $50.For example, Google starts at about 5 cents and Overture starts at 10 cents.Companies like StraightForward pays these companies to put their clients at the top of the page.

Pozzoli is the company's chief technical officer and Barsch is the main advertising rep, though they have advertising representatives literally across the globe and customers in several states. They have several employees who work in the Phoenix area, though Pozzoli does his online work mainly from his residence in St. Louis.

They met while working at the student newspaper at Southeast Missouri State University. Barsch was studying journalism and eventually became editor of the Capaha Arrow, where Pozzoli was sports editor at one time.

"I was a good writer, but not really a great reporter," admits Barsch. "But SEMO did help me learn how to write concisely. That's very important in a business where space is very limited and words cost so much."

The men started at the ground floor and have built a client base of 13, with designs of growing to 50 or so by the next few years. They have built up a reputation, garnering some national attention in "Direct Marketing News" after helping a Los Angeles law office generate $1.6 million in new revenue over a few months.

But it wasn't easy, Barsch told the magazine.

"This particular market is already brutally competitive online," he was quoted as saying. "It's not like we introduced a fantastic new product that no one had ever heard of and can simply enter the market at the top of the class."

Profits for this type of advertising are expected to be at $7 billion by 2007.

Barsch and Pozzoli stay busy. Pozzoli's cell phone was ringing so much during his interview that he didn't have time to talk to a reporter. Barsch praised Pozzoli, who keeps the network up and the e-mail flowing.

"Without him, it wouldn't work," Barsch said. "He runs the servers, the e-mail, all the Web stuff. It's like a car. I can polish the outside, but if it doesn't run, who cares? He makes sure it runs."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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