Dot-Coms Dominate First Ads Sold By AAN Classified Reps.

Thanks to the sales efforts of classified reps at several AAN papers, the Classified Advertising Network (AAN CAN) is off to a roaring start.

Icon’s Kelly Pardecooper, Cincinnati CityBeat’s Rodney Hancock, InPittsburgh’s Laurie Zapotoczny, Orlando Weekly’s Dorinda Bowers and Darien Dumanis of the San Francisco Bay Guardian were the first reps to sell ads into the network.

Like a lot of ads being bought these days, there was a heavy dot-com bias in the initial roster of national classified advertisers: www.criticalmojo.com, a web music service; spinrecords.com, another web music service seeking talent scouts; Prosperity Partners, a financial services firm offering cash for structured insurance settlements and lottery winnings; and eCrush, a fun on-line secret admirer site.

There was also one regional advertiser — Pathtofreedom.org, which sells work-at-home instructional materials over the Internet — that bought an ad in the Southeast region.

A 25% commission will be paid to each selling paper.

AAN was also forced to turn away a couple of ads that didn’t meet the strict content guidelines of the AAN CAN program. The ads that were declined were submitted by an adult web site and an envelope stuffing operation.

“We are excited by the interest in making sales by participating papers,” says AAN Marketing Director Adam Ebbin. “Now our greatest challenge is to make sure that the ads are running correctly each week in AAN papers.”

Papers that have questions about receiving and running AAN CAN ads should e-mail or call Adam Ebbin or Jimmy Askew at 202-822-1955.