Retailers writing big checks for portal presence admit they don't know what the return on their investments will be or when it will come. Companies should know what they need and what they can afford before they enter into the rather arbitrary business of negotiating space with a portal. Merchants also should build flexibility into deals with portal operators since the cost of buying portal space is likely to fluctuate quickly. Though Rosendorf would not provide details, analysts believe the bookseller's portal deals all have some sort of metering mechanism built into them to determine if the company is getting its money's worth. None of the portal companies interviewed by PC Week could provide a hard price for sponsoring a specific portion of a portal site, setting up text information about a merchant on a portal site, providing preferred merchants on search results or anything other than banner ad rates.
Every negotiation is unique.
That means it's critical that a company knows what it wants out of the relationship with the portal. For starters, they've got the user traffic that everyone else wants. Companies are willing to pay handsomely to get a piece of that traffic, and the wide range of prices is further proof of the nature of these contracts. Citicorp's home banking services will be linked directly to Netcenter's finance channel, as well as financial news featured on the site. No other bank will be able to offer those kinds of services through Netcenter.