Reference.Com wants to pay listowners to send ads to their lists

[dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)]

One of my many hats is the owner of a very technical mailing list
with about 400 subscribers.  I received the following unsolicited
e-mail from reference.com, which I'm reposting without comment:

]Received: (from eansender@localhost)
]          by bilbo.reference.com (8.8.5/8.8.4)
]	  id GAA15443 for DLV@DM.COM; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 06:15:14 -0700 (PDT)
]Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 06:15:14 -0700 (PDT)
]From: ean@reference.com
]Message-Id: <199707241315.GAA15443@bilbo.reference.com>
]To: DLV@DM.COM
]Subject: InReference Email Ad Network Information
]
]Dear List Owner,
]
]As a listowner, you may have heard about us. We're InReference, Inc. We're
]the developers of Reference.COM, the Internet's most comprehensive resource
]for accessing Internet forums. We allow business and home users to easily
]search, find, browse  and participate in more than 150,000 worldwide web
]forums, USENET newsgroups and email lists. Even though you're not currently
]archiving your list with Reference.COM, we thought we'd let you know about a
]new service from InReference that may be of interest. We understand the
]pressures on your time, so thanks in advance for hearing us out.
]
]During the past year, we've been approached by numerous list owners
]asking for help finding sponsors for their lists. While a few lists are
]already funded, others would benefit from additional financial support.
]The reasons are many.  Perhaps the listowner needs helps supporting day-to-day
]operations. Or perhaps there's a desire to grow the list.
]
]We've also been approached by many would-be sponsors, socially-responsible
]companies that wanted to do email advertising the right way--with the
]cooperation and support of the list owner.
]
]To address this need, we've started the InReference email ad network  (EAN).
]Basically, we match you up with advertisers fitting a preference profile that
]you create. We handle ad sales, insertion, auditing, billing, and so on. It
]costs nothing to sign-up, and can generate $0.01-0.05/ad/subscriber depending
]on the list. As a list owner, you choose the type of ad (whether banner or
]standalone) and the frequency of ad insertion. You also have the right to veto
]any ads before they can be sent out.
]
]A more detailed description of EAN can be found at the following URL  :
]	http://www.inreference.com/ean
]Should your interest warrant it, details on signing up can be found at :
]	http://www.inreference.com/ean/listinfo.html
]
]Regards,
]
]Jack Zoken
]President
]InReference, Inc.
]
]PS: Regardless of whether you sign-up for EAN, we'd welcome the opportunity to
]archive your list at Reference.COM. See  __________ to submit your list for
]inclusion.