Sites include Yahoo! and Excite

by Jenny McCune

     Adauction.com has aligned itself with MSN LinkExchange to sell brand-name remnant online ads  to the LinkExchange's 1 million small-business customers.
      The co-branded LinkExchange-Adauction.com service went online yesterday as part of LinkExchange's AdStore, a low-budget ad shop for small businesses. 
     Through the new service, LinkExchange members can buy branded advertising from Adauction's 200 publishers at bargain prices of up to 50 percent off published rates, according to Neil Cohen, Adauction.com's senior vice president of business affairs.
       "It gives small business owners a crack at inventory that they wouldn't ordinarily have a chance at or would know how to access," explains Drew Ianni, analyst of online advertising at Jupiter Communications in New York.
      The plan includes such premium sites as Excite and Yahoo! LinkExchange's other publishers include BabyCenter and GameSpot, as well as the LinkExchange network.
        "Small businesses don't have a lot of access to brand media," says Cohen. "This opens up that pipeline to those who want to be in a branded environment.’’
       The deal advances Adauction's goal of becoming an online auctioneer for all forms of media. The San Francisco company began by selling remnants or distressed web inventory in September 1997, and just last month it branched into auctioning remnant print ads, selling its first full-price print ad, a full-page in GQ. Adauction is scheduled to begin auctions for broadcast ads this fall.
        Ad lots are expected to range from 25,000 to 100,000 impressions at a price of  $1,500 or less, the company says. The LinkExchange-Adauction.com service includes insertion orders, ad serving and consolidated billing and reporting.
      Similar deals may be in the offing with other vendors, says Cohen. "We see this model going forward and something that can be expanded in a couple different directions."
        With the service up and running less than a day, it's impossible to predict its ultimate success, but Ianni gives it a good chance. The only concern, he says, is if others come along and steal the idea.
           "Adauction.com has been told every step of the way that they can't do what they then go out and do," Ianni says. "They keep on proving naysayers wrong."