The Lines Blur Further with HomeDepot.com Plan

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Rebecca Lieb has commented in the past on how e-commerce sites are becoming agencies. They're also becoming publishers, in the "we sell advertising" sense. The latest example is Home Depot's announcement today that it will sell advertising on homedepot.com. This offering will consist of banner ads on the site and ads in e-mail newsletters. Both of these will point to advertiser-specific microsites including interactive demos, streaming video, and in-depth product content. Makes sense if, as Home Depot claims, homedepot.com "receives more traffic than any other online destination in the home and garden category". Moen has already signed up. Talk about reaching customers at the right end of the sales funnel. It's similar to the way eBay lets sellers buy advertising highlighting their own merchandise. (The last development we covered in this space was Guidester's expansion of its network.)

The WSJ has a short piece on this today which says only Home Depot vendors can participate in the program.