Time Magazine (March, 2014) credited Ken McCarthy with being the person who had the fundamental insight that made it possible to transform the Internet from a non-commercial technical platform to the world's biggest marketplace and publishing platform.
His insight? That clicks had a commercial value and that their value was variable depending on audience. This insight is literally the foundation that made online businesses like Google and Facebook and millions of others possible.
In addition to this contribution, Ken was also:
1) the first to publish an article about email as a marketing tool in a marketing industry publication (1994)
2) one of the primary pioneers of the banner ad (1994)
3) early pioneer of auto-responder marketing (1996)
4) early pioneer of pay-per-click marketing (2001)
5) introduced "push button" audio to the Internet (2002), the foundation of the podcasting industry
6) early pioneer of practical online video marketing (2005), though he published the first article on the subject in 1994, and
7) early pioneer of mobile marketing (2008)
When Brian Kurtz picked the top living marketing people on the planet to honor the memory of Direct Marketing Hall of Fame legend Marty Edelson, he chose Jay Abraham, Gary Bencivenga, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, Greg Renker and Ken, along with Ken's student Perry Marshall, to represent the very best of the best in all mediums - direct mail, infomercials, catalog sales and Internet.
All that and a phenomenal educator too.
Ken organized and sponsored the first conference ever held on the subject of business on the World Wide Web, way back in 1994.
In 2002, when everyone else in the market had shut down after 9/11, and the Dotcom Crash, and declared that opportunities on the Internet "over", Ken launched the most important and influential Internet marketing seminar series of all time: The System Seminar.
Thousands of students attended over the years from twenty-three countries and five continents and many went on to become leaders in the industry.
In the System Seminar, Ken laid down the fundamentals of Internet marketing still used today: opt-in, email follow up, A/B split testing, knowing your conversion rates, multiple forms of media (text, photos, audio, video), "virtual" seminars, and high quality ad copy.
For more info visit: KenMcCarthy.com
