Internet Finance Corp. is betting that people with an above-average interest in golf or the weather are likely to be valuable consumers of financial services.
The San Francisco-based company has launched a financial Web site with links to a popular weather page, accuweather.com, and to golf.com.
The alliances make the site, MoneyClub.com, an aspiring supersite that can serve as an on-line guide to the banking and finance world. MoneyClub.com lists and provides hot links to a variety of financial Web sites.
Golf.com (the on-line home of Golf Digest, Golf World, and NBC Sports' golf coverage) and Accuweather stand to get a percentage of sales generated through MoneyClub.com links.
"We are building private-label financial resource areas for our partners that are interested in adding more revenues," said Rick Hutcheson, president of Internet Finance.
Joel N. Myers, founder and president of Accuweather Inc., said he sees a logical connection between business and the weather.
"With so many people traveling, the weather affects so many businesses," he said. Since weather reports help people manage their lives, it, presumably, is only a slight jump for them to begin thinking about finances.
"We have developed Personal Accuweather to be the premier Web site for people who want fast, easy access to specific, accurate, and timely weather information for business or personal reasons," he added. "We are thrilled to offer people the same easy access to the foremost financial information and services on the Web."
Banks and technology companies have been looking for ways to lure customers to financially oriented sites on the Web, and supersites like MoneyClub.com may help.
"The battle is heating up over who gets the first clicks of users on- line," said Nicole Vanderbilt of Jupiter Communications in New York. "The key driver for the acquisition of that customer is banner ads or partnerships with larger, full-service aggregators like America Online, Netscape, Yahoo, and Excite."
Yahoo, the most popular Internet search engine, operates a stock quote site that is the most popular financial source on the Web, according to New York-based Media Metrix, which makes software that measures visitors' use of Web sites.
Another popular financial site, Intuit Inc.'s Quicken.com, is likely to get a boost next month when the search engine Excite will begin providing a link from its home page.
According to Media Metrix, other popular financial sites include Quote.com, Microsoft Corp.'s Investor, Data Broadcasting Corp.'s investment information page, CNN's financial channel, and Fidelity Investments' Web page.
Banks operating on the Internet are finding it necessary to raise their profiles to attract surfers.
"Besides having a good Web site, the key is to advertise the site in places that the customers go, like branches, newspapers, and magazines," said Wendy Beaupre, First Union Corp.'s Internet program manager. "Even though it is a new medium, you still need to get people the same way you always did."
Security First Network Bank, the Atlanta-based Internet bank, places a high priority on on-line advertising. Hope Flammer, vice president of marketing, said Security First is promoting itself on search engines, lists of hot links, and in personal finance publications.
Detail-oriented financial consumers, who marketers refer to as organizers, "respond to ads in places like Kiplinger's, Smart Money, or Bank Rate Monitor," said Ms. Flammer.
By contrast, people who just want to do their business more efficiently "view banking as a tax on their existence," she said. "More appealing for them is a banner ad on a travel-related site."
