This is being achieved by the release of the Australian WebLifestyles segments by Sydney based Internet research company, APT Strategies Pty. Ltd from the Australian Online Readership Survey.

According to Marc Phillips, Director of APT Strategies "this is the first time that advertisers can map Internet users by pyschographics as opposed to demographics. Whereas traditional mediums have used pyschographical representation for increasing targeting of online advertising for many years, media planners and buyers now, for the first time, can target Internet users in like minded groupings other than simply age, sex and income."

As the online properties aggressively acquire customers, online marketers and advertisers need to understand the psychie of the Australian Internet user. Taking the hotly contested online investment industry, a dilemma faced by advertisers is selecting a target audience who are likely to buy either shares online and an investment fund.

APT Strategies found that of the six psychographic clusters that were obtained from the Australian WebLifestyle report , Bandwidth Bandits and Internet Addicts are most likely to buy shares or investment funds online.

According to analysts at APT Strategies, "using our online media planning software, we can clearly see that combining three titles produces much higher coverage amongst the Internet Addicts. Combinations of the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Stock Exchange and either News.com.au, NineMSN, Trading Post, White Pages or Yahoo give exceptional coverage.

For example, a combination of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Australian Stock Exchange reaches 81%. With News, White Pages and Yahoo, the reach is 87%. The highest reach is attained between Yahoo, White Pages and Anzwers at 90% of the Internet Addicts who intend to buy shares online.

The majority of Bandwidth Bandits access the Internet daily. Typically, they are young people aged below 30 years of age and enjoy 10 hours or more on the Internet each week. Bandwidth Bandits crave more interactivity and applications. They want the most from the Internet and enjoy listening to the radio whilst simultaneously accessing the Internet. Bandwidth bandits prefer new methods of communications over traditional devices such as the telephone - spending less than 2 hours each week talking on local area and mobile phones.

Internet addicts are in love with the Internet spending more hours per week on it than other mediums including watching television, listening to the radio and reading newspapers or magazines. They get excited and motivated by technological advancements and thoroughly enjoy the experience of being online.

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APT Strategies WebLifeStyle Report results from the Australian Online Readership survey that features All Fairfax online properties (such as the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, The Trading Room, BRW, Citysearch and The Age (Melbourne), News.com.au, Yellow Pages, AltaVista, BigPond, Australian Stock Exchange, Seek Communications, JobNet, Commercial Dynamics, publishers of The Trading Post, ZDNet, Travel.com.au, Telstra White Pages. LookSmart, and OzEmail websites.

With online advertising now booming, The Australian Online Readership Survey will instill confidence into the media departments. "It is great to see a tool that media planners and buyers can use that is in a format that they understand and is comparable across other media. The ability to analyse over 50 of the top Australian websites is what the industry is looking for", said Monique Harris, National Advertising Sales Manager of Ozemail.

13,114 respondents completed the Online Readership Survey. The results were weighted to the 121 million marketable impressions that were generated by the websites each month. This methodology simulates press and magazine advertising inventory and is a better measure of website readership than visits. This data produces duplicated and unduplicated reach across the sites.

The methodology is further enhanced by not allowing sponsored questions to be put on the survey which leads to longer response times and corresponding fall out responses rates.

Email: marc.phillips@aptstrategies.com

Telephone: +61 2 9332 1480

Internet: http://www.aptstrategies.com.au

APT Strategies is one of Australia's leading online research companies having conducted over 100 qualitative and quantitative research projects and over 150 Internet research and electronic commerce studies for leading Australian and international companies. In 1998/99, APT Strategies completed over 45,000 online interviews with Australian Internet users. The Australian Online Readership Survey has been endorsed by Australia's leading websites and is conducted half yearly.