ONLINE SHOPPING MALL BREAKS NEW GROUND

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 10, 2005 -- Donald Trump, eat your heart out.

Real estate developers spend billions of dollars on big new projects, but an exciting new online shopping mall housing 39 retailers was launched for under $200.

That�s not the only remarkable thing about the Mall down the Street, which is located on the Internet at www.mallDTS.com. This online mall really looks like a shopping mall, and it�s taking affiliate marketing, a multi-billion-dollar Internet phenomenon, to new heights.

The mall was designed to bring more of the enjoyment and excitement of the mall shopping experience to Internet users.
Thirty-eight retailers are in the mall, only one short of capacity. They include some of the biggest names in offline and online shopping and many specialty stores. One store is reserved for a charity.

Offerings from eight more online businesses can be accessed through two stores run by the Mall, the Bookstore down the Street and the Internet Click Store.

The Mall marks a new approach in affiliate marketing. Thousands of merchants on the Internet have affiliate programs which enable other web sites to be compensated for bringing Internet visitors to the merchants� web sites. They usually pay a commission on sales or a flat fee to their affiliates.

The Mall down the Street adheres closely to the often-strict rules of affiliate marketing laid down by merchants while bringing new excitement to the affiliate shopping experience. Normally, merchants provide specific content for affiliates in the form of banners or text links and expect it to be used in just that way. In the new mall, affiliate content is plastered on �storefronts� and merchants� logos--which merchants often include as part of their affiliate content--are used as names on the stores.

�The mall is innovative, but also low-tech,� Gilhooly said. �I tried to make it accessible to people with relatively slow modems as well as high-speed internet users, and I avoided using Flash, frames, and the newest enhancements to web page programming.

�I intended to start with one wing of a mall,� Gilhooly noted. �But there were so many types of businesses we wanted to include in the mall, the concept grew until there were four wings and a food court.�

The mall really was launched for under $200, Gilhooly said. He conceived the idea of the mall, designed it, coded the web pages, contacted the merchants and arranged for web hosting and domain names. He did not pay himself a salary. He did pay for web hosting, three domain names, e-mail accounts, a $30 fee for distribution of a press release, and a three-month fee of $23 to cover cloaking of the mall�s links to affiliates to protect affiliate commissions.

Were the months of design work, planning and contacts with retailers worth it? �Absolutely,� he said. �I accessed the mall today, headed for a shoe store and seconds later was in the store looking at a large selection of shoes. It was almost like actually being in the mall. I loved it.

The Mall down the Street has some advantages over real-world malls, Gilhooly said. �There�s never a problem finding a parking space at the Mall down the Street.�