Cover Story: Finding the Perfect Balance

Gaiam runs video ads on affiliate sites in which browsers can view, say, a Gaiam yoga video ad. In addition to some other flash and static ads, Gaiam gets itself quoted in affiliates' articles about yoga, health and environmental subjects; the quotes contain links back to the Gaiam site.

Content (Really) Is King
The heavily educated nature of Gaiam's customers has led the company to beef up its content as it's continued to morph into an online company from a traditional print cataloger. In fact, last year Gaiam launched a content-only site, GaiamLife.com, which focuses on subjects its customers are interested in: yoga, exercise, sustainability and other subjects germane to Gaiam. "The site's been wildly successful," Marshall says. "Customers love it, and we're able to track how people click on our articles, then on our products to make purchases."