Method and apparatus for supplementing mailing transaction costs
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving an indication to send a message to a plurality of recipients;
automatically determining a monetary cost associated with sending the message;
determining if an insertion of an advertisement of a selected one of a link to an advertisement of an advertiser and the advertisement itself, the advertisement having a monetary value associated with it, is received; and
automatically reducing the monetary cost associated with sending the message by the monetary value of the inserted advertisement, upon determining that the insertion is received.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic-to-physical mail delivery system is provided to receive an indication to send to send a message to a number of recipients. From the number of recipients, a monetary cost associated with sending the message is determined. The system determines if an insertion of an advertisement of a selected one of a link to an advertisement of an advertiser and the advertisement itself, the advertisement having a monetary value associated with it, is received. If the insertion of the advertisement having the monetary value is received, the system automatically reduces the monetary cost associated with sending the message by the value of the inserted advertisement. As a result, a user may send a message electronically to a number of recipients included within a group and have the recipients receive the message as a physical mailing, while supplementing the costs associated with mailing the message by inserting advertisements into the message.
138 Citations
40 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
receiving an indication to send a message to a plurality of recipients;
automatically determining a monetary cost associated with sending the message;
determining if an insertion of an advertisement of a selected one of a link to an advertisement of an advertiser and the advertisement itself, the advertisement having a monetary value associated with it, is received; and
automatically reducing the monetary cost associated with sending the message by the monetary value of the inserted advertisement, upon determining that the insertion is received. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. In a client device, a method comprising:
-
facilitating sending a message to a plurality of recipients included within a group;
facilitating receiving a monetary cost associated with sending the message;
facilitating insertion of a selected one of a link to an advertisement of an advertiser and the advertisement itself, in the message prepared by a sender, the advertisement having a monetary value associated with it; and
facilitating updating of the monetary cost associated with sending the message. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. An apparatus comprising:
-
a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions designed to receive an indication to send a message to a plurality of recipients, automatically determine a monetary cost associated with sending the message, determine if an insertion of an advertisement of a selected one of a link to an advertisement of an advertiser and the advertisement itself, the advertisement having a monetary value associated with it, is received, and automatically reduce the monetary cost associated with sending the message by the value of the inserted link to the advertisement/the advertisement itself, upon determining that the insertion is received; and
a processor coupled to the storage medium to execute the programming instructions. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
-
-
32. An apparatus comprising:
-
a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions designed to facilitate sending a message to a plurality of recipients included within a group, facilitate receiving a monetary cost associated with sending the message, facilitate insertion of a selected one of a link to an advertisement of an advertiser and the advertisement itself, in the message prepared by a sender, the advertisement having a monetary value associated with it, and facilitate updating of the monetary cost associated with sending the message; and
a processor coupled to the storage medium to execute the programming instructions. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
-
Specification