For prices ranging from $99 to $219, John Marshall, owner, founder, and sole operator of Biplane Adventures Inc., will fly you in a biplane with an open cockpit. Customers can experience loops, rolls and upside-down flight, or just a breathtaking sightseeing tour. But marketing aeronautical nostalgia sometimes requires being ahead of the times. Marshall, a former reporter with KNBC-TV Channel 4 and husband of actress Joan Van Arc, spoke with Lauren Hollingsworth about the way he advertises his business.

(My customers are) a select market: people who love to fly. Young, old, male, female affording it is the only restriction. Initially, I wasted a lot of money on newspaper advertising. I thought everyone read the L.A. Times. It didn’t really produce results. Less effective was the Daily News. Now I’m finding that keeping expenses down and cutting advertising is the way to keep myself from losing money. I did become part of that AAA program, “Show your card and save.” I’ve been with them for about 10 months and they have helped a lot, (but) the Internet is emerging as my key marketing device and it only costs $19.95 a month.

In fact, it was surfing the Net that gave me the idea to use the biplane as a commercial business. Most of the other biplane businesses have Web sites. I looked around and saw what the prices were and what they did. It looked like a lot of fun.

(The Internet) introduced me to the business and it seemed natural to put myself on the Web. So I downloaded Netscape Navigator Gold and I went to the “Help” section. It takes you into their site, and it has all the information (on how to create a Web site) as well as the program that helps you do your pages.

I had a choice of paying at least $1,000 to set up a site (and then) calling someone (if I wanted to make a change). It just would be so cumbersome. By doing it myself, if I get an idea at 3 in the morning, I just go the computer and go to the site and change it. It has been a whole life experience. It is more or less a creative process.

(For my business), the Internet is starting to take off. I have a feeling that all my customers, whatever their age, are into computers. They like exploring and having fun. There’s a certain amount of adventure into being connected to the biggest library in the world. And it’s just beginning. Everybody’s going to be doing business on the Internet.