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JimWorld Gazette Issue #78 06/22/1999
JimWorld Gazette - Issue #78 - June 22, 1999CONTENTS
- New On JimWorld
- The Coming Tax Debacle
- So. What Is This favicon.ico File In My Server Logs?
- Atta Boy T.J.
- Beware The Net Scammer
- How To Build Your Own "Magic Box"
- "No Purchase Necessary"
- First Impressions Count
- 10,000 Targeted Hits For $100?!?
- Build Traffic Through The Visitor's Browser
- Branding With Banners
- Get Linked
- Snippets
NEW ON JimWorld
Windows Magazinehttp://www.winmag.com/library/1999/0701/sol0063.htm
http://jimworld.com/winmag/index.html
A big "Thanks" goes out to Rich Castagna for the great article he wrote for this month's Windows Magazine. If you have a copy around take a look at "Help Your Site Get Seen" or click above to read it on-line.
The article starts out:
"VirtualPROMOTE (JimWorld) is a Web merchant's dream - it's packed with advice about how to get search engines to pick up your site, swap links and build a community."
----------
Another nice review this month from About.com:
WORTH A LOOK: Search Engine Forums
Hanging out with professionals and participating in "shop talk" is one of the best ways to learn just about any new skill. The folks at Virtual Promote have put together a "virtual garage" where you can talk shop, ask questions, exchange tips, and share frustrations about the major search engines.
Full review:
While I was at About.com (the web site previously known as Mining Co.) I searched their site for the various domain names used at VirtualPROMOTE and was pleasantly surprised at just how much good press these nice folks have given us. Thanks.
----------
Writers On Writing
http://jimworld.com/writerhumor.html
A new page on JimWorld gives you a bit of a mental break and some perspective on the funny business of writing. Every web site operator is by necessity a writer, so go have a few chuckles.
----------
In the next issue we will be reviewing a complete e-commerce site with every bell and whistle we could throw at it. Great reviews of some sales building features that you won't want to miss.
Also next week we will be looking at some powerful new search tools that you can add to your own web site to bring your visitors back repeatedly.
And finally will be the official launch of the new JimTools site.
THE COMING TAX DEBACLE
The fiery debate over local sales tax on Internet sales is heating up and the impact of new laws could reach beyond the Net and into all mail order sales.The first meeting of the federal Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce is finally taking place this week after a lengthy court battle over the make up of the panel. The government representatives wanted an equal number of members as the business side had, so they sued and everyone waited. The court ordered changes giving both sides an equal number of representatives and that cleared the way for the Commission to get started.
With such a beginning, can any good come from this group? Maybe the next lawsuit will be over the shape of the table they sit at.
Here's the problem in a nutshell.
Sales on the Internet are growing rapidly and the current laws require sales tax to be collected only on sales shipped to the same state as the business doing the selling. If the shipment crosses a state line and is shipped to a state in which the seller does not operate a physical office or store, then the taxes need not be collected. This is basically the same set of rules followed by all "mail order" businesses. This law works its way down the tax food chain to counties and cities. There are a few more details to the formula, but that description covers the basic facts.
That means that millions of shipments are being delivered and the local government of the purchaser's city, county and state are not making any money on those sales. If the products were purchased in a local store, they would get their money.
The "government" side of this issue wants Internet merchants to collect all state and local taxes for orders sent into their "hood." The sales taxes collected are a significant portion of the monies spent to provide local services such as police, fire and road services. They see an eroding tax base as the Internet continues its rapid growth.
The merchant side of the issue has many facets, but the most important one for us is the simple fact that there are over 3,000 different taxing entities in the U.S. Can you imagine collecting, tracking and paying sales tax to 3,000 different cities, counties and states? Add to that the need to establish a tax license in each of those 3,000 locales and pay the associated fees. Now imagine filling out 3,000 different forms every month to send out with the checks. Don't forget to factor in the random audits these local governments will want to perform. The wasted time and resources would be staggering and force all but the largest merchants to fold up their tents and fade away.
One proposed "solution" to this complex situation would be the implementation of a National sales tax on all sales delivered by mail order and Internet merchants. Of all the proposed solutions, this is by far the most dangerous. Taxes would have to be raised to levels two or three times their current rates to allow for the overhead and waste that comes with any "help" from the federal government. And just how long will it take them to start seeing the new taxes collected and passing through their hands as "their money?"
Nothing much is going to happen for a couple of years since the current law prohibits any new taxes on Internet sales. But when that law runs out (after the elections,) the situation will heat up.
The problem is compounded by the American Constitution which stops governments from taxing beyond their borders. This is why mail order sales have remained tax free when shipped across state and local lines.
One would think that changing the existing laws would be a complex Constitutional issue. Unfortunately that is not so. America's government has turned the Constitution into a "work-in-process" and gained great skills over the past 40 years at changing the Constitution at the drop of a whim. It is their one finely honed skill.
The end result of a bad decision on sales taxation will cause widespread damage. The state and local governments need a reliable tax base if they are to deliver the services we need. Obviously, it wouldn't hurt if they cut some of the bloat out of their budgets, but there is a basic set of services that need to be funded.
Internet merchants need a clear set of rules that allow them to comply with the law without being buried in a paperwork grave.
The Internet as a whole needs the federal government to stay out of the solution. If the monies flow through federal coffers, Internet tax could wind up being three times the amount that would be paid at a local store which would effectively shut down the mainstream of the Net...
Except those companies that moved off-shore to avoid all sales tax.
Keep your eyes on this situation. It will effect you at some point in the near future and the risk of bad law approaches 100%.
SO. WHAT IS THIS favicon.ico FILE IN MY SERVER LOGS?
I've had several people send me articles and information about this issue but I had already started work on a short article. I do want to thank everyone for their input.Several months ago I started seeing references to a file called favicon.ico in my server logs. Actually I noticed them but didn't really "see" them for several weeks. Then the number of requests got so large that it climbed towards the top end of my server log reports and caught my attention. The requests were appearing in just about every subdirectory on every site I have.
I looked around the site for a broken link to favicon.ico and of course didn't find one. Now I'm really curious.
Off I go to the search engines and finally find myself at the Microsoft site in the pages for Internet Explorer 5.0. There it was. favicon.ico.
IE5 allows you to include an icon for your site that is retrieved every time a visitor bookmarks your site. Then they will always see your icon next to their bookmark of your site. Cool.
Visit one of the big download sites like http://download.com and get yourself an icon editor. Install it and make yourself an icon. It is very simple and the icon editors make it just about fool-proof, as evidenced by my new icon.
Once you have it ready, upload favicon.ico into EVERY directory and subdirectory of your site. Unfortunately, the nice folks at MS didn't have enough pizza on hand to think about fetching the icon from the domain root so you need a copy in every location that might be bookmarked by a visitor.
Go out there and do this one. Make your bookmark stand out from those lesser sites.
ATTA BOY T.J.
Microsoft unveiled the Year's Fastest-Growing Independent Software Vendors for Windows and Software Solutions, owned by T.J. Walker has made the list.T.J. is a frequent contributor to the VirtualPROMOTE community, and the master distributor for WebSuite, SmartDesk's software system.
Find out just how tough the competition was for this recognition at
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/Apr99/ISVgrowpr.htm
If you need a good distributor for your software products, talk to T.J.
Congratulations T.J. Keep on growing. Next time, you buy dinner.
BEWARE THE NET SCAMMER
There are no true internet experts. The net is just too new and dynamic. There are however, those who have learned enough to educate others...or to take advantage of them. As in the offline world, there are marketers peddling "get rich quick" schemes and ridiculously overpriced services on the internet. Unfortunately, many of the inexperienced Netizens fall for these scams everyday. Here are some tell-tale signs:-Overpriced Services and Tools: There are marketers out there selling listservers for $400, greeting card systems for $1000, and classified systems for $2000! These services are available for FREE on the web.
-Excessive use of the words "money", "cash", and the "$"
-Images, even backgrounds, of dollar bills and coins
-Demand for Action: "Hurry!", "Two Spots Left!" (as if they would turn the third customer down; yeah right)
-Exaggerated Claims; here are two of my favorites:
"Get 1,000,000 Hits to your web site everyday!"
"Looking for 100 people to become Net Millionaires"
(last time I checked, they were still looking for a 100)
-Misreporting Traffic: they'll tell you how many Hits they are getting, not Unique Visitors.
Don't be quick on the draw with your credit card. The net is all about instant gratification and these scammers know it. If you are unsure about a purchase, contact an experienced person whom you trust.
----------
Fawad Ahmed is a webmaster of Goldvisions http://www.goldvisions.com
and Ultra-Lifestyles http://www.ultralifestyles.com Goldvisions is
Your Online Success Community. To subscribe to the Goldvisions Gazette
send a "subscribe" email to mailto:webmaster@goldvisions.com
----------
Jim-- You can find more information about online scams at Jerkz.com
http://www.Jerkz.com/
Love the name!
HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN "MAGIC BOX"
Strategies for Keeping Your Product SoldWhen I first started in Direct Marketing in 1986, I worked hard to learn all of the techniques used by the masters. Some of these techniques dealt with how to minimize returns for the products you sell.
I'll never forget the night I heard the story about the "magic box." This was supposed to be the most effective way to minimize returns from your customers.
Well ... maybe you've seen the magic box yourself. Some companies that sell books or tapes by mail use this box to ship their products. So what's so magic about it?
The "magic" is that the box is constructed in such a way that it must be destroyed ... leaving the customer with ... you guessed it ... no way to return the product!
Since that time, I must say that I have learned that some ideas are better than others (although this one must work since it is being used still today).
Over the years, I've been exposed to many ideas for minimizing returns. Here's my list of some of the best ways that I have found to make your product sale "stick" with the customer.
- THE SINGLE BEST METHOD
It probably should go without saying, but here goes. The number one thing that you can do to eliminate product returns is to offer a great product that meets a burning desire of your customers.
So before you send it out, do a little research to make sure it's what they want. Send out some FREE samples to customers in exchange for their comments.
Sounds so simple, but even if you did all of the other things on this list, without a great product that meets the desires of your customers, you should "buckle up" because you will get returns.
- OFFER A GREAT GUARANTEE
That's right. The next best way to reduce returns is to make it easy for the customer to return the product (kinda' flies in the face of the magic box).
If you offer a "no hassle" guarantee for a specific time frame, it will actually work on your behalf, building credibility in the eyes of the customer.
Not so sure .... then check out my article on guarantees at
http://unlimitedtraffic.com/articles/cva104.html
- TELL 'EM ALL ABOUT IT
When presenting your product or service, make sure you give the potential customer as much information as they might want.
In mail order, this was tough ... so we usually just included everything but the kitchen sink. But on the Web ... it's easy!
You can use links and menus to let buyers dig as deep as they'd like to learn about the product before they purchase. And if you can give each individual customer the opportunity to do just that, it will go a long way to keeping your product sold.
- HELP THEM GET STARTED
Along with the actual product and any premiums or FREE gifts that you might be including, send a booklet or tape entitled "Getting Started."
In it, thank them for their purchase, repeat some of the benefits, give them an overview of everything that is included in the package, and then tell them step-by-step how to get started.
This simple little idea can save you a bundle in returns as well as customer service.
- FOLLOW-UP ... SOONER THAN LATER
You have a choice here. You can wait and talk to a dissatisfied customer shortly after or on the eve of a product return ...
- OR -
You can systematically follow-up with ALL of your customers within three days of their receipt of your product. This represents a critical period in the customer's decision whether or not to keep the product.
Technology makes this task so easy .... using powerful Autoresponders that do the follow-up for you. If you need more info on this topic, you can read an article on these new tools at http://unlimitedtraffic.com/articles/cva108.html
Don't listen to the naysayers that tell you to just "lay low" and maybe your dissatisfied customers will forget they even purchased the product.
The people that are telling you those kinda' stories have obviously violated the first method that I talked about.
Find out what they think, give them some tips on getting up to speed quickly, maybe even offer them a free gift. But let them know that you are there and that you are interested in their success.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The central theme here is to be proactive. Don't sit around and hope for the best. Make the best happen.
If you have a really good product that meets the need of your customers, these ideas should help reduce your returns.
If not ... DO NOT pass go, head directly to STEP ONE!
----------
Chris Ayers is an Internet Marketer and publisher of the free newsletter "Unlimited Traffic!" Visit his site at http://unlimitedtraffic.com or subscribe to his newsletter with a message to mailto:traffic-on@mail-list.com
"NO PURCHASE NECESSARY"
Is Internet access treated as "consideration" in regards to entering sweepstakes?
Most lottery/gambling laws come in to effect when you offer a prize to people who are required to pay something of value in order to obtain a chance to win. Therefore, it is important to identify whether something of value, or "consideration," is required to enter a promotion.
The question of whether Internet access is consideration has not yet been addressed by any U.S. court. Also, many lawyers specializing in Internet law are not in agreement as to the answer.
If you aren't going to offer a mail-in or phone-in way to enter your sweepstakes, then technically, you are requiring people to have an Internet account with an e-mail address in order to enter your sweepstakes. Internet dial-up accounts typically cost money, therefore, you aren't legally fulfilling the "no purchase necessary" requirement. So, someone could argue that you are requiring people to purchase Internet access in order to enter your promotion.
One way to fulfill the "no purchase necessary" requirement is to state in your official rules that entrants must have Internet access by or before the announcement day of your sweepstakes. By explicitly stating this in your rules, you are not requiring anyone to get Internet access in order to enter your promotion. This will ensure that your sweepstakes or contest promotion is legally abiding to the "no purchase necessary" requirement.
If you are unsure about what wording to use, you can use something like the following:
"This sweepstakes is open to all residents of the United States age 18 and older who have Internet access and valid e-mail accounts as of June 1, 1999."
Of course, I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV, so I recommend that you get adequate legal representation if you have any questions on whether you are complying with local laws and regulations. :-)
----------
Susan Donahue
Winning Ways Sweepstakes Newsletter
http://www.onlinesweeps.com
FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT
If you're in business, your aim will be to sell a product or a service.
So, how do you go about convincing your potential customers to buy from you rather than from your competitor? You must instill confidence; confidence in your ability to deliver what you have promised to deliver, whether that is a $5 tea towel or a $50.000 company review.
==> PERSONAL COMMUNICATION
When you are dealing with customers or clients face to face, you rely on making a good first impression in order to win their confidence. Studies have shown that lasting impressions are made in the first three or four minutes of contact. We spend the rest of the time we know the person - whether it's half an hour or a lifetime - reinforcing or modifying that initial impression.
I knew I could trust him, from our very first meeting.
He seemed such a charming person; I can't believe I was so taken in.
These face to face encounters rely on a number of factors to create the first impression:
· physical appearance - size, shape, age, colouring, sex
· dress
· smell
· eye contact (or lack of it)
· body language
· gesture
· facial expression
· voice- tone, pitch, inflection, pace
· words
· surroundings
So, we're using four of our senses - sight, sound, touch, smell - to make a judgement about the other person.
==> WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
But what happens when you have to rely on only one sense - sight ?
What happens when all you have are words?
Consider the unfortunate baker who advertised:
TRY OUR HOT PIES.
YOU'LL NEVER GET BETTER!
When doing business on the internet, you must make sure that the message you mean to convey, is the message your readers receive.
So always have someone else read your final copy before you let it loose on the world. It's so easy to miss these ambiguities yourself - after all, you wrote it, so you know what you meant to say - others may not necessarily interpret a sentence as you intended (as with our baker above).
==> K.I.S.S.
I know this principle has been done to death - but there's no better way of remembering one of the most basic rules of communication - Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Author Mark Twain once worked as a journalist and was paid seven cents a word for his articles. His rule for successful writing was expressed clearly when he said, "I never write metropolis for seven cents, because I can get the same price for city."- Avoid the temptation to show off by using big words, when little ones express the same concepts and take less time to read (it's not "an undisclosed advance commission to a foreign government official" - it's a bribe ....)
- Sentences should be short (a maximum of 25 words - around 18 is better) and every sentence should have something worthwhile to say. If it's just there to pad out the page, delete it.
- Don't use qualifiers unless absolutely necessary (absolutely is an example of a qualifier - it doesn't add anything new to the sentence - delete it).
==> AVOID BASIC ERRORS
How many times have you left a site before you even knew what it was offering because the first words you saw were something like this:
"Click hear to recessive grate free stuff. Its you're only chance to get infromation wich could of saved you heaps if you'd of known wear to find it before."
Most recent word processor programs have spell checkers and many also have grammar and punctuation checkers - use them!
Nothing will create a bad first impression quicker than careless mistakes with basic language. Why should I trust you with my money, when you don't even care enough to check your spelling?
One word of warning here - the internet is a world wide communications system - that means that there are often different ways of spelling words. My personal favourites (!) are the -ise /-ize words. If I had a dollar for every person who has contacted me to tell me I've misspelled "organise", I could close down my Running Away account and go now!
So don't gnash your teeth when you see any of these words: colour, labour, grey, realise, specialise, analyse ..... it's just the way some of us do things.....
==> NO SECOND CHANCES
Remember - you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Do everything you can to ensure that it's a good one.
----------
Jennifer Stewart offers professional writing services - copy writing, editing and proof reading your: web pages, press releases, technical booklets, newsletters, business proposals, reports or any other writing projects. Jennifer also markets writing courses for students and adults who want to improve their writing skills. http://www.users.bigpond.com/J_fersOffice/index.html mailto:J_fersOffice@bigpond.com
10,000 TARGETED HITS FOR $100?!?
That's right! Every month, savvy webmasters can generate heaps of targeted traffic for a penny per hit. And by the time you've read the next few paragraphs you'll be as savvy as you need to be. No scam, no sham, no flim-flam.
As a solution provider for webmasters seeking high placement in the twelve major search engines, I am often asked about the one key search engine our software product, WebPosition Gold, doesn't cover: GoTo. http://www.goto.com
Wait! I know you know about GoTo, but I also know that only a very small fraction of web site promoters are taking full advantage of this excellent resource.
GoTo.com is a bid-based search engine, meaning that if you want to place first for a search term, for instance "freeware", you can... for a price. For popular terms the price is relatively high. For other terms it's low, or there's no bid at all!
For instance, "freeware" is one of the 100 most searched for terms, yet the highest bid is only $.23 (per clickthrough) as of this writing. I'm a big fan of the first page, but not the #1 position, so I have position 22 (Top Search Engine Rankings--Guaranteed!) for $.03.
If you're like most people, you either haven't registered with GoTo yet, or you've registered 20 search terms and let it go at that. If you've registered, perhaps you stop in once in a while to check your traffic, the status of your account, and what position a nickel is buying you for "freeware".
But if you're savvy, you've downloaded the Excel template and spent an hour or two filling it with 300-500 search terms, each with a penny bid! (Note: Only bid a penny per term to begin with. The time to adjust your bids, should you wish, is later, online.)
That's right, there are many, many words and phrases available for your web site besides the standards you have in your meta tags. And GoTo provides a great tool that lists and ranks them for you; every variation, every misspelling. This tool alone provides a whole new level of insight into how people find you... or don't.
With some deft clicking and dragging you can fill in the Excel template quickly and easily. Simply send it to GoTo and within a few days it will be implemented. Then you'll have online access to all your terms so you can change your current bid and ranking for each term.
Don't make the mistake of thinking the #1 position is ultra-critical. The top slot is easily missed. Getting in the top forty (first results page) should be good; try top twenty or ten on key terms.
On over 500 bids my highest is $.12. Another couple of dozen are more than a penny. Some of these terms are only searched for 10-20 times a month, but multiply that by hundreds and you begin to get the idea!
Online clickthrough reports are available in a variety of combinations. Among the other valuable tools GoTo provides are an unbidded search terms list, and the top 100 frequently searched terms list.
And hey, pay yer penny and get into the Grab Bag!
----------
Linda Cox is the webmistress for the OmniComm Internet Marketing Group, specializing in WebPosition Gold Search Engine Placement Software. Stop by for your free Market Position Newsletter and a free trial version of WebPosition Gold: http://www.Omni-Comm.com/ mailto:WebPosition@Omni-Comm.com
BUILD TRAFFIC THROUGH THE VISITOR'S BROWSER
Both Microsoft and Netscape provide you with little-known tools to build traffic to your site using either their Portal or Browser in some way.
Please read the information below carefully in order to get everything working correctly, if you decide to implement these ideas on your site, as I have done.
EASY BOOKMARKING
The code below will allow visitors using Internet Explorer 4 or 5 to easily add your site to their Favourites list by clicking on a link.
Here's the code for creating that link:
<SCRIPT>
<!--
if ((navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE") > 0)
&& (parseInt(navigator.appVersion) >= 4)) {
document.write("<U>
<SPAN STYLE='color:blue;cursor:hand;'
onclick='window.external.
AddFavorite(location.href, document.title);'>
Add this page to your favorites</SPAN>
</U>");
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>
Just copy, and paste the code above where you want the link to appear. Alternatively, you can specify the title and URL that you want bookmarked, without having the script pull the information from your page (as the script above does). To do that simply use the code below:
<script language="JavaScript1.2">
<!--
//change the two variables below to match your sites info
var bookmarkurl="<A HREF="http://www.webmaster-resources.com">http://www.webmaster-resources.com</A>"
var bookmarktitle="Free Webmaster Resources"
function addbookmark(){
if (document.all)
window.external.AddFavorite(bookmarkurl,bookmarktitle)
}
//-->
</script>
All you have to do to get the script above working is to replace the Webmaster-Resources.com URL with yours, and "Free Webmaster Resources" with the title that you want to appear in your visitors Favourites list. Place the code above within the head and /head tags. To call the script, place the following code on your page where you want the link to appear:
<script>
if (document.all)
document.write('<a href="javascript:addbookmark()">
Click here to Bookmark this site!</a>')
</script>
Note: You'll need to copy and paste the document.write line, and the line that begins with "Click here to..." into one.
The JavaScript code above will make the link appear only for visitors using IE 4 and 5. Visitors using Netscape will see
BE THE DEFAULT
The code below will only work in Internet Explorer 5, and will allow your visitors to set your home page as their default when they open your browser simply by clicking on the link that the code below generates.
<a class="chlnk" style="cursor:hand" HREF
onClick="this.style.behavior='url
(#default#homepage)';this.setHomePage
('http://webmaster-resources.com');">
Click here to make Webmaster Resources
your default homepage</a>
Note: Copy and paste the code above onto ONE line; otherwise it may not work. Substitute the URL http://webmaster-resources.com with your URL, and the words "Webmaster Resources" with your site name.
THE NETSCAPE PORTAL AND YOU
Netscape gives you the ability to add your own channel into the Netscape Start Page simply by having visitors click on a link on your site.
Here's how to setup your own Netscape Channel:- Go to http://my.netscape.com/
- Setup your My Netscape page if you haven't done it previously
- On your My Netscape Page click ADD Channel, and then click "Create a new Channel" and follow the directions.
This is a great addition to your site as:- Millions of people have My Netscape set up as their default homepage, this is your chance to be one of the first things they see every time they launch their browser
- It allows you to stay in touch with visitors by letting them know the latest changes to your site, and remind them to visit.
----------
This article was written by Matt Mickiewicz. Matt is the owner of Webmaster Resources which helps thousands of webmasters every day find information and resources to help them improve and promote their site. You'll find his site at http://www.webmaster-resources.com You can also subscribe to his weekly newsletter for web developers by sending a blank email message to mailto:subscribe@webmaster-resources.com
BRANDING WITH BANNERS
Lately it seems the trend in online promotion has moved away from banner advertising and migrated towards direct e-mail. The reason for this, in my opinion, is the cost per visitor. A well written ad placed in a targeted e-zine can usually bring more immediate hits to a site than a well designed banner for the same cost.
Does that mean that direct e-mail is more effective. I don't think so. Marketing is not always about the quick sale, it's about carving a niche for yourself, it's about branding your image. Don't get me wrong, direct e-mail is very powerful and very effective but banner advertising should not be discarded and thought of as too expensive without looking at the benefits of branding your image.
It is a proven fact that it often takes people 6 or 7 times of looking at your product before they decide to hand over the cash. The more they see it, the more they become comfortable with it. That is the goal of branding. Create a professional image that is easily recognizable and get it in front of the masses. You do this by creating a good name and a memorable logo for your business. Show me a multimillion dollar company and I will show a company that understands that importance of branding your image.
By incorporating your logo onto all of your banners and getting them in front of as many people as possible, you can advertise your product and create brand awareness at the same time. Maybe your banner only gets clicked on by 1% of the people that see it but how many more have seen and will remember your logo or your company name. How many more will remember that logo or that name and feel comfortable when they recognize it on your web site.
Marketing is not always as cut and dry as people say, its not always about the quick sale. Its about building a good reputation and getting repeat business. Banners can help you with this but getting your company name out there.
----------
Brian Welch is the owner of the BizBot search engine, a search engine specifically for web sites trying to do business online. From Internet marketing to webmaster resources, you will find it here. Add your free listing today at http://www.bizbot.net
GET LINKED
Visit The10000 at http://the1000.com/ for 23 new places to submit your site for a free listing.
SNIPPETS
Internet Public Relations Discussion List
How has the Internet changed public relations? What are the best ways to pitch online media outlets? Is it possible to effectively monitor media coverage on the Web? These subjects and more are tackled in the Internet Public Relations Discussion List (I-PR), a new free e-mail publication from AudetteMedia. The list is moderated by Adam Sherk who has an excellent background in e=PR and traditional dead-tree PR. The list is already running and the content quality is as high as we have come to expect from AudetteMedia lists. This is not a list just for PR pros, so feel free to lurk or join in.
----------
G.Lite
A new standard for high-speed Internet access has been adopted and will have significant impact on the rate at which users move from dial-up to "always connected" Internet access. Basically a new form of ADSL, G.Lite overcomes many of ADSL's problems including significantly increasing the distance from the central office that ADSL will operate. It also is a simple Plug-and-Play installation no more difficult that installing a dial-up modem. Look for early users as soon as next month.
----------
African-American OnLine Search
Don't go looking for aolsearch.com for the directory of African-American web sites. It is not there any more. America OnLine decided they wanted the domain name so they simply took it. Apparently any domain name that contains the letters "aol" belongs to them. And apparently Network Solutions agrees with them. Read the story. It's scary.
For now you can find African-American Search at http://216.71.85.176/
If you link to them from your site, please change the link and show some support for this David in its battle with the giant.
----------
FindTexas
http://www.findtexas.com
Looking for the leading edge of vertical market search engines? Check this one out. It has its own directory of sites and its own spider. This is a well done implementation of trend in Web searching. And it's been done by a active member of the Search Engine Forums.
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"Dear Jim-
In this world of excessive cut throat competition your web site is a refreshing example of how it is supposed to be done. Thank you for your attitude and your help.
Could you help me (even though you've done so much already) with a question? Is it better to use your free submit-tool or individually submit my site to each search engine since they are all so unique?
Thanks again,
Patrick http://www.art-programs.com/ "
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Great question Patrick.
The JimTool Submitter only submits to search engines that use a spider to gather data from your site instead of asking you to input the information. All of the engines in the JimTool only ask for the URL and email address and the JimTool can supply that information just as well as you could by visiting each site yourself and making your submission, and it does it in a couple of minutes, saving you a couple of hours or more.
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Want another example of a newsletter that has beaten the odds and grown rapidly? The Cool Tricks and Trinkets Newsletter http://www.tricksandtrinkets.com is in its ninth month of publication and the subscriptions have grown from 287 of Charles' friends to over 41,000 subscribers. Stop in and seen how this long-term Gazeteer has done it.
Worth Reading:
Read The Article
Handicapped-accessible websites?
New regulations may spread to private online businesses. You should read this article before building your next web site. To avoid misunderstanding, I am 100% behind making our sites accessible to everyone. I'm just not sure that government mandates is anything like the right answer.
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Last Call For Page Templates
mailto:jim@jimworld.com
I've dug up 30 sites where you can get very nice free or low cost web site templates. Graphics, HTML, everything in one download.
But I know there must be more. Keep an eye out for these and let me know when you find them. I'll be adding this category to the Webmaster Directory this week.
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JOB OPENING
Position/Title: Advertising Production Manager
Company Name: Wired Digital, San Francisco
Description:
The advertising production manager directs a staff charged with the timely, coordinated execution of ad campaigns for our clients. In this role, the advertising production manager is responsible for complete pre-live ad production and quality control, management of all ad serving/rich ad technology and vendor issues, and the staff's maintenance of up-to-date creative materials and instructions for all advertising on Wired Digital's sites.
Requirements: Qualified applicants should be extremely familiar with NetGravity and other ad-serving software and have experience working with "rich advertising" technologies. You must be able to keep track of many concurrent deadline-based tasks, and relentless attention to detail is a must.
Salary: Competitive salary
Contact: Please email resume to mailto:joe@wired.com
- Avoid the temptation to show off by using big words, when little ones express the same concepts and take less time to read (it's not "an undisclosed advance commission to a foreign government official" - it's a bribe ....)
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