JimWorld Gazette Issue #86 02/29/2000

JimWorld Gazette - Issue #86 - February 29, 2000

The World's First Official Desktop Jimtool Update
Doctor Ebiz Newsletter Answers Small Business Questions
Software Reviews: Free Security And Free Music
The New Wave Of Email Marketing
Software Review - WebData
Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule
JimTOOLS Poll Results
Happenings At JimWORLD
42 Deadly Ad Copy Sins That I've Made
Get Linked
Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g86

A whole bunch of you must have liked last issue's article on banner exchange technology because the people at SmartClicks called and placed an ad.

THE WORLD'S FIRST OFFICIAL DESKTOP JIMTOOL

Wow. We got a lot of reaction to the JimTool Extractor from the last
issue of the Gazette. Not only several thousand downloads, but actual sales too. Who'da thought?

In response to that we have a new upgrade available. New features and uh... a couple of bug fixes. If you already have the full Version 1.1 install, just download the upgrader. Download the free trial if you are just now discovering this handy tool.

New In This Version:

Version 1.2 offers several advantages over version 1.1. First, all results are forced into lower case thereby eliminating possible duplicates that would not otherwise be considered so. Secondly, you can now "Scrub" the results of both Duplicates and Invalid results EITHER during or after the extraction process. And finally, the extraction engine has been fine-tuned resulting in greater extraction speed - by up to 100 times that of version 1.1.

The JimTool Extractor is a Windows program to help you extract email addresses and URL's from files on your desktop computer. Files from just about any source. I use it to extract subscription changes from my Eudora files. Sorry folks, it will not be of any value to Spammers.

http://www.jimtools.com/extractor/

Some Extractor Fan Mail:

Dear Jim Wilson,

My heartfelt thanks. Wow! What can I say. I just read your latest issue of JimWorld Gazette - Issue #85. Read about the JimTool Extractor and downloaded and installed the program. This program is the greatest thing since sliced bread! Not only simple to install but the directions are easy to follow, and the best part is how it works! Lightning fast, it extracted the e-mail addresses from 24 forms in the blink of an eye.

I have one complaint...I wish I had this tool months ago when I was doing this all by hand : )

I have wished many a time that there was a tool that could do what the JimTool Extractor does. Now I have found it. My sincerest appreciation for developing it.

I have also had a number of clients ask me if I knew of a program that could extract e-mails from a form. At last I have a solution for them. Geez - there's a thought - when are you going to start an affiliate program? Either way I am always very selective in the services and programs that I recommend. The JimTool Extractor gets an A+ rating.

Bravo!

Best Regards,

Julie Poole Promoting Online
Web - http://www.promotingonline.com
mailto:julie@promotingonline.com

PS This is the first letter I have ever written to thank someone for
a program. If you keep developing tools as useful as the JimTool
Extractor, I am guessing it won't be my last.

DOCTOR EBIZ NEWSLETTER ANSWERS SMALL BUSINESS QUESTIONS

Doctor Ebiz is a new free weekly e-mail newsletter about how to conduct business on the Web. The newsletter consists of concise answers to common questions faced by small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to maximize their online success.

DOCTOR EBIZ is brief and fast to read. The Q&A format helps small business people find concise answers to their Web marketing and e-commerce questions about setting up and succeeding at an e-business.

If you have a question you'd like addressed in Doctor Ebiz, you may submit it at http://doctorebiz.com/questions/

The editor, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, is an expert on both Web marketing and e-commerce, and consults with both small businesses and major corporations. He is a popular speaker at international conferences. In January, Business Week referred to him as an "Internet guru." Last year ZD TV called him "the pinball wizard of Web marketing."

His best-known newsletter is Web Marketing Today, one of the earliest and largest of the e-mail marketing newsletters. He also publishes Web Commerce Today, a subscription-based newsletter about implementing e-commerce and online sales in a business.

Long time readers of the Gazette know that I hold Ralph in the highest esteem and have made his Web Marketing Today required reading for all Gazeteers. This newest e-newsletter promises to be just as compelling and valuable. Do yourself a favor and get over there and subscribe.

BTW: Ralph Wilson is not related to me, Jim Wilson, unless he has some relatives down south.

Subscriptions to Doctor Ebiz are free. You may sign up at
http://www.doctorebiz.com

SOFTWARE REVIEWS: FREE SECURITY AND FREE MUSIC

A couple of weeks ago Jim asked me if I had come across any new
software that merited a review for Gazette readers. By coincidence, I had just installed two new products that fit the bill. Although the two programs are totally unrelated in purpose and function, I decided to review both based on the fact they are both new, free, and probably the best there is for what they do.

One is ZoneAlarm, the best personal firewall protection for a Window's machine I have yet to see and the other is UltraPlayer, a very full-featured MP3 player.

About 6 months or so ago, I wrote a Gazette article concerning the dangers of Trojan Horse programs such as NetBus and Back Orifice. These types of programs, once they find their way onto a Windows based computer, give outside parties absolute, total, God-like access and control over that machine. That article was very popular and our <http://softwaresolutions.net/netbuster.htm> page still receives a fair amount of traffic resulting from reprints of the original article.

The recent outbreak of Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS) attacks on some major sites - and the fact our own internal network started to display some unusual activity prompted me to revisit this subject. After completing a full virus scan (using the 'All Files' setting) - I discovered several Trojan Horse programs on our network that were not detected by the "Scan Program Files Only" settings of the very latest virus detection program we use.

The problem is well known. As soon as a current Trojan Horse is profiled by the various protection programs, the lovely folks who write such Trojan Horses modify them to be undetectable again until the next protection update is released. What's a poor Internet user to do?

Get Zonelab's ZoneAlarm - that's what! ZoneAlarm 2.0 is a FREE program that provides absolute protection against any type of unauthorized connections to your computer - whether from within your own network or from the Internet itself.

In essence, ZoneAlarm constantly monitors all 64+ thousand TCP ports on a Windows machine, plus all NetBios, PPP and File and Printer Sharing sessions. If any attempt is made to connect your machine with another - whether from a program installed on your computer, from a server outside your machine or another computer within your own internal network - ZoneAlarm knows about it and instantly stops any such connections that you have not authorized.

Configuration is incredibly simple and unlike a proxy firewall - no complicated proxy settings need be made. In fact, the easiest way to configure ZoneAlarm is to install it and let it configure itself as you use your computer as you normally do. The first time you launch a browser, a FTP program, your Email Client or any program that attempts to make an outside connection, ZoneAlarm will stop it cold and ask you if that program has permission to do so. The manual configurations let you set different levels of security for internal and Internet connections and the "Panic Button" allows you to instantly shut off all outside connections to your machine.

The very day ZoneAlarm was installed on all our machines, it detected numerous attempts by outside servers to establish backdoor TCP connections with every computer on our network. I personally found it very interesting when I went to my.yahoo.com to check the news and ZoneAlarm detected a server belonging to one of the well known banner ad companies (who have been in the news a lot lately concerning privacy issues) trying to establish their own TCP connection to my machine - a connection outside of the browser. Gee, I wonder what they were looking for Jim?

Anyway, go to <http://www.zonelabs.com> and grab yourself a free copy of ZoneAlarm before they start charging for it! It still has a couple of very minor bugs - but I'll never run my machines without it.

And, while you are at it, head on over to <http://www.ultraplayer.com> and snag a copy of their brand new MP3 UltraPlayer.

Now, I must admit, even though I'm in the Internet software business and spend all day behind my computers, I really had no idea what all the fuss and buzz about MP3 files was about. Of course, the fact that I'm also forty-something has nothing to do with this - its just that I'm always too busy you see.

Age, and (according to my wife) musical taste not withstanding, I finally broke down and decided to see if there were any MP3 files by Dead Can Dance, Delerium, Enigma and the like. A few quick searches proved fruitful, but hey, guess I need one of those MP3 players to venture into this new realm of free music. UltraCo is based here in the Denver area and I caught a local press release of their new UltraPlayer.

This thing blew me away. I can't believe it's a free program featuring support for MP3, WAV, CD Audio, and Internet radio streams. The player uses "deeply-dynamic" skins that provides a level of flexibility not found in other players limited by standard shapes, menus, or control arrangements - you've got to check out the Gothic version. The <http://www.ultraplayer.com> site also offers free downloads of additional skins and visual effects.

With a variety of visual effects that "dance" along with the music - this thing is just plain fun to use and it even offers a Sleep timer that turns your new $2000 computer into one heck of a musical alarm clock. Go grab a copy now - think what fun you can have at work setting the alarm to blast out the latest Neil Diamond song 10 minutes after you leave for an early lunch.

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T.J. Walker
support@softwaresolutions.net>
SoftwareSolutions.Net <http://softwaresolutions.net>
Offering an Affiliate Program on 10+ of our best selling products!!

THE NEW WAVE OF EMAIL MARKETING

On Jan. 20, 2000, Engage, a leading provider of profile driven Internet marketing solutions, acquired Flycast and Adsmart from CMGI. This acquisition follows the recent trend of Internet marketing companies to build comprehensive suites of services that combine email list with web profiling technologies.

Days earlier, Flycast announced the debut of their email newsletter network and "Flycast Ready" program. One of the key partners in this program is Lyris Technologies.

The partnership between Flycast and Lyris has the potential to create one of the largest email newsletter networks online. Lyris, a leading email list management company, has enabled their list server product to permit their customers to seamlessly access the Engage/Flycast newsletter network.

Currently, PennMedia is considered one of the top leaders in the email newsletter network field with over 12 million subscribers in their network.

With the Flycast email newsletter network, web marketers will be able to access a substantive, consolidated source of email ad inventories and maximize ROI over the lifetime of an email campaign.

Ezine owners who participate in the network will be able to earn revenue from advertising sales. As of the writing of this article, the criteria for participating in the network is a minimum of 2,000 subscribers.

According to Flycast, "Advertisers can purchase both Run of Network and Category Buys on the Newsletter Network. Initial CPM rates are $8 for Run of Network and $16 for a Category Buy. The network eventually will consist of 25 content categories such as entertainment, family and health."

The "network-enabled" Lyris has not yet been implemented on the Lyris.net hosting service. It is expected that when Lyris releases its latest list server product (version 3.6) from beta into full production, they will also make it available to ezine owners who use the Lyris.net hosting service.

Companies or individuals who purchase the "network -enabled" Lyris server for in-house use, will also be able earn advertising revenue from the Flycast newsletter network, if they meet the minimum number of subscribers required for participation.

Company contacts:

Flycast Contact for Ezine Publishers:
Elizabeth Keppler: mailto:ekeppler@flycast.com

Flycast Contact for the Flycast Ready Program:
Matt Bellows: mailto:mbellows@flycast.com

Lyris Contact:
Marlene Devries: mailto:marlene@lyris.com

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Author Contact - Kay Ingram mailto:kingram@insyncweb.com
Founder, Insyncweb.com http://www.insyncweb.com
Tel: 408.363.4093

SOFTWARE REVIEW - WEBDATA

Like most people that build web sites, I too have spent enormous energy over the years lusting after the so-cool database driven resources that pepper the landscape of high-end sites.

In the case of database driven systems, lust is not enough. You also needed some pretty fancy programming to get, and keep, it running.

Until now.

I have tried many free database scripts and several commercial ones. The free ones displayed some pretty irritating characteristics, like impossible to install and impossible to keep running. The commercial systems were apparently all built to run General Motors. Complex to install and administer, expensive, and requiring the care and feeding of a large staff of beanie-clad employees.

Needless to say, I approached my latest database software test with less than my usual enthusiasm. Far less. But I set out on what would prove to be a satisfying 24 hours.

I had an idea for a web site that desperately needed automation if it was to be maintainable in the modest amount of time I could allocate to it. I wanted a site where web designers could contribute site design templates to be given away to anyone stopping by. The visitors needed the ability to search for the type of design they needed, browse through the database, view live samples of the templates and download them to their desktop computer to start their site development.

I wanted the database to take care of everything involved based on input from the designer through his or her browser, including the uploading of the thumbnail graphic and the template zip file.

And I wanted all of this to be done without any intervention on my part. Pretty tall order based on the systems I'd already tried to implement.

WebData performed beyond my wildest expectations. Within 24 hours it was installed (using its simple installer included with the system), configured, customized for the look of the site, and open for business. Boy, was I ever surprised.

WebData steps you through a simple process to configure your system, asking you to input the names of each field and how you want that field to operate. You can configure a field to contain text, numbers, date, and others. You can specify that the field allows the user to upload a file or graphic through their browser. A field can be a list of items selected through an automatically generated drop down list.

Users can add records to the file, and the system has a Member feature that allows registered Members to return and maintain their own records. You can import records from comma or tab delimited files. Sorting, searching, administrative functions are all intuitive and easy to use.

WebData sells for us$199.00 and allows you to download and install the system for a 30-day free trial with all features intact.

The developer's web site includes several sample databases for you to look at, ranging from car sales to real estate to a shopping site.

WebData is a mature product with all that implies. Most bugs have already been found. Most "why don't you?" have already been programmed and support is readily available.

Stop by the developer's site and download the system. Install it and try it for yourself. You'll be raving about it just as I am.

http://webteacher.com/

Note - The WebTeacher site is being moved today to a new server and you may need to visit http://www.marcom1.com/webteacher/ until the domain name is moved.

CHILDREN'S ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION RULE

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act becomes effective April
21, 2000.

The regulations apply to the online collection of personal information from children under 13. They spell out what a web site operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent and what responsibilities an operator has to protect children's privacy and safety online.

If you are unaware of this new law, you should immediately swing into action to implement your compliance system. I have heard several comments from non-U.S. based web operators stating that in their opinion the law will have no impact on them. While that might be the letter of the law, it could be a serious mistake to assume that position.

I expect to see the Lunatic Fringe on both extremes of the privacy movement swing into action. Pressure will be brought to bear on ISP's, content blocking operations, search engines and others to put barriers in place to block access to non-conforming sites regardless of where they are located.

Expect to spend some serious time, and probably some legal fees, trying to even determine if this law applies to your Web site. The law is as poorly written as any to spew forth from Washington. The only sure way to determine if you are covered by the law is to wait and see if you wake up in jail one day. Convoluted thinking, lack of detail, avoidance of any meaningful guidelines and just ignorance of basic business needs will make this law impossible to understand until some courts get involved and set down some guidelines.

Until then, err on the side of assuming that you need to comply. I haven't had much luck sending the Gazette to prison addresses.

I am mostly upset about the low quality of this law because it is occupying space that needs to be served by a well-crafted law. Privacy for our kids is one of the most needed action items on my personal short list. Simple-minded bandages such as this law will only delay the eventual restructuring of the Net that is needed to truly resolve this problem on a worldwide scale.

Research at these places:

How to Comply With The Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule
http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/ftc-2000-02-p1.html

Issuance of Final Rule
Text of Federal Register Notice [PDF 270K]
http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/9910/64fr59888.pdf

Federal Trade Commission Press Release
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/9910/childfinal.htm

Discuss this new law in the Get High (Traffic) Forums
http://gethighforums.com/Forum1/HTML/000524.html
Extensive information already available in that thread.

JimTOOLS POLL RESULTS

According to a two-week poll of visitors to the JimTOOLS web site, remotely hosted features are popular with 68% percent of webmasters. Only 32.5% of webmasters surveyed use no remotely hosted features on their site.

Remotely hosted features are applications such as polls of visitors, guestbooks, counters, response forms, site recommendation, and any other application that is hosted on a server other than the server hosting the web site in question.

It's apparent from the results that the social stigma of using remotely hosted features has become socially acceptable, no longer suggesting to visitors that the site they are visiting is on a low-end host or operated by an unsophisticated webmaster.

The question was posed as "How many remotely hosted features do you run on your site?"

Features , Votes
0 , 283
1 , 199
2 , 100
3 , 127
4 , 62
5 , 37
6 , 31
7+ , 31

Stop by http://jimtools.com and cast your opinion: PC Users - Do you plan to upgrade to Windows 2000 within 6 months?

HAPPENINGS AT JIMWORLD

Several new things to let you know about:

Two new Forums at Search Engine Forums
http://searchengineforums.com/

The new Inktomi Forum, the technology behind so many of the major search engines, gets off to a blazing start.

The Direct Hit Forum gives you an opportunity to discuss and learn about this rapidly growing web site rating system.

FreeSiteTemplates is growing rapidly in both traffic and content.

Each day several hundred visitors download a template. Designers who want added exposure to a large crowd of webmasters should submit a template or two. You'll get recognition and feel good for helping others. http://freesitetemplates.com/

New features are being added daily to the Helpware Directory.
http://helpwaresites.com/

Now you can input changes to your own listings and have them submitted for immediate review. Big time saver for us all.

42 DEADLY AD COPY SINS THAT I'VE MADE

I have read thousands of ad copies online and offline over my lifetime. I have read excellent ad copies that made me buy right away and some that may have had a decent product, but had a poor ad copy that turned me away.

Now that I am in business, I have written some of my own ad copies. Some of them have worked, some of them have bombed. The key is to keep changing and testing your ad copy, don't just write one and then stop. I don't have a college degree in copywriting, but I know to learn from the mistakes and never give up.

Below I've made a list of 42 deadly ad copy sins that I've made over the years and that you can learn from:

-no compelling headline
-no believable testimonials
-no sub headlines
-no attractive benefits
-no features
-no strong guarantees
-no asking or answering questions
-no proof of benefits offered
-no contact information for questions
-no endorsements
-no conversational writing
-too long of sentences
-no deadline to order
-no free trials
-spelling mistakes
-grammar mistakes
-too light text
-too dark background
-ad copy doesn't blend together
-no breaks in ad copy
-no bullets
-ad copy in all CAPS
-few ordering options
-no visual aids
-no comparison to competition
-no reminding of benefits or deadlines
-no information about your business
-no appealing adjectives
-no appealing phrases
-too large text
-too small text
-no emotional appeal
-too large of paragraphs
-no story telling
-no underlining or bolding of keywords
-too short of ad copy
-too long of ad copy
-no facts or case studies
-hard to understand jargon
-no free bonuses
-too low of price
-too high of price

Don't get me wrong, not all 42 of my ad copy sins will apply to each and every ad you write. It is just a list you can use in the future. If you currently have an ad copy, compare it to the list right now. Your ad copy could make or break your sales.

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by Larry Dotson
1075 FREE Internet Marketing eBooks, Courses, And Web Books! FREE Content For Your eBook, Web Site Or E-zine!
http://www.ldpublishing.com

GET LINKED

Visit The1000 at http://the1000.com/ for 12 new places to submit your
site for a free listing.

SNIPPETS

IS DEZINES YOUR ISP?
http://gethighforums.com/Forum17/HTML/000092.html

If so, you really should read this thread in the Get High Forums. Dezines is notorious for taking revenge on anyone trying to move to a different hosting company. They are the recipient of our Scumbag Lifetime Achievement Award. For this Snippet they will probably call me. That is more than they ever did when I was hosting this site on their servers.

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Congratulations To SparkList
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/reviews/0,6755,2425998,00.html

A tip of the hat to Lyris and SparkList (hosts of the Gazette) for the outstanding recognition they received in the current issue of PC Magazine's review of list management systems. This excellent system got the top honors and a glowing review.

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Beginning Perl - Ten Perl Myths
http://www.perl.com/pub/2000/01/10PerlMyths.html

Simon Cozens has written an excellent article to help you overcome the most common challenges to Perl usage. Get the right information before you wander away from Perl to a supposedly more powerful language that will involve much longer development cycles and high budgets. You'll be surprised at some of the "major" sites that are driven by Perl.

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Special Offers For Gazeteers

I get a lot of inquiries about how the Gazette comes up with special offers for products and services. Are they simply ads posing as reviews?

No. If it's labeled a Review, that's what it is. However, when I'm reviewing a product or service I contact the company behind it to get more information and check my facts. While I have them on the phone I ask if they would like to make you a special offer of some type. Some do. Some don't.

Frequently they get such great response from you folks that they come back to advertise in the Gazette. Then it runs as an ad.

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E-commerce Site May Be Liable For Delivery Failures
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/news/articles/991229-1.shtml

If your site engages in e-commerce sales, you are subject to some regulation by the U.S. federal government. The laws are those imposed on traditional mail-order businesses and they carry a lot of punch.

We all read the horror stories about companies like Toys-R-Us. Just bad PR is the least of their problems. So far they've been hit with a class action suit for failure to deliver what they promised, tripping over the mail order laws in the process.

Read the story. Check out your site. Get some legal advice. Take action. Don't just sit there. Christmas is already speeding at us again.

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The Mother of All Excuses Place
http://madtbone.tripod.com/

I couldn't stay too long at this site. I was laughing so hard my wife thought I was watching the news on CNN. Go see it but don't over-indulge.

School excuses:

Please excuse Lisa for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.
Maryann was absent December 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever and sore throat, her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn't the best either, sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night.
Please excuse Casey from school. It was Take Your Daughter to work day. I don't have a job, so I made her stay home and do housework.

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Looking for a great off-line/on-line promotion? How about giving away one year of free Internet access?

This trend is taking off in a big way in Brazil, with unlikely businesses such as banks using free access as a promotion. The service can be set up to take the customer to a portal gateway deployed by the sponsor. You wouldn't need to show banners all the time like the free access businesses do, since these would be your customers and you just want to keep you name in front of them daily to retain their loyalty.

Cost would be in the range of $100-$120 per year per customer (contact a local ISP and negotiate) so this would not be a good promotion for a company selling inexpensive products. Stock brokers, banks, car dealers.... the list is long.

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List-Universe.com
http://List-Universe.com

The Email List Owner and Ezine Publisher Resource Network, announced that its List-Universe.com Email Newsletter Ad Network's membership total has exceeded seven million opt-in subscribers. These subscribers are part of more than 460 email newsletters owned by more than 120 email publishers who have made their advertising inventory available to List-Universe.com advertising clients.

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FreeDiskSpace.com
http://www.FreeDiskSpace.com

There is a revolution in the way people are using the Web. For the first time ever, FreeDiskSpace.com is offering you a FREE virtual 300 megabyte hard drive where you can store, share and access personal files from anywhere, anytime.

Don't miss this chance to be first in a wave of the future. Experience the benefits of online storage, sharing and collaboration. It's quick and easy to join their PC, Mac, Linux or MP3 storage communities.

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Just a reminder - when you place any type of hit counter on your pages, place it outside of the tables you use to format your pages. The most frequent design boo-boo I see is an entire page waiting to display until a slow-to-respond hit counter sends it's graphic. This design error leaves your visitors with nothing to look at until the counter responds which are notorious for failing to respond at all.

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GoHip
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,34544,00.html

According to Internet security firm Finjan Software, Internet search engine GoHip is distributing an ActiveX control download that automatically modifies several components on a user's PC -- including one that adds a GoHip signature to every piece of outgoing email.
http://www.gohip.com/