JimWorld Gazette Issue #87 03/21/2000

JimWorld Gazette - Issue #87 - March 21, 2000

CONTENTS

• Changes In This Issue
  
• Are You Ready For The New Affiliate Programs?
  
• This Is One Virus You Want
  
• What Frogs And Soap Can Do For Your Business!
  
• Happenings At JimWorld
  
• Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g87

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

With the constant increase in pressure by advertisers to quantify and validate their Return On Investment (ROI) for all types of e-media, this issue of the Gazette has a new tracking feature.

Each link is routed through a redirector script running on the JimWorld server. When you click on a Gazette link, the script counts your request and you are instantly forwarded to the real URL of the site you wanted to visit.

As we work out the various kinks that will surely arise we will be able to bring some order to the problem of tracking your response to articles and ads in the Gazette even though you will never actually be visiting the JimWorld site.

One motivating benefit that drove me to work on this is the growth of URL sizes. With 63 character domain names plus the huge URLs that get generated by automated content management systems, I am simply tired of seeing long URLs get chopped up into 2 or 3 lines of text leaving us with links that don't work.

The advantage for you is to have the technology and information necessary to implement this tracking system for your own site and ezine. You'll have the comfort of knowing it was "shaken down" on one of the largest mailing lists on the Net.

Your part of this is to notify me of any problems that you encounter with this process. We need to know that our final answer works on every client system and every browser.

Another advantage to the system is that it stops the morons that use SpamCop to do their whining and crying. They would much rather get attention by lashing out at people than to click on the unsubscribe link.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEW AFFILIATE PROGRAMS?

Affiliate programs are changing daily and the trends are both good and bad for web publishers.

eToys created a stir when they radically changed their affiliate program.

Previously, they paid $5.00 per new customer referred plus a 5% to 12% commission on all of the current and future purchases made by that customer. For an e-merchant, the ongoing commissions are the real problem. Millions of dollars in expense for a one-time click event.

eToys has fallen victim to the cooling of the love affair between e-commerce ventures and investors. Their stock has fallen from $86 in October to a current price of under $12. Obviously they needed to do something to remain viable.

What they did was to eliminate the commissions and to raise the bounty on new customer referrals to a one-time payment of $10.

Is this a bad thing? Are they breaking faith with their affiliates?

No. And no. They are simply waking up to the realities of marketing which say that you can not pay forever for past advertising results. If they ran an ad on television they would expect to pay for each new customer they obtained from that ad. But only one time. They would evaluate their ROI (Return On Investment) for the TV ad and determine if it was good value. They would be able to calculate exactly how much each new customer was costing them.

BTW: There is a great new JimTool that calculates your ROI for advertising campaigns. Free to use of course.

If General Motors had to pay newspapers and TV stations forever for each new customer generated, they would last about an instant. They rely on being able to acquire new customers at a predictable cost per customer. The support and product quality is the determining their odds of getting future repeat purchases from each of those customers. The media that originally generated the new customer plays no part in that repeat purchase event.

So what does this mean to us? It means that we can expect to see one after another affiliate program restructure to conform to time-proven methods of compensating media for new customer acquisition.

It means that we must get smarter about which affiliate programs we sign on for and how we promote them.

Last week I got a call from a long term sponsor of the Gazette, WebSiteFactory. They wanted to promote their new service and sent me the information on it.

I was in for a surprise. They have launched a program I haven't seen before and have been looking for, for a couple of years. They call it an affiliate program, but it is much more powerful than that name implies. With any luck, it will start a rush of new partnership program offerings in which each party contributes that which they are good at and everyone involved wins.

The program is called HostYourSite.com and at first glance might resemble yet another of the hosting reseller programs that are so plentiful on the Web.

It is not.

Here's how it works:

• You sign up as a "partner" in the program. You are now a reseller of web hosting service.
  
  
• You market the services through pages generated for you that are completely branded to only you. Not to them.
  
  
• You set the rates you want to use in offering the hosting packages. There are minimum rates but you are free to charge more.
  
  
• HostYourSite provides all of the servers and bandwidth.

So far sounds just like every other reseller plan, right?

• HostYourSite provides all customer support.
  
  
• HostYourSite provides all billing and accounting services.
  
  
• You get 50% of the gross billings.

Now it sounds different. Very different and very enticing.

Under other plans, if I wanted to offer hosting to my community, I had 2 choices:

1. Join an affiliate program and get a small commission on each sale.
   
   
2. Open a merchant account, set up billing, find a way to offer good support to my customers around the clock... the list goes on.

The advantage of the plan they have dreamed up is that as I offer hosting service I am able to concentrate only on the areas of the product that I can comfortably do well. Marketing, advertising and advising prospects of the right answer to their needs.

The parts that would keep me from entering the reseller market, such as billing, support and network management, have all vanished from my side of the equation.

The few people that I have mentioned this program to have already signed up. That's a pretty good indicator that the program is right on target.

Can you imagine an eWorld in which you are able to partner with other companies that complement your resources and skills? An eWorld in which you are rewarded for those talents you bring to the party?

I can, and I like it.

When I told HostYourSite that I would rather write an article than run their ad this week, they came up with an offer for you.

Normally their enrollment program calls for the new partner to pay a $395 annual fee to get set up in the program. That's actually low for traditional programs in the non-CyberWorld.

They'll waive the fee for any Gazetteer for the first 6 months. If you have signed up at least 5 hosting accounts by the end of the 6 months, they'll waive the fee again. Not much of a restriction. If you aren't going to sign up at least that many, why should they be investing their time and resources in you?

That brings us to the other side of the relationship. If companies are to partner with you in business relationship like this one, you have to hold up your end of the relationship.

For a company to make their resources available to you as an equal partner in the relationship, how do they find out which potential partners will really try to perform? Charging an entrance fee sure is a good step in the right direction.

If I partner with another company, I would hope that they are only dealing with other partners that are contributing to the overall success, and not wasting time and resources trying to support non-performers.

I have signed up over the years for hundreds of affiliate programs. Like most of you, I would throw them up on the site, check the stats in a few days and if nothing was happening, down it came and up went the next one.

Can you imagine how many fewer plans I would have enrolled in if there was a fee to join? And how much harder I would have worked on the plan because I had some dollars at risk?

You can check out HostYourSite's offering at < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953865026 >. You'll find the "Secret Word" there that you will need to get your initiation fee waived.

THIS IS ONE VIRUS YOU WANT

Remember when you were in third grade? It was so much fun to scamper around the
playground at recess, accusing each member of the opposite sex that you came in contact with of having the dreaded 'cooties.'

You weren't sure if cooties were real or not, but you weren't taking any chances.

Now that we've grown up, however, while we don't worry about catching the cooties, there IS one virus, that as an online marketer, we do want to be carrying.

Have you heard the term "Viral Marketing?" If you have, you may have wondered exactly what it was and whether or not you wanted it infecting YOUR online business.

The answer is YES. You do. But first, let's gain a little understanding of the term "Viral Marketing."


--> What is a virus?

A virus, biologically speaking, is a bacteria that often causes disease. Essentially, it's genetic material surrounded by a protein coat.

The virus attaches itself to a healthy cell and injects its bacteria. This permanently alters the cell and quite often allows it to replicate the virus and spread it to other cells.


--> How can this short lesson in biology help your online business?

"Viral Marketing" is a term that describes what can happen when your message is so compelling to the reader, that he absorbs it, and passes it on to others.

Perhaps you belong to a 'joke of the day' list, or some other e-mail discussion group. Do you ever read something so interesting that you pass the message on to a friend or colleague? This is an example of viral marketing.

If you're as old as I am, you may remember an old TV commercial for a certain shampoo. In the ad, they told you to "tell two friends." It went on to say "and they'll tell two friends, and so and so on..." This is how a viral marketing campaign gets started.

An example of online viral marketing would be a free e-mail provider, such as HotMail. In each and every message that a user sends out, HotMail attaches a tag line at the bottom.

That means that hundreds of thousands of messages, every single day, are sent out with HotMail's ad attached.

While most of us aren't equipped to set up a system as sophisticated as HotMail, we can still create a viral marketing campaign for our business.

The hard part is to create a message that people feel obligated to pass on to others.

The trick is to create an ad, sales letter, etc., which exerts a force on the reader to pass it along, while supporting your product's benefits.

--> Some examples of viral marketing

* Free Articles and Reports

* Free E-books

* Free Software

* Free E-zines

* Free Electronic Greeting Cards

You can write a report on a subject that pertains to your product, or compile an e-book. Encourage those who download it to pass it on to others.

Offer your site visitors a free software program that's personalized with your company name and logo. There are companies that will personalize their own software programs for you, for a fee. One such site is located at < http://jimworld.com/freeware/ >.

A free e-zine has been, and remains, one of the more popular viral marketing techniques. Publishing an e-zine is mandatory for a successful online business. You can learn all about publishing your e-zine at this site, < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953791199 >.

Free electronic greeting cards are a great way not only to get visitors to pass on your info, but to attract more site traffic. This occurs when the recipient of an electronic card visits your site to view his card.

There are numerous sites online that offer this service to you, free.

BraveNet < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953791005 >

DK3.Com < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953791059 >

F-Square Greetings < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953791121 >

The list goes on and on. The only limit to any Viral Marketing campaign is your own imagination.
----------

Kim Skinner has been helping others set up and promote their Internet businesses for nearly 3 years. Visit her web site for free tips on everything from how to decide on a product to sell, to running a full time business on the Web. < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953790316 >

WHAT FROGS AND SOAP CAN DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS!

Ideas, ideas, ideas - the lifeblood of any business. Stay in one position too long and you are dead! Today's market place requires constant change, new angles, different products, fresh presentations, original advertising slogans. But how do you get them?

You can spend thousands of dollars paying the pros to deliver slick advertising slogans. You can pay web site designers generous fees for original designs. But how many small business owners have that kind of budget? The alternative is to use an extremely valuable piece of apparatus, which right now is as close to you as close can be. What? Your brain!

The human brain is a constant source of amazement to scientists. Each of the 10 billion neurons has a possibility of making connections to the number of 1 with 28 zeros after it. So the total number of connections which can be made through electro-chemical processes is pretty well limitless. Regular thought patterns form channels in the mind, much like a path formed through frequent pedestrian traffic across a field. This has benefits. We don't have to deliberate about every minor decision every day. However, there is a danger! If our thinking falls into ruts when considering important areas of our lives and business, our creativity is stifled.

The good news is this: You do not have to be a genius to come up with creative ideas, break out of the rut and start thinking "outside the box". You just need to kick start your brain by providing outside stimuli to get it to think in ways it hasn't before. This can be accomplished by associating totally unrelated subjects together and observing what reactions come from the fusion!

This method, applied to our business can be a fertile source of ideas. Let's do a little exercise to illustrate. Supposing you need fresh ideas, words, phrases, for an advertising campaign.

Choose any word at random. For the exercise we will use the word FROG. Even better, get a picture of one. Now start writing furiously on a clear sheet of paper anything and everything that comes into your mind to do with frogs.

Here goes:

green, slimy, jump, legs, leap, croak, tad poles, metamorphosis, reeds, water, bull, tree, wide-mouth, eyes, smell, slippery, cold, Kermit, spawn, eggs, jelly.

You could take one of those words and explore further: Legs - long, jointed, tasty, delicacy, spring, fold. Mindmapping is an excellent tool for this kind of exercise. Get information here: < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953938558 >

Now you look at your advertising subject. Are you selling software? Then start making some connections:

Leap frog your business with ______________________
Jump ahead of the competition! Get ______________________
Blow your competition out of the water with ______________________
Spring load your business using ______________________
STOP business slipping through your fingers with this!

Just keep on cranking out phrases until you have a heap. Then? Boil them all down to the best ten, best five. Then start testing them until you find the winner! OK, so most of them will bomb! But then again, one, and you only need one, could just skyrocket! Often it happens without any logical explanation. Sometimes you come up with a real slick idea which gets nowhere. Other times a seemingly mediocre slogan takes off! Can anyone explain that? No. So testing is essential to success.

Let's take another direction and apply the same idea to web site design. Do you want to change the look of your site? Do you have reasonable computer skills so you can save yourself a large fee and at the same time produce a professional looking site? Good. But what theme to use? How can you be different?

Take another word at random, SOAP, or again a picture if you have one from a glossy magazine. Let's start listing every word we can think of to do with soap:

Flakes, scent, pink, white, marble, skin, bubbles, soft, round, square, gentle, perfume, liquid, toilet, bathroom, sink, bottle, creamy, model, block, water, wash, towel, bar.

Now, do any of those words give you ideas for texture, color, shape? For an interesting navigation bar, could you incorporate some different shapes based on bars of soap?

The idea of bubbles has much potential. Links in bubbles, different size bubbles according to importance of the link. Could an attractive picture of a model help present a feature of the site? Could a liquid dispenser bottle be used in a graphic in some way?

After thinking carefully on these lines you could come up with a very original, slick, attractive design for a web site or whatever project you are working on.

So back to our title - What Frogs and Soap Can Do For Your Business! No, these are not the ramblings of a crank! These ideas are used by big companies who have millions of dollars set aside for advertising. Check out a resource book on this at: < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953938712 >

Why not mimic the big boys and do a little creative thinking yourself? Sit down with a sheet of paper and turn on that amazing thinking apparatus between the ears - your brain!

You will be amazed at the effect on your business.

----------

Article by Mike Jones
For goal achievement get The High Achievers Journal:
< http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953938119 >
The Amazing Formula WILL affect your business. Find out how:
< http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953938346 >

HAPPENINGS AT JIMWORLD

SEARCH ENGINE FORUMS < http://searchengineforums.com >

The new Inktomi and Direct Hits fora have taken off quickly with much good exchange of information about these critical sources of traffic.

Do you operate, or want to operate, your own directory or search engine? Boy, do we have deal for you! There is a brand new forum in the Search Engine Forums just to help you run your directory as effectively as possible.

The new forum is moderated by John Cokos, developer of the Hyperseek directory system. He'll be happy, as will our other highly skilled members, to help your figure out the best ways to promote and operate your directory.

Hot Topics:

MSN new format for adding
< http://searchengineforums.com/Forum1/HTML/000877.html >

Is Quick "Link Popularity" Feasible
< http://searchengineforums.com/Forum3/HTML/000443.html >

How often does Direct Hits update their ranking?
< http://searchengineforums.com/Forum26/HTML/000017.html >

----------

GET HIGH (TRAFFIC) FORUMS < http://gethighforums.com >

Hot Topics:

Community Kick Start
< http://gethighforums.com/Forum2/HTML/000215.html >

How can I set up my own Affiliate program?
< http://gethighforums.com/Forum12/HTML/000133.html >

About.com / Luna Network?
< http://gethighforums.com/Forum10/HTML/000470.html >

In both Forum areas, several new moderators have joined the "Staff" of volunteers and the places are really jumping from their efforts.

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FREE SITE TEMPLATES
< http://freesitetemplates.com >

Several new templates have been contributed by Gazeteers and traffic to the site has grown beyond anything we have ever launched in this community. Contributors are reporting increases in requests for their paid services, so if you design sites, drop by and donate a few. You'll be helping many others and doing yourself some good as well.

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TOOLS FOR THE NET
< http://toolsforthe.net >

A new category has been set up for domain registration information. Since so many new options have opened up for registering .com, .org and .net domain names, you should make this your first stop before pulling out your credit card. Many of the new registars are significantly less expensive than Network Solutions. The directory also got a full housecleaning to remove about 20 broken links.

A new Top Level Domain (TLD) has appeared. It's .ws and the names are going quickly. Register at < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953800095 > but pay attention while filling out the forms. The fees for 4+ character names is us$35 per year and you can register for 2 or more years. The default on the registration form is 3 years ($105) but you can select 2 years ($70) instead. Fees for 2 character names are $500 per year and 3 character names are $250 per year. Ouch.

----------

The1000
< http://the1000.com >

Lots of new places to submit your site and a good broken link house cleaning. I have been re-visiting each of the directories listed to evaluate their potential to generate traffic for you. Several have been removed as not being worth the effort to get a listing.

Because Hyperseek dominates the small to medium sized directory business, there is something you should do before going out on the Web to submit your site. Verify that your pages have Title and both Description and Keyword Meta Tags. Hyperseek has a handy Spider that most directories are using to help you submit. You enter the URL and the spider fetches you Meta data and pre-loads the submission form. If you don't have meta tags and title, you'll have to type everything into the form. Since submission to spidered directories is so much faster, I will begin noting them in The1000 to help you find directories which are less demanding of your time.

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HELPWARE SITES DIRECTORY
< http://helpwaresites.com >

As you may have noticed, the Helpware Sites Directory has been "down" for an overhaul for about two weeks. It underwent a major upgrade to the new Hyperseek system, which will allow us to use many new features. Unfortunately, I had pushed the previous system beyond its reasonable ability to perform and the upgrade did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. No fault at all of the Hyperseek system. Just my constant desire to hack in one more feature with little attention to the niceties such as documentation.

----------

JimTools
< http://jimtools.com >

Lots of new, free tools for you at JimTools. For the money oriented, there are tools to help you calculate CPM, CPC and ROI on campaigns. Very easy to understand and use.

I've upgraded the Whois lookup to allow you to find available domain names in 120 top-level domains around the world. Where the data is made available, it will also tell you who owns the domain name.

SNIPPETS

Cool Button Trick
http://jimworld.com/buttontrick/
Our very own DianeV of DianeV. Web Design Studio http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953790890 has finished design work for the new http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953790819 RB Computer Help web site. Her client wanted a very fast loading site that focused on delivering content so Diane whipped out the Cool Button Trick and implemented it in a beautiful way giving the site a great look without using any bandwidth. Nice trick. Look at the navigation buttons on the left side of the page.

----------

Smart Plan For Growth
< http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953939673 >

Kmart has enrolled one million subscribers in their free Net access plan in a record amount of time. They structured their plan to take advantage of their brand recognition assets. Take a look at how their offer is structured to see a perfect case of classic marketing techniques brought to the Net.

----------

Windows 2000?

Do you intend to upgrade your Windows computer to Windows 2000 within the next 6 months?

When asked this question, JimTools.com visitors answered as follows:

Yes: 208 votes - 22%
No: 609 votes - 66%
Never: 97 votes - 10%

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PERL 5.6.0 IS OUT!
< http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953857439 >

At long last, Perl 5.6.0 is released! This is the first major release of Perl since 5.005 came out in July 1998. Reports are that it is very stable and full of new features. Released on March 23, 2000 the full download is available from CPAN through the Perl.com site. Have fun with the new features. Ignore the pain of upgrading your server installation.

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Do You Think All The Good Ideas Are Gone?

Imagine settling that nagging dispute without ever setting foot in a courtroom. Thanks to the Internet and a neutral mediator's assistance, settling disputes out of court is now much easier, faster and cheaper. tryoutofcourt's new website allows two parties with a dispute to submit confidential settlement offers through < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953790735 >. If their offers are reasonably close, a neutral mediator helps them settle within one week. No waste of time. No arguing or haggling with the other party. The parties need only to communicate with the mediator.

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WebTrends Live
< http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953837217 >

The makers of one of the dominant site traffic reporting systems has launched a
new online tracking service that has so many features I can't begin to list them
all here, so I'll just hit the highlights.

• For individual sites, the service is free.
  
• "WebTrends Live is the most advanced real-time online service, providing web site traffic analysis, ecommerce revenue tracking (patent pending), ad campaign management, and content group analysis for any size web site."
  
• You can be viewing reports in a matter of minutes. Simply add their Javascript to the pages you want tracked, and they'll do the rest. You can even try it risk-free for 7-days!
  
• WebTrends Live is the only product of its kind on the market today that lets you track Revenue and Orders, view sales trends, and analyze your ad campaign performance, directly from your ecommerce solution.
  
  Get up-to-the-minute sales information.
  See which products are selling.
  Chart orders and revenues.
  Monitor sales trends.
  Track the performance of your ad campaigns.
  Monitor the sale cycle for your customers.

I'll be testing this new service over the next few weeks, but you may want to start your own testing now. The paid service gives you a week of free usage to determine if the reports will help you run your sites more effectively.

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Content Exchange
< http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953933162 >

A wonderful new-ish site has fired up to help writers and web publishers find each other.

Content exchange hosts two discussion lists, which is how I found them. One is for discussion about e-writing and the other is focused on dead tree newspapers functioning on the Net. Both are excellent resources.

But on the Web site, there is even more. (Normally written as "But Wait! There's More!)

• Classified ads for writers to find work, or publishers to find writers and editors.
  
  
• A directory of 1,500+ writers that are available for work.
  
  
• An excellent eZine about e-writing and content creation in general.

This is a site that all of you should be visiting. Content creators can find work or just schmooze with their peers and sharpen their skills.

ePublishers can find staff or contract writers and editors for just about any type of project.

Go show your support of this very worthwhile watering hole. They are filling a much needed slot in the eWorld.

I'm about through using eEverything. I'm looking for a 12-step program to help me break the eHabit. Would that be an eMonkey on my eBack?

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WATCH HOW YOU PERSONALIZE YOUR SPAM

Found in today's email box:

"Hello Adult Webmaster:

Be one of the first to join our new Topsite!

I came across your site, and I thought it was perfect for our Brand New Topsite. So, I am extending a personal invitation to you."

I wonder which part of my site indicated to them that this would be right up my alley?

Maybe the years of anti-spam tirades? Or the threads in the forums about restrictions placed on all adult content publishers when on my sites?

If you are going to personalize your email marketing, please put some actual effort into it. It is not fun to receive fan mail from someone's computer program trying to sound like a person.

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IAN'S POWER BACKGROUNDS
< http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953935045 >

A resource for Macintosh users in the graphic arts and publishing industries. Offers over 400 free, exceptional, high resolution, abstract and photographic colour images, for graphic artwork, desktop publishing and the web. About 3GB of Macintosh shareware, freeware and demoware, and the home of the Level 4.0 rated Best of the Web for MacOS web site Awards.

This site from "down under" really appealed to the almost forgotten "Mac addict" that still lives at the core of me. I think you'll like it as much as I did.

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AffiliateFind
< http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953935793 >

A new directory of affiliate programs has launched in the past few days. They are aggressively promoting which is always a good sign.

If you have an affiliate program, go submit it for a free listing. 1000 Free advertising impressions for everybody who adds a program. ($40 Value) All you have to do is join their free reciprocal link program.

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AWARD SITES! new URL
< http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=953936559 >

Most of us know Award Sites at it's original home on www.fucususa.com but now it has its own domain name. If you list it on your site at their old URL, please change the link to their new home. While you're at it, go over there and submit your site for tons of awards. It's free and fast.