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======================================================== The Promotion World Informer Issue #67 April 26, 1999 ISSN 1488-1675 Edited by Joshua Reimer - http://www.promotionworld.com ======================================================== This issue of the Informer is sponsored by: ---------------------------------------------- MAXILINK announces a breathtakingly simple solution to the most difficult problem of Web commerce! Namely, connecting the right client to the right supplier in the chaos of the Web! That way everyone is happy! Business booms! And if you think promoting your own business on the Web is worth as little as 'One Cent Per Hour - MAXIMUM!' take a look at MAXILINK.COM and consider the benefits of Affiliation in the UBIZ NETWORK - You can even recover your costs in Commissions while you are at it! It's worth a serious look! See:- http://www.maxilink.com/ubiznet/welcome.htm ---------------------------------------------- Now with over 5961 subscribers! Advertising Information --> http://www.promotionworld.com/sponsor.html ================================================================ Contents Of This Issue: - Editor's Notes - Cool Quotes - Friendly Advice from the Editor - Sponsor Message - Tracking Your Success - Bookmarkable Bookmarks - What's New At Promotion World - The Discussion Board - Sponsor Message - Shaking Hands with the Internet Community - A Small Request - Misc. Information ======================== Editor's Notes ====================== You may have noticed a new addition to the header of the newsletter this week. I just received my very own ISSN number! And yes, they do have some value other than just making you look professional. Although that certainly is part of it. If you run a newsletter, I recommend you think about getting one. Besides, they are free. For more information: In Canada <http://nlc-bnc.ca/issn/e-issn.htm> In the US: <http://lcweb.loc.gov/issn/> You may also want to read the short article at Webmaster Resources on the subject: <http://www.webmaster-resources.com/articles/article18.html> Also, next week is the first drawing for 25,000 banner impressions across the highly recommended Link Buddies network at <http://www.linkbuddies.com/start.go?id=100041>. For some reason there have only been 20 entries to date! I recommend you sign up- you have a good chance of winning. <http://www.promotionworld.com/contest.html> Large issue today... enjoy! The Informer is sent only to those who have expressly requested it. If you no longer wish to receive it, simply follow the simple unsubscribe instructions at the end of this newsletter. ============================ Cool Quotes ======================== With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market. - Business Week, August 2, 1968 The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but 'That's funny...'. - Isaac Asimov All that is necessary for the forces of evil to take root in the world is for enough good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke Download all the past Cool Quotes by sending any email to <mailto:quotes@promotionworld.com&> Enjoy! ================= Friendly Advice from the Editor ================ Creating Recommendable Websites by Joshua Reimer I have had a great time in the last few days- I just bought three new software titles, Eudora Pro, Norton AntiVirus and Paint Shop Pro 5.0. Unlike many software experiences, installing them was very easy. They were also easy to configure. Within an hour of using Eudora I had set up a number of filters, and had customized it just the way I need it. It didn't take Norton AntiVirus long to do its thing, either. This morning it detected and quickly got rid of two common viruses. I am quite glad I purchased the software! I haven't had time to use Paint Shop Pro much yet, but I did play around with it last night and it worked beautifully. Just what I needed to spice up Promotion World! Why am I telling you all this? Because I believe it relates to websites. I was happy with my software experience, and so I am able to recommend those pieces of software to you. Would your visitors want to recommend your website to others? What was it that made me want to recommend the software I just bought? I would say it would be the ease of use, effectiveness, and added productivity I can see I will be experiencing. Now, let's apply that to your website. How easy is your website to use? Can visitors get to every important page on your site without having to always go back to the main menu? Is your navigation system working smoothly? You surely don't have any broken links on your site, do you? What benefit does your visitor get out of visiting your website? I have found that if a website doesn't offer valuable, regularly updated free content, visitors are not very likely to become repeat visitors. Free content is an excellent way to draw visitors in to buy your products. How will your website help your visitor improve their productivity? Conversely, will it diminish their productivity? Are your pages slow loading, full of Javascripts that may crash their browsers, or just hard to read? Word of mouth is the best method of advertising, but you need to have an excellent website before others will go and recommend it to others. That's my advice for the week! Joshua Editor/webmaster/ad sales guy/everything else at Promotion World. <http://www.promotionworld.com> ======================= Sponsor Message ======================= ***LIST YOUR SITE & ONLY PAY FOR RESULTS -- GoTo.com*** When you list your site on GoTo.com, you can get the top search listing and targeted sales leads for pennies per click. You only pay when someone clicks on your listing, and you control your site’s ranking in the search results! It’s keyword advertising for pennies per click! Sign up now with a minimum of $25 and GoTo.com will add $5 to your account. If you’re not happy, do nothing. If you’re happy with the results you get with GoTo.com, just add more money to your account when it gets low. Click here: http://www.goto.com/d/advertisers/p/generic/?o=22&Promo=promoworld_C ===================== Tracking Your Success ===================== WRITING FOR NEWSLETTERS 101 by Jennifer Johnson How many people do you know that want to be a writer? I would bet that around half of the people I know have expressed, at one time or another, the desire to write a book on so-and-so or an article about you-name-it. It seems as though many people harbor a secret desire to see their words in print. Are you one of those people? If you are, what's stopping you? Equipped with good ideas and decent skills, all that stands between you and being published in an email newsletter or ezine is a little time and effort. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to divide the process of getting your work published into two stages: development and submission. DEVELOPMENT After you've decided on a good topic, it's time to actually write the article. I would recommend keeping it somewhere in the neighborhood of 500-700 words. Develop your own style; don't feel as though you must write in a certain way in order to have your work published; you don't. Be yourself and (to paraphrase a great bit of advice) don't try to dazzle everyone with how well you write, just tell the story. ALWAYS spell-check and proofread your work! I would also discourage you from blatantly promoting your business/site in the article itself. This is accomplished (subtly) through the use of a nifty little feature called a resource box. A resource box is a small "box" of text that usually appears at the end of an article in an ezine or newsletter. It often contains the author's name, email address, and URL; it can also include a small blurb of info about the author or his or her services/products/business. Aside from a stroke to your ego (;-), this box can prove an extremely valuable tool for directing visitors to your site. My site gets 37% of its traffic from email referrals; that's much more traffic than my site gets from search engine referrals. It goes without saying, I'd be in pretty sad shape without my trusty little resource box. SUBMISSION After you've written a great article, it's time to get it published so the world can ooh and ahh at your masterpiece. The first thing you need to do is decide what type of publications would be interested in your article. Sending material to an editor that he or she can't use is not only annoying, it is a total waste of time (yours and theirs). To locate editors that might be interested in your work, visit eZINESearch <http://www.ezinesearch.com> and sift through the database until you come up with a list of possibilities. Once you've collected a few names, start building an address book group and don't forget to make a back-up copy; you may live to regret it if you don't! When it comes to actually sending the article, I have established a few of my own DOs and DON'Ts that have helped me along the way: •DON'T carbon copy the editors on the list. If you do, each individual editor will have to scroll through the list of names and it tends to make people really angry! DO send your email to the editors as a blind carbon copy. •DO include instructions on how an editor can be removed from your list if he or she wants and promptly delete anyone's name who requests it. DON'T take it personally if anyone asks to be removed. •DON'T use text wrapping, DO use a hard return. A hard return means that instead of the text wrapping automatically, you hit the "Enter" button at the end of each line. I use approximately 55 characters per line. This may all seem strange and repulsive but trust me, not all email programs are like yours. If you don't use a hard return, the result can be text with crazy line breaks that is very difficult to read. The hard return is the easiest way I've found to ensure all my recipients can easily read my submissions. •DO let everyone on your list know if your work is being sent for consideration to multiple editors. It's a little different online than it is in the "real world"; you've probably noticed, if you subscribe to multiple publications, that a given article may appear in several newsletters or ezines within the same week. Despite the fact that many editors will consider non-exclusive articles, let them know your article has been sent to other editors as a courtesy. DON'T just assume he or she doesn't care one way or the other. One final word of advice: don't get offended or hurt if someone decides not to publish your work...even if it *is* GREAT. Basically, rejection is part of the business of being a writer. Don't take it personally, don't let it get you down, and move on to the next article! PromotingYourSite.com <http://www.promotingyoursite.com> Free info on how to effectively design and promote your site. Join the "Rate My Site Newsletter" (delivered 3-5 times/week) by sending any email to: ratemysite-subscribe@listbot.com and find out how to submit *your* site for other webmasters to review. Contact Jennifer directly at: jennifer@promotingyoursite.com. ================ What's New At Promotion World ================= Expert Interviews: Gordon Hoffstien Affiliate programs are the future of online advertising. With that in mind, this is an interview with the president of Be Free, one of the largest affiliate tracking programs out there. <http://www.promotionworld.com/interviews/ghoffstien.html> ================== Bookmarkable Bookmarks =================== The Care and Feeding of the Press A guide written by a journalist with tips on how to get your release noticed. Highly Recommended <http://www.netpress.org/careandfeeding.html> 14 Tips for Sending Effective Press Releases Another pretty good guide to follow when sending out press releases. <http://azstarnet.com/~poewar/writer/press.html> More press release resources: <http://www.promotionworld.com/directory/press.html> ===================== The Discussion Board ====================== This week's quote from the discussion board: "Judging by the high level of recent activity here, I believe we can safely say this: Banner exchanges are a totally dead form of website advertising. Banners are dead, except in the form of paid-for advertising and swaps between individual sites. Shall we have a funeral, or are banners going to rot in the open? Thanks, Duncan Johnson Visit DJDonline! at <http://djd.freeservers.com> Your source for FREE Flight Simulator add-ons! " Read and comment on the full discussion online at: <http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/messages/44/372.html> Get in on our discussions! At least stop by to see what you are missing out on. <http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/> ======================= Sponsor Message ======================= Want more money from your website? How about making sure your customers can pay you? If you aren't accepting credit cards, you are losing a lot of business. Our merchant account solutions are some of the most affordable out there! FREE BONUS: With each merchant account order we will give you a free "checks by e-mail, fax and phone" software and 100 blank checks! Visit us today. <https://artemis.safe-order.net/ez-creditcard/al/affiliates.cgi?64> ========== Shaking Hands with the Internet Community ========= Shaking Hands with the Internet Community by Jeff Clark In issue #66 of The Informer, Joshua introduced discussion of "link partnerships." A method of developing complementary exchange of information and online traffic, this cyber hand-shaking is fast replacing the search engine as the first, best approach to take in publicizing your Internet presence. Progressing considerably beyond the traditional link and banner exchanges, link partnerships are a new foundation for building net community relationships. At Internet Brothers these relationships had a simple enough beginning. In June of 1998 I introduced the Internet Brothers Plaque for Helpware Excellence, another in the long list of bandwidth eating web award programs. I thought ours to be a little different, we recognized those who went out of their way to help the net newcomer with any subject, without expecting anything in return. When searching for new content to enhance the Internet Brothers 1999 offering, I immediately sought what I term "subject matter experts", those who had presented the best sites reviewed for our award in 1998. The response I received was delightfully unexpected, in fact it was overwhelming. We developed tips and tutorials sections related to HTML and DHTML, graphics creation and editing, digital photography, desktop publishing, and site promotion; most of the curricula involved in putting together a marketable web presence. We constructed most of the content ourselves, but where our knowledge was lacking or marginal, we invited and encouraged, sometimes even begged, participation by the SMEs. For promotion, we looked at the sites that had been successful at attracting visitors and asked them how they did it. We went to a grammar expert to write an article about improving the language of your pages. Tips about graphic compression for improved page loading came from one of the web's best, and we even interviewed one of the original web award gurus for his thoughts and advice related to applying for trinkets. As you would expect, all these guest authors were willing to include links to Internet Brothers from their sites to what amounted to their content on ours. Reciprocation on our part has ranged from the original link exchange, to return guest content for their sites, even some technical pointers and assistance. The numbers I will tell you about aren't staggering, but they demonstrate a marked improvement. Internet Brothers languished along at 40-50 unique visitors per day for the latter half of 1998. As we launched the new content on January 1st, the hits per day immediately doubled, attributable directly to simple quality and quantity improvement of keywords in the search engines. But we didn't stop there; we continued to integrate new link partnerships. This meant new, fresh content and new, fresh exposure. By mid-February we were receiving 175 guests to our site each and every day. Then something happened. Suddenly in late February our numbers began going the other way. We dropped first to 140 hits, then another plunge to just barely 100 in mid-March. Anxiously researching the traffic logs to discover the problem, I determined that our ranking in nearly all the search engines had dropped precipitously. A hard lesson to learn, know that the engines are constantly evolving. More than that though, what I learned was not to rely on them so much. Throughout all this decline in engine generated traffic, the hits Internet Brothers received from our link partners maintained a steady growth, and as we continue to establish new relationships, so too do we attract new non-search engine traffic. At the time of this writing in mid-April, we are now back up to 150 unique visitors per day with less than one third of them coming from search engines. These are solid, recurring referrals. Let's face it, people couldn't care less anymore about the page on your site that lists your favorite links. When was the last time you actually clicked through a list of someone's best dog sites, best refrigerator repair, best advice for the five toughest questions for men to answer? If you are like me, what does attract your attention is an informative article with a link to the author's site. So go shake some hands. As you ponder this and other related articles about improving your link relationships and community participation, consider also going out of your way to help a teen with their online project. Some of the most brilliant work I have witnessed on the web has been done by those still in high school. It is fair to say the Internet belongs to the generation that succeeds my own. Those who grab the brass ring and make a lasting impression will be the ones who build community, not tear it down. Help them find that out. ___________________________________________ Jeff Clark mailto:jhclark@earthlink.net Free web site development tips and tutorials. Internet Brothers: Helpware for the Cybercommunity -------> http://internetbrothers.com <------- ========================= A Small Request ======================= If you enjoy reading this newsletter each week, why not tell a friend about it? Even better, why don't you recommend The Informer on a discussion list? The more subscribers there are, the more time I am able to justify spending on creating valuable content for you all! Just tell everyone to subscribe by sending a message to <mailto:informer@oaknetpub.com> with SUBSCRIBE in the BODY of their message. ======================== Misc. Information ======================= To comment on the issues covered in this week's newsletter, use the appropriate forum on our Discussion Boards. <http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/> Browse the archives at <http://www.promotionworld.com/informer/archives.html> If you are looking for some good advertising deals, you might like to consider Promotion World and the Informer as places to advertise. <http://www.promotionworld.com/sponsor.html> To subscribe put SUBSCRIBE in the BODY of an email to <mailto:informer@oaknetpub.com> To unsubscribe put REMOVE in the BODY of an email to <mailto:informer@oaknetpub.com> I appreciate all your mail with your comments and suggestions! <mailto:webmaster@promotionworld.com> Newsletter Credits: Joshua Reimer, Editor <mailto:webmaster@promotionworld.com> <http://www.promotionworld.com> Jennifer Johnson, Feature Writer <mailto:jenny@promotingyoursite.com> <http://www.PromotingYourSite.com> John S. Rhodes, Usability Specialist <mailto:john@WebWord.com> <http://www.WebWord.com/> Hayden Mitchell, Search Engine Specialist <mailto:hayden@webthemes.com> <http://www.webthemes.com> David Handlos, What Not To Do Specialist <mailto:webmaster@crosslinkz.com> <http://www.crosslinkz.com> And now for the mandatory legal stuff: This newsletter is copyright 1997, 1998, 1999 Joshua Reimer. No part may be reproduced in any way without prior permission.
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