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================================================================ The Promotion World Informer Issue #55 February 1, 1999 ================================================================ This issue of the Informer is sponsored by: ------------------------------------------------------------------- 4% average response rate, highly targeted audience, and an opt-in based readership. Sound too good to be true? Direct email marketing has a new name and it is not spam-me-even-more, it's E-target.com. Visit http://e-target.com/ads/informer.htm to see an effective and not-so-new concept in Internet marketing. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ Contents Of This Issue: - Editor's Notes - Cool Quotes - Finding Your Way Around - The Discussion Board - Sponsor Message - E(ffective)mail - Searching With Hayden - Sponsor Message - How NOT To Promote Your Site - News Headlines - A Small Request - Misc. Information =========================== Editor's Notes ====================== Hi all! Another full issue for you this week... read on! 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 ======================== I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. - Mark Twain In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats. - English proverb Advertising is salesmanship. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. - Claude C. Hopkins Download all the past Cool Quotes by sending any email to quotes@promotionworld.com. Enjoy! ===================== Finding Your Way Around ===================== Finding Your Way Around by Jennifer Johnson I bet a lot of you are like me; you started designing web sites as a hobby and that hobby quickly turned into something much more time consuming - for many of us it became a full-time job! I think you can relate to me then when I tell you that I've spent a lot of late nights trying to determine what exactly makes a "good site"; what can be done to improve my current sites and, better yet, what can be done when starting from the ground up to ensure a good web site. I've come up with my own list of things and I'm sure you've got one too. I don't have the time or the space :-) to go through that list bit by bit, but there is one component of a good site I'd like to discuss in detail: good site navigation. Almost all great web sites have a good navigation system. It may seem insignificant, but it shouldn't. After you've spent all that time and money developing a great site, don't you want visitors to be able to find their way around it? There are several components of a good navigation system. I'd like to discuss what I feel are a few of the most important below: GOOD LINKS/CLICKABLE IMAGES Your links should be easily identifiable as such. Make sure the visitor knows to "Click Here" to do so-and-so; you'll probably want to avoid using that much reviled phrase to induce them to take that course of action though. It's imperative that your visitors actually be able to *see* the links in order to use them. That sentence seems to have a high "duh" factor, but take a moment to think back to the sites you've visited this week. I'm sure at least one or two of them had links that were next to impossible to read due to the background pattern or color being so similar to the link color. If you don't remember encountering this problem, keep an eye out this week for it and I'm sure you'll notice a few sites where this is an issue. In fact, this is one of the more common mistakes I see on sites that I am asked to review. Another area of concern is clickable images. Usually individual images don't present much of a problem. You see an email icon that has "Send Mail" emblazoned somewhere on it, you know to click on it to send email. When you make an image map out of a huge picture of an eagle, it's not always so obvious to visitors that to get to the "Links" page they must click the third feather from the left wing tip. Exercise good judgement when choosing images to be used as image maps. There should be obvious separate "areas" in the image. Imagine one large square comprised of 4 smaller squares, each a different color. In this example, it should be readily apparent to the visitor that there are 4 areas to choose from. Using a crowd shot from a football game is an example of an image that doesn't lend itself to being a good image map; too many elements. I like the JavaScript URL loader (drop down box where you select the area you want to go to and hit the "Go" button). Of course, it's only accessible by browsers that support JavaScript. I, myself, am not too fond of the pop-up, pop-out menus or the directory tree applets. They either take too long to load or are more annoying than they are helpful. Of course, this is just my opinion. CONSISTENT NAVIGATION THROUGHOUT THE SITE Whatever form of navigation you choose, stay consistent throughout the site. Don't use pink buttons on the front page and clickable icons on another page, etc. You should use the same navigational items in the same place on every page in the site, if possible. Another important and oft-overlooked aspect of good navigation is that *every* page in the site should link back to "HOME". You don't know how many times I've accessed a page with great content, wanted to get more information from that site, and looked in vain for a link back to home. Sure, very often you can follow the URL path back directory by directory, but why not make it easier for your visitors by adding a link to the "HOME" page? It's a win-win situation. You've probably got lots of visitors coming in through the "backdoor" and I know they'd appreciate this little gesture. TEXT LINKS IN ADDITION TO GRAPHIC LINKS If your site utilizes graphic images for navigation, be sure and include a set of text links for visitors who have their images turned off or use a text only browser. Along the same lines, you should always use ALT text for your images. The phrase in your ALT text should describe where the visitor will be sent if he or she clicks that link, not the name of the GIF or JPEG file and its size. MISCELLANEOUS o If your site is large enough to support it, a site search engine is almost always a plus in terms of site navigation. o Go easy on the cool beans navigational items. Hover buttons are neat, but if you go too crazy with any of the "cool stuff", it can take away from your site. o You may be wondering why I haven't mentioned frames as a navigational tool. Well, it could be because I think they're the bane of many a Web surfer's existence. I know, I know, in theory they seem to be an excellent way to provide site navigation, but that's in a perfect little Web world where all the frames could join hands, gather around a campfire, and sing songs until the wee hours of the morning. In practice, I seldom see sites with frames that work. Usually the evil spawn of frames is generated: the horizontal scrollbar. I will begrudgingly admit that when they do work, they are a nice navigational aid. Be sure to include a <NOFRAME> tagset (for browsers that don't support frames) if you do decide to use frames. o Make sure that button text is clear and readable if you use buttons and if you use an image map, take extra care to ensure your links have sufficient space between them in order to differentiate link from link. o TABLES can work nicely for navigational purposes. I hope you can use these tips in some way to make your great site even better! ASPiRE Internet Marketing http://www.PromotingYourSite.com Articles, tips, tools, tutorials, and other resources to help you effectively design and promote your site. Free newsletter. To contact Jennifer directly, send email to: jenny@promotingyoursite.com ===================== The Discussion Board ====================== This week's quote from the discussion board: "Hi everone, I'm Bill Green modertor of the WebDesign forum. Question: How can I create a "back" button for my page? Answer: Use the following HTML code and java-script: <FORM METHOD="POST"><INPUT TYPE="button" VALUE="Back" onClick="history.back()"> You can change the value "Back" to whatever you want the button to say. Do you have an HTML tip? Share it with us. Bill Green --- Need A website? http://www.1stsitefree.com" Visit the message boards to comment on this quote or just to catch up on the other exciting discussions going on! http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/ ========================= Sponsor Message ======================= INCREASE TRAFFIC for FREE with a link from your visitors' Start Pages to your web site. The Start Page is among the most often visited pages. It's the first page your browser shows, and the page that appears when you click the Home button. People will see a link to your site every time they surf the web. Linking to your site from your visitors' Start Pages is FREE and as easy as adding a couple HTML lines to your site's Home Page. Visit http://www.startpad.com/inpw.asp for everything you need to get started in minutes. Don't hesitate to send any questions to webmaster@startpad.com. Why wait? Get FREE traffic flowing now! -- Editors Note: Quite an interesting idea! See how I am using it on the homepage of http://www.promotionworld.com/. ========================= E(ffective)mail ======================== E(ffective)mail by Julie T. Meyer, Marketing Specialist Business Development Resources (WeDevelBiz@aol.com) We've all read it over and over -- one of the tools that has leveled marketing and business playing fields . . . email. Sure, highly targetted direct mail and extensive follow-up can be launched without the costs of postage and long distance telephone bills. But, at what cost to your business's reputation if you keep making basic and, therefore, major mistakes? E(ffective)mail Checklist __ schedule time to respond promptly. They're interested, now -- how long will that last? And what will it they think of your operation if you more than one business day to respond? Many email marketing managers utilize autoresponders to ensure prompt response; others prefer the individual touch of handling follow-up, personally. Whichever route you select, be sure to make the arrangements for your respondents to hear back from you in a timely fashion, before you click "send". __ Run "spell check" and don't rely on it "Spell check" will catch recieve and acomodation, but it won't alert you if you wrote about at avalanche. There's a reason that computers still need people to operate them -- so, if you can't get someone to proof your cyber epistles, read them through, yourself, at least once or twice before clicking "send". __ Remind them why they contacted you How many emails do you receive and respond to a day? For many its dozens and, even, hundreds. We also don't always read what we receive the minute it hits the in box. Reminders are both courteous and as simple as typing "Re: whatever they contacted you for" in the subject line or including the contents of the email to which you are responding somewhere in your response. __ Use a signature When is the last time you turned down an opportunity for free advertising? Everytime you send out an email, if you're one of the too many still not using an email signature. Your signature should include contact information (at least name, company and phone), a one line description of your product and a one line call to action or offer like Email WeDevelBiz@aol.com for a free "15-Minute Marketing Plan™" For those few email programs (like mine!@#$%) that don't have a signature setting, keep yours on your clipboard or in a readily accessible document, and take a few extra seconds [just before proofreading :)] to paste it at the end of your message. A few seconds is a very small cost for thousands of targetted ads per year. __ Use bcc with groups, even socially. Protect your valuable list from cyber pirates and save your valued contacts from potential spam by revealing your recipients identities only to them, individually. Correspondence also feels a great deal more personalized if your recipient's name (even preceded by a bcc) is the only one that appears in the "To" box. E-mail is only an effective marketing tool for those who use it correctly. Julie T. Meyer has developed and implemented comprehensive marketing plans for a broad range of businesses including leading accounting, law and technology firms, and numerous divisions of the University of Pennsylvania. She also has years of product development and sales experience. She can be reached via email at WeDevelBiz@aol.com; requests for free copies of her "15-Minute Marketing Plan™" can be made to this same address. ====================== Searching With Hayden ======================= Q. Thank you for sharing the java refresh code to hide meta tags from competitors. Is this the code that one uses to make a gateway page, listed on a search engine, link immediately to the true html homepage. I have been reading about Gateway pages, but have not completely put 2 and 2 together. If you have any information or perhaps a source you could refer to me, I would appreciate it. I want to play with the big boys...and have my url listed in the top 30 on the engines. A. Gateway pages can be very effective if used correctly. The requirements for such pages change as often as the engines change the rules. I suggest that you use a payed monthly service such as http://www.searchengine-news.com if you want to stay on top of the latestest tricks. The alterantive for free information is sites like Danny Sullivan's http://searchenginewatch.com/ Hayden Mitchell ======================================================================= 100% On Target Advertising, Marketing and Promotion "Life is good at the Top" - Search Engine placement and much more! For details send email to Auto-responder webhitman@infofree.com Web Themes - http://www.webthemes.com ph. 805-270-1607 Send in your question for Hayden. It might be answered in an upcoming issue. webmaster@promotionworld.com ========================== Sponsor Message ========================== Boogie Jack's - goofy name, excellent resource. For webmasters: eye-popping graphics, easy-to-understand html and graphics tutorials, a color machine to find the code for that just right color, and a free newsletter to help you tweak your pages and promotional efforts. Browse selected articles online. For everyone: Guess the Celebrity is a contest like no other, photo warps, humor and more. All original content, growing rapidly, wildly popular, and best of all - it's FREE! Get jacked! Boogie Jack's Graphics Plus. http://www.boogiejack.com ================== How NOT To Promote Your Site ================ How Not to Promote Your Site by David Handlos Getting your own domain name is recommended for anyone ready to work online. It's fairly inexpensive, and says you're more serious about your business than somebody with an obscure URL, that's usually also incredibly long, say something like: http://www.whatever.com/business/ecommerce/internet/yourusername/index.html I think there are some even longer than this. Your hand could cramp up typing it in before you could even get to the site! You get the idea. If you can, get yourself a domain. But what if you have an existing site, and need to transfer your site? The standard procedure is to put one of those "We've Moved!" pages in place of all your old files, with a link to your new site. Perfectly acceptable. Right? Maybe not... Why? One of the main reasons thus far is the search engines. The spiders from search engines constantly crawl the Web, and may index both entire sites. The problem? Too many multiple pages can be defined as "spam", your rankings may drop, or all of your pages might be even banned from the system. Example: I've moved my own URL not once, but twice already. By the time I'd moved to my own domain, I had two sets of redirects posted. As a result, my rankings in all of the Inktomi-powered search engines dropped an average of 30 spots. After learning what "not" to do in this case, I've developed a few things you should try: 1) Post redirect pages at your old site for at least the first week. 2) If you have a system for tracking visitors, find out which redirects aren't being viewed. 3) After 2-3 weeks, remove these redirects, submit them so the engines will delete their listing. 4) Submit your new URL after submitting the old redirects so the spiders will pick them up. Essentially, it's perfectly fine to change addresses, but careful what you leave behind, it could catch up to you! Happy promoting, David Handlos Crosslinkz: Your Free Web Directory! http://www.crosslinkz.com/ Free promotion, email, and awards! ========================= News Headlines ========================= ~ Beware The Subtext http://www.searchz.com/Articles/0125992.html ~ Developing A Privacy Policy http://www.searchz.com/Articles/0202991.html ~ Macromedia tools getting cooler all the time http://www.builder.com/Business/Shafer/020199/ ~ More Stupid Web Tricks http://www.builder.com/Authoring/MoreStupid/ ~ Four of five German firms advertise online http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,31308,00.html ~ Microsoft under acquisition pressure http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,31767,00.html More Internet related news headlines at http://www.promotionworld.com/news.html ========================= 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? After all, you wouldn't want to keep all this free information to yourself. Just tell 'em all to subscribe by sending a message to 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 informer@oaknetpub.com To unsubscribe put REMOVE in the BODY of an email to informer@oaknetpub.com I appreciate all your mail with your comments and suggestions! webmaster@promotionworld.com Newsletter Credits: Joshua Reimer, Editor webmaster@promotionworld.com http://www.promotionworld.com John S. Rhodes, Usability Specialist john@WebWord.com http://www.WebWord.com/ Ryan Adams, Affiliate Program Specialist webmaster@clickquick.com http://www.clickquick.com Hayden Mitchell, Search Engine Specialist hayden@webthemes.com http://www.webthemes.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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