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================================================================ The Promotion World Informer Issue #57 February 14, 1999 ================================================================ This issue of the Informer is sponsored by: ********************************************************* NEWSFLASH: Two former Dell executives discover huge new market opportunity. Personal e-commerce & 1:1 sales. Over 5,000 computer products in your own personal store. Join now, open for business in 48 hrs. Want in? Click here: http://ph-ad08.focalink.com/SmartBanner/page?14722.9 ******************************************************** ================================================================ Contents Of This Issue: - Editor's Notes - Cool Quotes - Building an Online Community - Part I - Sponsor Message - What's New At Promotion World - Managing Email Correspondence - Bits and Pieces - The Discussion Board - Sponsor Message - How NOT To Promote Your Site - News Headlines - A Small Request - Misc. Information =========================== Editor's Notes ====================== This week we have the first article in an excellent two part series from Gordon Currie on how to build community on your website. Building community is one of the most important things to do if you are wanting repeat visitors to your site, it gives visitors a reason to return. Gordon has some unique ideas, I am sure you will enjoy his articles! 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 ======================== The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein I've always wanted to be somebody, but now I see I should have been more specific. - Lily Tomlin There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977 Download all the past Cool Quotes by sending any email to quotes@promotionworld.com. Enjoy! ==================== Building Community ==================== Building an Online Community - Part I (C) Gordon F. Currie Building an On-line Community is not something we can cover in a few paragraphs. But what I do plan to do is provide you with a overview of how we have set up ours and provide some tips on setting up a successful On-line Community. In the spring of 1997, after running a number of web sites for various businesses I am involved with, I decided to create a on-line community for MYST & RIVEN fans. MYST and RIVEN are two of the top selling adventure games created by CYAN Inc. and marketed by Mindscape. MYST has sold over 5 million copies and RIVEN about 2 million. Originally I established the MYST & RIVEN Links / Bookstore web site that created a great deal of traffic (and continues to do so). My On-line Community was named RivenGuild (I was able to get permission from the creators of Riven to use the name in my domain). The web site started with about 8 pages and quickly grew to over 200 pages with a number of specialized areas. After 6 months, this web site has grown to over 8 million hits a month and about 7000 visitors a day. In the first part of our installment on On-line Communities, I wanted to cover some Tips for those starting out. 1) GIVE PEOPLE A REASON TO VISIT - When building an On-line Community, you want to create a warm and friendly experience and encourage people to visit. Many sites created today lack the quality content required to keep people coming back. Look at the On-line Community and ask yourself "What reason is there for me to return to this site? What really stands out and captures my attention?" 2) INTERACT WITH YOUR VISITORS - The number one goal to ensure success in your On-line Community is to interact with people visiting the site. This can include offering free downloads, contests, galleries, a what's new area that is kept up to date, message boards, chat, email newsletters and more. 3) UPDATE THE WEBSITE - It is imperative that you update the web site 3-4 times a week if not daily. 4) MONITOR TRAFFIC - This is one area that many webmasters talk about but few focus on watching the traffic on the site. It is not enough to say "We are getting 100,000 hits a day." You need to analyze the site traffic and figure out how people are finding the site, when and where do they leave, how long did they stay on the site, etc. Access to referrer logs will tell you who is linking to you and what search terms people are using to find you site. 5) ONLINE MORALS - This is an area I have found has increased traffic on my sites. Take a stand against abuse on the site (in terms of message posting on webboards and chat) and promote family values. As an example, I had an individual post abusive comments on one of my public message boards that was offensive to women. I removed the message and posted publicly my feeling on this. I also developed an "abuse policy" to deal with these sorts of things. One day I shut down the site message boards to draw attention to the fact they are a free resource and are not to be taken advantage of. The result . . . increased traffic, visitor loyalty and loads of support from advertisers wanting to associate themselves with our site based on our fair treatment of women and minorities. 6) USE OF COLOR AND GRAPHICS - Don't be afraid to dress up the site with lots of color and graphics. Create a pleasing site to the eye and people will wander around. 7) BE CREATIVE WITH ADVERTISERS - Most web sites are supported with sponsorships and banner advertising. Many web sites simply sell space and that is it. Our approach to banner advertising was a package approach. In addition to banners, we promoted our supporters on our mailing list, announced to site visitors who was on board and made it clear that the advertisers were helping us stay afloat. We would profile the odd product that related to our site and heavily developed the bond we had with advertisers. This is one are that is worth investigating. In Part II, I will be expanding on this area. In closing, building an On-line Community can be a lot of fun and very rewarding. In Part II , we will continue to provide tips on setting up an On-line Community. To review RivenGuild, stop by http://www.rivenguild.com -------------------------------------- G.F.Currie Consulting Web Site Design, Internet Marketing Services Your Online Community Specialists. Email gcurrie@gfcurrie.com (250) 782-6388 http://www.gfcurrie.com ======================== 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 loosing a lot of business. Our affordable merchant account solutions start at a mere $22/month lease! 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. http://www.ez-creditcard.com ================ What's New At Promotion World ================== ~ A number of major and minor changes have been made around Promotion World The most major of which includes an update to The Informer Archives at http://www.promotionworld.com/informer/archives.html - they have been a tad bit out of date lately. Also, exciting things are happening in our Discussion Forums at http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/. Now you can get your website reviewed for free! I would highly recommend you all come over to our discussion forums and join in. Make it a goal to stop back every day or two, and *participate*. There are numerous benefits to getting involved, including, but not limited to, extra traffic to your site due to people reading your signature file, greater knowledge of site promotion, and even a fun time! Head on over: http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/ ================= Managing Email Correspondence ================= Managing Email Correspondence by Jennifer Johnson I would wager that most folks who operate an Internet business do so in addition to working a "real job"; waiting for their small or home based business to generate enough income to allow them to quit the 9-5 job. With this in mind, one of the most important tasks facing the Internet entrepreneur is how to efficiently manage his or her time. One of the best tools available to small businesses online is email. It can also be one of the biggest time wasters for these same businesses. I would like to give a few recommendations, based on my recent experience, to help manage your time more efficiently in this area. To use email in an efficacious manner, you need to keep a few principles in mind: USE A DESCRIPTIVE SUBJECT LINE I, personally, send lots of email to the trash simply because the subject line gives no hint of what the email contains or, worse yet, the sender didn't include a subject line in the first place. I try to answer every piece of email, but it helps immensely when people use subject lines; I can prioritize my email correspondence without having to read every single item immediately. BE THOROUGH I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it is to receive email from someone who wants you to provide them with information, but doesn't supply enough details to allow you to do so. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a bit helping people out - I like it, as a matter of fact - but I need to know what the problem is *exactly* before I can even attempt to lend a hand. I constantly receive email with a message similar to this: Can you help me with my page? This is so vague, I wouldn't know where to start! Remember the three "W"s: who, what, and where and the "H", how. *Who* are you, *what* exactly is the problem, *where* should I go view what's in effect currently, and *how* can I help you. If all these questions are answered initially, we won't have to play tag and end up sending 5 or 6 emails where 1 or 2 could have sufficed. This is THE biggest time waster I encounter. BE CONCISE I like receiving email with a personal touch, but remember, when it comes to phrasing your question or request you're usually better served by expressing as much as necessary in as few words as possible. PROOFREAD Always, always, always proofread your email before sending it. In addition to attempting to catch spelling and grammar errors, be on the lookout for places where you might not have expressed yourself very clearly. Remember, *we* know what the problem is and what we want to ask - the recipient doesn't. Make sure to fully explain what it is you want to convey. PRIORITIZE Thus far, all the suggestions have dealt with ways to improve email correspondence if you're the sender; what about ways to improve your correspondence if you're the recipient? The main thing I've found that has helped to eliminate wasted time is to prioritize my correspondence. In the past, I felt like I had to answer every email immediately upon receipt. I've come to realize now that this just isn't practical. Some items require research before a response can be made and some items such as "kudos" mail, don't demand an instant response. I've gotten into the habit of answering my email in "sessions". For example, I may sit down and tackle email once every couple of days (this is of course with the exception of items that require an immediate reply). A word of caution: be careful about which messages you delete and how soon you delete them. A major waste of time comes when you must (sheepishly) ask someone to re-send a message that you were a little too quick on the "Delete" finger with. Email is a powerful, effective tool when used wisely. I hope these suggestions will help eliminate some of the wasted time you might encounter when dealing with your own personal email avalanche! 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 ======================= Bits and Pieces ========================= I received some samples the other day of a interesting product called CD Stix. They are a unique new idea, similar to fridge magnets except they are much more high tech. They are simply a little holder about the size of a loonie (for all you people south of the border that is a Canadian dollar) that you can stick onto the side of your computer or computer desk. You then stick a CD onto it... and it very nicely "stix" there until you need it! I find them quite useful, in that now I don't have to always fiddle with those jewel cases anymore. The CDs are hanging there handy. Okay, you want to know how they are beneficial for promotion uses? Each CD Stix has a company name, website address and logo printed on it. Every time I sit down at the computer I see an ad for AT&T. I believe I have even visited their website as a result. I have compared prices, as well, and they seem to be cheaper than fridge magnets. Have a look at what the company calls "Permanent Internet Banner Ads". There are some good pictures on the site, as well, so you can get a better idea of what they look like. http://www.cdstix.com ______________________ Here's another great site with some good articles on promotion and web design topics. SiteLaunch has articles and resources on search engines, javascript, E-commerce basics, associate programs and more. http://www.sitelaunch.com ===================== The Discussion Board ====================== This week's quote from the discussion board: "As a new Moderator for the Website Design Issues Forum, Joshua "Slave Driver" Reimer asked me to discuss the Y2k problem. Why? I'm an old COBOL programmer who helped create it. <g> As a PC user there are two parts to the Y2K problem - hardware and software. The PC hardware Y2k problem involves your PC hardware clock, which tracks the date and time internally using the Real Time Clock (RTC) in combination with the BIOS. About 79% of PCs built prior to 1997 will fail the 2000 compliance test. However, some PC are still being shipped that are not 2000 compliant! If you are a Macintosh user, your worries are over - Macs are Y2K compliant. The PC software problem associated with Win 95 and Win 98 involves the numerous *.EXE, *.DLL, *.OVL, *.COM, *.LIB *.VBX files that are used by the applications in your computer. Such as your browser (Netscape/Internet Explorer), spreadsheet software (e.g., Lotus 1-2-3 or Microsoft Excel), word processor applications (e.g., Microsoft Word or WordPerfect), money management applications (e.g., Intuit's Quicken software programs), database applications and games. The list can go on and on. Software programs are available that will add the missing century to the two-digit year using a technique known as windowing. See this site for a full discussion on windowing: http://www.red-tech.com/windowing.html. Will they work? Who knows! How can you check to see if your PC is compliant? Visit this site http://www.rightime.com/. If you expect your PC to work on or after January 1, 2000 - the time to act is now! How big is the Y2K problem? Read this article by Peter de Jager - noted Y2K expert: http://www.sciam.com/1999/0199issue/0199dejager.html>; What are your views about Y2K? --- Bill Green (Website Design Issues Forum) Create Your First Site For Free 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/ I am still looking for a few more moderators for the Search Engine Discussion, Banner Exchange Discussion and Website Reviews sections. Moderators get lots of free publicity, as well as being able to learn lots themselves. If interested, email me at webmaster@promotionworld.com and I will tell you what is involved. ======================= Sponsor Message ======================= Bob: I got a top ten position on Alta Vista the other day. Joe: Really?! I've been struggling with that engine for months! How on earth did you manage it? Bob: Ah, that's my secret! Joe: Come on, I tell you everything! I even told you about the time your goldfish accidentally got... Bob: Okay, okay, you don't have to bring that up! I use WebPosition, an amazing piece of software. Joe: Oh. I bet it costs a fair bit, doesn't it? Bob: Well, it does cost a bit. But you can get a completely free trial! You can improve your rankings just using the demo! Just go to http://www.webposition.com/cgi-local/index.pl?DS1=RP&DS2=89R-55CB ==================== How NOT To Promote Your Site =================== How NOT to Promote Your Site by David Handlos WWW. The World Wide Web. Whatever you call it, it's huge. Here, you can find an amazing amount of stuff for free. Free web sites, email, chat rooms, and postcards. The latest free features are CGI tools. Form mailing, FFA links pages, and even search engines for your own web site. Tools like these can help expand your site to visitors, make it more enticing to visitors. The only major drawback to these services is that free CGI tools are...free. Strange words to come from me, since I myself have built a search directory dedicated to free stuff on the Web. However, I've learned the hard way that having a site too dependent on free tools may give you what you pay for. What do I mean about too dependent? As usual, there is but one example that will best prove my point. Me. I'll elaborate: My first site ever was free. Free web page, email address, and I signed up with a free service that also featured form mailing, a mailing list service, and a search engine for my site. All I needed was free Internet and I'd be set for life. Then a few problems began. One day I went to my site, admiring my own genius at setting this up, and typed in a word to search for. Nothing happened. The free service had gone down. I went to try to send a message to myself via the formmailing service. It was down. The mailing list went down too, so my fully interactive site now was several pages of links and a search engine that would only work when the free service was up and running. I received several email inquiring when my site would no longer be "Under Construction". Needless to say, I'm on a commercial provider now. Is there anything wrong with free stuff? No! Using free tools can be a great idea when building a site on a budget. I had made the mistake of making the tools an integral part of my pages, and the fact that one tool didn't work took away from the entire site. Bottom line here is, don't build an entire site around one feature. If the singular thing your site is based on fails, what else would the visitor do? Happy promoting, David Handlos David Handlos webmaster@crosslinkz.com Crosslinkz: Your FREE Web Directory! http://www.crosslinkz.com/ Website promotion, email, chat, and awards, all for free! ========================= News Headlines ======================== Here is a compilation of URLs to interesting news pieces on an Internet or website promotion theme. ~ What REALLY Affects Response Rates http://www.searchz.com/Articles/0216993.html ~ Pointed Clicks: Right Ad, Right Person, Right Time http://www.searchz.com/Articles/0216992.html ~ Editorial vs. Advertising http://www.searchz.com/Articles/0216991.html ~ Cool New Ad Vehicles That Work http://www.searchz.com/Articles/0215991.html ~ NSI strong despite coming competition http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,32385,00.html ~ Hottest word on the Web: Free! http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2207254,00.html ~ The week's news: Lycos buyout not a home run <http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,32392,00.html ~ When ".com becomes ".$$$" http://www.news.com/SpecialFeatures/0,5,32326,00.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 Jennifer Johnson, Feature Writer jenny@promotingyoursite.com http://www.PromotingYourSite.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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