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================================================================ The Promotion World Informer Issue #52 January 11, 1999 ================================================================ This issue of the Informer is sponsored by: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you an Internet newsletter author? Our specialty is serving Internet newsletter authors and we can provide you with professional level distribution and list management services, ad sales assistance, fast and friendly customer service, reasonable prices, and even the opportunity to earn a free account. Stop by and visit with us today and find out why so many other emailed newsletter authors call us home. http://www.oaknetpublishing.com/services/welcome.cgi?47 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ Contents Of This Issue: - Editor's Notes - Cool Quotes - Meta Tags: Do's & Don'ts, By Jim Conley II - Sponsor Message - The Discussion Board - What's New At Promotion World - Sponsor Message - Website Usability - News Headlines - Misc. Information =========================== Editor's Notes ====================== Sorry guys, this is another slightly shorter than normal issue this week. But don't worry! I am talking with a number of new writers right now. You should see a number of new regular columns starting in the next week or two. We'll get this back to the information packed newsletter you are used to right away. In the meantime, enjoy what there is in this issue! We respect your privacy! The Informer is only sent to those who subscribe to it. We will never give our subscriber list to anyone. If you don't remember signing up, let me jog your memory. You probably signed up on my site, found at http://www.promotionworld.com. If you don't want to receive this newsletter anymore then just follow the simple unsubscribe instructions at the end of this newsletter. ============================ Cool Quotes ======================== Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow. - Jeff Valdez A fool and his money are soon partying. - Unknown People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes. - Abigail Van Buren Download all the past Cool Quotes by sending any email to mailto:quotes@promotionworld.com. Enjoy! ========================== Feature Article ====================== Meta Tags: Do's & Don'ts By Jim Conley II 1. Don't stuff every word you can think of in your keyword tag. Search engines can penalize you for this by giving you poor rankings. Keep between 10 - 15 keywords/phrases, too many can dilute the effectiveness of your keywords/phrases. 2. Don't put words in your keyword tag that has nothing to do with your site. If caught (and most are) you can be penalized. 3. Don't repeat the same keyword more than 3 times in your tags (esp. the keywords tag), this includes words in all tenses, for example: run, running, ran. Search engine robots and spiders can pick those kinds of things out. The more you repeat, the less effective the word becomes when it comes time for the search engine to rank your site. 4. Don't exceed the maximum number of characters or words for your title, description and keyword tags. 5. I wouldn't use meta refresh tags on pages you plan to submit to search engines/directories. Some search engines, like Infoseek, may not index or may give you a poor ranking on their search engine. Infoseek especially, is one who likes to follow links by itself, it doesn't like to be taken somewhere automatically. 6. Your title and description tags are very important also. I would suggest that you put in all your main keywords and phrases in these tags, if not, well then good luck! 7. Use keyword phrases between 2 to 3 words long instead of one word keywords. One word keywords tend to be more competitive and aren't as effective usually. 8. Place your most important keywords/phrases at the beginning of your title and keyword tags. 9. It's a good idea that your title tag is the first tag in between the body tags on your pages. I've heard that some people who have had their title tag at the bottom of between the body tags have been having a hard time having their titles being picked up by the spiders and robots. However, I've never had a problem with this, but it's better to be safe than sorry. 10. Last tip, if you have a page that you do not want to be indexed use this tag: <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX"> However, not all search engines support this tag. A way around this is to use the robots.txt convention of blocking indexing, most of the major search engines support this. Ok, there ya have it, some good tips to think about when building your meta tags... once you have them done, get them checked out FREE with this resource: Here's a meta tag resource that I encourage all of you to try, its called Meta Medic, it can be found at http://www.northernwebs.com/set/setsimjr.html. Once you are there go close to the bottom of the page, enter in your website url where it asks you to and click on "Process URL", it will check your meta tags to see if they are acceptable or not. It gives a very detailed report so I think you will find it to be very helpful. I highly recommend it! Check it out! Regards, Jim Conley II ECS Webmaster Accept and process credit cards online with a low cost credit card merchant account from Electronic Card Service! Visit our site at http://www.acceptvisamastercard.com for more information! ========================= 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: This looks like quite an interesting idea. I am using it on the Promotion World home page. I will let you know how it goes... http://www.promotionworld.com/ ===================== The Discussion Board ====================== Okay, I have a project for you all. I know many of you are familiar with Promotion Worlds discussion boards as several hundred of you visit each week and read the messages. You didn't think I could tell, huh? Server logs can be very revealing sometimes! I want you all to get in there and become regular posters. You think it's too much of a time commitment to come by every day and read all the messages? You are probably right. Instead, take one or two sections that you are most interested in and follow only them, and contribute regularly to them. The regular posters to the boards have been reporting large amounts of extra traffic to their sites as a result of people clicking through their signature files. Why not have them visiting your site as well? Besides, we are all learning lots. And to all you people that have been hanging around in the background learning lots: Don't you think it's time to start giving back a bit? Just give where you can, learn where you can't. That's the whole idea. Jump in now: http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/ This week's quote from the discussion board: "Tracking programs.....now that's yet another good topic! :) If your serious about wanting to increase your sites traffic, I would recommend you get a tracking program that will track all your pages on your site, or go with Extreme Tracking http://extreme-dm.com/ or TheCounter.com and get a tracking counter for each of your pages, this way you can monitor how long people stay on each page, how many people who come to your main page actually visit your other pages, etc. If you get 150 visitors to your main page daily and find that only 50 or so visit your other parts of your site, it should be a wake up call that it's time to go and change some content around on your pages to get your visitors to check out your other pages. This goes for sites where people only stick around for 2 min or less: change around the content on your site, add some or delete some unnecessary stuff and then check again to see the outcome of your work. Was it positive or not? Pretend you are the customer, what would you expect to see? Always remember one thing, people are more interested in content then they are fancy graphics. 90% of your pages should be content. Unless your site is one that offers images or something then this won't apply, but for the rest of the business world it will. Jim Conley II CVP Webmaster Accept & process credit card transactions on your web site! Visit our site at http://www.cvpservices.com for more info! " 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/ ================== What's New At Promotion World ================= ~ Unique Ideas Section This is a collection of articles from authors who are using unique ideas to promote their websites. They really help to get the imagination going! http://www.promotionworld.com/ideas/ ======================== Sponsor Message ========================= Want to increase your Web Site Traffic? WebPosition makes it easy to monitor your search positions and to improve your rankings! Don't be buried in last place, move up to first place! Be sure to check out the new WebPosition software. If you're struggling to make your site known on the Internet, WebPosition can help! Just visit this URL to try it out: http://www.webposition.com/cgi-local/index.pl?DS1=RP&DS2=89R-55CB ======================= Website Usability ======================== 8 Quick Tips for a More Usable E-commerce Web Site By John S. Rhodes If you are a Web site developer and you want to create a safe, warm, and comfortable e-commerce environment for your users, then you will want to consider several issues. Start first by thinking about your own online shopping and purchasing concerns. What do you like? What don't you like? What do think are the indicators of online security and personal and financial privacy? Below is my concise listing of things that will give your users a comfortable e-commerce environment. The idea is to empower your users with information. Always give your users every possible piece of security information. Let them know at all steps they are safe and secure. Provide obvious opportunities for users to back out of a sale - if they want something, they will eventually buy it. Don't use hype and don't push too hard. It is also important to never say anything you cannot back up. You want to build trust. Here is the list of things you ought to do for your users. These things ultimately make an e-commerce Web site more usable: 1. Help your users understand your site's security. For example, explain how your site uses encryption to increase security. It can also be useful to link to an external Web site that focuses on security issues. This tactic can show your users your objectivity. 2. Be sure to offer both an 800 number and a FAX number for users that are uncomfortable with online transactions. Indeed, it might even be worthwhile to have a printable form, for those users wishing to use postal mail. Your security might be just as good (or better) than these "conventional" solutions, but your users might not realize this. So, have other options available. The idea here is to understand that Web users often perceive online transactions as more risky than conventional solutions. 3. Provide your users with the physical location of the company. Include the postal address and a telephone number. Allow users to verify that the company does indeed exist and that it is not "fly-by-night". Be open and up front about this standard information. 4. Allow users to request a catalog, brochure, or other promotional material. Be able to supplement online promotions with offline promotions. Use powerful offline promotional tools like Web Cards http://www.printing.com/affiliate.asp?site=WebWord. 5. Make your refund and return policy blatantly clear. Make sure that you make it obvious that you stand behind your products. 6. Never require your users to enter more personal information than necessary. Do not ask for Social Security Numbers and do not ask for bank account information. Users are skeptical. Besides, you should not need this information to complete the sale of your goods and services. 7. Make your shipping policy clear, and easy to understand. Explain the shipping processes in great detail. Outline the mechanisms that ensure safe and convenient delivery. 8. Provide your users with a "bill of rights". Let them know how you are in full compliance with all the appropriate laws. Let your users know that your site has been designed to quickly, lawfully, and securely work for them. Aim to make your users comfortable. They are at your site, you've got them. Your job is to ease them into a sale. Don't flash them with quick sales pitches or impossible guarantees. Your users will be more likely to buy your goods and services if your site is pleasant and offers the right information. Help them understand the power and convenience of online purchasing. This shouldn't be too hard since many users like using their credit cards online. The real key is to give them as much information as they need to feel secure. Finally, remember that if you are uncomfortable giving out information, then your users are really going to be uncomfortable. Ultimately, that means fewer sales, and less money in your pocket. ========================================================================= John S. Rhodes -- mailto:john@WebWord.com Human Factors Engineer and Usability Professional Internet Usability and Web Site Development: http://www.WebWord.com/ ========================= News Headlines ========================= Here is a compilation of URLs to interesting news pieces on an Internet or website promotion theme. ~ Sick To Death http://www.searchz.com/Articles/0108992.html ~ New buzz word: "Destination" site http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,30682,00.html ~ Are free ISPs taking off? http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2184431,00.html ~ Microsoft Lawyer Bickers With Witness http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/msftdoj/TWB19990107S0016 ~ How high can Net stocks fly? http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,30723,00.html ~ Lycos vows to beat Yahoo! http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2184308,00.html More Internet related news headlines at http://www.promotionworld.com/news.html ======================== 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: mailto:informer@oaknetpub.com with SUBSCRIBE in the BODY of the message. 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 John S. Rhodes, Usability Specialist mailto:john@WebWord.com http://www.WebWord.com/ Ryan Adams, Affiliate Program Specialist mailto:webmaster@clickquick.com http://www.clickquick.com Hayden Mitchell, Search Engine Specialist mailto: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. |