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======================================================== The Promotion World Informer Issue #75 July 12, 1999 ISSN 1488-1675 Edited by Joshua Reimer - http://www.promotionworld.com ======================================================== This issue of the Informer is sponsored by: ---------------------------------------------- Web hosting for business & non-profit organizations Stop dealing with consumer based web hosts for your business needs, and start dealing with E-hosting.com, a business orientated website hosting provider. We understand the needs of organizations and cater our features and services to them. E-hosting.com provides a complete online manual, extensive FAQ's area, and toll free support. All accounts include secure server, POP email account, and enough space for thousands of pages (50Mbs). No set-up fees! Microsoft FrontPage (98 & 2000) extensions are available. Domain registration and transfer are free. See us on the Web at http://e-hosting.com/ad/informer.htm ---------------------------------------------- Now with over 6440 subscribers! Advertising Information --> http://www.promotionworld.com/sponsor.html ================================================================ Contents Of This Issue: - Editor's Notes - Cool Quotes - All the (Free) News You Can Use - Website Usability - Bookmarkable Bookmarks - The Discussion Board - Sponsor Message - The Importance of Appreciation - A Small Request - Misc. Information ======================== Editor's Notes ====================== Hi everyone! As you can see, I am back from my vacation. Before I left I added a review of Win The Website Wars to Promotion World. You might want to check it out at <http://www.promotionworld.com/reviews/wars.html> Also, Promotion World now does graphics and website design! I just brought on board an excellent designer to help you add some life to your websites... at affordable rates. <http://www.promotionworld.com/graphics.html> Just to let you know: due to major time constraints, I will be switching back to a biweekly publication schedule again. Seems I switch back and forth on a regular basis, huh? Also, I haven't had a chance to write my weekly article. Included instead is a guest article from Phil Wiley that I hope you will 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 ======================== The streets are safe in Philadelphia. It's only the people who make them unsafe. - Frank Rizzo, ex-police chief and mayor of Philadelphia. Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. - Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929. Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress. - Alfred A. Montapert Download all the past Cool Quotes by sending any email to <mailto:quotes@promotionworld.com&> Enjoy! ============== All the (Free) News You Can Use ============== All the (Free) News You Can Use by Phil Wiley A new survey has found that 16% of us use the Internet to look at news. So maybe it's about time you added it to your own site. There aren't too many sites around offering news you can use on your own pages - well not for free anyway - but there are a few to choose from. Most of the ones listed here show the news via Java "tickers" which offer scrolling news updates. News can be a great addition to your site. It's a great way to add timely information to your site, and it might just keep your visitors hanging around a bit longer - well that's the theory anyway. The 7am News Ticker at <http://www.7am.com/ticker/> is the news service I will probably add to my own site. It's a small horizontal Java ticker which displays the latest headlines and they're all clickable. Through their simple setup process, you can specify whether the target page loads in the current window, a new window, or an existing frame. There's also 7am FreeWire on offer, which lets you display entire stories in the form of whole Web pages on your site. The Ticker itself is a very small Java applet that can be added to your own pages by including just a small amount of extra HTML code. One day they intend adding advertising to the service, but right now it's ad free. There are now over 38,000 web pages all around the world carrying the ticker, and it's easy to join them. iSyndicate is also impressive because it adds the latest news photos to your site. It's especially good for general news content, but lets you tweak the content a little to suit your site. iSyndicate Express offers breaking news, photos, forecasts, financial information, and more. You can sign up at <http://www.isyndicate.com/products/express_join.html> The photos are from Reuters so they're usually great quality. News Index at <http://www.newsindex.com/tickercust.html> probably offers the most comprehensive news coverage because of its news only search engine. You can keep your site up to date by using its Personalized News Ticker. It lets your users find the latest news and information on your specialized topic from around the world. Unlike most other tickers, YOU decide the content, not merely by some vague topic like sports or business, but can focus down to the exact area of interest. Mind you, if you are too specific with your news choices there might not be any news to display. To add it to your site (again using Java) simply choose the ticker style you want; enter the keywords for the topic you'd like displayed; and you'll be given the code for your ticker. Or use the code for a general ticker featuring the biggest stories of the day. Incidentally, News Index is also a good site to go to if you're looking for something specific in the news and want to do a fast search from over 300 newspapers. The Mighty Informatron at <http://www.informatron.com/addchans.htm> offers free full page news, but their news channel gives you live updating Java World News, Business News, Stock Market Updates, Sports Scores. Plus Games, Reference, Comics, Music, Fashion, Travel, Features...and more. They also have sports and financial channels to choose from. And if your site is about computers, technology and the net, you'll probably prefer to use the resources of TechWeb which you'll find at <http://www.cmpnet.com/utilities>. A small piece of html code lets you display the latest technology headlines. Artigen at <http://www.artigen.com/newswire/ticker.html> lets you choose from channels for infotech, world, scitech, health, and coolsite. Day Investor offers a free up-to-the minute stock ticker http://www.dayinvestor.com/siteticker/index.html And Sports Clicker, which updates every 10 minutes 24 hours a day, offers live sports scores and news. You'll find it at http://www.etel.net/products/sportsclicker.html by Phil Wiley _________________________________________________ This article is from Phil Wiley's All the Secrets - a unique weekly marketing and free publicity letter. Sign up for free at <http://www.ozemedia.com> Learn how to grab all the free media coverage you can handle. __________________________________________________ ==================== Website Usability =================== Usability Perspective on Banner Ads by John S. Rhodes I recently have read a lot about the use of banner ads. My short answer is that they don't work. They might be useful for branding and image campaigns but they are not usable and users don't like them at all. I recently posted this message to the WebDesign-L mailing list sponsored by Hesketh.com. In relation to the "evil of banner ads", here are some things to chew on (I apologize in advance if these points have been made earlier). First, people ought to consider how usability folks have addressed the use of banners. Basically, several usability and marketing research reports such as <http://www.sandia.gov/itg/newsletter/dec98/banner_blindness.html> indicate that people visually "skip" banners and that banners don't work. We scan web pages for information: we hunt for appropriate links and information in several typical locations (i.e., we know where to find what we want to find, if the site is well-formed). We have stereotypes about how pages are designed, and in fact, most well-traveled sites do follow similar patterns. <RANT>If you huff and puff and say that you want to use bold and brave designs, go ahead. We need people like you; you push the envelope. But, the vast majority of sites should be simple, straight forward, and (gasp!) follow the plain vanilla formula. Humans are creatures of habit.</RANT> We know where banners are located and therefore we know how to skip over them since we aren't *looking* for ads. We are looking for information. Thus, there is "banner blindness". Don Norman (a usability big gun) does a great job explaining why he thinks users act in this way at <http://www.sandia.gov/itg/newsletter/mar99/commentary.html>. If you care about banners and advertising, this is an important piece of reading. Second, Jakob Nielsen (another usability big gun) has explained why advertising, as it stands, doesn't work on the web at <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9709a.html>. The supply-push model of banner ads doesn't work from a user's point of view. The web is demand-pull. Think of it this way: when you go to a site you have made a decision to be there and you are hunting for information (or a good time). You demand information and you seek to pull it from the site. Banners simply get in the way of your information gathering experience. They slow your download, they are flashy and distracting (but not attention grabbing in a positive way), and they eat up valuable screen real estate. Users either hate them or don't care about them; almost no one likes banner ads (unless they created them). Banner ad spending by large companies continues to drop. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) reports that web advertising by large companies declined from 68% in 1998 to 61% in 1999, and total spending on Web advertising for those companies that still advertise has fallen from $714,000 to $649,000. New, user-driven models of revenue generation need to be developed. =========================================================== John S. Rhodes -- mailto:john@WebWord.com Human Factors Engineer and Usability Professional Internet Usability and Web Site Development: http://www.WebWord.com/ ================== Bookmarkable Bookmarks =================== JimTools Check out this website for some really nifty online tools, including tools that will check your site for broken links, spelling mistakes, your position on the search engines, and submit your site to search engines and FFA pages, and many more. A must visit. <http://www.jimtools.com> Promotion World's Online Tools Just so I don't get left out of the game, you should also check out my online tools section! It doesn't have as much, but you should get some benefit out of the Meta Tag generator, search engine submission program, and a position analyzer. <http://www.promotionworld.com/tools/> What Next I haven't mentioned this site in a while, and it has gone through a lot of changes over the last few months. It is a recommended stop for webmasters. <http://www.what-next.com/> =================== The Discussion Board ==================== This week's quote from the discussion board: "When you submit to LookSmart, it can take weeks even months to get into their directory. With this tip, you can have a listing in 1 week or less. Sounds impossible, it's not. Just follow these simple instructions. 1) Submit to LookSmart-take note everything that you tell them. Write down the location. ie Travel>Destinations>... 2) Go to this URL http://www.looksmart.com/aboutus/contact/checkstatus.html - fill in your information. 3) You will then get 2 e-mails. One says, "it may take up to six weeks before your site appears." The other says, "We will have an editor check up on your site and get back to you with the appropriate information within a few days." 4) In about 2-4 days you will get another e-mail. It will say; "Your site has been reviewed and placed in the Looksmart directory. It will appear in a few days when we next publish the category XXX > XXX > XXXX." 5) A few days later, you have your listing. It can not get easier than this. Many people say that LookSmart is hard to get into, but it is not. That is if you follow this tip! Michael Schutt Webmaster for The Israel Vacation Directory http://www.vacationisrael.com Did you enjoy this tip? Why not visit my web site or email me at webmaster@vacationisrael.com " Read and comment on the full discussion online at: <http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/messages/44/461.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 ======================= ***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! Itis 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 =============== The Importance of Appreciation ================= The Importance of Appreciation by Julie T. Meyer, Marketing Specialist When was the last time you thanked your customers? Clients? Site Visitors? Do they know how much you appreciate their business and the time they spend on your site? Aren't experiences more pleasant for you when you are told that your patronage and time are appreciated and not taken for granted? In this increasingly anonymous world of voice mail and e-mail, conveying appreciation is more important than ever. And, don't tell me that holiday gifts cover it! It's the other eleven months of the year that really count. The form in which you express your appreciation (hand written note--remember them :) ?; phone call, genuinely personal e-mail) doesn't matter. What matters is that you do it. Okay, you've added periodic acknowledgments to your running to-do lists. Want to make them even more effective? Include a service survey. Consider enclosing surveys with product or invoices. Or perhaps as a column in a snail mail newsletter. Service surveys can also be faxed, emailed or posted on a web site. Afraid of what the response will be? Don't be. If it's negative, you probably already know it. And, not knowing it will just lead to poor word-of-mouth that will create a great deal more harm than the loss of one or two customers. You will probably also be surprised and encouraged by positive responses to aspects of your operation that you never realized were unique benefits. Below is an example of how you might format your survey and a few questions you might ask. The questions should inspire a few more specifically related to your product, service or site. As you are developing your survey, keep in mind that the quantity of responses will decrease as the number of questions increase -- time is at a premium for all of us. Finally, be prepared to respond and react to the responses you receive! The alternative is to compound whatever already problematic situations have been identified with non-responsiveness. Is that the kind of vendor you want to use or site you want to visit? Sample Service Survey: Thank you so much for your business! We wouldn't be here without you, so we want to know of any way we can serve you better. Please take a moment or two to let us know how we can improve for you. Thanks, in advance, for the feedback. We're looking forward to becoming even better! What were your overall impressions of our product (or service or website)? ___Outstanding ___Good ___Satisfactory ___Fair ___Poor Did we meet your expectations and needs? ___Beyond ___Right On ___Just about ___Not even close Did our responsiveness meet your expectations and needs? ___Beyond ___Right On ___Just about ___Not even close How do we compare to our competition? (leave several lines for response) We have made this questionnaire as simple as possible to complete, but would welcome any additional written comments you would like to add. Please provide us with your name and phone number if you'd prefer we pursue this further by phone. (leave several lines for response) Thanks again for your time! 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. ========================= 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. The only exception being you may freely forward this newsletter to your friends and associates *only if* it is in its unmodified entirety.
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