JimWorld Gazette Issue #106 11/23/2000

JimWorld Gazette - Issue #106 - November 23, 2000

CONTENTS

• From Our Sponsor - Marketing Special Offer
  
• Google Keyword Popularity
  
• From Our Sponsor - Accept Credit Cards NOW
  
• JimWorld Update
  
• The Wonderful World Of Database Driven Publishing
  
• Add "Community" To Your Business Plan
  
• Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g106

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GOOGLE KEYWORD POPULARITY

The Google search engine offers you the opportunity to get a glimpse into the number of searches performed each day, week and month. Knowing how popular different keywords and phrases are is a key ingredient behind tuning your web site to attract the most traffic.

The system is set up to help people design a text ad to be shown to the right of search results on the Google site. The rates run from $10 to $15 CPM.

However, they invite you to use the estimating system to determine how many times your ad will be seen, and the estimates are based on the historical database of past searches. This is where you can do some serious keyword tweaking.

Visit the system and design an ad on the first page. Then start entering the keywords and key phrases that are of interest to you. Tell the system to estimate your cost for those keywords and it will show you how many searches are typically made each day, week and month for your keywords.

You can keep looking at different keywords until you are happy with your ad. You can then place your ad or not. You are under no obligation to buy any ads and you don't have to enter any personal information or credit card data until you decide to place an ad.

This is seriously cool. Give it a try. You might find that you've been fighting to the death over keywords that nobody ever searches for.

My preliminary comparison of the Google numbers to the GoTo numbers for the same keywords indicate that they are both in agreement after allowing for scaling to the number of searches performed on each engine.

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g106goo1 >


Are you curious about how to get Google to index your dynamically created pages (pages with a ? in the URL)? There's a good discussion going on at:

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g106sef >


Another new way to get a look into the inner works of Google ranking is available by installing the new Beta release of the Google Toolbar. It attaches itself to your Internet Explorer as a tool bar and displays information about each URL that you visit.

The requirements are a Windows system running IE 5.0 or higher.

You will see the facts behind Google's inbound link popularity ranking, overall weighting for the URL and other interesting information.

This is another seriously cool way to look into the inner workings of the Google database.

The tool bar itself is also pretty handy as a search aid. You get the following in addition to access to the ranking data:

• Highlight and find your search terms wherever they appear on the page
  
• Move up a level in a site to the page above the one you're on
  
• Get instant access to the Google Web Directory
  
• Search the web using Google from whatever site you're visiting
  
• Search the pages of the site you're visiting for information you want - even if they don't have a site search tool

Installation took almost no time and was fully automated. There are a few problems interfacing with version 5.0 of Internet Explorer but nothing serious.

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g106goo2 >

FROM OUR SPONSOR

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-- Jim Comment --
This is a Soup-To-Nuts ecommerce solution. They have an offering of services that takes care of everything needed to set up and operate an ecommerce site. It's all integrated to make administration about as easy as you can get.

Or you can select the ala-carte features you need to integrate ecommerce into your existing site.

If you have a Webmaster audience, take a look at the VERY generous affiliate program. It's a winner too.

JimWorld UPDATE

>> Get High Traffic Forums - ISP Spam Troopers

< http://gethighforums.com/Forum8/HTML/000114.html >

I've started a new thread to gather information about hosting companies who employ over zealous spam monitors and turn sites off after as few as one unproven complaint. There are more of these than you might expect.

I will be writing a tutorial about choosing a safe hosting provider. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has been "had" by one of these hosting companies. Just post your story in the forum.


>> Search Engine Forums - SEO Tutorial

http://searchengineforums.com/Forum29/HTML/000335.html

We have a several thousand word discussion going in the Search Engine Forums to uncover as much information as possible about all sides of the issue of hiring/contracting a person or company to perfrom Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for web site owners. Our goal is to write a tutorial to educate site owners to the extent that they are informed buyers. This will benefit the site owners, but will also help deliver clients to SEO companies who are well informed and have reasonable expectations of what can, and can not be done. They will also understand where the money goes to benefit them.

If you have ANY input to offer in this thread, please do so soon so I can get on with the writing of the tutorial. It is much needed by both the site owners and the members of the SEO industry.

If you are thinking of contracting out some search engine optimization, the thread alone is a real eye-opener.


If you are up for a bit of silliness, try the thread discussing some pretty strange suggestions for titles for SEO experts. Very funny. "Search engine obfiscator" works for me.

< http://searchengineforums.com/Forum29/HTML/000001.html >


>> Free Site Templates - Dreamweaver Templates

< http://freesitetemplates.com/ >

Free Site Templates continues to grow every day. We now have 83 very nice templates that people are using to create some very nice sites with a minimum of effort.

The designers who have contributed templates to the cause are getting inquiries for paid work as a result, so everyone is winning.

By popular demand I have created a new category just for templates that have been created using Dreamweaver so the user can modify the templates using their copy of Dreamweaver. If you have any Dreamweaver designs you want to contribute, please do. You'll win and so will our members.

We still need lots of templates just written in HTML for use with a text editor, so get those submitted as well.

I especially need designs for sites targeted at kids. They are in high demand.

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DATABASE DRIVEN PUBLISHING

Do you publish articles on your site hoping that people will link to them, thereby increasing your traffic?

Great plan.

How easy do you make it to link to these pages?

Statistically, not very.

It's wonderful to have a whiz-bang database system to help you publish your content. Makes it much easier to add new content and maintain older content. Everybody just loves the ease of content management... except other web publishers.

Every day I face the chore of publishing links to important or interesting articles to help you stay up-to-date. I find bunches of them, but for each one I must run the gauntlet to make it even remotely possible for you to read the articles.

Here's a not very extreme example:

----------

SCIENTISTS have developed a £125 test that enables doctors to screen embryos for low intelligence. Their testing kit can identify a range of genetic defects known to lead to learning difficulties. A great article that you really should read:

http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/11/26/stinwenws01016.htm
l

----------

Go ahead. Click on it. Read the story and then come back. Go on. Now.

So, you found that it led to a page saying:

"Error opening: /data/glue/tim
-sti/outgoing/rootdir/sti/2000/11/26/stinwenws01016.htm"

That's because the URL was too long when it was sent to me by another ezine publisher. It came to me with the "l" on a new line instead of attached to the ".htm" at the end of the URL.

A couple of bad things going on here:

1. The Sunday Times could do a little better at handling their database 404's. They could at least take me to a search page or a page listing the current articles or something aside from a software error display.
   
   
2. The person that sent me the ezine containing this URL could have done a better job of quality control. It was the sender's program that cut off the URL, not my Eudora email program. So if I want to read the article I have to figure out what is wrong with the URL and fix it by hand.

This Sunday Times is not even in the running when it comes to bloated URL's. I've seen them so long and convoluted that no mere mortal can figure out what went wrong.

I solve the problem in the Gazette by using my Go System redirect and click counting program. The links come out looking like this:

< http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g96 >

That leads you to the same article that the long Sunday Times fails to deliver you to and it is short enough to not be corrupted by any email program. Literary license reserved for the use of the word "any" in the previous sentence. Surely somebody has written an email program that can corrupt even that link.

You can read about the link tracking system in issue 96 of the Gazette.

http://gazetteworld.com/arch/webdata_gz.cgi?fid=974141934&
query=all_search%3D%2B%2B%26allany%3D%2Band%2B%26
pagenum%3D1%26cgifunction%3DSearch&cgifunction=form

Oops. Maybe this is easier:

< http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g96 >

I've set up a copy of the click-through tracking system to create short URL's for the archived issues of the Gazette. On each page for this year (the rest later) I have placed a line near the top that tells people the following:

"Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g101"

Now I have ezine-friendly links to the Gazette archives even though the database management system used to power the archives creates unusable, long URL's. Plus I get to track the incoming traffic from other sites and ezines.

Pretty cool use of the click-through tracker software. It took me about 30 minutes to set up the whole thing. You could probably do it in 15 minutes, so why not try it out?

Now for my final gripe about this subject.

I don't care how long your URL is, but could you please keep the darn thing working?

So many web sites, including the big portals, feel compelled to purge their data bases as soon as the news is the least bit old. That just drives me crazy. I go out of my way to link to some valuable content, even to the extent to creating a short URL that works using my redirector system, and some bozo dumps the content off the hard drive and my link is broken.

Gee, folks. Have you checked how cheap hard drives are?

Every day thousands of links go bad throughout the world as over zealous content managers delete content or move pages around to improve their site's navigation. That's nice, but instead of eliminating pages that are bringing you traffic, just leave the original page in place and make a copy to fit your navigation.

Unless you already have too much traffic and just need to irritate everyone that sends you traffic.

I've stopped sending traffic to several sites for this very reason. Trust me on this one. Anything you are writing about, I can find several other sites with the same information plus a reliable archiving system.

ADD "COMMUNITY" TO YOUR BUSINESS PLAN

So you are a startup searching for capital? Have you been told by business gurus, venture capitalists and others that you need a business plan? Part of the business plan must be a marketing plan? Part of the marketing plan should be a discussion of the competitive environment?

Did anyone suggest a section of your marketing plan devoted to community? Most likely, not. I, however, am suggesting exactly this.

As an entrepreneur, you no doubt have a vision of your business. What is a vision? Essentially, your vision is about filling a need, providing a service - being helpful. Your vision should state:

• Whom you want to help
  
• How you want to help them

Because others may have similar visions, you face competition. And you must have a good plan to attack it.

But on the Internet, you have a bigger problem: Despite the lack of face-to -face communication, how can you develop a clientele that trusts you enough to do business with you and stays loyal to you? The answer is by being as helpful as possible. Instead of a website that is a non- step sales pitch, help prospects learn so they may make good consumer decisions.

Here is where community comes in. By building a community, you build trust and loyalty. By getting prospects and clients to discuss and learn about issues they all face, they increase their trust in each other and in you. The result may be, not only a boost in loyal clients, but also a bumper crop of strategic ideas for your business.

You are skeptical? Well then, look at Microsoft. I don't need to tell you that Microsoft is a ferocious competitor. But how did they build their empire? "Community" is the one word answer. Microsoft makes it a practice to teach, train and help programmers and developers around the world so they understand their operating system well enough to write thousands of applications software programs that work with Windows. In plain language, Microsoft has been building a community loyal to Microsoft.

Arguably, building communities is a more important factor in Microsoft's success than their brutal competitive ways.

So in your business plan, reserve a section on community. Indicate what sort of communities you would like to build and how they should help you develop your business. In addition to impressing those with the purse strings, you will have an outstanding marketing plan to follow.

----------

Paul -the soarING- Siegel is a provocative, inspirational and Internet speaker. He is the founder of the Learning Fountain Network (* Excellence * Honesty * Ethics), at http://www.learningfountain.com and editor of LearningFOUNT, a newsletter focusing on Helpfulness Marketing. To subscribe, send a blank email to: mailto:LearningFOUNT- mailto:subscribe@topica.com

SNIPPETS

There are still a few days left to submit your site to the LookSmart directory and save 30 bucks.

Don't expect this special to come around again soon, so do it while you can get a deal.

Submit by Nov. 30 and save $30 on Express Submit!

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g105ls >

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If you own a .US domain name, listen up:

To all administrative and technical contacts:

As you may already know, since 1993 the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California has administered the .US domain under a subcontract with Network Solutions, Inc. through its cooperative agreement with the U.S. Government. USC has chosen not to renew its subcontract, and therefore VeriSign Global Registry Services, a division of Network Solutions, Inc., will assume direct administration of the .US domain as of Tuesday, November 28, 2000.

Please note that no changes will occur to syntax, and the standards established by RFC 1480 located at < http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1480.txt> will continue to apply. VeriSign Global Registry Services will forward its revised standard interim service agreement to you via email shortly for your review. We will also post the agreement on our web site at < http://www.nic.us >.

Should you have any questions, you may email them to mailto:usdomhelp@verisign-grs.com.

Best regards,
United States Domain Registry
VeriSign Global Registry Services
< http://www.verisign-grs.com >

----------

Looking for a glossary of terms related to IP addresses and domain names?

< http://www.verisign-grs.com/glossary/ >

That page also has a place to research ownership of domain names, DNS servers and IP addresses. Very handy.