JimWorld Gazette Issue #108 12/11/2000

JimWorld Gazette - Issue #108 - December 11, 2000

CONTENTS

• From Our Sponsor - LookSmart Special Offer
  
• Training Videos Make Learning Easy
  
• From Our Sponsor - Win First-Class Airline Tickets For Life
  
• Lycos Offers htmlGEAR
  
• From Our Sponsor - goEmerchant.com
  
• Notes On The Election
  
• JimTools Update
  
• GO/Infoseek Offers Paid Spidering
  
• Finding Clues To Popular Keywords - Part II
  
• Meet A Forum Moderator
  
• Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108

FROM OUR SPONSOR

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- MSN
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- LookSmart and over 370 ISPs.

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Express Submit guarantees that your submission is reviewed within 48 hours.

Act quickly to take advantage of the holiday sales season - only a few shopping days left!

Submit by Dec 15 and save $30 on Express Submit!

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108ls >

TRAINING VIDEOS MAKE LEARNING EASY

I'd like to tell you that I spent the last 4 weeks working around the clock making 198 fantastic new video tutorials to help visiting webmasters learn the many things they need to know.

I'd like to tell you that, but is simply ain't so.

Oh yes, the video tutorials are there. And yes, they are very helpful.

But I didn't have to create them. I invested a few hours building the pages to link to the 198 videos and that was the end of my efforts.

Now you can take advantage of the following free video training at Free Site Templates:

• General Site Building Skills
  - Linking
  - Creating HTML Web Pages Series
  - FTP
  
• AOL Press
  
• Dreamweaver
  
• Fireworks
  
• Flash
  
• FrontPage
  
• FrontPage 2000
  
• Paint Shop Pro
  
• Photoshop

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108video >

The videos have already had a significant impact on the number of emails I receive from users of the Free Site Templates. They now have easy to understand videos available to help them understand how to edit the HTML code and FTP it to their server.

I'm also getting a steady flow of emails thanking me for offering these training videos. The average person assumes that JimWorld created these videos, which adds credibility to our services.

You can add these, and other streaming video and audio tutorials to your site. There is no charge as each training video carries a banner ad. If you don't want banner ads, or want to insert your own banner code, there is a paid version of the service.

There are many other categories than the ones I selected. Look around in their "Viewlet Library." It contains these categories:

• Business
  
• Internet
  
• MP3/Video
  
• Web services/Portals
  
• Web design
  
• Operating Systems
  
• Linux
  
• Utilities
  
• Network/Databases

There are tutorials available in:

• Dutch
  
• English
  
• Spanish
  
• French
  
• Korean
  
• Thai
  
• Russian
  
• German
  
• Italian

Because everything shown in the videos is captured from the video producer's monitor, the language used is entirely up to you.

The videos are served from Qarbon's servers so this service places no load on your server. The videos pop up in a new window so you never lose your traffic to someone else's site.

Sounds pretty much ideal, doesn't it?

Since many of the videos are produced by people not employed by Qarbon, check each one that you want to use for quality and accuracy.

>> Make Your Own Videos

There is a free download available for the "Viewlet Builder" which allows you to build your own streaming videos. Upload them to the Qarbon servers and access them from there.

You can designate your videos to be shared with the world, which means that other web sites could be showing videos about your product and services at no cost to you. Or your affiliates can offer them as part of the sales and support processes.

What better way to demonstrate how a product works than video?

What better way to teach than showing the process step-by-step so there can be no misunderstanding?

What better way to build community than to sprinkle training videos throughout your site?

What better price than free?

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108vid2 >

I will be working with the Viewlet Builder as soon as I finish upgrading JimTools and intend to start with a video demonstration of the JimTool Extractor. Then I'll build some for the product review area of JimWorld. I'll have a full review of the Viewlet Builder for you as soon as I get some videos built.

Didn't know JimWorld has product and service reviews? Shame on you! It contains reviews of about 50 of the most useful tools and services for webmasters.

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108review >

It is also part of the tutorial on using server side includes to make your site
more manageable. The SSI tutorial is at:

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108jwssi >

FROM OUR SPONSOR

WIN FIRST-CLASS AIRLINE TICKETS FOR LIFE

Office.com offers the tech resources you need to stay innovative.

News and features, plus tools, contacts and business services. Also, in-depth reports on technology trends, sales information, and facts on your competition.

Plus, enter to WIN FIRST-CLASS AIRLINE TICKETS FOR LIFE at firstclass.office.com!

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108win >

LYCOS OFFERS htmlGEAR

Lycos has opened their free, hosted htmlGEAR site to offer webmasters free community building tools to place on their sites. The tools are of excellent quality and appear to run very fast. Lycos does know how to manage servers.

The service offers:

• Guest books
  
• Polls
  
• Form to email processor
  
• Recommend this site email
  
• Random text rotation
  
• Link manager with daily verification

The setup process is painless and fast, so why not try a couple of them out?

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108lycos >

FROM OUR SPONSOR

NO BULL!!!

Introducing the easy way to accept credit cards online!

Internet Store -- The Anyone-Do-It WebStore

Buy_Me Button -- Cut & Paste Ecommerce into any site

Cyber Circular -- Send customers an email that transacts credit cards & checks

Merchant Account Included -- LOW 2.29% RATE

ACT NOW -- OFFER ENDS DEC 31,2000!!!

Visit goEmerchant.com:

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108emer >

NOTES ON THE ELECTION

OK. You knew I couldn't just let this one pass, right?

No need for humor. Late night TV has taken care of all we need. Some of it has been among the funniest programming I've ever seen.

No need to try to sell on side or the other. That part is over. The ballots are in.

Like many of you, I grow weary of the turmoil this election has created. Attorneys as far as the eye can see. Full employment for the legal profession.

TV commentators are logging record numbers of hours on camera.

The media frenzy has wiped out such small advances as a major launch of space station equipment and a pill that is 95% effective against childhood Leukemia. Even the discovery of a new, small planet in our solar system.

So when I went to the TV Guide web site (the best one I've found for TV listings) I spotted a PBS 3 hour special "Doo Wop '51" which was just the lollipop I was in the mood for.

The music took me back to my growing up years on an Army base in northern Italy. We didn't get much of the new music popular in the States. Whenever a new kid transferred in directly from America, we would rush over to listen to the 45's and LP's they brought in. Those were good times.

The music show made me connect to the 60's and who can think of those turbulent times without thinking of Nixon and Watergate? A President of the United States embroiled in scandal and forced by the courts to resign his office in disgrace.

No tanks surrounding the White House with an Army seizing the seats of power. Just a very public airing of America's dirty laundry to arrive at a peaceful conclusion.

We now find ourselves embroiled in yet another controversy, this time over the election of a new President. Lots of dirty laundry to air this time as well.

Again, no tanks. No soldiers. Just a long, drawn out process of legal challenges and public relations folks spinning the tale.

Doesn't all of this public humiliation make me regret what this country has come to? Aren't I embarrassed to be an American when so many controversies are shown to the world?

Nope. Not in the least.

I am proud to be a citizen of a country ruled by law and not by force.

When one man is determined by the courts to be the new President elect, the other will concede, throwing his support behind the winner.

He will not call out the Army to impose his wishes.

I can live with that.

JIMTOOLS UPDATE

Several areas of the JimTools site have been upgraded and brought current with the changes at the search engines.

• Search Engine Position Analyzer
  Now accurately checks a site's ranking in any of 20 search engines and directories.
  
  
• Search Engine Position Analyzer UK
  Now accurately checks ranking in 7 UK specific search engines and directories.
  
  
• Research Keywords
  Allows harvesting of keywords from actual pages that perform well under your search phrase on any of 5 search engines.
  
  
• Link Popularity Analyzer
  Lets you check on how many inbound links are reported for any domain name selected. The report includes data from 5 search engines. This week an upgrade to 9 engines should be in place.
  
  
• Link Checker
  Server time out problems have been resolved and you can now verify links on any page you enter. Kills those 404's.
  
  
• Search Engine Submitter
  This popular tool is undergoing a total re-write to make it run faster with less server load. This will solve the Server Time Out problems caused by its popularity. Expect this within the next few days.

JimTools.com
< http://jimtools.com/ >

GO/INFOSEEK OFFERS PAID SPIDERING

GO.com (the search engine previously known as Infoseek) has announced a new services that allows sites to be added to the search index quickly and spidered extensively on a frequent cycle. The service is us$199 per year and offers good value for the money.

Instead of hoping to get listed eventually and hoping that the spider will even look for all of your pages, pay the fee and get reliable spidering for one year.

Of course, in the Search Engine Forums the initial reaction was "OH NO!" to yet another fee to be paid by a Webmaster for traffic.

Here's my take on the announcement:

Try looking up in the phone book the name and address of someone who does not have a phone.

You won't find them there.

Look up a home business that does not have a business phone line which is much more expensive than a personal phone line.

You won't find that home-based business in the Yellow Pages.

There are no free lunches in the real world because it simply doesn't work that way. Anything created must be paid for by someone.

We've gotten spoiled on the Web, but now that investors are no longer funding "potential" we are going to have to carry our own share of the load.

Is this a situation I enjoy? Heck no. I don't like to pay any more than the next guy. I do know that if I want more traffic from the search engines. I will have to pay more next year than I did this year. It's simply a fact of business life.

If my $199 will make it possible for a search engine to survive and offer good service to the very people I want to attract to my sites, I guess that means I'm willing to do that.

I actually like the way GO has announced this new service.

Sites can still be submitted for free which takes care of the vast majority of sites and doesn't cut anyone off from being included.

However, if a Webmaster wants faster inclusion in the index and wants to have an entire site crawled frequently, the paid "Premium" service is available. I like this much better than the Inktomi approach of paying for each page.

Let's not overlook that this actually changes NOTHING about the way GO operates. You can still submit for free and wait just like always. Actually, their claim of 10 weeks is an improvement over the recent realities of their spider.

Here's what they say on the GO.com site about the free submission feature:

"Basic Service

This allows you to add a Web site to the GO.com Search Index, our database of URLs. This option is free of charge, but does not guarantee either inclusion or spidering.

Do not submit any URL more than once. Basic Service may take up to 10 weeks before new pages or site updates appear in the index."

Check out the discussion in the Search Engine Forums before deciding which way to GO: (Now, is that a turn of phrase, or what?)

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108sef >

----------

Bear in mind that the GO Guides listings still appear in search results before the index results, so the best visibility is by having a listing in the GO Guides directory.

It is very easy to become a GO Guide and you are expected to add your own sites. It must be easy. They accepted me.

But please, don't just join to list your own sites. It takes only a little time to actually help build the directory by adding quality sites on a frequent basis. Besides, a category with good content will attract more searchers, which will bring you more traffic.


Try a search for "free site templates" at:
< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108gosrc >

You'll notice that the Free Site Templates site shows up 4th in the GO Guides' listings since it only has one star. I need to get in there and fix that!

Look a little further down and you'll see that Free Site Templates has the #1 spot in the listings from the GO index.

The odds are high of getting more traffic by having top listings in both the index and the GO Guides directory.


Sign up as a GO Guide at:

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108go >


If you haven't seen the 85 professionally designed web site templates at Free Site Templates, take a look now. There are no fees and no obligations to even link back to the Free Site Templates site.

Take a few minutes and contribute one of your designs. You'll get both traffic and clients by your generosity.

< http://freesitetemplates.com >

FINDING CLUES TO POPULAR KEYWORDS - PART II

In the last issue we talked about ways to get the HotBot search engine to tell you what it considers the most important keywords related to your keywords.

This week we take a look at how to get the NBCi search engine to give up its secrets. If you ask nicely, NBCi will bare its soul to you and help you target only the best keywords. The "best" keywords are the ones that get searched for a lot every day.

Start by clicking on the following link to run a search on NBCi:

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108nbci >

You now are looking at the results of a search on NBCi for "free web templates"

The first item of note is that the JimWorld Free Site Templates web site has the number 1 spot in the results.

As it should be.

Now take a look in the dark gray area just below the search input field, which contains the words "free web templates" which is the search we just ran.

You're looking for the list of small sized links titled "Related Searches:"

These are the keywords NBCi considers the most relevant to our search for "free web templates"

You read the suggestions from left to right, first row first then on to the seconds row left to right and so on.

You can discover the sequence of importance on any engine we discuss by "click and holding" while dragging your cursor across the related keywords. The highlight will either go across the page and then down, or it will go down and then across. Whichever words get highlighted as you drag tells you the sequence of importance.

Back to our "Related Searches:" you'll notice that each is a link to the search on NBCi for that phrase or word. Click on each to discover more "Related Searches:" in each of these links to searches.

Notice that at the end of the "Related Searches:" list is a link to "more..." which is the obvious place to find more important words and phrases.

To find even more keywords and phrases, use the Keyword Research Tools at JimTools. They have just been upgraded and will help you find keywords that the top sites actually target in their Meta Tags and keyword density on their pages. The program performs a search on the engine you select and then fetches the actual pages referenced in the top 10 search results and analyzes their page code. It doesn't defeat pages that are cloaked, but that only represents a small percentage of the Web's pages.

This JimTool lets you select any of the following engines to use for your research:

• Google
  
• Go/Infoseek
  
• LookSmart
  
• Magellan
  
• WebCrawler

It's free and fast and gives you lots more new information to work with.

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108jt >

While you are there, try out the "Analyze Keywords" tool, which lets you analyze the keyword density of any page on the web, including your own.


Other JimWorld keyword research resources:

Keyword Wizard
A searchable database of the top 5,000 search phrases harvested from real searches at real search engines and directories:
< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108keyw >


ToolsForThe.Net
A directory of Webmaster related sites, including an extensive list of other places to help you pick good keywords.
< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108tools >


JimWorld Freeware
A selection of free software created for JimWorld visitors. The "Word Market" program will allow you to harvest search phrases in real time from several search engines and create your own list of top words and phrases. Grab a copy of the Visibility Analyzer while you are there. It helps you track you site's performance in ranking on several search engines.
< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108free >

MEET A FORUM MODERATOR

The hardest working people at JimWorld are our staff of volunteer forum moderators at both Search Engine Forums and Get High (Traffic) Forums.

I want everyone to meet one of these hard working moderators.

----------

phatstart.com is the brainchild of me, Ben Cathers.

< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108phat >

I started it when I was 15 years old with two adult partners who were impressed with the site.

I started designing sites at age 12. My first site was gaming.simplenet.com, which in January 98 morphed into PhatGames.com.

PhatGames.com was my main site for a long time, until I wanted to branch out and reach other audiences (besides just gamers) and eventually, with the help of my partners, we created PhatStart.com, the ultimate heaven for teenagers

We plan to create a TV show around our content and community members, for which we are seeking venture capital (hint-hint).

I will be featured on a Canadian TV show in early 2001 .

We've already been featured on the following magazines and TV shows:

August 2000: Ezseek.com, owned by Cablevision, one of the largest cable operators in the country, featured phatstart.com and it's CEO in their business section.

July 2000: Silicon Alley Reporter named phatstart.com one of the "Top 12 Companies To Look Out For This Year."

April 2000: Ben Cathers and phatstart.com featured in Revu Magazine (Holland) about Net millionaires.

March 2000: The Sunday Times in London recommends phatgames.net as a top site to play online games.

March 2000: Ben Cathers featured on New York's Fox 5 TV on a segment called "From Rags to Riches." The show highlighted the beginnings of phatstart.com and PhatGames.com, and what it has grown into today.

March 2000: Ben Cathers appeared on the "Megs and Modems" radio show.

February 2000: Ben Cathers and phatstart.com featured in Long Island Herald on the front page.

February 2000: Ben Cathers appeared on Houston's "Debra Dunkins Talk Show", alongside industry veterans such as TreeLoot.com's CEO and Marc Ofstrosky, the man who sold Business.com for $7.5 million.

January 2000: Ben Cathers featured in Yahoo Internet Life's "Net Millionaires."


PhatStart.com launched its teen portal in February 2000, and features free email, meta search engine, free home pages, message boards, chat, music, movies, aliens, recipes, fashion, greeting cards, dating, jokes, health and fitness, TV listings, horoscopes, weather, sports, news, stocks, newsgroups, TV news, music news, shopping, cars, a radio show, career and college info, pen pals, poetry, humor, love advice, religion info, links to other sites and so much more.

PhatStart.com has the ability to search over ten different search engines, enabling teens to navigate the Web quicker and easier, and is also capable of newsgroup and people searches. By the way, it's available in Spanish, too!

PhatStart.com is a diverse teen media network and portal offering teens a wide variety of fun stuff, featuring:

PhatLIVE.com, a broadband online TV and Radio network dedicated to Generation Y.

MusicPhatstart has one of the largest collections of music links on the Internet, with over 55,000 music links, hundreds of legal MP3's, over 15,000 bands, and almost every possible music resource. Music.phatstart.com has partnered with FirstLook.com to offer Real Audio samples of the latest bands.

PhatGames.net, a leading online gaming network featuring over 50 amazing online action games like Pacman, Tail Gunner, WebWar, SuperKid, and more, and they feature multi-player games, including checkers, DuChess and backgammon.

PhatGames.com, nirvana for gamers. Phatgames.com is one of the biggest game news sites on the Internet, syndicated on other websites and in print, and features daily video game news, reviews, previews and the "Dreamcast Wire", a news site dedicated just to Sega's latest system. This site features thousands of codes and downloads and is updated 24/7.

PhatStart.net features free email and web hosting. The EZ web editor allows anyone to publish their own website and has been ranked as one of the easiest, friendliest web page editors available. Even a 10 year old could create a web page here.

PhatWrestling offers news updates written by popular wrestling news reporters like Nathan Reynolds, Robert Pasbani, Zach Hickenbottom and Zach Zawarski. Included are trivia games and a discussion forum. Results of favorite wrestling TV shows can be found there right after the show, and PhatWrestling also offers full coverage of all of your favorite pay-per-view events. PhatWrestling.com is revolutionizing wrestling on the Internet, one step at a time.

NothingPink.com is an online community for teen girls featuring articles, advice, fashion, dating, "personal" embarrassing stuff, and quality editorials and thoughts for teenage girls. They have their own radio show, too. At NothingPink.com teenage girls can create their own website and get free email.

----------

phatstart (Ben) has been moderating at the Get High (Traffic) Forums for a long time. He currently moderates the following forums:

• I Want To Sell My Site
  
• The Advertising Buyer
  
• Affiliate Program Management

Ben has been a tireless contributor to the success of the Get High (Traffic) Forums (GHT) and a valued asset of JimWorld in general. His efforts have turned the "I Want To Sell My Site" into one of the hottest places on the Web for site buyers and sellers to get together and make deals.

I can't imagine how he finds the time to offer so much of himself to the Forum members, considering that he is a bit busy building and running one of the Web's real success stories and going to school as well. It makes me tired just to read this story on what he has accomplished so far in his life.

I also can't imagine not having him around. Let's hope he never outgrows his "job" at GHT.

Drop in on Ben's GHT Forums and see what he is up to.
< http://gethighforums.com >

If you have a few bucks to invest, you won't find anyone more Web Savvy than Ben.

Ben, thank you for your commitment to helping others in our community, and best of luck on everything you are doing.

Remember, you have to keep your grades up!

You can contact Ben at:

Ben Cathers - Chief Executive Officer
THE PHATSTART.COM NETWORK
< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108phat >
< mailto:ben@phatgames.com >

SNIPPETS

Submit Your Directories and Sites

JimWorld maintains several different web site directories for the benefit of our members. If you operate a site appropriate for the following directories, submit for a free listing. These directories get a good deal of traffic and generate good Webmaster traffic for the sites listed.


The1000.com
< http://the100.com >

The1000 contains listings of other search engines and directories on the web
where a web promoter may submit their site for a free listing. Do not submit
your site unless you operate a search engine or directory and accept
submissions. The1000 is one of the most heavily used areas of JimWorld and will
bring a significant number of submissions to you.


ToolsForThe.net
< http://toolsforthe.net >

A directory of several hundred of the best resources online for web publishers. Everything from site promotion to the law this directory is heavily used by our members to locate resources.


Party Finder
< http://partyfinder.net >

A directory of resources for companies and individuals planning a party or event. Supplies, rentals, food, venues, travel and many other categories.

----------

GoTo.com Keyword Suggestion Tool

The very popular keyword suggestion tool that allows you to discover the popularity of any keyword or phrase on the GoTo.com network has benefited greatly from the recent expansion of GoTo results being shown on many of the Web's top search engines and directories.

These searches from all of the GoTo Partner sites are now included in the GoTo Suggestion database. It now represents the results of searches on most of the English speaking Web.

This brings the GoTo suggestions into a whole new realm of accuracy when projected against the sum total of all searches performed worldwide.

----------

Internet Marketing Strategy Day Conference
< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g99imc >

It's time to make your reservations for the March, 2001 conference in Las Vegas. The conference organizers have gotten so much feedback from U.S. web professionals that being the smart business people they are, the first U.S. conference has been scheduled.

This conference is being jointly organized with our own Search Engine Forums. Come meet some of the moderators you've only known in the Forums.

The schedule has been expanded to a three-day event to allow time for several new presentation and workshop subjects.

Attendance will be limited to keep the conferences tightly focused and highly interactive, so don't procrastinate and expect to be able to get tickets any time you want.

This looks to be an early sell-out.

----------

Mail From A Subscriber:

"Dear Jim,

Our company ABC-Host.com is currently looking for a customer service
representative, programmer, web designer, and Internet marketing specialist.

Do you happen to know someone who might be interested in any of these positions?

These are telecommuting jobs; no relocation is required. We would welcome
applicants from all over the world!

Please find more details at:
< http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g108jobs >

If you can help us find someone, I would greatly appreciate your assistance.

Please email us at: < mailto:jobs@abc-host.com >

Thank you,

Linda Rich
ABC-Host.com"