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JimWorld Gazette Issue #29 11/21/1997
Gazette - Issue #29 - November 21, 1997
CONTENTS
-- From -- Gazette Subscribers-- Scumbag Watch
-- The Other Side - Part II
-- Curb Your Creativity
-- Snippets
Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g29
JimWorld is safely enshrined on its new server in Canada. For a few days it was stuck in InterNic Hell and nothing I did seemed to help them fix their DNS table distribution. Some people would go to the old server, some to the new, and many would wind up nowhere at all. Good ol' InterNic. Their monopoly (hopefully) runs out in March and they will have to actually do their job in order to get business and money. What a concept.
The new server has some nice features and I intend to put them to use. More about that next week.
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Due to the server move, this issue of the Gazette will be shorter than usual. Most of you are probably still trying to wade through last week's rather long issue anyway.
FROM GAZETTE SUBSCRIBERS
By the way, WOW, its like I could bear a child for you. I did all the registering with the Big 'Uns ... and have already gotten like 10 emails from people who found me ... what was also cool was to search for myself ... I have not promoted the web page one iota this year ... mostly because I knew I was moving to my own domain, and, blech, who wants to do this twice? So I've just been doing the word of mouth thing ... pretty amazing stuff ... I know, I know, some of these places take weeks to register ...Sallying forth, with deep admiration and many many thanks for such a great page ... [just kidding about that child thing. not unless I could deliver it online. hehehehe ... ]
--Jim -- I won't embarrass this young lady by publishing her name or address. I can perceive of a virtual delivery, but the part before that event escapes even me. --
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Hi Jim,
Well you said that if anyone had used the info from the Gazette and had it work to let you know. Well here it is. This is a listing of pages pulled from my site by month. Along with the Gazette chronology.
Month Accesses (pages pulled, not "hits") - http://www.automation-dfw.com
05/97 - 609 (1st month. Most of these hits were me and my co-workers )
06/97 - 1087 (6/7/97 issue #7 of the Gazette - went to work on search engines)
07/97 - 1352
08/97 - 1169 (8/1/97 issue #15 - Went to work on winning awards)
09/97 - 2477 (9/1/97 won Surfer's choice Blue Diamond and Critical Mass awards - traffic doubles)
10/97 - 1937
11/97 - 1244 (11/1 through 11/17)
The information you present works, Jim. If you're not proud of the job you've done (yeh, right) you ought to be.
I've also tried to "pay" for my subscription where ever I can. Sometimes it can be as easy as telling a person to point their browser to http://www.jimworld.com/.
SCUMBAG WATCH
As luck would have it, the very message I needed for this week's theme arrived in my mailbox as if by magic. Weird offer. Bogus return address. Real under-a-rock kind of stuff.----------
Return-Path:
From: T@02028.com
Date: Sat, 22 Nov 97 20:56:36 EST
To: Friend@yourinternetaddress.com
Subject: SUBLIMINALLY SEDUCE WOMEN INSTANTLY!
Reply-To: who@what-domain.org
X-PMFLAGS: 128.0
Comments: Authenticated sender is
To be removed from this list send an e-mail message to remove@!venus.gmds.com with the word REMOVE in the subject box. Removal takes from 36 to 48 hours
**************************************************
Win over any woman you want in less than an hour. GUARANTEED! Start dating women that until now were 'out of your league' GUARANTEED! I know it sounds too good to be true, but it is now possible for you to achieve in minutes, what typically takes most men days, months, and sometimes even years to accomplish, SEDUCING A WOMAN!
Skeptical?
Read this. Then visit our web site to learn the FACTS!
Scientists worldwide agree that, in certain applications, subliminal mind control can accomplish amazing things. You might have heard how in the 1950s subliminal advertising was used in movie theaters to induce an unnatural craving for popcorn and an unquenchable desire for Coke. There are many types of subliminal thought control. Certain subliminal influence techniques work AMAZINGLY well, while others hardly work at all!
If you don't think modern subliminal technology can change your life, THINK AGAIN! For less than the cost of a single good meal you can instantly and permanently change the way women treat you. GUARANTEED! And the best part is that (due to a legal loophole) this is perfectly legal!!
--- YADA -- YADA -- YADA ---
-- Jim -- Don't bother trying any of the return addresses in this header. None of them are legit. They are too afraid of losing their ISP account to actually identify themselves. They included a URL to visit which doesn't identify the sender until you have actual ordered the product. Hiding under a real big rock, aren't they? --
Don't bother ordering the product. It didn't work.
THE OTHER SIDE - Part 2
>Hi, Jim,>Regarding your statement that nothing could be done about the
>government's anti-spam campaign, I thought, having become familiar
>with your particular style of humor during the six months that I've
>been exposed to it (is this fatal over time?) that you might be
>kidding. But I wasn't sure, and you might convince a lot of people
>that the situation is hopeless, which I think would be a disservice.
>Connie Barrett
>Beyond the Rainbow - New Age Catalog Holistic Resource
>http://www.rainbowcrystal.com
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Last week's mail was very active about my attitude towards warding off the government's meddling in the Spam issue. The general feeling seems to be that I didn't really mean it when I wrote that nothing could be done to stop the government from destroying the Web by passing more bad laws.
My personal skepticism aside (as it should be) there are some things that can be tried. I will avoid putting forth my estimation of their probability of success.
If the government would take a careful look at what the Internet is all about and stop listening only to the Lunatic Fringe, there are ways to reach an accommodation that would make everyone mostly happy.
- The problem is not the amount of Spam that goes out each day. Do you have any idea how much junk mail is sent each day through the postal systems of the world? A lot. But there are some safeguards built into that system. One is the limited access that bulk mailers have to the system. They cannot simply send it out without paying for it and in the process, identifying themselves. On the Internet, there is no cost to Spammers and they can (and do) steal computer time from other people by routing their outgoing email through a computer on which they have no legitimate access rights. And they hide their true identity by using false return addresses.
- There is no 'fair play' monitoring on the Web. The largest problem this creates is the false advertising of ways to opt-out of a mailing list. At the present time, Spammers say that you can opt-out by sending a response to the Spam message and put something like 'REMOVE' in the body of the message. Know what happens to most of those messages? It validates that the address they send the Spam to is a valid email address. The Spammer then moves you to the 'Send More To This Address' list. The Spammer opt-out offer is a scam and you should never try using it. It will increase your Spam levels This is not meant to cast aspersions on the reputations and ethics of the legitimate Opt-In operators who run their businesses in an ethical manner.
- If the government were to pass a reasonable law, it would:
- Make it illegal to send email using a false return address. Even one message.
- Make it illegal to harvest names from Discussion Lists, Newsgroups and other forms of email communications unless the communication was addressed to the sender of the Spam. Email messages should be as sacred as letters sent through the post office.
- Establish strong fraud penalties for anyone operating a bogus Opt-Out system. If you can't Opt-Out with an email message, it is bogus.
- Restraints must be put in place to eliminate the ability of Spammers and credit card thieves to hide behind untraceable return addresses. Yahoo, Hotmail and all the others are certainly within their rights to offer free services. But they must be held accountable for knowing the true identity of each of their 'customers' and be compelled to identify the person behind any email address. This should apply to anyone offering email access, for free and for fee. No exceptions.
- Make it illegal to send email using a false return address. Even one message.
However, it takes away the power from the slime that uses the Net to work without letting people know just what rock they are hiding under.
What we will most likely wind up with in America is a law that makes using the web to communicate a crime as long as the person receiving the email message declares it a crime.
If you have the energy to make a pass at a windmill or two, try getting our elected national officials who are mostly on the campaign trail, to put some support behind a rational law to HELP the Internet instead of the BS law to add the Internet to the Fax law. Who knows. It could work.
GUEST ARTICLE
-- Small Business Webmasters - Curb Your Creativity!! --With literally hundreds of do-it-yourself web design programs on store shelves these days, many small businesses have decided to take on webmastering.
Is this a good idea?
YES! It's a GREAT idea. Not only can you save big bucks, you can make site changes as often as you like and keep your content fresh. For do-it-yourselfers, these changes cost nothing to implement, except time.
But there is a down side. :-(
There are far too many webmasters that get carried away with their creativity. Take a little time to surf the web and you'll see exactly what I mean.
If you're going to rely on your web site to produce an income, there are many things you can do to help make it profitable. The fact is however, the things you DON'T DO will have even more impact!
Below you'll find the top 3 mistakes that these new "small business webmasters" are making, so YOU can avoid them. Remember, if you're designing your site for fun, then the sky's the limit as far as creativity goes. However, if it's going on the web to produce income, you need to curb your creativity...
1. MUSIC
Has this ever happened to you?
You're surfing the web and you follow a link to a site that looks interesting. Just as you cruise into the home page, - BLAST!! - your speakers start blaring the theme to Godfather II! What is your natural reaction?
Well if you're like me, it's much easier to hit that "back" button on your browser than it is to fumble around looking for the volume control on your speaker, right?
After all, when you set out on your surfin' safari, you were looking for information. If you wanted to listen to "movie theme songs" or "hits from the 70's" you would have rifled through your album collection and fired up your turntable!
So why is it that webmasters with otherwise useful web sites feel the need to play their favorite tunes for their web site visitors? Who knows, I guess it's fun for them. But the bottom line is, they're pushing more people away than they realize.
Remember the internet marketing basics: If you're selling something, you need people to stick around. After all, getting visitors takes work, why risk losing them before they get a chance to check out your wares!
Now don't get me wrong, strategic use of some choice midi or wav files can spice up your web site. The key is to give your visitors a choice of whether they want your sounds or not. Don't force your audio on them.
If you're interested in adding sound to your site, here are a couple places for tips and some great sound files:
Sound Central http://www.soundcentral.com/index.html Free wav, midi, keyboard samples, audio programs for all platforms.
Wav Central http://www.wavcentral.com/index.html Mega source for all the best sounds on the net.
2. FRAMES
If you're considering using frames when designing your site, don't - at least not until 1998 or later.
Frames divide web page content into sections, and look really cool. But the fact is, they load slowly and many older browsers simply cannot handle frames.
As more people utilize current browsers, this won't be an issue. Once again, when you're designing a site with the intention of selling something, you need all the visitors you can get. Marketing will forever be a numbers game.
Perhaps you're thinking, "Then why do all the "Big Sites" use frames?"
Well, first off, all the big sites don't use frames. Have you been to Microsoft's site lately? They know a little about marketing. No Frames.
And besides, a lot of the sites that do use frames offer a "no frames" version of the site at their entry page. If you must use frames, be sure to offer a no frames version!
3. GRAPHICS
"What? Now you're telling me I should have a site without graphics?"
No, that's not what I'm suggesting.
What I AM suggesting is that you don't get carried away with your graphics. Keep your graphics to a bare minimum. Graphics take time to load. People surfing the web are an impatient lot. They typically won't wait for images to load if it involves more than 15 seconds.
If you must use lots of graphics, shrink the file size of all your images so they will load faster. This can be done by visiting Raspberry Hill Publishing Inc.'s GIF Wizard, http://www.raspberryhill.com/gifwizard.html.
So there you have it. The Top 3 mistakes by this growing army of small biz webmasters. Have you visited YOUR site lately? Has your creativity been driving your prospects to the competition? You might want to take another look.
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This article by Jim Daniels of JDD Publishing Company.
mailto:webmaster@bizweb2000.com
Visit their site for free online marketing assistance.
http://www.bizweb2000.com
SNIPPETS
The Center for Entrepreneurial Activities (CENA), a New York based company, has recently launched a massive Internet site for the purpose of assisting budding entrepreneurs in starting and successfully operating their own businesses. The site, http://cenacenter.com offers tools to help people determine the practicality of their business idea, assists them in developing a business plan, guides them through the steps required to set up the business, and describes the operating systems and procedures required to run efficiently and profitably.----------
Want to make sure your robots.txt file is state-of-the-art? Make sure it works the way you intended and takes advantage of all of the current features available? Wander over to http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~sxw/robots/check/ and use their Bot to check out your file.
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Intel's Connected PC http://www.connectedpc.com/cpc/cpc.htm introduces people to the latest Web-related technologies, and provides hands-on, real-time examples and demos.
Check it out. It's very well done and has some great ideas and techniques you can harvest!
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A new web ring, and it's made up of ISPs offering hosting services. This web ring is intended to provide "one stop" shopping so customers can browse different hosting services so they can find the best fit for their needs. Membership is free, and they are doing all of the promotion of the ring. The only restrictions for membership are that we will allow only one reseller per program, the site must primarily represent web hosting services, and the site must have a professional look. For more information go to: http://www.virtualraleigh.com/hosting
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Need even more Internet marketing tips than you get here. If you appetite exceeds my ability to sit and write, try: http://www.marketingtips.com Internet marketing tips & advertising strategies to promote small businesses.
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Hi Jim,
Just to tell you that the VirtualPROMOTE is listed in the Internet World magazine (Brazil), the URL is: http://ww2.zaz.com.br/iw/ and look under Bookmarks.
--Gustavo Mazzarollo http://www.gustavo.net
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Tourism Promote is a FREE publication of LDS Tourism Services http://www.marl.com/lds, an Internet business & Tourist Information service. It is written by Paula Bardell with a view helping you build a successful online tourist business. If this is your industry, get a subscription. The first issue looked great.
