JimWorld Gazette Issue #53 05/22/1998

Gazette - Issue #53 - May 22, 1998

Thanks to all of you who took the time to write me this week. Over 100 Gazeteers beat me to the punch this week. I guess I have become pretty predictable on holidays. I always remind you to turn off the computer and go play with your friends or family. Take a break and re-introduce yourself to the kids running around your house wondering who that person is that's always sitting at the computer. 'Isn't that someone that used to live here?'

So I was a bit surprised to find over 100 messages reminding me that I should take a break and go play with Nick and take Cathy out to dinner. OK. I did. Thanks.

It was also a fun week of input from several French speaking Gazeteers. If you've been hangin' out around here for very long, you have probably observed that I take a lot of liberties with language. Any language. Even HTML. Take a look at the HTML code in the JimWorld home page. Didn't think there was a way to create HTML slang, did you?

My approach to HTML is that if I know what I wanted to say, and the browsers understand what I'm saying, and I didn't have to spend hours figurin' out the 'proper' way to word it, Viola! It must be communication.

I don't get much mail about Jim's Style Guide To Good Writing Un-Styles. Everyone seems pretty happy if I just spell most of it right. Which I didn't last week. Four typos in a 9,253 word newsletter. I'll work at it a bit harder. My threshold is two typos per issue, so keep an eye on me and let me know when I appear to drift over that line.

But the fun was the messages from our French speaking Gazeteers. I knew it was not spelled 'Oh, contraire.' but us Mississippi boys like to spell phonetically. The problem is we wind up spellin' with a Southern Drawl. For guidelines, see page 12 of Jim's Style Guide. Right there on the last page of the book.

So now that I know where the soft spot is, expect me to poke it with a stick every now and then when I'm not gettin' 'nough email to read.

BTW - taking your advice, Nick, Cathy and I went to see Deep Impact. Been a long time since a movie went by so fast. A real must-see if you love a good story that will choke you up in several places during the 2 hours and 13 minutes that go by so fast you wish there were more. Maybe we just have a case of the movie content munchies.

CONTENTS

-- Get out of the way! The 60's are coming!
-- Fun Break
-- Sites Update
-- Adam's Toolbox - Part VI
-- Branson Missouri - High Tech Web Traffic Hub?
-- Marketing Your Business, Service Or Product On The Web
-- Have You Discovered Alexa Yet?
-- Buying Banners? Getting Ripped Off?
-- Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g53

GET OUT OF THE WAY! THE 60's ARE COMING!

My final introductory point is a bit more serious this week. I had a small amount of feedback on last week's article by Hayden showing how to set up 'newsworthy' pages that will attract a lot of traffic while the news remains hot in the mainstream media and on the Web.

His example was a mythical page he created to draw traffic by researching and posting a page(s) about Ol' Blue Eyes's death and resulting blitz of coverage on television and in the newspapers.

That technique works so well, creating content about high-energy newsworthy events, that lots of people use it.

Every web site in the news business uses it every day, as well as every radio station, television station, newspaper, magazine.... everyone.

When the story broke at CNN, do you think the management went into a meeting to say 'The death of Frank Sinatra is such a pivotal turning point in the history of the world that we are going to cancel all other stories for several days and pay long overdue honor to the most recognized face of any humanitarian on Earth?' If you think that was the conversation, I have some virtual-bridges for sale.

The conversation went something like this (not exact as CNN didn't patch me in for my vote until late):

'Frank Sinatra has passed away. The story is breaking BIG all over the world. It looks like it will have real legs and we need to decide how to cover it. Any ideas?

--What impact would it have on revenue if we switched to round-the-clock live coverage? And what audience share do we lose if we don't?'

Folks, publishing is a business, not a social movement. The eulogies are left to the friends and family. The news media covers events and covers it the way their audience wants it covered. For a profit.

How many people called CNN and hammered them for staying on the air and exploiting this momentous event in human history? Or hammered them for continuing to run commercials for the week following Frank's death. Maybe a handful. Did it have any impact on CNN's coverage? No. Did anyone offer to reimburse CNN for their costs and lost profits in order to allow them to close down the station? Hardly.

Of the hundreds of web sites that were on-the-air within 24 hours of the sad event of Frank's passing (I have been a lifelong fan of his singing and acting and was saddened by his death) I was unable to find a single one that was created solely for the purpose of paying respects to Frank. Had they been, they would not have each been supported by a flurry of search engine submissions and press releases. That activity smacks of wanting people to come see the results of the efforts of the publishers of those sites.

The closest I came was the site created by the President of the Frank Sinatra Fan Club, who, according to CNN's interview, makes his living by buying and selling Frank memorabilia. Much of it right from his Celebrity fan site. I didn't notice that he was closing his store's doors for the duration of the mourning period.

So why did a handful of people take offense to talking about the same techniques used by every media engine on Earth, when they were applied to the Internet?

I say 'a handful' but for all I know, when I do the subscription file maintenance this morning, I will find that all 37,000 of you have taken your names off of the subscription list.

A couple of people canceled their Gazette subscription in protest and another wrote about how disappointed he was at our failure to pay proper respect for the monumental event that resulted in the loss to humanity of it's most beloved figure. However, he continued on to say that he was not in a position to cancel his subscription as the Gazette was too valuable of an information source for him to give up. He just wanted us to know how crass and unfeeling we are and exploitive of sacred events in history.

All I can say to these people who have left our community is this. The Web is not a social movement destined to raise mankind to a more perfect plain and bring every soul on Earth into a more perfect harmony. (Yes, I did live through the 60's. And yes, I was functional enough to pick up the vocabulary of the times. I just couldn't seem to get to class often enough to have time left over for protest marches.)

The 60's were also not what many people seem to longingly remember of them. The peace symbol necklaces were made in Hong Kong in a factory, not in a social -change commune in the mountains of Colorado by flower-power children. Orange Wedges and Windowpane Four-Ways were made by a very profitable underground pharmaceutical lab in New Jersey and sold to the highest bidder. Not to bring about a fundamental shift in the course of human social evolution, but rather to make a fundamental shift in the evolution of cash reserves in thousands of bank accounts.

If you continue to operate on the premise that the web is not part of the normal course of human dynamics that control the rest of our daily lives, you will be hosting a web site frequented by your Mother and Sisters and your consequent impact on the rest of humanity will approach zero. You can only have impact when you have an audience. And you can only get an audience by doing it the way others do it. If there were easier ways, everyone would be doing it that way.

How you make a difference is to show your audience a better way to live, and prove to them that it works.

We can expect to see our strayed members back, if history is a judge. It doesn't take too long of a time spent gazing at an empty web site for the rose tint to wear off the glasses. All of the people that resigned the last time a sensitive issue came up have quietly resubscribed and begun participating again. No, I won't tell you who they are. That's between them and me.

FUN BREAK

The following were taken from sites around the Net to give you a bit of fun before diving into this meaty issue of the Gazette. We were unable to trace the stories back to their original authors, so if we neglected to give someone proper credit, we sincerely apologize. Thanks to Hayden for kicking this off for us.

Some Interesting Tidbits That May Amuse You ;-o

Louisiana:
A man walked into a Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer? Fifteen dollars. [If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, was a crime committed?]


Florida:
[Uh, pardon our English] A thief burst into the bank one day wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun. Aiming his gun at the guard, the thief yelled, "FREEZE, MOTHER-STICKERS, THIS IS A F**K-UP!" For a moment, everyone was silent. Then the snickers started. The guard completely lost it and doubled over laughing. It probably saved his life, because he'd been about to draw his gun. He couldn't have drawn and fired before the thief got him. The thief ran away and is still at large. In memory of the event, the bank later put a plaque on the wall engraved "Freeze, mother-stickers, this is a f**k-up!"

Arkansas:
Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. Seems the liquor store window was made of Plexi-Glass. The whole event was caught on videotape.

New York:
As a female shopper exited a convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police had apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes Officer..that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

Seattle :
When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motorhome parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find an ill man curled up next to a motorhome near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his hose into the motorhome's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

Ann Arbor :
The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 5 am, flashed a gun and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.

Kentucky:
Two men tried to pull the front off a cash machine by running a chain from the machine to the bumper of their pickup truck. Instead of pulling the front panel off the machine,though, they pulled the bumper off their truck. Scared, they left the scene and drove home. With the chain still attached to the machine. With their bumper still attached to the chain. With their vehicle's license plate still attached to the bumper.

Newark :
A woman was reporting her car as stolen, and mentioned that there was a car phone in it. The policeman taking the report called the phone, and told the guy that answered that he had read the ad in the newspaper and wanted to buy the car. They arranged to meet, and the thief was arrested.

SITES UPDATE

>> HELPWARE UPDATE

http://helpwaresites.com

The Helpware promotion team has swung into action. You will have the opportunity to meet the team for the first time next week.

Until then, if you would like to help out with this worthwhile effort, please let me know and I'll send you message on to the team.

They need people that can put in a little time each week to help get the Helpware site growing at a faster rate. They could also use some media and press release distribution in addition to the one we already have been offered.

The Helpware has now received submissions from over 850 sites. About 200 did not add the Helpware button to their page, so they were not added to the Directory.

Join in. Have some fun while making a difference.


>> FORUMS UPDATE

http://gethighforums.com/
http://searchengineforums.com/

The Get High (Traffic) Forums and the Search Engine Forums continue to grow in attendance each week. The debates rage and the benefits multiply. Those not involved are missing more learning than they can possibly understand without giving it a try. The time will be some of the best investment you will ever make towards your web dreams.

There are currently 6,101 messages posted in the Forums. That's a lot of traffic-generating knowledge just waiting for you to come partake of. Of course, if you have too much traffic, or know all there is to know about search engines and build site-based communities to drive an escalating flow of traffic, then the Forums will do absolutely nothing for you. You would be better served by writing a book about your techniques.

For the rest of you, come and gitit! Free traffic. Just take as much as you need. Don't overload your plate. We don't waste traffic around here when sites all over the world are starving.

The best informed webmasters are found in the Search Engine Forums. When Infoseek starting having problems recently, the news was already being hotly discussed in the Infoseek Forum before any of the web news service got ahold of it. Talk about staying informed!

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KidMasters Forum

The heat is on in the KidMaster Forums. Young people are joining in at a steady rate. They are getting some incredible help in getting their sites going and growing.

An interesting use for the KidMaster Forum has been discovered by the adult members of the Forums. Several adult webmasters have gone to the KidMaster Forum as the best place available anywhere to get advice from kids. Want to find out how well your site performs in appealing to kids? KidMasters is your best opportunity.

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MISSING FROM THE WEB
http://jimworld.com/mftw.html

There have been some very satisfying results already from the Missing From The Web project. Lots of traffic going through there, and the number of ideas for new web sites and services is starting to build up.

Already several new sites and new site features for existing sites have benefited from Missing From The Web.

----------

From Beth Fisher comes this response to a Home Remedy suggestion posted on Missing:

'I had been playing with the idea of a home remedy page for my site before I saw this listed as a wanted item. I have now gotten the page up, although it is not yet extensive. I'd like some feedback from people interested in this idea. My work so far can be viewed at http://rampbbs.com/public/beth/remedies.htm '

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From James Avery - New Realms Web Site Design http://www.newrealms.net
'Just thought I would let you know that I have started work on a site spawned from Claire's idea that she posted on your Missing From The Web ideas forum. If you want to check it out it's at http://www.telalink.net/~newrealm/fansite.htm . This is only the beta, and none of the links work yet. When I get it close to being done I will post on the forum and let everyone know. Thanks for the great services.'

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And finally, from a Gazeteer that donated an idea to the Missing idea database:

"And let me say, thank you. The "fan site" idea I had so many moons ago (and couldn't muster the slightest interest to work on) is now a reality. James Avery took on the idea and while the site is in its infancy (http://www.fan-sites.com), I absolutely could not be more pleased.

Of course, part of the reason it is so much of a delight is because a regular in the Get High forum took it on and I know it's in good hands. Thanks for giving my idea a home.

Claire A Romantic Line of FREE Digital Greetings
http://www.wockyjivvy.com/postcards/ "

----------

These are webmasters that have found some inspiration by stopping by Missing From The Web. There are still good ideas just waiting to be used. Here's one from Lisa Cote:

'I've had the great idea to put together a directory of interior design/decorating sites, but have not found many high-quality resources in this area. The sites for individual design firms tend to be very poorly designed (?!) and there's not much out there that's really valuable for the do-it-yourselfer. This industry is big business now, as evidenced by all the new decor-related t.v. shows: Please, somebody put together a comprehensive, free, information -rich site! (I'll be happy to contribute an article or two!)'

Do you need a good idea to help you get started? Got a good idea to share that you know would make a good project for someone? Why not come post it? Why just let good ideas sit there when you know you'll never use it?

ADAM'S TOOLBOX - PART VI

In the last few articles of this column, I have been demonstrating a series of scripts that allow you to create an affiliate program. By linking each sale to the affiliate site the user came from, you can offer other sites a commission on every sale they send your way. Some past articles have used JavaScript or Server Side Includes and Perl to create and retrieve cookies that store an id code for the affiliate. This week, I will show you how to use Microsoft's Active Server Pages technology to quickly and easily accomplish the same task. (For an introduction to ASP, see Adam's Toolkit in the February 13, 1998 issue of the Gazette.

To work with cookies in JavaScript and Perl, I needed to include some large snippets of code from outside sources. ASP simplifies the process by including functions that allow me to manipulate cookies directly. Using the ASP response.cookies object sets a cookie, and request.cookie retrieves it. If everything in the Internet business is this easy, I'd be out of a job.

The code below should be inserted at the very top of your document. Line 1 gets the query string (everything after a '?' in a URL), and puts the value of 'src' into a variable called src. This means that if your affiliate links to you with:

>http://yourdomain.com/default.asp?src=123

..then the value of the query string 'src' is 123 and the variable src now contains 123. Line 2 creates a cookie called Source and fills it with the id that Line 1 stored in src. This cookie is known to the ASP script as Source, so we can now work with the cookie by calling it by that name. Line 3 sets the expiration date of the cookie to 30 days after today.

<%

src=request.querystring("src")

Response.Cookies("Source") = "src"

Response.Cookies("Source").Expires = Date + 30



%>

You may have noticed that this script sets an expiration date, while my previous scripts had not. I have had a large number of people asking me how to do this. Normally, the cookie expires and is deleted as soon as the user closes the browser. This can create a problem with tracking if the user returns to the site and makes a purchase several days after they visited the affiliate.

I have set this to 30 days in the future because I feel this is a reasonable grace period to allow an affiliate. If a visitor makes their purchase several months after the initial contact, I think it is likely that the sale is not a direct result of the link from the affiliate. If you are going to institute a similar policy, you should inform your affiliate sites.

All cookies have to expire sometime; if you don't specify an expiration, they expire when the browser closes. If you don't want the cookie to expire at all, you can simulate this by setting the expiration to a date in the more distant future. Using date + 3650 will expire the cookie 10 years from now. (Give or take a few days for leap year.)

If you want to add an expiration date to the JavaScript cookie from my earlier column, you can use this code. Just change the number in the line 'var days = 1;' to the number of days that you want the cookie to last.

Now back to ASP. To get the affiliate id out of the cookie and into your order form, place this line of code after the FORM tag on your page:

<% Response.Write("
 

value=" &



Request.Cookies("Source") & ">") %>

This will write a hidden form field into your form and fill it with the affiliate id from your cookie.

If you don't want to use cookies, you have a great option when using ASP. Internet Information Server gives us an ASP object called Session. The session object can maintain state information for the user on a single visit. This means that as long as the user stays at your site, you can remember anything you want about them. To remember the affiliate code of the referring site, use this line of code that gets the query string and adds it to the user's session in a variable called 'source.'

<% Session('source')=request.querystring("src") %>

Now put the next line of code after the FROM tag in your HTML.

<% Response.Write("
value=" & Session

('source')&">") %>

Now all you have to do is let the script (or CGI program) that is processing your order form know that it should start expecting this new information.

Now that you have several ways of tracking your affiliates you need to know how to manage a program like this. In a future article, I will go over some of the marketing and technical aspects of some successful affiliate programs. When all is said and done, you will have built a powerful affiliate system that should provide you with a way of increasing your site traffic and sales.

----------

Adam Kalsey, Technical Director adam@tmsonline.com
the marketing store! http://tmsonline.com

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In an effort to not only get some Battling Cookies going, but to also work in a shameless plug for WebSuite, I asked Steve to show us what is involved in setting and maintaining cookies under WebSuite.

----------

OK, Here is what it would take to set a cookie using the WebSuite active page system.

<[



  // create a session object



  session = new( "session", param( 1 ), param( 2 ) )





  // create a cookie object



  cookie = new( "cookie", session )



  // use the cookie as a makeshift counter



  cookie.name = "SampleCounter"



  cookie.value = "" +

 

  ( ( 0 + cookie.get( cookie.name ) ) + 1 )



  ! cookie.set( "Current cookie value is "

 

    + cookie.value )



  return( 1 )



]>

You can see this exact code in operation at:
http://www.smartdesk.nu/cookie.html
or read the simple-to-follow code at:
http://www.smartdesk.com/vm/samples/cookie.html

A feature of the WebSuite scripting language that we have worked very hard on is the readability of the code. We think that this will be an important feature as more and more non-programmers begin deploying new customized applications on their sites using active page technology.

BRANSON, MISSOURI - HIGH TECH WEB TRAFFIC HUB?

You all know how shy I am about asking people to help around here, right? And I would never dream of putting someone on the spot, right?

When I got the following plea for help from a Gazeteer, I immediately set all three of my surviving brain cells into motion in search of a way to get the plea or a great answer with little or no effort on my part, and please.... could it also be a subject for an article? One that almost writes itself?

----------

Wes, I was sent a copy of your e-mail to Jim Wilson in regards to your problem in getting http://www.theblackhills.com/sturgis/jre into the top of Infoseek.

I modified the heading section of the page and left everything the same as you had it as follows, and obtained a #11 position for the search of south dakota real estate. Your current page is ranked at #184. With a little fine tuning you shouldn't have any problem in moving this page on up into the top 5 or so.

The way you had the page designed:








The Way I submitted it:




http://submit.nu/black/
Size 4.9K) Document date: 15 May 1998

Hope this helps,
Clyde Brinley, Author
The Search Engine Bible
http://softwaresolutions.net/sebible

----------

Not bad. A Gazeteer got not only some good, free advice, but actual results to illustrate the point and no out-of-pocket expense. Clyde got a great chance to show us all what can be done with his techniques and didn't have to spend two days writing a tutorial. However, I did have to send two emails and spend several minutes writing the wrapper for this article. Close, but not exactly an effort-free article for me. I'll keep trying.

If you want to stay on top of doing these kinds of things for yourself, visit the Search Engine Bible web site and get the book and the subscription to the update newsletter.

MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS, PRODUCT OR SERVICE ON THE WEB

It is a proven fact that the most effective way to market yourself, your business, product or service is to offer something of value to your web site visitor, in the form of helpful articles or resources related to your business and the particular interests of potential clients, visitors and peers.

This should go hand-in-hand with active participation at different online forums, newsgroups and mail lists. You can begin with those related to your particular field, though it is recommended that you do so on other interest venues related to business, marketing, management, and professional- related sites and communication tools. Your role should be more of "the giver" than "the taker". Give advice, help and guidance on these forums. Establish your identity and credentials. Reveal a positive personality. Do not fail to mention your company's name, location and URL. If people like what you say and think you have substance, they will visit your web page to learn more about you and your company. They will also look for additional insights and knowledge you may carry on your site.

Your messages, participation in forums and newsgroups, as well as your web page should never consist of blatant advertising. This leads nowhere. There is an avalanche of crude advertising and spam on the web and people avoid it like a disease. Before people trash or skip messages containing such spam or advertising, they take a mental "negative" note of the originator, and this is a negative image you will find very hard to eliminate. If, on the other hand, you "give" something of value and do so actively, enhancing people's knowledge and lives, a very positive image is impressed upon their mind and connected to your name. You can never know what type and category of people read your messages or visits your web page. There are many silent viewers and visitors, otherwise called "lurkers". Some of them quite often prove to be the type of clients, associates or friends you want. They will reveal themselves to you only if they see quality, decency, integrity.

The contacts, usually by e-mail, come unexpectedly. Sometimes it is to establish a business or friendly relationship; sometimes it is a first step towards discussing a business transaction or project. It is worthwhile bearing this in mind when answering enquiries, planning a web site or writing an article. This does not mean one shouldn't promote one's business; it should be done in a subtle manner. No-one will mind your description of what you do if your positive contribution outweighs this subtle form of publicity. Very often, peers of like mind will contact you.

The right peer contacts, which are the people you want as web friends, usually open gates of opportunity for you, offering guidance and even revealing sources of business you never thought of. The net being what it is, these opportunities and friendships happen not only globally, but sometimes right round the corner, in your own neighborhood.

Needless to say that what you give should be of unique character and value and originally yours. Copy catting here won't help. Ideally, offer something related to your field of occupation or professional role: manager, marketer, writer, trainer, or whatever best describes you. The nature of this article does not reflect my primary occupation as Management Consultant specializing in Human Resources, Training and Customer Service, so I hope you do not mind my mentioning this at this stage. It does, however, reflect my personality and belief in sharing, since I share with you my experience on web marketing and results achieved. Indeed, it does take a lot of time and active effort to establish a positive web presence but the results you reap justify the effort involved.

This past week I had four great opportunities that fell right in my lap from unexpected sources. These were found to be people who had come across my web site and articles or saw my postings on different forums. These approaches and proposals not only represent great business and marketing opportunities, but add to my company's image locally. Positive contributions have a snowball effect. It all began when I offered articles to the Canadian Government's online Library. Industry Canada's web site is at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca and their small business services, Contact! is at Click Here

In both sites you can access all that you need regarding Canada and trade with Canada. They also offer Canadians free web pages to help them promote their businesses. Mine is at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/mi04669e.html which also lists, and has links to all of my articles. There is no way of knowing who and how many people access these sites since Industry Canada did a very good job of listing them just about anywhere, including a direct link from the NAFTA site.

When you offer or agree to publish your articles on other sites as well, you have a much bigger audience. This increases your chance at publicity and for attracting the people you want. The same happens with newsletters. If you have the time to create and manage a quality newsletter, you will establish your expertise among your subscribers and in the field you deal with. Please avoid producing a newsletter which advertises only your products or services. People subscribe to tons of newsletters. Unless you offer new, original information and tips you will be "dropped". Whether you have your own newsletter or not, it definitely broadens your market when you contribute to other people's newsletters. If you have published articles and you did a good job of listing your site, managers/owners of newsletters and web sites will contact you and ask permission to carry these on their own pages. It is a win/win situation.

Actually, a major Management Consulting company in Canada wrote asking my permission to publish my Networking on the Net article: Ethics, Courtesy and Professionalism on the Net http://www.penmark.com/networking.htm in a CD Rom they are distributing to businesses across North America. This is an unexpected promotional bonus which may lead to very interesting business. A group of academics wrote asking my permission to use my article, Understanding Employee Drives and Motivation http://www.penmark.com/chic/wwemployee.htm for discussion in a course they themselves are taking. This adds both prestige and testimonial. Other articles and activities led to an invitation to offer Seminars on Customer Service in Asia. The opportunities abound. Sometimes it takes time and patience, but with persistence, the rewards happen in a most unexpected manner.

Jim Wilson of http://www.jimworld.com always welcomes an original article or other input, for which he will also reciprocate by advertising you in the Gazette, his newsletter which goes to more than 36,000 subscribers. This gives a glance at what can be achieved on the web in the way of widespread global free publicity. All it requires is a positive, helpful attitude, some mental effort, time to produce something that will interest others and help them succeed. Of course, you can also pay for advertising in e-zines. Select the e-zine that reaches your audience and the cost is quite low for the tens of thousands of potential clients you reach. This is all what JimWorld is about - helping people promote their business successfully through the web. What more could we ask for? This is also the intent of Industry Canada with the Strategis and Contact web sites.

There are many professional sites that do the same, as well as women's sites, e.g. http://wwork.com and http://www.cdnbizwomen.com . DJC
Enterprises, a marketing company, decided to make its newsletter interactive among subscribers. See http://www.djcenterprises.com. They offer an incentive: submit to them a helpful and resourceful URL and they will carry a free advertisement for your company in their newsletter. I am certain there are many more sites which I have yet to discover but the very good friends I made on the web keep on copying me on good opportunities. I do the same for them. The internet looks like an indefinite unfathomable well.

Three sites worth visiting to see quality information and articles are:

1. http://www.capitalfundsgroup.com (California)
   
2. http://www.brandoctors.com (New York, please read "food for thought"), and
   
3. http://www.cyberwar.com/~technobz (New Jersey, also full of information and guidance).

If you have time to open and manage your own forum or bulletin board, by all means do so. It will take a lot of time and effort to promote and keep it active. Depending on the nature of their business, some people are at it all day long. You can accomplish almost as much and sometimes even more by participating in different forums that have specialized interest groups.

If people continue advertising themselves blindly at every internet opportunity, they will turn their web world into a Tower of Babel with each one speaking a different language and no-one listening to the other or understanding each other. What good will this ever do? There are many sites dedicated to free advertising and you should limit advertising to these venues.

Plan to carry valuable information on your web page. Besides registering and listing yourself with search engines, remember to do so at the different entrepreneurial, business, management, marketing or professional sites your service or products relate to. Remember to enter not only the keywords that describe your business but the keywords that would describe your target market, e.g. : hotels, restaurants, ships, cruises, boats, shopping malls, retail stores, food and beverage, or whatever best describes your target market.

I hope that sharing the above with you will prove helpful and valuable. Please come and join our discussions on Customer Service at http://foodservice.com/cs or at the URL below.

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Claire Belilos chic@max-net.com
CHIC Hospitality Consulting Services http://www.penmark.com/chic
Discuss Customer Service issues with peers at:
http://www.foodservice.com/web/chic/customerservice.htm

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Thank you Claire for an excellent, well thought out reminder of just how many ways there are to build your site's traffic or your on-line business. We all need an occasional reminder that the search engines are not the only answer. When other techniques are used correctly, they are not even the best way.

Be sure to drop in on one or more of Claire's web sites. You'll find lots of content there. She does practice what she preaches.

HAVE YOU DISCOVERED ALEXA YET?

Introduction by Larry Steinberg of Web-Potentials

Stan Faryna is a Washington, D.C. insider from the Right Side. He's former Director of Project 21, an African American Leadership Group. He's worked with the big boys & girls at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, The Heritage Foundation, and the RNC. I hear he's even done some things at the House and Senate.

He still has a big office in a Chicago high rise at the New Coalition for Economic and Social Change on Wacker St., the only African American think tank in this country. You might see his political commentary in the op-eds from time to time. But Stan says he's tired of politics: he wants to surf.

Larry Steinberg
Link Monster http://www.linkmonster.com/
Award-It http://www.award-it.com/

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Stan Faryna, Managing Editor, Award-It Winners List, interviews Alexa's Camron Assadi

--Faryna:
Infoworld, Newsweek, The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury News, Wired, and international press all around the world have been raving about Alexa. Infoworld world's most recent statement on Alexa: "Bottom Line: Very Good." What is Alexa? Why's Alexa "very good"? Why isn't it "top notch"?

--Assadi:
Like the Eye Candy WWW Site Reviews, Alexa Internet was started in 1996. Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliatvision had a vision of navigation that learns and improves over time with the collective participation of its users. The Alexa service is the first Internet software product that learns from real people.

It's very good because there's nothing at all like Alexa's software. The desktop utility is also free. Critics may complain about bugs, but most of those complaints were solved in the latest upgrade.

--Faryna:
If Alexa's toolbar-desktop utility is what the end-user gets, how does this human factor get factored into the toolbar? Does it?!

--Assadi:
People who download Alexa use the service, vote on pages, and recommend links, condition the behavior of the results on the desktop utility.

--Faryna:
The Alexa toolbar allows users to create a link between pages. Does this "human factor" mean that significant traffic between those pages will result in a public link that Alexa recommends?

--Assadi:
If a user adds a link, using Alexa's "add a link feature," that link will be visible only on that user's toolbar. Alexa tracks links that are added by users, and if that link is supported by usage paths, link analysis or text analysis of the page, then it will be escalated and incorporated in the general Alexa service for all users to see.

--Faryna:
Is the "human factor" the only cool feature of the Alexa service? Are there more basic features? Do they outweigh the complaints that weren't addressed by the latest upgrade? New complaints?

--Assadi:
The Alexa "toolbar" as you call it, appears on your window; it works with your browser, and provides several types and levels of information based on the web sites you are viewing and what people find to be useful while they are surfing on the Internet.

The four types of information relate to (1) where you are, (2) where to go next, (3) access to archived pages, and (4) desk- top reference.

When you view a web site with Alexa, one click on Alexa's "Where You Are" button pops open a window with information about the registered site owner, reviews, endorsements, and estimated ratings and site statistics about the site being viewed.

Want to move on to another web site, but don't have a URL? Alexa's "Where to Go Next" feature recommends related sites for business, travel, shopping, entertainment, and research. Recommendations are posted on the toolbar like hyper linked text, in a pop up window that can be clicked open, and in graphic presentations in graphic blocks and button types.

Alexa's "Archive of the Web" feature can help you find pages that are no longer available. When your browser displays a "404-Not Found" message and Alexa has a copy of that page, the Archive button will change to a blue "page" icon. One click on the icon requests a copy of that page from Alexa's Archive.

The "Desktop Reference" button gets quick answers for your reference and research questions. While you are reading and learning online, questions about places, ideas, words, and word choices may surface.

When such questions arise, Alexa is ready by providing you with fast, easy, and intelligent access to the Britannica Internet Guide, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and the Merriam-Webster Thesaurus.

--Faryna:
These are interesting features, but how many people use Alexa? How many toolbar downloads are you seeing on a daily basis? Do Netizens really like Alexa? After all, plug-in technologies have not really caught on with most users- for whatever reasons.

--Assadi:
Over 500,000 and growing have downloaded the free desktop utility since 1996. More than 100,000 use Alexa's desktop utility for longer than one month. According to our logs, 2,000 to 5,000 unique users are downloading the desktop utility everyday.

Those that make full use of the features are very excited by the Alexa service. They can also see what is possible as we grow. Those that install the desktop utility and merely drag it along as they surf don't always see the value of getting more information about a web site, where to go next, etc.

--Faryna:
Where will Alexa be tomorrow? The next day? Where can people download Alexa's little toolbar? Last words?

--Assadi:
On every desktop in America. Then, on every desktop around the world.

--People can download Alexa's' free desktop utility by jumping to http://www.alexa.com/download/index.html or, if crowded, to one of our many mirror sites. One mirror site can be found at http://www.alexa.com/download/goodink/index.html.

--Last words?!
It will be a long time before we have last words at Alexa - if ever.

BUYING BANNERS? GETTING RIPPED OFF?

If you are buying banner displays on one of the sites that uses the little pop -up windows to display their banner ads, you are probably getting ripped off and not even know it. Not that the sites are trying to rip you off. It's just that their technology is faulty and guarantees failure.

I'm going to use Tripod.com as an illustration, not to pick on them, but because it is the one that comes to mind immediately. I was just visiting a Gazeteer site at http://members.tripod.com/~Sneeze/Index.htm .

When I first arrived at the site's home page I was presented a rectangular pop -up window that measured 300 pixels wide and 300 pixels high. Unfortunately, the banner that was being displayed was 468 pixels wide, so only a portion of it was visible. I tried to resize the window, but it is not re sizable. Nor is it scrollable. I guess there was probably a message on the banner, because the site owner thought highly enough of it to pay to have it displayed on Tripod.

So, since I was there to see the web site's window, I sent the Tripod advertising window to the rear of my screen's window stack. And there it sat the entire time I was visiting the site. Hidden behind the site's window. Where I couldn't see it. Same place everybody puts it, if they don't just close it as soon as it starts to form out of the fog that obscures Tripod sites.

No, I don't like pop-up ads. I don't like what they do to detract from the surfer's experience. I don't like the way they take money from advertisers and give little value in return. When they are hidden behind other windows, they are not much better than the banner scam run by last month's Scumbag.

But at least the banners at Tripod stay hidden while they rotate through one unviewed ad after another. At several of the other in-your-face advertising supported servers they keep popping to the front for long enough to let me get my mouse moved to click them away, completely unread and before they even load.

But at least the servers at Tripod are faster than most. No, not the ones that serve up the member site pages. Just the ones that serve up the banners.

So here we are at the Banner Rules.

1. Never buy banners on sites that you are not intimately familiar with. Find out how it works.
   
   
2. Never sell ads to a site that you are not intimately familiar with. Find out what it has to offer.
   
   
3. Never place large media buys for an untested banner. Never!

SNIPPETS

The Advance Newsletter
http://advance.to/the_services/

Thanks to the team at Advance Response Unit (Scotland) for writing about VirtualPROMOTE (JimWorld) twice in their current newsletter. Webmasters should all take a look at their site and newsletter. Good stuff all around.

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Net-Matrix
http://www.net-matrix.com/index2.html

Need a special deal on a server account? Net-Matrix has a special off just for Gazeteers. Visit their site and look it over. It'll save you $15 off all set-up charges for any account opened by a Gazette subscriber.

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Seal of Web Site Excellence 1998

This award is targeted toward web sites that provide valuable content to the Internet. Some other areas taken into consideration are: is the site easily navigable, does the site have an overall appealing layout, does the site have any adult or unsuitable content, and is the site updated regularly? _____

To those of you that are maintaining email lists for distribution of newsletters, discussion lists or other mailing media, there is a trend that I am seeing.

I am seeing 90% of my subscriber problems originating in the WebTV community. They apparently sign up for every free email service they can get their hands on, and don't understand the importance of keeping track of that information.

They have all of those free email addresses forward to their WebTV address and then can't unsubscribe from lists because they don't know the addresses they have used.

I need to set up a WebTV account to get a better feel for this market, but from what I see so far, the WebTV system offers them a very limited set of features and functions. Certainly far less that we are accustomed to in the modem access world.

Add to this the fact that WebTV users all appear to be new to the web, and usually new to computer technology in general, you had best visit your local electronics store and spend some time finding out how WebTV works and what tools they do have access to.

Then I can start sending my WebTV problem emails to you to handle for me.