JimWorld Gazette Issue #103 10/08/2000

JimWorld Gazette - Issue #103 - October 8, 2000

CONTENTS

• From Our Sponsor - pogo.com
• Award Design Contest Goes Into Overtime Innings
• From Our Sponsor - RightNow Technologies
• 17 Wild Ways To Promote Your Business
• From Our Sponsor - Microsoft Exchange 2000 Servers
• Review - No Right Shall Go Un-Wronged
• Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g103

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AWARD DESIGN CONTEST GOES INTO OVERTIME INNINGS

I've had several requests to allow a little more time for entries in the contest to redesign the JimWorld Way Cool Hot Site Award. We've received several hundred entries but there's always room for more.

The contest deadline will be extended to midnight on October 10th.

The prizes for the winning design will be:

>> Permanent credit on the winner's pages and submission form.
>> Recognition in the Gazette for the winner and top 5 finalists.
>> 50,000 banner impressions on the JimWorld web sites. A US $1,250 value.

The rules are simple.

Create an award graphic that is fast loading and small enough to be displayed on any web site's home page or awards page. You can view the current award graphic at http://jimworld.com/hotpg.html

The award graphic should reference the JimWorld Way Cool Hot Site Award instead of the current SmartDesk reference.

I will select the top finalists and the Get High Forums and Search Engine Forums moderators will select the winner.

I am currently setting up a new database driven award management system to allow us to evaluate more submissions and recognize a new award-winning site each week.

Submit your entry via email before midnight California time on October 10th.

mailto:jim@jimworld.com

That's it. Now get to work!

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17 WILD WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS

A business, more often than not, has a very limited budget when it comes to advertising. The business owner needs to make the public aware of his or her product or service at the lowest possible cost.

There are many ways. A pet breeder in a large city was struggling for several years-until he came up with a novel idea. He started giving away customized "birth certificates" for the pets he sold. Almost immediately, his sales rose more than 10 percent.

The owner of a new home cleaning service was trying to attract clients. She couldn't afford much advertising, so she began offering "home cleaning seminars" to civic groups. After two months of seminars, she was swamped with inquiries and clients.

Promotion often makes the crucial difference between business success and failure. Customers or clients must know about a business or product line before they'll buy and they must have a reason to buy.

If you are trying to promote your business now, you can move in one of two directions:

1. You can take the conventional route to promotion and mount an elaborate media campaign, spending a considerable amount of money.
2. You can let your creative juices flow and mount a low-cost promotion effort, using a potpourri of attention-getting strategies to bring your message to the buying public.

Now, to be sure, conventional advertising is valuable. If your enterprise is large enough or if you're selling numerous product lines, you may find that a full-fledged media campaign is the most efficient and cost effective way to promote your business.

If money is tight, however, or you're not sure you can amortize the heavy cost of a media campaign over a period of time, the following is a assortment of low -cost techniques you can try. Not all may be appropriate for your particular business, and certainly it would be costly to try them all. But you're sure to find some ideas that will work for you.

GIVEAWAYS.

People love to receive "free" items, especially items they can use to gain knowledge or improve their lives. You can base an entire promotional campaign on this desire. If you're running a furniture repair business, for instance, you could give away a furniture repair brochure, free furniture planning guides, or color swatches. Once you begin giving away authoritative information, customers will begin to perceive you as an expert in your field.

NEWS CREATION.

Want to get your business in the local newspaper or TV? It may be easier than you think. If you don't have any news to report to the local media, create some. One man hired a team of beautiful girls outfitted in skimpy bikinis and had them waving signs in a busy part of town announcing his new Web site address. Did it get attention by the media? You bet it did!

EVENTS.

You may be able to attract the attention of the media or a crowd by staging a special promotional event. If you run a fitness classes, for instance, you could stage a celebrity instructor day. If you're promoting a new real estate business, you can offer tours of a model home in the area. If you're selling children's products and it's springtime, you can offer lunch with the Easter bunny. Get the idea?

CHARITY TIE-INS.

Are you launching a new product? Trying to increase visibility among a particular segment of your community? Offer your product to one or more local charities as a raffle prize or for use at a fund raising event. You'll receive lots of exposure among people who buy tickets or attend the event.

CONTESTS.

Offer a desirable or unique item-or even several items-as contest prizes. First, find a contest theme that tiers into your business. A caterer might offer a quiche-eating contest. A photographer might offer a young model contest. A mail order craft firm might offer an "Early American" handicrafts contest. Invite contest submissions and offer prizes to the winners. Do contests attract attention? You bet. All it takes is a few signs, a small press announcement or two, and the word will spread throughout the community grapevine.

COMMUNITY SERVICE.

Nothing brings you to the attention of the people faster-or more favorably-than community service. Ask yourself how your enterprise can be a "good neighbor" to your community. If you're running a lawn care and gardening service, perhaps you can offer one season's services at no charge to a needy charitable organization or nursing home in your area. Hundreds of people will hear about your work in the process. Volunteer for various community causes. If appropriate, you can step in during community emergency, offering products and services to help an organization or individuals in need.

COUPONS.

Americans are very coupon-conscious. Test the market: at what level will coupons increase the volume of various product or service lines? When you get some tentative answers, start distributing coupons that offer a discount on your services. Distribute them to area newspapers, on store counters, in door-to-door- mail packets (which can often be quite inexpensive), at the public library, at laundromats, at any location where people congregate.

BADGES AND NOVELTIES.

You can easily and inexpensively produce badges, bumper stickers, book covers, and other novelty items for distribution in your area. You can imprint your business name and the first names of the customers on many of these products at little cost and distribute them for free. Or you can tie your novelty program into a contest: once a month, you can offer a prize to any individual whose car happens to carry one of your bumper stickers or badges with peel-off coupons, redeemable at your place of business.

CELEBRITY VISITS.

With a bit of persistence, you may be able to arrange to have a local media celebrity, public official, or entertainment personally-even a fictitious cartoon character or clown-visit your service. The celebrity can sign autographs, read stories to children, perform cooking demonstrations, or perform any one of a hundred other traffic-building activities.

CELEBRATE HOLIDAYS.

You'll probably want to celebrate major public holidays with special sales. But celebrate some of the offbeat holidays as well. Almost every business has a few little-known holidays. Ever hear of National Pickle Day, for instance? Or Cat Lovers Month? Once you find the "right" holiday, you can sponsor a special sale or special product arrange special media coverage of a holiday event.

GO WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE.

Can you open sales information booths at community fairs, festivals and swap meets? This promotional technique can work for gift retailers, craftspeople, and personal service firms. If you have the people and the time, can you handle regional fairs or even trade shows?

MAILING LISTS.

Once you begin establishing a committed clientele, gather their names on a mailing list. Save the names from your mail orders and telephone inquiries. Eventually, you'll be able to send product circulars or even catalogs to the folks on your list and you'll be able to promise your products by mail.

SCAVENGER HUNTS.

If you want people to buy NOW, offer them an unbeatable deal. If they bring an old product-a small appliance, a book, whatever-to you, you'll give them a worthwhile discount on a comparable new item. Or stage a general purpose scavenger hunt. Customers who bring in three canned goods for your community's food bank will receive a discount on products purchased that day.

PARTIES.

Everyone loves a party. Why not celebrate the anniversary of your business or some special holiday by offering baked goods and beverages? If you're running a service business, perhaps you can offer an open house or obtain a small banquet room in your community. Besides refreshments, be sure the place is brightly decorated.

GREETING CARDS.

Do you send out greeting cards to major customers or clients? Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries make nice greeting card occasions. Greeting cards create enormous goodwill and keep your name in front of people.

SEMINARS.

In this information hungry age, people love to receive advice, especially about their personal needs and hobbies. If you sell health foods or run fitness classes, perhaps you can offer "wellness" seminars during lunchtime to your area's business community. If you're an interior decorator, perhaps you can offer one-hour decorating workshops to any group of ten people who will gather in someone's home. If you're running a printing business, perhaps you can offer tours and layout seminars at your plant.

MAGAZINES.

For free advertising space, many publications will write an article about you or your product if you purchase advertising space with them. One way publications sell advertising space is to agree that if the advertiser purchases the ad, he will also receive a certain amount of free editorial space. This free editorial space essentially doubles the amount of space you get for a given amount of money. This editorial space is devoted to an article about the company or individual or product, and it has the added cachet of seeming to be work of an outside source. The editorial company be written by the publication staff, or the advertiser may provide the copy.

If you're not pleased with your promotional efforts today or if you simply must increase your exposure among customers and prospects-it's probably time to increase your publicity efforts.

By all means, advertise in the media if you can. But don't neglect your greatest promotional asset-your mind. Ponder the products, services and events you can offer the community and devise a creative promotional strategy around them. You'll have to invest a bit of time and energy in the project, but the payoff will be worth it. You'll save hundreds-or even thousands-of advertising dollars and better yet, you'll travel a well-worn shortcut to profit.

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This, and many other free advertising strategies, are found in 4 free eBooks which can be downloaded at http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g10317ways

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NO RIGHT SHALL GO UN-WRONGED

If you are easily confused by facts and prefer to vote for the candidate with the best haircut, please DO NOT read this article. It will only confuse and upset you.

If you got past that first paragraph, let me direct your attention to some documents that have passed into the history of America. Over the last 50 years they have been spoken of daily but adhered to less often with every passing day.

United States Constitution http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g103us

No, I'm not talking about the American People's right to bear arms. I want to talk about our government's willingness to hound their enemies beyond the law and beyond the rights granted citizens under the Constitution.

First, a bit of background.

Lawsuits against the Boy Scout of America have been working their way through the courts for several years. Both sides of the many issues have vigorously defended their own views and presented their cases in ever higher courts. At each step, the loser has naturally appealed the decision to the next higher court. In America, that is how issues are resolved.

Recently one of the issues reached the United States Supreme Court, the highest court in America, tasked with the sole responsibility of deciding that a case has been resolved within the limits of the U.S. Constitution. They are not empowered to create law even though they do. They are only given the power to decide the correctness of a lower court's decision in light of the law of the land - the Constitution.

What is the issue? It doesn't matter. What matters is that the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts were absolutely within their legal rights to operate in the way they had been operating since their founding. It was the court's decision that the Boy Scouts were a private organization with the right to enforce their existing membership requirements. Those requirements do not violate anyone's Constitutional rights, according to the Court.

Since the Constitution defines the Supreme Court as the final deciding entity for questions on the Constitutionality of disagreements such as this, that is the end of the issue.

Not.

Not in Bill Clinton's America. He is not one to worry about the legality of his actions. By virtue of his great caring for the people of America, he is self -empowered to correct the misdeeds of the Supreme Court. After all, who would better know the real needs of the American people?

Clinton, knowing what the American people really wanted, issued a Presidential Executive Order (#13160.) It is a document to tell government employees and officials throughout America exactly what he thinks should be done about a subject.

His edict declared that all government agencies, as well as all True Americans, should ignore the ruling of the Supreme Court and instead implement Bill's View Of The World.

An Interior Department memorandum of 8/15/00 makes it clear that the federal government is targeting the Boy Scouts and the Boy Scouts alone (all seven items listed pertain directly to the Scouts.)

Bill's View calls for the complete withdrawal of all support in any form from the Boy Scouts of America. He didn't exactly word it that way, of course. The creator of the "what is, is" can do better than that. But through wording and timing it took no insight for True Americans to understand exactly who was to be punished into extinction.

Consequently, Bill followers have started kicking the Scouts out of school buildings, public parks and public buildings. Funding from charitable organizations have started to dry up, even when the money was donated with the stipulation that the funds were to go for the benefit of the Boy Scouts. Keep that in mind the next time the United Way asks you to donate some of your hard -earned money. You might want to avoid companies like Chase Manhattan Bank and Textron.

Did you miss the loud booing of a group of young Scouts invited to make an on -stage presentation at the Democratic Convention. How dare they vent their hostility directly at young kids already in a highly stressful situation just being on stage in front of the whole world. Do these mean-spirited adults really think that policies of the Scouts are established by a group of scared little kids? Or do they just hate to such an extent that they no longer care who gets injured? Shame on you for your small minds and evil intents. Next time pick on someone your own size!

Now we have vast groups of 6 year-olds standing in the streets searching for a place to have their meetings, since they are obviously not entitled to use publicly funded facilities. Those facilities are for "right thinking" members of the public.

It's still OK under the new rules for these same Scouts to volunteer the millions of boy-hours that go into projects to improve these same facilities at no cost to the public. They can spend their money and time to perform these volunteer, community service projects. They just can't use the facilities they create.

I can't figure out Bill's hatred of the Boy Scouts. It can't all be due to their refusal to adopt His world view. Maybe it's because they wear uniforms, something Bill has invested great effort in avoiding during his lifetime.

Soon we will be free of the oppression of Bill's government. He will be free to visit all of the Buddhist Temples he wants to raise monies for his Presidential Library.

Sadly, it looks like we might be bringing in Al's oppressive government in its place.

Al showed us the future during the first debate when he declared that he wanted a "Constitution that will grow with us."

Al, we already have a Constitution that grows with us. Just not as easily as you intend. It involves amending the Constitution through proposed amendments that are then ratified by "We, The People" in the voting booth. I know it is awkward and time consuming, but maybe you could have someone read you that part of the Constitution.

If the actions taken against the Scouts seems wrong to you, please read the details behind these actions and sign the petition on the off-chance that anyone in government gives a hoot what We, The People think.

http://www.grassfire.net/index1.asp?CID=2&PID=14580

Look into the actions your elected officials have taken against these kids before you vote. Ask the tough questions before voting for the Thought Police that currently misuse their power. Start at the local school board that is denying Americans acting within the laws of the land access to facilities that have been built with their money and efforts. When you find one of these anti -law elected officials, vote them out of office so they can try to find an honest job.

Thus ends the sum total on my screaming into the wind for this election year. I have no illusions that anything will change, but you can just never tell.

It occurs to me that the patriots in Yugoslavia will be needing a new Constitution.

We have one that we aren't using any more. Maybe they can use it.

Just so they understand that it expires after 150 years or so.

SNIPPETS

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

October 26 and 27, 2000 will see the second gathering of webmasters and site promoters, and the list of speakers has grown. The conference has also grown to two full days.

If you are planning to attend this conference in Stockholm, bring a few problems with you and take advantage of the second day's small group workshops to get some excellent advise on resolving the problems.

I look forward to seeing you there. I'm already working on my presentation and should be able to squeeze in a lot of good tips.

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Connection Speed Test
http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g103speed

Microsoft has an online tool that I have become addicted to in a very short time. Bandwidth Speedtest may not be accurate enough to calculate a soft landing on the Moon, but it works well enough for me. Just visit the page and the multi -page process begins.

Speedtest starts the download to your browser of a 500K file. It logs the start time and end time, does the math and tells you how fast your connection to the Internet is running. It times the entire route between your computer and the Microsoft server, so it is not just a test of your modem speed, but rather the effective speed at which you are interacting with the Net.

I've been able to chart the times when my cable modem is not getting enough bandwidth and can now easily avoid those times.

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Anyone Can Use It
http://jimworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g103any1

While it might not be as splashy as Netcasting the next Deadhead gathering, making simple use of audio and video online can have a real impact on sales and community.

Consider the problems faced by anyonecan.com, a site selling musical instruments from around the world.

While I might know the sounds created by every instrument ever created, that might not hold true for lesser beings.

A picture of an instrument may let you know how it will fit into your home's decor, but wouldn't it make the instruments easier to sell if potential customers could actually hear them in action? It certainly makes the simple sansa (African Thumb Piano) more desirable to hear how soothing it sounds when played. Added to quality photos, the simple addition of easy-to-make audio samples creates a compelling reason to order now.

So scale back your dreams of world domination through multimedia and focus on the simple things like audio and video that enhances the visitor's experience and lead to more sales.

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COPPA Law Doesn't Work For The White House
http://www.privacilla.org/WhiteHouse-COPPA.htm

Remember the COPPA law (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and how the politicians keep telling us we were making waaay too much of the problems involved in adhering to it? I thought you might.

COPPA is the law that took the evil "Thomas the Tank Engine" mailings off the Web. They didn't feel like facing the $11,000 fine per violation.

Remember the June 2000 memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget, which set forth the Clinton Administration's policy that ALL federal Web sites collecting information from children must comply with this privacy law. Again, you're right on target.

The effect of the COPPA law was the instant disappearance of all Internet users under the age of 13. I have not found a single person under 13 when asked their age during an online registration process. Surely President Clinton wouldn't want little kids to learn to be President....ummm, I mean liars.

Guess what! Seems the official "White House for Kids" Web site is not in compliance with the law. What a shocker.

It should come as no surprise to us that not only is it not in compliance, but they know it and have several good excuses from which you may pick your favorite. Sorry. "What is, is" is not among the choices. (Do you know how hard it is to create a sentence with three consecutive uses of the word "is"?)

If the Washington gang... ummmm, administration, can't comply with their own law you would think they would finally realize that it is a poorly written law, rescind it and get busy creating a good one.

How many believe that will be the outcome?

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Email Moodwatch
http://www.eudora.com/email/features/moodwatch.html

If you are using Eudora 5.0 you will want to turn of the Moodwatch system that is built in. Moodwatch scans your outgoing mail and looks for words and phrases that might lead to offending the recipient, even if you were unaware of the way your message sounded.

Moodwatch scans the meaning of your messages and rates the tone using a Chili Pepper rating system telling you how firm your message might appear to someone else.

Cool feature.