JimWorld Gazette Issue #71 01/20/1999

JimWorld Gazette - Issue #71 - January 20, 1999

New At JimWorld
The New Form Of Affiliate Programs
Gazeteer Hits The Big Time
Moving Your Customers Beyond The Free Report
Find The Home Based Business Of Your Dreams
Missing Links
Get Linked
Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g71

NEW AT JimWorld

To those of you that got the 'Cool' email message from me, it wasn't from me... sort of. The problem turned out to be an obscure hole in the Helpware directory that allowed our hacker to get in far enough to send an email to the webmasters registered in the directory. So he sent out an empty message with just the word 'Cool' in the subject line. The hole was quickly plugged to make this impossible in the future.

Our little hacker left more information about himself than he expected. We have been able to track him back to his ISP account and have turned the incident and evidence over to the authorities. Once he is in custody, I will be thrilled to write a more complete article about him. Want to make sure that he gets all of the credit and attention that he deserves. Maybe we can get a copy of the mug shot?

Since I know the hacker is a subscriber, you might want to drop me a line. I have a really good list of attorneys and bail bondsmen that will come in handy. And just a tip: make sure you are fully dressed whenever you answer the doorbell.

Thanks to David Beroff at http://Freedback.com/ for helping me track down this culprit.
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At long last the software driving the Search Engine Forums http://searchengineforums.com has been updated to the latest release. That has been a frequent request in my email box and I'm happy to report that it is working well. All of the features previously available only to the participants in the Get High (Traffic) Forums http://gethighforums.com are now available to the Search Engine participants.

THE NEW FORM OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:

Two-Tiered Programs:
What They are and How to Capitalize on Them

A new twist to affiliate programs is what has become known as "two-tiered" or "sub-affiliate" programs. These are affiliate programs where you earn commissions from your directly referred sales as well as the referral sales of people who you signed up as your sub-affiliate.

They work like a normal affiliate program by giving you a certain percentage of sales. But, unlike the normal affiliate program they also allow you to recruit a sales force of sub-affiliates. As these people are making sales, you are also paid a percentage of their sales as well.

In theory, somebody could go out and recruit 1000's of other internet marketers who sell the product/service to their current customer base while you sit back and collect a commission from their work. However, I decided to take a closer look at these new type of affiliate programs.

First, the 80/20 rule will still be in effect. This means that 20% of the sub -affiliates you sign up will generate 80% of your commissions earned from sub -affiliate sales. More than likely over half of the sub-affiliates you do sign up will not even make one sale. Take this into consideration when deciding how much time, work, and money you will put into recruiting sub-affiliates.

Also related to this is how much time you will spend keeping in contact with your sub-affiliates. I found that every time I sent out a message to my sub -affiliates their activity spiked compared to their "normal" activity.

Second, how does this effect the commissions you earn. Typically, affiliate programs that offer this two-tier approach will lower the commission you earn on your direct sales so they can offer the commission you earn on your sub -affiliates. For example, this could mean instead of 30% of sales, you would make 20% of direct sales and 10% of your sub's sales.

So, before accepting this type of arrangement you should decide if you will benefit more by having a higher commission or by being able to receive an additional commission by recruiting sub-affiliates. This all depends on the product being sold, that product's (and your) target market, and the price of that product. So a product geared to internet marketers would work better with this two-tier approach then a product geared to biking enthusiasts.

However, when examining the results from my efforts from the past 2+ months with a two-tier program that I am almost exclusively promoting I am finding that: 1. The 80/20 rule and the 50% rule both are true, and 2. I am earning 1/3 of my commissions from my own sales and the other 2/3 from the sales of my sub -affiliates.

Apply this to any current one-level affiliate program and I realized I could theoretically be receiving 3 times what I am currently receiving if it was in the form of a two-tier program. I think internet marketers are starting to catch on and this will become more popular over the next few months and going into 1999.

To help in your researching efforts I have compiled a list of some of the more popular and effective two-tier programs that are available. You can find them at http://www.lostandfind.com/visionpro/twotier.html
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Kevin Wilke http://www.lostandfind.com/visionpro/ offers a free training course via email that will show you how to add large multiple streams of income to your life. He is also the editor and publisher of VisionPRO E-Training, a free weekly newsletter delivered via email every Friday. It offers the best training for network marketing success.

GAZETEER HITS THE BIG TIME!

Dear Jim,

Just a quick note of thanks Jim. We've been using the Gazette and the VirtualPROMOTE web site for a long time now. The priceless information you offer your online community is a tribute to everything the web was designed to be, a source of shared knowledge. Your gifts, in the form of helpful tips meant to improve the quality of our web sites, have been more than a significant factor in helping Doubletake Gallery reach a goal we set for ourselves more than a year ago.

As of this weekend, Doubletake Gallery, <http://www.doubletakeart.com>, is one of the top 25 web sites in the Lycos Top 5% Shopping category! Check it out, <http://point.lycos.com/topics/Shopping_Overall.html>.

Not only that, we're actually in two categories! We're also number 13 in the Culture/Museums & Galleries category, <http://point.lycos.com/topics/MuseumsandGalleries_Overall.html>.

We're giving you part of the credit for getting us to this position Jim. I can't thank you enough.

Sincerely,
Bob Varner
Doubletake Gallery
<http://www.DoubletakeArt.com>

-- Jim --
Congrats, Bob. Maybe now you can help me figure out how to get selected in even one category! --

MOVING YOUR CUSTOMERS BEYOND THE FREE REPORT

Providing FREE information is one of the most popular, not to mention effective, ways to attract potential customers on the Web. Free information is one of the pillars that holds the Web up today.

But, unless you're in the business of selling CD's chocked full of those free reports, you probably provide free info with the hopes of landing a new customer for your products and services. Well ... as much as I hate to be the one to tell you ... hoping won't get the job done.

I decided to write this article after four separate but related emails to my site last week. In each request, the individual had been doing business on the web for some time, but wasn't getting the results they had "hoped" for.

As I explained in four individual yet strangely similar email responses, free information is one of the biggest weapons in your online marketing arsenal. The problem was not in the information that they sent out, but in how they sent it out and more importantly, what they did "after" they sent it out.

Here are some of the best ideas I've come across for moving potential customers beyond the free report.

Use a strong but not "overpowering" signature with the information. Lead them to your site, sign them up for your newsletter, but don't hard sell them during your first contact with them.
Follow-up the report with a "friendly" email message. Not aggressive. Not threatening. No selling. Point them to another article or web site that might be of interest. This technique is a personal favorite of mine. I have used it effectively for years, both online and offline.
Send them an offer for a "free trial" of your product or service. Offer to design a free banner ad for them. If they like it, great! If not, it doesn't cost them a dime.

Or create and submit one page to one search engine for them. If it gets results, great! If not, they don't spend a penny.
Offer a FREE critique or evaluation. Another favorite from my days in direct mail. I used to offer a free "tip sheet" on writing killer sales letters (not to be confused with killer's sales letters ... that one wasn't me).

When I evaluated their work, I gave them three specific things they could do to improve. And also introduced them to a course for writing winning sales letters. If memory serves me correctly, I think I threw in some coupons for the course to :-)

You see this technique alive and well on the Web today with offers to evaluate your web site, check your meta tags.

Follow up with a short description of your product or service followed by a few testimonials from some of your satisfied customers. (Editor's note ... what a great lead-in to our Guest Article from Bob Leduc).

Follow up with a special offer. You could offer a special customer discount or a time-limited offer ... this special offer good until March 1, 1999.This by no means is meant to be an exhaustive list of what you can do. But do something. You can combine some of these techniques or come up with your own.

Let me just make one very important point. Establishing a relationship with your customer should be the objective here ... not the quick sell. Remember, the key to continued success is a focus on the lifetime value of each customer ... not what you'll make if you can sell 500 of these things this month.

My final advice to you would be to test a variety of approaches to see what works best with your product and your customers.

It's pretty easy these days to set up a system to keep track of the success of each method. If you aren't sure how to do this, just send me an email and I'll help get you started.

And if after receiving my free report, you get a message pointing you to some other helpful resources ... well, you know the rest of the story :-)

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Chris Ayers is an Internet marketer and publisher of the free newsletter, "Unlimited Traffic!" Visit his site at http://unlimitedtraffic.com or subscribe to his newsletter with a message to mailto:traffic-on@mail-list.com

FIND THE HOME BASED BUSINESS OF YOUR DREAMS

I talk to mothers on a daily basis who all say the same thing. "I'd love to work from home, but I haven't a clue what type of business I want to start." And I'll admit it, that's pretty much how I felt about five years ago. The only thing I did know was that I wanted the chance to raise my kids myself and start some sort of business from home.

With the experience I've gained in the last few years, I've found the key to finding the perfect business for each individual is to find one they are going to LOVE working at.

Every person reading this article was born with a special gift that could be used to start a home business. You are all naturally gifted in an area. Once you discover that gift, you will be able to discover the best business for your personality -- so that when you wake up in the morning you'll say to yourself, "Yeah, I get to work today." You'll feel like that is what you were born to do. It's a part of you -- it's what makes you tick.

Now lets figure out the best home-based biz for you.

-- What are your interests?

What types of things do you enjoy doing. Yes, you can love your job!! Everyone
is born with a special talent that sets them apart from others. Your job is to figure out what that talent is and find a way to turn it into a business. One lady I profiled in my book, "The Stay-at-Home Mom's Guide To Making Money", had always loved horses. When she was younger she didn't have a horse of her own. So she would groom and feed other people's just for the chance to ride. Now that she is an adult she has turned that interest into a pet sitting business. While she takes care of the smaller critters, she has niched herself in the area of horse care.

-- What are your hobbies?

Is your hobby candle making, painting portraits, herb gardening...? These are all great home businesses just waiting to happen. And you don't necessarily have to produce these items to make money. Maybe you could start a newsletter on the subject of your hobby for others just like you. Or maybe you could start to sell supplies for other hobbyists or businesses. Maybe you could write a book on the subject. Once you start brainstorming, you'll be surprised at all the ideas you will come up with.

-- You're producing a service or product for your friends and family for free
already.

I talk with moms all the time who say their family or friends are always coming to them because they are great at creating a resume or they can really put a nice bouquet a flowers together for special events (floral designer). These are all great ideas for a home business.

-- Go with what you already know a lot about.

Maybe you enjoyed your work outside the home but still want to be home with your kids. Use your previous skills to get your business started. Teachers become tutors, secretaries become word processors, and graphic artists become -- graphic artists. The same can go for architects, photographers, and transcriptionists -- both legal and medical.

SCAMS

ONE WAY I do not recommend to find a home biz is to send "just $19.95 and I'll show you how you can make hundreds of dollars a week in the comfort of your home." These are all big time scams. Don't even mess with them. If any ad states easy money, no experience necessary, guaranteed success, lots of capitalization and exclamation marks, that is a scam! Or if you are talking with a sales person for a business opportunity and they force you to make a decision on the spot and it's almost like they are making you feel stupid if you say no, tell them to get lost and get out of that situation as fast as you can.

Usually the key to unlocking the mystery of what home business to start is right inside of you. This search is not a quick one, however. Take the time to rediscover your interests and don't be afraid to start a business in the area you really enjoy.

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Liz Folger is Work-at-Home Mom Expert and author of, "The Stay-at-Home Mom's
Guide To Making Money" available at your favorite bookstore or by calling, 800-632-8676. Liz has also created a resource site for work-at-home moms at: http://www.bizymoms.com. Don't forget to sign-up for the free e-newsletter.

MISSING LINKS

Don't Overlook This Promotional Tool

A good deal of the material available on site promotion deals with submitting your site to Yahoo! and various search engines. For some webmasters, the all -consuming goal becomes achieving and maintaining a top 10 or top 20 listing.

While a high listing in one of the major engines would be great, not everyone is going to be able to accomplish that. After all, only...well....10 sites out of the hundreds of thousands out there will be in the top 10, right?

Should you hang it all up if you don't make it into that elite group? No way!

You should always submit your site to the major search engines and do what you can within reason to try to ensure a good listing, but don't put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. There are other ways to promote your site and these other methods might just work as well as, or in some cases better than, search engines and directories to refer people to your site.

The promotion method I want to discuss in this article is linking.

There are basically two types of links: reciprocal and non-reciprocal.

Reciprocal links are agreements between site owners to display each other's hypertext links. This is the online equivalent of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours".

Non-reciprocal links, then, are links to your site that another site owner has placed on his or her page without requiring you to do the same. These types of links are what I strive for as a site owner. The reason is simple: it's free advertising; you don't have to do a thing except reap the benefits of any additional traffic.

I'm going to outline a few ways to cultivate each kind of link and some Do's and Don'ts in each category.

==> RECIPROCAL LINKS

One of my visitors emailed me just today asking what he could do to get more site owners to trade links. As a site owner myself, I've been approached by many people and I've discovered quite a few things that discourage me from swapping links with other sites. Based on my experience, I want to offer a few pointers for those of you who are trying to get a reciprocal link program off the ground.

Personalize your contact email

I can't tell you how many sites I've never even considered exchanging links with simply because I received a "form letter" from the owner. You've received these, haven't you? Something along the lines of: "Hello fellow webmaster! I visited your site today..." By the second line, it becomes painfully obvious he or she did nothing of the sort. If you don't care enough to find out my name and send me a personal email, why should I care to link with you? My name is on the front page (and every other page) of my site! How hard is it to address the email to me and not some generic group?
Target

You've sent out email to various site owners and you've gotten a bite! The owner of the "Greater Hemhaw Bat Roosting Habitat Study Page" wants to trade links!

Slow down, kid, let's think about this for a moment. If your site is devoted to constructing a bat house (yes, there is such a thing, Virginia), you're in business. If your site caters to software developers, do you really want to include that link on your page?

Am I being a bit facetious? Maybe so. The point I'm trying to convey is you should only negotiate reciprocal links with sites that have content which complements yours.

The reason for this is twofold: first, it is a great resource for your visitors to be able to find information that you may not have covered on your page. Afraid you'll lose them forever? If your content isn't good enough to get them to return, you never really had them in the first place. The second reason is you won't be filling up your space with loads of (for your visitors' purposes) useless material. Don't you think sites that are just haphazard collections of links already take up too much space?
Remember the Golden Rule

An especially memorable email that just warmed the cockles of my heart said something along the lines of: "Don't try to hawk any of your [you-know-what]. Just do what I'm asking you to do and get back to me." OK, so I paraphrased a bit - but that was the gist and the general tone of the correspondence. This person was "requesting" a free service I offer.

Remember the Golden Rule? Do unto others...

People who operate web sites are usually fairly busy. Many of the site owners I know are great people and often respond quickly and (invariably) politely to requests from visitors. I think that most of us not only don't mind email from visitors, we thrive on it!

That being said, successful sites receive lots of email so you stand a much greater chance of getting what you want if you use a little common courtesy in your correspondence. Email is very impersonal. What you consider efficient may be interpreted by the recipient as curt. You needn't be excessively wordy, but make an effort to phrase your requests or comments politely and I'm sure you'll get better results.
Location, location, location!

I believe it's best to have a separate links page. Don't showcase someone else's page on your site's prime "real estate".

If possible, organize your links into categories and give a short description of each to help your visitors as they peruse them.
Birds of a Feather...

You should guard your online reputation as closely as possible. Your credibility is a major asset.

Don't exchange links with sites that do business in a manner contrary to the way you do business. I think many visitors feel by displaying another site's link, you're endorsing that site or product; even though this may not be the case. If you exchange links with a "shady" site, it will reflect on your site to some extent.

In the "real world", you're often judged by the company you keep. It's not so different online.

==> NON-RECIPROCAL LINKS

There are few pointers I can offer in this area. The main way to procure non-reciprocal links is to develop and maintain a good site.

You can actively encourage people to link to your site by providing banners, buttons, or other linking graphics for people to use. A word of advice in this area: many people would like to link to your site, but don't have the faintest idea of how to do so. Provide easy to understand instructions on how to copy the graphics and provide the HTML code you would like people to use when linking.

Institute a program that somehow rewards site owners who display a link to your site. One such technique that is widely used is to have a "link contest"; usually a randomly selected site wins a prize. The prize can be anything from free advertising to a free gift from your product line. Be creative! Pick something your visitors would actually want in order to encourage maximum participation.

While these promotional tools may never eclipse Yahoo! in your list of referrers, you might be surprised at the extra traffic that links from other sites can generate!

--Jim-- Links account for over 90% of all traffic coming to VirtualPROMOTE. A well run linking program can become such a reliable source of traffic that the need to battle the search engine placement opponent can be all but eliminated. --

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Jennifer Johnson
ASPiRE Internet Marketing
<http://www.PromotingYourSite.com>
Articles, tips, tools, tutorials, and other resources to help you effectively design and promote your site. Free newsletter. Contact Jennifer directly at: jenny@promotingyoursite.com

GET LINKED

Investor Map
http://www.investormap.com/

This brand new directory is a huge directory attempting to list every investment oriented resource on the web. Make sure yours is there and if not, submit it.

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Mail-Co Marketing
http://www.mail-co.com/promote.htm

Post your list, web site, newsletter, webring here. All posts are received and reviewed by email. Roughly 75 words to a listing.

SNIPPETS

Harvard University Library
http://hul.harvard.edu/assembly/pdc/workshop/pr_engines.html

Thanks to DianeV at http://mobileminister.com for calling to my attention the Harvard University Library Professional Development Committee's 1998 Spring Technology Workshop, which lists
VirtualPROMOTE on their short list of Web development resources.

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Found on Lycos:

Discount Cigarettes
Discount Cigarettes Shipped Direct to You! You might be willing to walk a mile for a mild, mild Camel.
http://internet.roadrunner.com/discount/
Similar Pages | More pages from internet.roadrunner.com |
internet.roadrunner.com

I am seeing this mistake on a fairly regular basis. It seems that people believe that they can put HTML into the TITLE tag of their pages and draw lots of attention. It is true. You do get attention. But being laughed at is probably not the kind of attention you had in mind. If you have HTML tags in your TITLE, go remove them now.

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Rumor has it that Excite has been sold to @HOME, the cable modem folks. At $6 billion, it is a sweet deal for the Excite shareholders (almost double what their stock was worth before the announcement.) The @HOME team has been pretty savvy about the right way to deliver content to their subscribers, so the move could take Excite a whole new direction.

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NetStudio.com
http://216.15.30.8/

Another free, online graphics tool that lets you create banners, buttons, heading and photo composites. This is a demonstration to help sell the NetStudio software package and it is pretty useful. Give it a try. It does what it does very quickly.
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Ulead
http://www.webutilities.com/valentines

Chocolates are nice, and flowers are OK, but if you really want to impress that special someone, go to the Ulead WebUtilities Lonely Hearts Club and get a free animated Valentine.

These Valentines are absolutely free. Use them to liven up your Web site, decorate your desktop, or send an animated email.

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Got some spam from 'Karen' with a subject of 'URGENT!!', I suppose in the hopes that I would open her message and fall in love with her 60 point type in a message that I can buy credit card processing terminals from her. Fat chance. I did call her toll free number 1-888-264-9272 to register my displeasure and incidentally to run up her phone bill. Hope you don't all call 1-888-264-9272 and run up her phone bill. After all, don't we all love spam around here?

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How mainstream is the Internet? Possibly more so than you thought. Delta Airlines has imposed a $2.00 per round-trip ticket purchased - except tickets purchased through the Internet. Other airlines are reportedly considering the same move. That looks pretty mainstream to me. Should your business be offering special bonuses or discounts to Internet buyers?

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Useless Knowledge
http://139.146.236.234/promo.shtml

One of my favorite places to pass a few useless minutes. Take some of the quizzes and see how much useless information you have cluttering up your brain.

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CNN stated that the New Congress would, in two weeks time, decide to allow or not allow a Charge to your phone bill equal to a Long Distance call EACH time you access the Internet.

The address is http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Visit and fill out the necessary form! Tell your congressman to vote against Internet Access Fees! I sent mine. Now you send yours.

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This is a new affiliate program that should interest a good many of you:

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Join Us As Our Partner And Profit NOW

Currently we receive up to 2,000+ site submissions a day - and we need your help!

Business is exploding at The Net One. Along with our free listings services, we offer a wide range of powerful advertising opportunities to drive traffic to Web sites. Now - just to keep up with the rising demand for our services - we are looking for motivated partners to join The Net One Affiliate Program.

Joining us is fast and easy, and you can earn significant extra income simply by displaying The Net One link, button, or banner. We guarantee you will earn .02 for every click-through from your Web site - PLUS a whopping 15% commission on all advertising upgrades sold!

Now you can generate immediate income by promoting our Top 10 rankings and other key enhancements, including banners and classified ads. Best of all, smart businesses will renew their advertising over and over on our high traffic search engine. Which means, one sale can pay you commissions for months to come!

We're riding the Internet wave of the future, and the time to profit is NOW. Join us today at The Net One by visiting this link: http://thenetone.com/affiliate.htm

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If you are in need of a domain name that will work in the field of training, Gazeteer Claire Belilos Chic Hospitality Consulting Services has several good ones for sale. Given the scarcity of good domain names, this is a good place to start. Names like http://www.easytraining.com Check out her list of available names at http://www.cdnbizwomen.com/advertise/chic.html