JimWorld Gazette Issue #72 02/07/1999

JimWorld Gazette - Issue #72 - February 7, 1999

Oops (2):
When breaking in the first-ever Gazette helper, one should take great care... more care than I took last issue. Several things lined up to conspire against accuracy. Something right out of the X-Files.

The result being that you got one inaccurate story about a law being voted on by the Senate that would increase your costs to connect to the Internet.

That particular law has become an Urban Myth since it was voted down 'back when.' The intent was to say exactly that in the Gazette.

The intent was to also point out the end result of that effort to raise costs by the Congress. Only the Congress is not doing it. What a surprise.

Being an unpopular subject, our predictable elected officials decided that doing it out of the public limelight would be safer for their re-election dreams.

So, they are letting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) take the action. Andover has an excellent article on the subject at http://www.andovernews.com/cgi-bin/news_story.pl?117415/topstories

It should have been obvious that the story of the Senate voting on Internet business was incorrect. After all, our Senate is just too busy to deal with such mundane subjects when it is much more fun to spend the session finding a way not to take a meaningful vote on Monica and Bill.

----------

If you have a minute to spare, please go to http://jimworld.com/vote.html and push the yellow button. That will cast your vote for the Gazette in the Ezines database. We need about 2,000 more votes to take the lead.

New At JimWorld
Software Chaos Tamer
Work At Home Scams - How Not To Become A Victim
Keyword Psychology
I'll Double Your Money Back
The British Invasion
Get Linked
Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g72

NEW AT JIMWORLD

Two Oops in one issue? Ouch.

Restitution is called for. Jim must be made to see the error of his ways!

So, here it is.

An early release of one of the many new JimTools currently under development for you to use.

The JimTool FFA Submitter is a free program to let you submit your site to 100+ Free-For-All pages. Each FFA page has been carefully selected to be as reliable as possible, meaning that you should be able to count on your ad actually appearing.

FFA pages break down and even go away on a fairly regular basis, but I have put some technology on-line to let me find the broken or missing pages quickly and I have a fairly long list of alternate pages to replace the bad ones on the list.

So, go check out my penance and drive some traffic to your site.

http://tools.com

Thanks to Jess O'Leary at Internet Marketing Challenge <http://marketingchallenge.com> for adopting this JimTool service and making it happen. You will forever see Jess's on-screen credit at the end of each submission process. If you would like to adopt a JimTool (I have a long list of programs that need to be written) drop me a line at mailto:jim@jimworld.com

SOFTWARE CHAOS TAMER

I'm probably the only one that this happens to, but I thought I'd write about it anyway.

I have tens of thousands of files in the software directories of my Win98 system. Last time I checked my Windows folder alone were 358 megabytes and 4,901 files. I seem to have DLL's for printing color graphics only on Thursdays and everything else you can imagine. My application drive has 4 gigabytes of applications.

Trying to keep all of this 'stuff' current is an impossible task. I usually don't bother until something breaks, then I dig in for a few hours and update everything I can find updates for. Boring, boring, boring.

Needless to say, when I got my latest issue of Amazing Freestuff from http://www.thefreesite.com and noticed a free service to keep all of my software up to date, my immediate reaction was 'Great. Another program to keep current.'

The write up was about Manageable Software's Catch-UP service <http://www.manageable.com> They claimed to have a simple to use service that would make it almost painless to get current and stay that way.

The first feature to catch my attention was their approach to updating my disc files: they don't. Their routine scans my drives, prepares a list of every program and software file on the system, looks up all of the current release information and presents me with a list of everything on my machine that I can upgrade. They even gave me links directly to the download files for each update. Everything was done through my browser, so the operation was simple and efficient. They didn't touch my files. I liked that. I would rather mess up my own files without any help from outsiders.

I downloaded about 40 updates and upgrades, installed them all and was operational in less than an hour. And my system still runs. Amazing.

On the off chance that you just might have a program or two that is out of date, try Catch(ing) Up. It barely hurts at all.

It's even simple enough to be used by the nerdily challenged.

Now all I need is a program to scan my system and tell me all of the programs I haven't used in a year. Or even which DLL's are really, actually, absolutely, totally safe to delete.

Can't hurt to dream can it?

WORK-AT-HOME SCAMS - HOW NOT TO BECOME A VICTIM

The ads are so tempting, and just think -- what if you could really make hundreds of dollars a day working from home? Unfortunately, people are losing money every day to work at home scams. Don't become a victim. Here are some ways to make sure you don't get scammed!

You know you're just about to get scammed by a work-at-home ad when...

The very first line states you can make hundreds of dollars a week working from home.
There is no experience needed.
You can work just a few hours a week and still make a bundle of money.
There is lots of CAPITALIZATION AND !!!!!! used in the ad.
You read an extremely vague ad. You haven't a clue what the business is about; but boy, could you be making the bucks.
You're asked to call a 900# for more information.
For a fee, a company will send you a list of businesses that are looking for home workers.
You are forced to make a decision immediately and are made to feel stupid if you say no to their offer.

-- How to Check A Company Out

Whether you have those funny feelings about the claims of a company or not, do some background research on them.

Hire a lawyer. This may seem like a waste of money, but in the long run it could really save you some financial heartache.
Call the Better Business Bureau (in the state the company resides in) to see if there have been any complaints against the company.
Ask the company if you can talk to some of their happy customers. Please be aware that companies can and will give you false customers to talk to. If these people sound way too happy, I would be a little leery.

-- Questions You Should Ask If You Are Thinking About Buying A Business Opportunity

Find out from your sponsor, in writing, what is involved with this business; such as:

Are you able to return merchandise if it doesn't sell?
Is there a money back guarantee?
How long have they been in business? (if it's under a year, I would again be very leery).
What is your total cost of this business opportunity, including fees, supplies, and equipment?
Will you be paid on salary or commission and how often and who will pay you?
Ask the program sponsor to write down every step of the business.

-- What To Do If You Become The Victim Of A Scam

First you need to write the company that you feel has ripped you off telling them you would like your money back. If they don't agree with you, then you need to let them know you plan to notify officials. The following people should be notified:

If you read about this work-at-home scheme in a magazine, let the editor know
you've been ripped off by these people and you're not happy about it.
The Attorney General's Office in your state <http://www.fraud.org/info/links.htm> or in the state where the company is located.
National Fraud Information Center <http://www.fraud.org/>. Call them if you feel you are a victim of a "get-rich-quick" or an "easy money" scheme. Check out their web site for daily alerts or new scams. 1-800-876-7060
Your local Consumer Protection Offices.
Your local Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the BBB in the state of the scammer <http://www.bbb.org/bureaus/index.html>.
Postmaster <http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/locators/find-is.html>. Notify them if you received the information through the mail.
The Federal Trade Commission <http://www.ftc.gov/ro/romap2.htm>. While the FTC cannot resolve individual disputes, the agency can take action if there is evidence of a pattern of deceptive or unfair practices <http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/rules.htm>. To register a complaint, write to: Correspondence Branch, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC 20580.

----------

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.

--Jim--
Here are some other links you will find of value:

Protecting Yourself from Consumer Fraud
http://legal.firn.edu/consumer/protect.html

FAQ About Consumer Fraud
http://www.blbglaw.com/consumfa.htm

Fighting Consumer Fraud
http://www.ftc.gov/reports/fraud97/

Project Mailbox
http://www.aarp.org/press/oldpress/pr100197.html

The Blacklist Database
http://www.blacklist.com/

MSN Money
Who's minding the Internet scams? Not the FTC
http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/smartbuy/scam/1550.asp

Internet ScamBusters
http://www.scambusters.com/

KEYWORD PSYCHOLOGY

Much has been written about how to secure a top (1-20) listing for a keyword on the search engines. Those of us who have the luxury of securing some favorable listings, know how difficult it is to maintain those top listings. We have also found that a favorable keyword listing does not guarantee greatly increased traffic, nor does it guarantee increased orders for our products and services provided. It may be that the favorable listing is for an obscure (little used) keyword or key phrase.

I would venture to say that of the 1-20 listed sites there are most likely only three to five sites that receive 80% of the traffic. Why? Within a matter of seconds, our ad copy (title and description) must convince the searcher that our site contains timely, interesting, helpful information and will help solve the problem that made them type the key phrase in the first place.

The same holds true for the wording, design and traffic flow of our Home Page or a keyword targeted gateway page. We only have a matter of seconds in order to convince the visitor that there is relevant, useful information, which is mostly free and easy to find. Only then will they stay around long enough in order for the goodwill created by our content to motivate them to purchase our products and services. Each and every word must be carefully chosen.

Traditional ad copy has made use of the 12 most powerful words in the English language (based on a Harvard study). Those are:

-- You
-- Save
-- Results
-- Health
-- Love
-- Proven
-- Money
-- New
-- Easy
-- Safety
-- Discovery
-- Guaranteed

For the internet I would also add: Free, etc. I do respond to the word Free. Not so much because of some prize I will receive, but because I want to visit sites which provide me free information, not contrived motivation, hype, fluff and a sales pitch.

Some time ago I read that the words typed most often when using a search engine included, Woman, Nude, Sex, and Free, among others. Although this is a sad commentary on the early years of the internet, I think that as the Web swiftly becomes less of a toy and more of a tool in the next year, all that will change. In fact, 1999 will be ‘The Year of the Internet’ and if you do not learn to write more effective ad copy, the Web will leave you behind in the Cyber Dust.

I seldom click the number one listed site because I want to choose from among those offered, and pick the site whose ad copy convinces me the content is relevant to my key phrase search. I find myself picking number 3-7 more often than not, and in fact because of a severe case of Information Overload, I find myself searching deeper into the listings looking for a site which has promise of good content and less hype and fluff. I also know that just because a site is good at search engine positioning, does not necessary mean the site contains relevant and useful content.

Consider this: Certain words and subtle changes in the ad copy of the search engine listing and our home page can, not only increase traffic and convince them to stay, but also influence who comes to visit our pages and if they buy products, or not. The title, Have a Heart’s Depression Home tends to attract troubled youth and people who are looking for a safe place to be, when depressed and suicidal. If instead I use the term, Depression Resource in the title, it tends to also attract the Psychiatric Registered Nurse and students of psychology.

How then, in a few short sentences, do you convince people that your site is the one to visit? First you must get their attention by presenting possible solutions to their problems. Next, you create interest by providing timely, relevant and free information concerning the keyword or key phrase typed. You personalize the message by using the words 'You' or 'Yours'. ('Our' or 'We' can be used if you personalize them, indicating that 'We are all in this together and together we can find solutions')

You might also try to associate current societal and internet ‘buzz words’ into your title, description, and the first text sentences of a page. (Y2k, Millennium, Beanie Babies, etc.) Because of the transitory nature of ‘buzz words’ I do not recommend this be done on your Home Page, but it may broaden your keyword base when used on a gateway article page. I could write an article with the title: 'Dr. Kevorkian, his influence on thoughts of suicide among teens'. After submitting this page to the search engines I may or may not receive a high rating for each of the three keywords. (Dr. Kevorkian, suicide, teens) But at least it increases my chances of a good listing when the searcher refines their search using any combination of the three words.

Of course this wording must all be done within the framework of providing the search engines with what they are currently programmed to deem relevant. This is different for each search engine (if you discount mirror engines) and changes quite often. But that is fodder for another article.

Rather than try and instruct you on writing good ad copy in this short article, here are a few exercises whereby you can learn free from the Web experts themselves. (The experts are the ones who motivate and give us the urge to click on their site, and then stay around once we get there.)

Assuming that you are a typical consumer of information on the internet, you should form the habit of doing a thorough investigation each time you get that familiar urge to ‘click’ on any site listed in the search engines, or for that matter anywhere on the Web.

Pick a keyword or key phrase, preferably not in your area of expertise but maybe concerning an area you are interested in learning more about. Pick one site, visit it, come back and pick another site, do this for three sites. Go back to the listings page and do a thorough investigation of each of the three listings. Why did you choose each site? How did they word the title and description? What keywords, power words or buzzwords did they use? Did they promise solutions to your problems? Did the information sound interesting, up-to-date? Did they promise something free? Did they motivate you?

It might be difficult to do an objective investigation of sites in your area of expertise. If so, have a friend do a search for the appropriate key phrases without telling the friend why, except that it is a research project and you will explain later. Talk over what motivated them to choose one site over another, the same as explained above.

Now go to each site and see if they followed through with the reason you clicked on their site. In a very short period of time, evaluate the overall feel of the site. (Layout, color, graphics) Is this a comfortable, informative, interesting, or fun place to be? Did you know almost instantly what the site contained? Could you easily find the information on the keyword you typed? Were there too many choices? Were links presented which you did not have a clear idea of where you would be going or what would be there once you arrived?

Did they do a good job of presenting their products or services and ask for your order? Were prices easy to find? Were you prompted to buy something? Was the ordering process easy to understand and implement?

With each urge to click, look to the reasons behind why you clicked each site and why you would choose their respective pages and products. Turn your ‘clicking’ urge into a learning tool and you will soon know, why and what, it takes to write copy that gets results.

----------

Stephen L. Bernhardt has been on-line for more than two years helping depressed and suicidal people. Have a Heart’s Depression Home http://www.have-a-heart.com His business site provides information on Internet Business Marketing and Web Site Promotion.

I'LL DOUBLE YOUR MONEY BACK...

... If You're Not Completely Satisfied with this Article!

Over ten years in Direct Marketing and three years on the Web has taught me many valuable lessons. But perhaps none are more valuable than this one:

"If you offer a product or service without a guarantee, you're throwing away money!"

That's right ... I said you're throwing away money! Why do I say that? Because guarantees can do two very important things that will help grow your profits: increase sales and reduce returns.

How in the world do guarantees lead to an increase in sales? There are several ways. First, when you offer a guarantee, you reduce the skepticism around the purchase of your product or service. And although things seem to be improving, consumers are still leery of making a purchase via the Web. Guarantees can help you chop away at their cautiousness.

Guarantees can also give you almost instant credibility with potential customers. Let me give you an example.

One of my first direct mail products years ago was a self-study program that I marketed to engineers preparing for a certification exam. The product was a database program that presented over 1,000 questions and answers in a number of categories, graded responses and provided scores.

When I first offered the program in a trade magazine, my sales weren't even enough to cover the cost of the ad that I placed. After some research, I learned that there was one key thing missing: a guarantee.

I changed my ad and sales letter to include a guarantee and the results were amazing. The number of responses to the same ad with my guarantee increased by a factor of 20. And my conversion rate from my sales letter rose from 10% to almost 40%. No other changes ... just by adding a guarantee.

Guarantees will increase sales. And the stronger the guarantee, the larger the increase. And a strong guarantee can do something else even more dramatic - it can actually reduce returns.

I know what you're thinking ... if I offer a guarantee, I'm inviting returns. Not true, at least not based on my experience.

I produced another information product a few years later that I marketed to the same group of engineers. Along the way, I experimented with a variety of guarantees.

What I found was the stronger the guarantee, the fewer the returns. I got fewer returns with a 90 day guarantee than I did with a 30 day guarantee. And I got fewer returns when I offered to let them keep some bonus items than when I didn't say one way or the other. And check this out ... I got almost no returns when I made my guarantee an unconditional lifetime guarantee!

The bottom line is this. You are going to get some amount of product returns. Perhaps the two biggest things that you can do to drastically reduce the number of returns you get is to offer a great product and to offer a strong guarantee.

Here's what Internet veteran Jim Daniels of JDD Publishing <http://www.bizweb2000.com>, has to say about offering guarantees for your products.

"A big key to selling online is offering a no-hassle return policy. Since I released my book, Insider Internet Marketing, I've always processed speedy returns to anyone who asks for one. While my sales figures have been strong, returns have been near zero since day one (Average 1%).

Although many info-product marketers can expect up to 5% returns, the key is to keep your information current and always offer a full money-back refund to your prospects! The sales increases will far outweigh the actual returns you'll process."

Let me close by echoing one thing that Jim mentioned. I think it's really important to not haggle with customers that want to return your product. It's just not worth the time and effort, not to mention the opportunity for bad "word of mouth" to spread through the web.

If you don't offer a guarantee today, start. If you do, look at it making it even stronger. I think that you'll be happy with the results :-)

----------

Chris Ayers is an Internet Marketer and publisher of the FREE newsletter, "Unlimited Traffic!" In each issue, you get the latest tools, tips and techniques for driving more traffic to your site. Visit his site at http://unlimitedtraffic.com or subscribe by sending any message to traffic-on@mail-list.com

THE BRITISH INVASION

There is no doubt that the Web is growing fast in Britain, there are now literally 100s of service providers trying to tempt new users, and the majority of new computers are all equipped with modems, every school in the country will have internet access by next year, so everybody over the age of 4 can access the web, and every school child will get an email address for life. Good for the years ahead anyway.

However we do have some serious limiting factors that will impede this growth. Connections are ever so slow and index pages of over 30 - 40k are a big turn off, as is some of the latest technology which pushes browsers to the limit and takes time to download. In addition to the slow speed, you are quite right to say we pay big time in cash. Typically we pay £12 (approx $19) per month for unlimited access, and in addition to this the typical user will probably pay £30 to £40 (approx $32 - $64) in phone charges per month. I know I do. This of course equates to almost $1000 per year. Can I hear America laughing?

Help always seems to be around the corner, and despite much ranting in Government no simple solution is imminent. As a result of this I find that a large percentage of visitors to my site are using company domains, and I presume their employer's machines and time to access the web. Maybe this will restrict their use and prevent a lot of commerce. I cannot say this with any certainty as my site is recreational, giving just help, advice and a forum for exchange of views. It is also very specific, being aimed at British dinghy sailors. Despite this the majority of mail is received from around the world, and this is, I am afraid, where we see a British trait, "being very slow to comment and contribute". This of course does not worry me as I now communicate regularly with such a wide diversity of people, and know that my efforts are so much more appreciated by those on the other end.

Please don't lose heart though the British may be slow on the uptake and almost expect to be over charged, but we will catch up. Figures I have seen recently suggest that now almost 3 million people here have Internet access. The cultural change may take a little longer, and the majority of people still need convincing that it is safe to use credit cards on the web, but that will come. We have recently seen a major high street PC vendor offer a free dial up account with email and web space, so this can only help. Lets hope the phone companies play ball soon!!

----------

Roger Battersby mailto:roger@dingyrac.force9.co.uk
UK Dinghy Racing
http://www.dingyrac.force9.co.uk

-- Jim --
British-American Dictionaries on the WWW
http://pages.prodigy.com/NY/NYC/britspk/dictlink.html#more

GET LINKED

AALA's Superlinks
http://www.aala.com/links/index.html

----------

Argus Clearinghouse
http://www.clearinghouse.net/

If you have a directory to other web sites, submit it here.

----------

The Directory Guide
http://www.directoryguide.com/

Submit your site directory. Operated by LinkExchange and they list directories that link back to them and allow them to add the directory to their Submit-It service.

----------

White Net Pages
http://www.aldea.com/whitepages/white.html

Listings for all personal web pages, in the form of a White Pages phone book.

----------

YourFamily.com
http://www.yourfamily.com/family.cgi

A directory of family pages.

----------

Women's Business Directory
http://www.pleiades-net.com/lists/bus.html

A directory of sites operated by women.

----------

The Alpha Omega Cyberspace Guide
http://www.alpha-omega.net/guide/index.htm
Submit all sites using the small button in the lower frame.

SNIPPETS

If you are in the healthcare field, you might want to register for a .MD domain name at http://www.domains.md

http://jimwilson.md Hmmmm, sure would make my mother proud.