JimWorld Gazette Issue #76 04/22/1999

JimWorld Gazette - Issue #76 - April 22, 1999

The following has absolutely nothing to do with site promotion, e-marketing, e -commerce or any of the other subjects we try to limit the Gazette to, but something I feel this strongly about just has to be let out. Maybe then I'll feel a little bit better.

I hope my reaction to the horror in Littleton, Colorado wasn't colored by my having lived in that community for so many years. I sat glued to MSNBC News all day hoping that it would turn out to be a giant media over reaction and we would see those kids come walking out of their school. That was not to be.

The entire day was devoted to coverage of the scene, so there was no time for the media to start trotting out the same old tired excuses in their chronic knee jerk reaction.

Are the guns to blame? No. Is rock music to blame? No. But I know who is to blame and I'll tell you.

If you work in a school and you've ever turned a blind eye to violent outbursts by a kid because you feel sorry for them, you are.

If you're a parent and you've ever backed off from a school employee when they have failed to enforce discipline because you didn't want to make waves, you are.

If you are in law enforcement and have ever "let it slide" because after all, the courts will just let them go and nobody cares anyway, you are.

If you have ever witnessed a law enforcement official "let it slide" and failed to hold their feet to the fire and made them do the job right, you are.

If you are a judge and have taken the easy path by not holding juveniles accountable for their behavior out of frustration, laziness or misguided feelings of sympathy, you are.

If you work in a store and have ever overlooked shoplifting because you didn't want to get involved and have to confront the thief, you are.

If you are a member of the clergy and tried to explain away youth behavior to the parents as something that will pass, just a phase, you are.

If you are a reporter and have ever taken the safe path of blaming violence on things instead of placing the blame on people where it always belongs, you are.

If you are a kid and have ever seen a friend carry a gun or knife to school, beat up on other kids, sell or use drugs or any other serious threats to the safety of both you and your friends, and have not told your parents or an adult at the school, you are.

If you are a parent and have ever advised your son or daughter to just stay away from "that kid" when they came to you with a report of dangerous behavior by another kid at school, you are.

If you are that kid and let your parents get away with that spineless response, you are.

Or, if you are an American, young or old, who has spent too many hours watching the news, clucking your tongue and pronouncing loudly that "somebody ought to do something," you are.

But more than anyone, because I have been guilty of so many of these gutless acts during my lifetime, I am.

Let's not take the easy path and write this horror off to guns. That is the easy way out. For once let's put the blame where it belongs... on our own shoulders. This is our country and these are our kids. They deserve better than lip service when it comes to their safety. Being a kid is tough enough without having to endure the constant terror of living under battlefield conditions caused by lack of resolve on the part of adults.

If we would all just get off our butts and suffer the inconvenience, we could make a difference. A real difference. Real change. Volunteer at the local school to help enforce safety before or after school. Sponsor after school clubs for the kids that have nothing much to do after school. Ask the Scout troop if they need another adult leader. Put your time and your skills to the only use that matters... preparing the future for our kids, and preparing them for that future.

When you've tried, that dinner out or that trip to the mall will mean so much more. At least you tried while so many watched and made dinner reservations.

In the coming weeks and months we must all be available. If you come into contact with a kid who makes mention of Littleton, don't treat it as you treat questions from your kids about sex. Sit down and let the kid talk it out. They're all scared now and someone has to be there for them. I'm going to be there for Nick. You be there for your own or someone's kid.

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Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
-- Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

CONTENTS

• A Good Alternative To Frames
  
• What Happens After They Push The "SEND" Button?
  
• Windows NT Is Not Supplanting That Other Operating System
  
• One Middle-Aged, Round-Bellied, Simpleton's Experiences With Internet Community Building
  
• Handle "New Media" Inquiries Carefully
  
• Protect Your Domain Name From The Threat Of Success
  
• The Internet Is A Wondrous Place
  
• Get Those Exchange Banners Off Your Home Page
  
• Get Linked
  
• Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g76

INTERNET WORLD AGAIN

Off we went to Internet World in Los Angeles for three tiring days to find all the cool new things that you want to know about.

Nick found tons of new software to test. Cathy talked to everyone there that
could spell e-commerce. And I just wandered around in overload-mode.

Sounds like fun doesn't it? That's why you should have gone.

Everyone in the world's media is busily cranking out miles of copy about the trivialities of the Internet World conference. Things like powerful new technologies, exploding new markets, and breakthrough new products. All the lesser stuff.

On the other hand, I intend to start with the two most important aspects of this, or any Internet convention.:

-- This year's Best and Worst Press Kit Awards.

-- And in the next issue, the 10 best free "stuff" given away at the booths.

I know these are heady matters for us to discuss, but with focus and patience we can consider the impact of these critical subjects on the Internet's future.

THE QUEST FOR THE ULTIMATE PRESS KIT

Picture a long room with row upon row of long tables, each divided into dozens of bins just the right size to hold a generous supply of dozens of different press kits. The output of hundreds of public relations firms and in-house marketing pros. State of the art information for a rapidly evolving techno-world.

Further, picture a couple of hundred technology reporters joyfully gathering these information filled kits to feed their need for information for weeks to come.

Sounds great doesn't it. Sure wish it were true.

The reality is that much giggling accompanies the reporter's tour of the press kit room.

When I first entered this year's press room, I was greeted with the site of several reporters sitting on the couches, each with a massive pile of press kits on the floor in front of them adjacent to a large trash can. Each kit was carefully examined for any meaningful content, which was extracted and the remainder of the press kit went into the trash can. Many kits went into the trash in their entirety.

As reporters walked up and down the press kit tables, giggles and sounds of frustration accompanied the examination of each kit. "Hey, anybody know what this company does?" or "Wow, this kit includes eight by ten glossies of everyone that has ever worked at this company."

It seems that public relation firms and marketing departments are of the opinion that reporters can carry unlimited pounds of press kits while covering the show. The truth is that only a small portion of each press kit actually avoids being trashed immediately. Weight is the great press kit equalizer.

Here's how a press kit gets evaluated in real time.

1. I walk up to the press kit's bin and look at the cover. If there is enough information for me to tell what the company offers, and it is an area I am interested in, I stop to look closer.
   
   
2. The press kits are standing up so I peel back the presentation cover to reveal the materials in the inside right pocket. The left pocket is invisible and remains so until I am home and can open the press kit fully and examine the contents. I am looking for a bold statement of what the creator of the kit wanted me to know about. If I find it, and it is something I might want to write about, I put the kit in my pile of kits and move on.
   
   
3. When my turn to use the couch arrives at last, I pile the kits up in front of me and start processing them one at a time. Anything I might be able to use goes into my back pack. The folder, catalogs, glossy photos and press releases about hirings and firings go in the trash can. Now I have extracted the meaningful information from 100+ press kits and it all fits into my backpack which I now carry out to my car and get back to the show.

So, who had this year's best press kit? A service called CollegeNet.com which offers help for students applying for college admission.

The press kit's cover had pleasing graphics, but more importantly, it contained two pieces of valuable information. First a bold listing of the URL www.collegenet.com followed by the bold type statement: "The Force Field for College Admissions" which gave me enough information to know what the kit was about.

Peeling back the cover I discover on the right side a simple and well written CollegeNET Fact Sheet. This was followed by a comprehensive Company Profile.

Finally, a simple sheet of testimonials.

I pick up the kit and it is very light weight. It goes directly into the backpack.

Visit CollegeNET at http://www.collegenet.com

Now comes the hard part. With so many badly done press kits, how do I select the worst? As luck would have it, the grumblings of another reporter led me to the winner.

This year's Annual Worst Press Kit Award goes to PlaceWare. Now you know as much as I did when I looked at the cover of the kit. PlaceWare. Probably would help if there were any other words on the cover, but design consideration led to the complete absence of any other words that might take away from that powerful message: PlaceWare.

Peeling back the kit's cover I am greeted with a press release about the hiring of a new Vice President of Marketing, followed by a release letting me know who was named as Chairman of the Board. Next comes a release about the appointment of a new Board member, followed by a release revealing a clue: Placeware Conference Center Enables More Than 800 Participants In Live Web Conference. At last! A clue! Next comes a release about the same event as the previous release. That's good. You can never write too much about an event.

The right pocket yields up eight press releases and nothing more. No information about the company or its products or services. Just hirings and events.

Picking up the kit I notice that it weighs more than any other kit I've seen today. Way more. Must be that glossy brochure blocking my view of the company backgrounder I had been looking for. All in all, a great presentation of meaningless information in prime selling space. Especially notable was the absence of a business card in the little slot cut out for one.

I am sure PlaceWare did not appreciate seeing all of its expensive press kits being thrown in the trash in their entirety at the hands of frustrated reporters.

And finally a sad story about an Almost A Winner. One bin contained a nicely packaged CD-ROM press kit. What a great idea. Light weight and any technology reporter would obviously have CD access. Unfortunately, the CD was only part of the kit. There was an accompanying press kit folder that had the dead tree presentation required to make any use of the CD information. Had they put the entire presentation on a CD they would have gone into every reporter's bag and gotten great results. Maybe next year.

Congratulations to this year's winners.

NEW AT JIMWORLD

In response to email requests, I have set up a version of the JimTool Search Engine Submitter that works for users on access accounts that causes their browser to time out before the submitter has a chance to complete its work. Look for the link to the Two-Step Submitter below the Submit button on the standard Submitter. If you haven't used this powerful free tool for a while, it now submits to 32 search engines. Yes, 32. Still Free. Still the best. http://jimtools.com

I think I have dug out every search engine using a spider and accepting any site regardless of. If you know of one that I missed, please let me know. It can't ask for more than email address and URL and can't be geographically specific.

Time to now move on to deployment of the next Submitter. The Submitter series will include a version for each geographic area of the world.

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The JimTools Free For All Submitter has been updated with 160 new FFA pages so now your submissions will all go through and to sixty more sites. As always, free to use.

http://jimtools.com

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I get several requests each week to add the MSN search engine to the JimTool Free Search Engine Submitter. Gee, I'd love to but Bill just doesn't play well with other children. MSN, proud new owners of such popular hits as Submit-it has decided that you can only submit to MSN through the Submit-it multi site submitter or directly on the MSN site. When you try to submit using the JimTool they send the oh-so-polite message:

"Thank you for submitting your url to MSN Web Search. Unfortunately your submission could not be completed because it was sent via a disallowed method. Submissions sent from either submission software applications or from a form not located at http://search.msn.com/addurl.asp are not allowed. Please resubmit "http://jimworld.com/ffa2/links.html" using the form located at http://search.msn.com/addurl.asp.

Regards,
Add Url Team"

A GOOD ALTERNATIVE TO FRAMES

I've reorganized the Software Reviews section of VirtualPROMOTE to make it easier to use and far easier to maintain. Posting new reviews was cumbersome because of the various pages of navigation to lead visitors to the reviews they wanted to read. Every time a new review was posted, several pages had to be modified.

In addition, the navigation was awkward for the user. In order to go from one review to the next, it was necessary for them to return to the directory page that pointed to all of the reviews. Not bad, but could certainly be better.

But what to do? What would make it more user-friendly and remove some of the maintenance load off of me making it less time consuming to post new reviews?

The first obvious choice was, of course, to use frames. A frame at the top containing the banner rotation code and the page header. That makes it easier to change every page of the site by simply changing one frame page.

Next would be a frame at the bottom offering copyright information, email link and navigation links to other areas of VirtualPROMOTE. All of this information changes now and then and what a pain it is to change every page of the site to reflect these changes.

Next would come a navigation frame on the left that would contain a list of all reviews available. This list changes every time a new review is posted or an out-of-date review is removed. Without a frame, it would be necessary to maintain this list on every review page to avoid the need for the user to return to the navigation page to select the next review to read. Lots of work and room for tons of errors. Yuck!

Finally, there would be a frame to display the actual reviews. Since the other frames have taken care of all of the site's needs other than the actual copy for the review, this page would be ridiculously easy to create. No header, footer or navigation code required. Too cool for words.

Sounds ideal doesn't it? Yes it does. Just one small problem: framed sites can't be indexed by most search engines so traffic would plummet. Not the ideal outcome of so much effort.

There had to be a way to meet my maintenance needs, meet the ease of use needs of my visitors and create a spider-friendly environment to help grow the site's traffic.

There was. I built the area using Server Side Includes which are readily available on servers offered by the better ISPs. Server Side Includes (SSI) allow you to build a page and while it is being sent to the user's browser, SSI commands in the HTML file are executed by the server before the page is sent.

Sounds complicated? Not! Easy as can be. Even I was able to figure it out. If I can, you can.

First I built a template to be used to build all pages in the site. Laid it out as if it would be developed using frames, except it was just a single page layout to display all of the contents of each page. Left a blank spot at the top for the banner and header graphic and some basic navigation. A left frame to contain the constantly growing current list of links to each available review. A footer area to handle the information and navigation common to the end of every page, and finally a place to put the actual reviews, or in the case of the first page, a nice welcome message.

Instead of putting actual HTML code into the Header, Left Navigation Bar and the Footer, I coded a simple one line SSI call to instruct the server to put a different HTML file into each of those holes. Then I coded one HTML file for each of the holes. Header, left navigation and footer each are stored in their own file. Nothing fancy. Same code you would use if you were putting the content directly into each page.

Now when I want to post a new review, change a graphic or site navigation, all I have to do is change the one file that is included by the server and the new data shows up on every page of the site.

Easy on me, better for the visitors and completely spider friendly. Everyone wins and I get a little time off.

Check out the reviews area of the site and then take a look at the source code I have posted on the welcome page to see how ridiculously simple this is to implement.

Software Reviews
http://jimworld.com/reviews/

If you still want to use frames, just hold on until next issue. If testing goes as I expect, there will be a new tutorial explaining how to build a frames based site and still get the search engines to index every page of your site and no visitor ever comes to an unframed page. The technique will easily allow you to retro-fit existing framed sites as well. Finally, frames and traffic. What a concept.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THEY PUSH THE "SEND" BUTTON?

When someone sends you an email, in their mind they have the illusion that it has reached a real live person and is being handled in a professional manner. They feel good having taken action on whatever problem triggered the email effort in the first place.

They don't really expect you to be sitting there in your office just waiting for their message to arrive. But the good feeling of having started the process is satisfying. At least until you shatter the illusion.

Do you have an autoresponder attached to your email box that fires back a message saying that their message has been received and will be read and acted on soon? That is not what they want to hear. They want to hear that the communication was between two human beings, not between one human being and one mindless computer program.

If you've ever written a snail mail letter to a company and in return received a form letter, you'll understand just how impersonal and unsatisfying that can be.

How quickly you respond to an email is not nearly as important as how well you respond. Get rid of that autoresponder and answer your own email. You'll build strong relationships that way.

On a slightly lighter note, only the web could have made Battling Autoresponders possible. Imagine this: Bill sends Sue an email message. At the speed of light Sue's email system fires off an autoresponse thanking Bill for his message and promising to have Sue read it soon but in the meantime Bill might be interested in Sue's latest multi-level autoresponder marketing plan.

At the speed of light this meaningful communication reaches Bill's email program and his autoresponder politely sends Sue's autoresponder a heartfelt thank you and suggesting that Sue's autoresponder might be interested in getting rich with the world's first sure-fire way to stop smoking. Sue's trusty autoresponder is again thankful for the communication and suggests that while Bill's autoresponder waits for Sue's response Bill's autoresponder might be interested in.......

This mindless loop could only happen on the Net. The real consolation is the sure knowledge that Bill and Sue will have mailboxes full of this drivel to download while complaining about the other's mindless use of autoresponders.

Some autoresponders try to stop these battles but most don't do a very good job of it. Autoresponders were developed as a powerful tool allowing people to send a message asking for further information on some subject. They were not developed as a way to respond to every incoming message with mindless, bandwidth-hogging pitches for every get-rich-quick scheme of the day.

Get rid of that autoresonder attached to your email address. Set the autoresponder up to respond to specific inquiries and put the autoresponder address in your email signature file.

I hear the whining already. "Jim, that autoresponder is how I get the word out about my (insert here today's get rich quick scheme) and if I quit how am I supposed to let people know about (insert here today's get rich quick scheme)?"

First, if you think people actually read that (insert here today's get rich quick scheme) information, you are living in a dream world.

Second, if that spamresponder is your marketing plan, it's time to dust off your resume and start pounding the street for a job that doesn't involve any marketing skills.

WINDOWS NT IS NOT SUPPLANTING THAT OTHER OPERATING SYSTEM

Unix and NetWare Are Not Being Abandoned
http://www.idc.com/Press/default.htm

Media reports of Windows NT's acceptance have not given a clear picture of where and when Windows NT is really being used. This is the message of a new report from International Data Corporation (IDC) titled Strategies for Windows NT in the Enterprise.

"Media reports often leave the impression that Windows NT is being adopted by organizations of all sizes for every conceivable mission and that organizations are abandoning their investments in other operating environments," said Dan Kusnetzky, program director for IDC's Operating Environments and Serverware research programs. "However, when IDC shines the light of empirical research on Windows NT usage, a different view emerges."

According to IDC, Windows NT's major use is as a departmental infrastructure server, for things like file/print, messaging, and communications, rather than as a major enterprise server running mission-critical applications.

"Microsoft is very good at momentum marketing. It can turn reports of strong growth in revenues, software licenses, shipments, or clients being supported into a message that Windows NT is becoming the de facto standard," Kusnetzky said.

What a shock. Who would ever expect "spin" from Microsoft? Guess I'm safe to stick with my Unix server for a few more days. I was soooo worried.

EXPERIENCES WITH INTERNET COMMUNITY BUILDING

You wake up one day, realize you're older than your dad was when you were in college, enough years into your recovery from alcoholism to understand the importance of the 12th step, facing the twilight years of your corporate Information Technology career, and you are bored. You sit in a cubicle smaller than your bedroom closet, fun is when projects are assigned to someone else, and the biggest loss from a system crash is that you lose your best jokes. You've become fascinated by that global phenomenon called the Internet, so much so you've dabbled with a few web sites over the years, enough to understand the machinations, but not imaginative enough to know what to do with it. You figure it requires full-time attention, and unfortunately you do still have a few more years to grind it out before the pension kicks in. There's still the youngest kid in college and those last remaining principal-only, non-deductible mortgage payments. So how can you make the Internet work for you when you don't yet have the time to work for it?

For me, the answer arrived with one simple word. Sometime in late 1997 I found myself on the subscription list for Jim's Gazette; it was somewhere around issue #33 or so. I could tell immediately that this newsletter was different, but what really caught my attention was that one word, Helpware. I found it at the tail end of the Gazette, it came with a pledge. "Each week you must help one person on the web who has less knowledge than you." Gadzooks. Suddenly the blamestorming at work would be tolerable, I had a mission. It dovetailed nicely with that 12th step, helping newcomers in order to thank those who came before.

It started out unassuming enough. I put together a few tips and tutorials about web site building from stuff I had learned myself. I even went multi-lingual, taking advantage of AltaVista and Systran's at the time beta translation software http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com. That genuinely aided collection of an international audience. I created another bandwidth eating web award program, the Internet Brothers Plaque for Helpware Excellence, to pass the time, but suddenly it became popular. Quite unexpectedly it received a nice rating from Dave Bancroft's Focus Associates Award Sites http://www.focusa.com/awardsites/introduction.htm. Maybe I'm on the right track here, perhaps it's time to get at least half-way serious. I spent months going through Internet client SDKs; I learned everything I could about web marketing, a large portion of it from Jim's Gazette and web site; I closed my miserly eyes, held my nose, and actually purchased some graphics editing software; and I began "hand-shaking."

Hand-shaking, or community building is rapidly replacing search engines as the primary method for developing lasting web relationships and partnerships, and correspondingly, traffic. I started small, I had to with a dime-store budget, begging applicants for the Helpware Plaque to assist. By describing their success stories, by sharing their own experiences for the Internet Brothers and therefore with you, they helped me expand the content I was developing for my web site. I was amazed and thrilled with the cooperation I received. There is an entire cottage industry springing up of like-minded individuals; those who are in this cybersphere for more than just personal reward. It's not only site -building tips, that's what I chose; you can find free help with home improvement, with adoption or child nurturing, with 12 step programs, with nearly as many subjects as there are ERP consultants. But please, no more dog and cat sites.

Establishments even joined the genre. Outfits like Miningco <http://www.miningco.com>, Suite101 <http://www.suite101.com>, and Jim's own Helpware Sites <http://helpwaresites.com> began conglomerating assistance directories. By using volunteer guides and editors, they spread the message of community. In the cut-throat, shareholder driven corporate world of the 90s you've sat at the same desk for 4 years and worked for three different companies. You get really excited about a 2% pay raise. The world of Helpware and online community is a return to that kinder, gentler environment that former president Bush described as a thousand points of light. It's businesses and people helping each other, rather than just taking all the time. If you do it right, as Jim has, you can have both.

Helpware spurred this motivation for me. I don't know if Jim invented the term, I seem to vaguely recall an IBM program in the 70s, but Jim certainly described the philosophy. "Pick a newsgroup posting or an email each week and help that person even if you have to visit their site to find the best answer or do a little research and get back to them. Trust me, this will make you feel better, and will help a lot of people get their sites running better." I know it has worked so far for the Internet Brothers, it can work for you too, no matter what the content of your Internet presence.

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by Jeff Clark mailto:jhclark@earthlink.net
Nitro, WV, USA
http://internetbrothers.com

HANDLE "NEW MEDIA" INQUIRIES CAREFULLY

If you have a traditional business background, you are well versed in the techniques of dealing with the press in "non-crisis" times. Inquiries for product information, company and key employee backgrounders and requests for NFR (not for resale) samples of products. Business and the media have established a way of interacting that is well known to both sides.

Those techniques break down in the Internet world. You may receive a phone call or email from a person that is completely unknown to you. The caller represents an electronic publication or information service that you have never seen. Your initial impulse might be to consider this caller as unimportant because there is no "real publication" involved. You know, one printed on paper or broadcast on the airwaves.

Beware. Tread carefully. The caller may publish information to an enormous audience and if you don't treat the inquiry with the same respect as an inquiry from a dead-tree publication, you can do terminal damage to the reputation of yourself and your products. The caller has an advantage over the traditional media. Internet publications can distribute bad news and bad reviews in only a few hours. You might not get a chance to reconsider your ill-considered treatment and you may find yourself switching into the crisis mode to counter bad reports about your company.

PROTECT YOUR DOMAIN NAME FROM THE THREAT OF SUCCESS

A domain name has the potential to develop into a valuable asset when it is promoted aggressively and an active community has developed around it. That is why steps should be taken to ensure that it is thoroughly protected.

Witness the unhappy participants in the ideal illustration of the pitfalls of domain name short-term thinking.

Internic is well known on-line as the organization that "sells" domain names on behalf of the U.S. government. They obviously can have any domain name they want so they took the obvious one: http://www.internic.net

That's where they stopped, never imagining the agony and embarrassment they would endure after a fast-thinking business person in Australia registered with Internic to obtain the rights to the domain address http://www.internic.com and promptly set up shop to sell the service of registering domain names for $300.00 plus the $100 Internic fee associated with a new domain name. The $100 fee was then paid to Internic and the smooth operator in Australia pocketed a clear $300 profit for little more than 3 minutes of work that anyone could have done for themselves had they wound up at the right Internic site.

See, the general public would simply type the word "internic" in their browser's location bar and the browser would take them to the default address of internic.com. The browser default top level domain is .com not .net. Visitors were under the impression that they were at the official site of the Internic organization and proceeded to register their domain names.

This confusing situation continues to exist today. In spite of a disclaimer recently added to the internic.com web site, many people are still taken in. If Internic, owner of the keys to the domain name vault can't repossess a confusing domain name, what chance does a small business have if they don't plan ahead?

This same scenario could happen to any company if they don't put forth the extra time and expense to register their domain name with the other top level domains such as .org, .net and others as they develop. Point them all at the same home page and rest assured that the success of the future won't rise up and bite you.

THE INTERNET IS A WONDROUS PLACE

Here I sat, working on the Gazette, trying to get it out before heading off to Internet World and smoking the last cigarette in the last pack.

Yes, I smoke. Get over it.

I had ordered several cartons of cigarettes from Dan at the CigaretteShop.com by filling out a form on his secure server several days ago <http://www.cigaretteshop.com/> but apparently I waited a couple of days too long and I would have to drive down to the store and buy enough to see me through.

As I opened the door to leave, none other than UPS pulls up with my order. Sign my name and right back to work. Not only did I save myself a trip (minor point) but I also saved myself $10.00 per carton. That adds up to a happy buying experience.

As the Internet matures it is able to capture markets that most of us would never think possible. Dan has captured an unlikely market by offering excellent prices, an easily navigated Web site, secure ordering with all of the major credit cards, enough content on the site to make you trust that you aren't about to get ripped off. Dan has simplified his life by offering free shipping if you order five cartons. That gives him enough profit to make the transaction profitable and his average sale amount high enough to get favorable rates on his credit card merchant account.

Is it working for Dan? When I called to get some information for this story he had to think a minute before saying it was OK to mention his site. Seems he's so busy shipping orders he needs to hire some help. If you aren't having the same growing pains, you might stop by Dan's site and see how he made it happen.

Please don't write me with information to help me stop smoking. Like I don't know it's dumb? But someday, if I don't quit, I will be able to sue the tobacco companies for forcing me to smoke. Then Nick can go to college anywhere he wants. That's the American way.

Now I just need a plan for feeding a 13 year old who has grown 8 inches in the past 5 months. Nobody told me about that part.

GET THOSE EXCHANGE BANNERS OFF YOUR HOME PAGE

"Join Our Link Exchange And Get Thousands Of Visitors Each Day - FREE"

Sound familiar? It should.

Banner exchanges are a popular and effective way to generate new traffic for a web site at no cost to the site owner. That's a winning combination. And it works. But beware the drawbacks.

Most webmasters follow the logic chain that goes like this: "If I get more advertising for free by showing other site's banners more frequently, then I will put that banners on my highest traffic page - my Home Page."

Bzzzzzz. Wrong answer. Thank you for playing.

A home page has a purpose. That purpose is to capture the attention and interest of each visitor arriving at the site. A visitor not immediately captured will move on, possibly never to return.

To lose that potential customer in the hopes of "maybe" getting another one in the future is not a good business plan. Take the banners off the home page and put them deeper in the site. Also remove buttons to download browsers unless you sell browsers, awards unless they are really BIG ones, hit counters, pictures of the family dog unless he is for sale, and other non-essential diversions from the message the page is trying to convey.

Make those first few moments with a new visitor as focused as possible. Make every word and every image work towards making the visitor relax and decide to prowl around the site. That's what web sites are for. Capturing attention and leading to a buying decision.

Get the money then show them all the banners you want.

Afterword: In the Gazette, when you see references to "get the money" or similar phrases, be aware that it is a reference to accomplishing the site's goal. It might be making a sale, but equally likely are other goals. Sign up a new subscriber. Get the visitor to bookmark the site. Ask for additional information. All of these fall under the umbrella goal of getting the money.

GET LINKED

This issue there are 10 new places for you to submit your site in the "What's New?" page of The1000. Go get 'em.

<http://the1000.com/>

Last issue's articles about mindless submissions has had an impact on submissions to The500. Now I only get 10 mindless submissions for each on-target submission. Please, if your site does not have a way for people to submit a site to be added to a directory maintained on your site, don't waste your time, and mine, by submitting a site that obviously won't be listed. Your time should too valuable to be wasted this way. I know mine is.

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Ask Jeeves
mailto:URL@askjeeves.com

Ask Jeeves is growing rapidly and you should have your site listed in their knowledge base. Send them an email with your URL and a brief description of your site. They will review it and add you to the Jeeves knowledgebase if the site's content is high quality. Can't hurt to try.

SNIPPETS

CyberTip4theDay.com
http://www.CyberTip4theDay.com/

If you want to start each day with a good tip or idea that you can implement that same day, head over to CyberTip4theDay.com and sign up.

They have categories like Automotive, Beauty, Sales, Online Marketing (my personal favorite), Diet, Health and a bunch more.

The tips are well written, brief and creative. Just what you need to prod you into action each day.

Go over and sign up. It's free and you'll be glad you did.

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The latest figures for search engine size have hit the streets and Lycos is happy. The figures show that they have more traffic than Yahoo!

At first glance this might seem important in your search engine ranking efforts, but slow down. The figures for Lycos include all of the traffic that goes to their free web site hosting communities (Tripod and Angelfire) which have nothing to do with search engine traffic. It may be important when figuring out how many banner impressions they have available, but that's about all.

For the site promoter, the only numbers that matter are the number of searches at an engine or directory. By that measure, Yahoo! is still far out in front. In fact, the Yahoo! core site traffic is about the same size as all traffic to all Lycos related sites.

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The long awaited availability of competition for Internic in the domain name registration game has finally arrived. There are now five new registars that can accept registrations as part of a public test of the registration system. By next issue these services should be operating and have enough history to make it worth writing about. I'll keep you posted.

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The most frequently made mistake I see on the Internet shows up in my email on an hourly basis. The mistake involves how email addresses and URLs are represented in an email message. It occurs both in the body of the message and even more frequently in the signature lines following the messages.

When you send an email address in an email message, include "mailto:" in front of the address. jim@jimworld.com must be copied and pasted into a response to the message while an address formatted as mailto:jim@jimworld.com can simply be clicked on to initiate a response.

URLs written as www.jimworld.com will seldom get used. In order to visit the site, the reader must copy the address and paste it into the browser. If the URL is written as a complete address such as http://www.jimworld.com the reader can just click on the link in their email program and the browser will launch and go to that address.

Both of these mistakes are amazingly frequent in press releases that companies distribute. A sure-fire way to guarantee that most media representatives won't bother visiting the site mentioned.

These two mistakes significantly impact the results of mailings.

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AltaVista Validates GoTo.com Model

In a move sure to trigger a high level of debate and whining, AltaVista has begun selling the top two slots in search results. This move follows the model established so successfully by GoTo.com who began life by allowing site operators to bid on keywords with the rankings being delivered according to the amount the site operator was willing to pay for a visitor. Expect to hear lots of grumbling over the AltaVista move but expect their program to expand beyond the top two. Then prepare yourself for others to follow. The AltaVista information made its public appearance on the Web in the Search Engine Forums where interest was high.

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Crayola Contest
http://education.crayola.com/indianred/release.html

For only the third time in Crayola> history, Binney & Smith, the maker of Crayola crayons, is changing the name of one of its crayons. And they are looking for suggestions from kids and adults to help choose just the right name. Are you up to the task?

The renaming is in response to feedback received by the company from educators and consumers who believe that some children wrongly perceive that the color is intended to represent the skin color of Native Americans.

Go submit an entry. You might go down in history.

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Ulead GIF Animation Challenge
http://www.webutilities.com

Ulead WebUtilities is proud to announce the GIF Animation Challenge. Send us your coolest GIF animation, and we may send you US$1,000 in cash.

The GIF Animation Challenge runs April 12 to May 31, 1999.

Besides the US$1,000 top prize, other prizes include:
* A Kodak Digital Camera, worth US$800
* A Microtek ScanMaker 4, worth US$700
* A RIO MP3 portable player
* US$250 online shopping spree at SoftGallery
* SRS Labs 3D sound amplifiers
* 50 boxes of Ulead WebRazor Pro
* and more

Have fun animating. This contest must be won by a Gazeteer. It's a moral imperative!

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Signs Of Intelligent Life On The Web

A Virginia court has stepped froward to show that there are signs of intelligent life on the Web. They have ordered Internic to "freeze" the domain name "www.wwwpainewebber.com" which was being used to divert traffic from Paine Webber to a pornography site. Microsoft has two new lawsuits pending involving the same issues.
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UKOnlineInvesting.com
http://www.ukonlineinvesting.com

UKOnlineInvesting.com has launched a pay-per-sale referral program for investors and others, offering an easy way to earn unlimited commissions. The commission is directly related to the length of the initial referral subscription to UK Online Investing - News: their paid-for News ezine. Special referral rates apply only to the first 100,000 Affiliates.

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Center for Democracy and Technology

With the spectre of government regulation (over-regulation?) hanging over our heads should we fail to discipline ourselves and inform the public of our true policies about the data we collect on our web sites, and the uses to which we put that data, it is comforting to know that among the worst violators of this standard of ethical behavior is the U.S. Government. Yep. The very same people that will be regulating your data use policies. Guess they are so busy watching us they don't have time to turn that glare onto themselves. Just makes me feel warm and safe all over.

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Real Names
http://realnames.com/Frontpage/RealNamesHomepage.html

Real Names is coming on strong. For only $100 you can acquire a Real Name that could help you generate lots of traffic from Real Name enabled search engines (like AltaVista) but at Internet World they announced something even cooler.

If you have a site hosted on one of the free hosting services (Tripod, GeoCities....) you can now get your own Personal Real Name for FREE. Yes folks, free. Personally, I'm going to set up a couple of free sites so I can get my Personal Real Names. I'll be buying a couple of Real Names as well. I'll keep you posted about the results.

When you want to move your site to a paid hosting service, you'll have to cough up the $100 but by then it should be getting you traffic and you won't mind. Gee, I wonder if that could be the reason they are giving the Personal Real Names away for free? If it is, that's pretty smart of them.