JimWorld Gazette Issue #88 04/03/2000

JimWorld Gazette - Issue #88 - April 3, 2000

This week's Gazette is going out as I prepare to leave for Internet World in Los Angeles. You know what that means. Starting next week I'll have lots of new stuff to tell you about.

We'll also have our 4th Annual Best and Worst Press Kit Awards. Every year it gets harder to pick the worst kits. So many to choose from.

Now You Can "Be There" For Your Site Visitors
Ecommerce Success Takes More
Administrative Professionals Week
Who Really Wins In The Gold Rush?
Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g88

NOW YOU CAN "BE THERE" FOR YOUR SITE VISITORS

Has this ever happened to you? You were in a store contemplating a purchase, a new big screen TV for example.

You find one you're interested in. It's the right size and the price is within your range. Before you decide on buying, however, you'd like to see the picture on the TV to make sure.

You finally locate a reluctant salesman. You ask him to connect the TV so you can see the picture. He looks uncertain.

"Uh, ok, follow me." Confused, you follow him across the store. He stops in front of another big screen TV that costs $200 more, and is not the same model you are interested in.

Looking real satisfied with himself, he says, "There you go. How do you like it?"

"Uh, it looks good, but I want to see the picture on the TV across the store."

Trying to make you feel dumb, he replies, "Why? This one is almost exactly the same. The screen is the same size."

You can't do anything but shake your head and walk away. The only decision you make is to buy your big screen TV somewhere else. That store just lost a big sale due to their lack of customer service.

Customer service is just as important on the web, even if you can't be there to offer your visitors some assistance immediately. Or can you?

Wouldn't it be great if your web site visitors could click a link on your page and almost immediately have a real person pop up on the screen asking "Hi, can I help you?"

Imagine how many times you've been on a web site and thought about purchasing the product. If you just had the answer to that one question, you could make your decision. But, unfortunately, this is the web, and you can't get an instant answer. But, you know that you can probably find the same product on 100 other web sites so you go off in search of your answer... at another site.

The webmaster just lost a sale due to lack of customer service. But, it didn't have to happen that way.

If that webmaster had been hooked up to "HumanClick," his chances of getting that sale would have increased dramatically.

HumanClick, < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954141561 >,is a new 100% free service that allows you to be there for your web site visitors whenever you're online. And, it'sdeliciously easy.

Once you sign up for a free account, you simply download their software, and install it. They then give you a small snippet of HTML code to place on your site. That's it!

When one of your visitors clicks on that link, a message pops up on your computer screen, letting you know that someone is trying to get a hold of you. Click "OK" and the chat software opens up and you type in a message to your web site visitor.

HumanClick allows you to be one step closer to your site visitors. We're always
being told to 'make it easy' for our customers to order.
What's easier than offering your visitors an actual human to talk to with one click of their mouse?

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Kim Skinner has been helping others set up and promote their Internet businesses for nearly 3 years. Visit her web site for free tips on everything from how to decide on a product to sell, to running a full time business on the Web. < http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954141640 >

FORM OUR OTHER SPONSOR

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<> Syndicates get two primary benefits from this program:

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For more information on this subject, click: http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954545025

ECOMMERCE SUCCESS TAKES MORE

It was only a matter of time. It had to happen.

For four or more years, the most frequent question appearing in my email box, right after "What are search engines and how do I get list #1?" has always been: "What do I need in order to sell stuff on the Internet?"

The answer was never easy. Not that all of the things needed are huge and complex, but simply that there are so many things one needs the answer would tend to get a bit long. You know how I hate long-winded emails and ezines.

If you were a Big Guy business, the answers could be found and implemented. For the Little Guy, it took longer and was more iffy. What was needed was a simple way for a new or small business to get into ecommerce with a minium of expense and a short development time. With start-ups, time is borrowed money and there is never enough of it.

I've finally seen what I consider the first "Soup To Nuts" ecommerce services supplier. Everything you need to jump into the world of ecommerce all from one place. That's nice. It means you only have to call one person when somehting goes wrong.

I'd suggest you take a look if you've been holding off on e-commerce. This service looks easy to implement and affordable.

Then you can get back to writing me "Jim, now what was that about search engines?"

http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954823656

ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS WEEK

Since 1952, the last full week of April (23-29, 2000) has been designated Administrative Professionals Week (formerly called Secretaries Week) by the International Association of Administrative Professionals, with the 26th being the official Administrative Professionals Day.

Traditionally, bosses use this time to show their appreciation to their assistants for all of their hard work throughout the year.

To help bosses along (apart from giving the usual flowers and candy) we contacted several administrative assistants who were more than willing to give us some suggestion for bosses to show their appreciation. Each business relationship is different so you may want to talk to your assistant first, but here are some of the ideas that they came up with:

* Take her/him out for a nice, long lunch at a local fine restaurant
* Provide a morning at a local spa
* Give a gift certificate for a dinner for two or an evening at a hotel or resort.
* Arrange for the afternoon off to go shopping and throw in a little spending money
* Provide a long distance calling card
* Arrange for a housekeeper for the day
* Book & pay to have the car tuned up and spring cleaned
* Present a plaque for her/his years of valued work
* Provide a family pass to the movies and plenty of popcorn money
* Arrange to have her/his carpets cleaned or yard prepared for the coming season
* Arrange for groceries to be paid for and delivered
* Find out who is her/his favorite author and buy their latest book
* Offer a three hour lunch... better yet... THE DAY OFF!
* Outsource some of his/her work to an off-site administrative assistant

Don't forget that this isn't the only time of year you should show your appreciation to your assistant. Ensure that you make them feel valued throughout the year. You'd be amazed at how far a "thank you" or kind word can go.

Now, if you are an entrepreneur without an assistant, don't let this day go by without patting yourself on the back for handling all of the administrative tasks. Why not outsource some of your work to a Virtual Assistant and give yourself back some personal or revenue generating time.

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Janice Byer is a former in-house Administrative Assistant who now owns and operates Docu-Type Administrative Services, an off-site office assistance company that helps entrepreneurs, executives and their assistants to get ahead of their office related tasks. Visit her website at http://www.docutype.net.

WHO REALLY WINS IN THE GOLD RUSH?

I was behind my system one day reading my daily mail when I came across this
question in an ad - "Who made the most during the gold rush? Those panning for
gold or the man selling the pans?" This is an interesting question with a very
valuable realization!

This question reminded me of a documentary I once watched about the great city of San Francisco. This beautiful city came into being due to the discovery of gold. This discovery created a massive gold rush that changed many lives. Massive numbers of people left their homes and lands to pursue a dream of wealth.

Since the gold was found next to the ocean it attracted not only people inland but people from across the waters as well. Hordes of people came via horses, carts, wagons, boats, and many walked for weeks to realize their dreams. The population literally exploded within a matter of months and has continued to grow to this day.

Though thousands of people came in hopes of making their fortunes, only a few truly made it. Guess who these fortune finders were! They were the retailers and shop owners that lined the streets providing support to the gold crazed. Interestingly enough the majority of those successful were women!

One of the most lucrative services was laundry. Since panning for gold is such dirty work and the fact that 90% of the panners were men it was a natural fit for the women to start laundry services. $8.00 would have bought you a single washing. Not bad for the mid 1800's!

Of course there were other goods and services to make money with. Baked goods, meals, baths, sewing services, and essentials for daily living. Prices were extremely inflated but where else could a man go for these things?

These retailers saw the need and realized the market. They didn't rush out with their picks and shovels to dig and work for weeks. They set up shop on the sides of the street and provided simple services, which proved to be extremely lucrative.

Most of those that worked and slaved to find the gold went home tired, dirty and broke. Those that chose the less obvious path went home fat, happy, and rich. This just goes to show that jumping on the bandwagon and going along with the "rush" may not be the road to your fortune. It may be the person providing the goods and services that help these hordes of determined people that actually discover the wealth.

This can directly relate to the Internet. Look at the massive numbers of people coming online every day! Literally hundreds of thousands of people daily are moving to the net for many different reasons. There are thousands of unrealized markets right now just waiting to be discovered.

Are you just part of the movement or are you looking for that niche market that you can fill? In relation to the net and with this realization, what is the latest "gold rush" and what goods or services can you provide for those that pursue? It's definitely something worth thinking about!

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Tameka Sowder is editor of Promotion Toolkit Post, a FREE bi-weekly ezine strictly about promotion. If you're interested in receiving free promotion and marketing tips, visit http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954825632 to subscribe.

SNIPPETS

MyFreeBookMarks.com
http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954819910

A well designed promotion is always wonderful to come upon, but even more so when it is designed by a Gazeteer. This one works for everyone involved.

MyFree BookMarks.com is just such a design. The premise is simple enough. You are offered a clever group of downloadable bookmark files to put on your web site. Then... wait. The developer described it very well in the Forums. Why not just read it there?

http://gethighforums.com/Forum11/HTML/000304.html

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LottoInteractive
http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954821178

How about a contest you can add to your site? Another well designed promotion found in the Forums.

"I have the contest, You have the people. You need a contest, I need people

So why not join forces?"

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OFFER FREE WEB-BASED EMAIL
http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954822207

Eric Pickup at Build A Community.com has just released a new Web-based email system that has a ton of features.

"Auto-EmailPro allows you to offer free email to your members. It was built from the ground-up for speed and reliability. You have control over the design of the pages, which means that no third party promotions or banners ads will appear on your page. Everything is up to you!"

If you have other systems from Eric, you already know that this system integrates into the common membership system so your members only register once to access your entire site's services.

Right now you can save $100.00 so if you have been looking for email to add to your community, do it now.

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PREPAID CREDIT CARDS?
http://www.internetcash.com

"InternetCash.com announced that InternetCash(TM) pre-paid stored value cards are now available for consumers to make credit card-free purchases on the Internet. InternetCash.com is the first to market with a cash-based alternative to credit cards for shopping online. InternetCash works similar to a pre-paid phone card. Consumers visit participating retailers to purchase InternetCash cards."

Let's all cross our fingers that this card takes off. It is the natural answer for the timid credit card shopper.

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Zone Alarm 2.1
http://www.Zonelabs.com/

If you haven't upgraded to the 2.1 release of ZoneAlarm, do it now. New features to play with.

If you were off-planet when I wrote about this program, you need to go get it now. It monitors your computer's connection to the Internet - from within. It doesn't look for people trying to hack into your system from the Net, it looks for programs trying to send unauthorized information from within your system. Programs that you didn't even know were on your hard drive in many cases.

You'll be amazed at some of the programs that violate your privacy from inside the walls and moat.

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$15 Domain Names
http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954873765

Dotster Inc., an ICANN accredited registrar of .com, .net and .org domain names, is pleased to announce a $15 pricing promotion for all domain names registered now through the end of April. The promotion includes annual registrations of all .com, .net and .org domain names and will end at midnight PST on April 30.

During this promotion, two year domain name registration pricing is $30, five-year registrations are $75, and ten-year registrations are $150. All of Dotster’s value-added Web site tools and access to customer service and support are included with the promotional pricing. One year registration or renewal is only $15.

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PartyFinder
http://partyfinder.net

Got a site that wants to reach people planninng all types of parties from weddings to birthdays and retirement? Submit for a free listing.

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Pay Per View Netcast
http://jimworld.com/re/go.cgi?ID=954874342

Tickets go on sale for a breakthrough live pay per view Internet comedy event, "Tommy Davidson -- Caught in the Net," starring TV and film star Tommy Davidson from "In Living Color" and "Booty Call." The live comedy event will originate from Rascal's Comedy Club in West Orange, NJ on April 29, starting at 11:00 p.m. EDT. Viewers can pre-register and purchase their tickets to the event on-line at the web site.

If content is King, there truly is no limit to the Internet. This type of content comes on the heals of Stephen King's Net-only publication of a short novel.