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Tip 1: Redesign Warning Tip 2: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Surfers Tip 3: New Search Engines Tip 4: All ECommerceTech Direct provides professional Web Site Design & Hosting, Web Site Marketing & Consulting, and Marketing Communications services at an affordable price. Visit: http://www.techdirect.comTopic 1: InterNIC UpdateInterNIC/Network Solutions, Inc.(NSI) is lowering the registration fee for the first two years to $70.00 on any new domain name registered after April 1, 1998. All renewals after April 1, 1998 will be $35.00 per year. http://rs.internic.net/announcements/Topic 2: Target MarketingBefore you jump on the Internet with a Web site, there are two essential questions that you must answer. WHO IS MY TARGET MARKET? Basically defined, your target market is a homogeneous group of people or companies that share a common interest. Depending on your business, your target may be as broad as "anyone looking for a home" or as narrow as "investors looking for real estate management services in Oslo, Norway." Segment your target market down to the lowest possible common denominator. Targeting too broad a category will bring visitors but won't bring results-sales. First you must define who makes up your target market. Then collect as much information as you can about this group. What are their needs, their business problems and how can you solve their problems. Once you know that market intimately, you can begin providing the information that they want and need-quality content. HOW DO I REACH MY TARGET MARKET? While search engines are an important way for a potential visitor to find your site, don't wait for prospects to find you. Be proactive. How can you reach out to your target market on the Internet? Where does your target market hang out? Is there a virtual community where they frequent? Perhaps a newsgroup, email discussion list or newsletter.Topic 3: Finding Your ProspectsOnce you determine who your target market is, use the following lists to find some of the places that your target market hangs out on the Internet. This list is restricted to E-zines and email discussion lists. John Labovitz's E-Zine List Liszt Directory MouseTracks: The List of Marketing Lists PAML--Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists Tile.Net/Lists - 5000 mailing listsTopic 4: Awards & Logo ProgramsWe are all flattered when we receive an e-mail congratulating us that we have won an award for our Web site. A nice write up and logo may be included with the congratulatory message. Should you jump at putting the award on your page? 1. First, go to the page and determine the quality of the site that presented you with the award. If their image doesn't fit yours, you don't need to advertise the award. 2. What business is the company in that awarded you the logo? Perhaps they are really a competitor with the same target market. Their logo on your site is a way to attract visitors without spending money 3. What's in it for you? What do you get in return? Does the awarding site archive a list of winners prominently on their site that someone can find you from? What type of exposure do they have on the net? Are they actively promoting their web site on the Internet so others will find you in their awards list? 4. Will your target market frequent this site? If you are a business site being on Joe Cool's Hot Site of the Day won't provide many targeted visitors. 5. If you just want to collect awards for the sake of it, be sure to place them on a page that does not get heavy traffic. Logos and awards are basically traffic generation tactics for the company that extends the award. Unless there is something in it for you, you may simply be sending visitors away from you site without any direct return.Topic 5: Misc. TipsTip 1: Redesign Alert Web sites should be updated and refreshed with new content on a regular basis. Many times however, the person who redesigns a site may be so innovative that he or she completely changes the underlying layout of the site complete with new URLs for each page. CAUTION: You may be making a mistake! While changing the name of an html file to be more descriptive sounds like a good idea, it may cause your entries in search engines to show "404 Error Page Not Found" errors. If you find it necessary to change your file structure, be sure that you put a referring page in the old location. If not, potential visitors will think that you are out of business. BTW, if you get a "404" Error, try backing up through the URL. Erase everything through the previous forward slash and try again.Tip 2: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Surfers CNET, Feb. 1998 Part I Part II Part III Find out how to search better in the first link. The second links to a chart on picking the right search engine for the job, and the last link is about advanced searching. Tip 3: New Search Engines Planet Search Northern Lights. This search engine is quickly moving up in popularity to one of the top 15 search engines. Be sure to register with them. DevSearch: Search Engine for Web Developers Tip 4: All ECommerce Internet-based ECommerce News, Resources and Business Strategy If you are interested in how E-Commerce is progressing, keep current with the most recent articles by visiting All ECommerce. Topic 6: From Our In-Box A reader asks, "What is the difference between an account with an ISP and Web hosting? Does one exclude the other?" An Internet Service Provider, or ISP, is a company who sells dial- up or dedicated connections to the Internet. If you have a $19.95 a month unlimited access account to get mail, read newsgroups and surf, that account is through an ISP. The majority of ISPs also sell Web Hosting accounts which are separate accounts that provide hard disk space and FTP access to a Web site. Other value-added features such as Real-Audio, Secure Servers, etc. may be provided. An ISP can provide you with both accounts but watch the prices and compare the Web hosting costs to companies that provide nothing but Web hosting services. It is my experience that ISPs don't make a large profit on dial-up accounts and therefore typically make up for it by charging more for Web hosting accounts. A Web Hosting only company, on the other hand, does not have the demanding equipment expenses that the ISP experiences and can usually provide Web hosting at a lower cost. If you opt to host your Web page with a Web hosting company you must still secure a local access account for email, newsgroups and surfing. Email sent to your domain is simply forwarded to your email account. E N H A N C E D F A X S E R V I C E S. . .Your Competitive Advantage While your budget and manpower may be small your impact can be HUGE! Cost Effective - Labor Saving - Accessible 24 Hours a Day The high-tech way to communicate with low-tech clients. Fax Broadcast sends one fax document to tens, hundreds or thousands of customers, prospects or other key contacts almost simultaneously. Totally customize each fax with FaxMerge or Fax Form services. Save from 20-60% on faxes to International destinations. http://www.techdirect.com/fax - - - - - - - faxinfo@techdirect.com Tech Direct, Inc. 770-509-7020HOUSE KEEPINGTo UN-Subscribe, remove-IBIZ@techdirect.com In the BODY of your message, type: remove firstname lastname email address To Subscribe, sub-IBIZ@techdirect.com In the BODY of your message, type: subscribe firstname lastname email address Web Site: http://www.techdirect.com/IBIZ Email comments: owner-IBIZ@techdirect.com Archives: http://www.techdirect.com/IBIZ/archives.htmlCopyright 1997-99 Tech Direct Inc. All Rights Reserved. This publication may be freely redistributed by e-mail in its entirety. The reprinting of portions of this publication or any other type of reprinting beyond forwarding issues to a friend is strictly prohibited without permission from Tech Direct, Inc. and shall be construed as a violation of applicable Copyright Laws. http://www.techdirect.com Marietta, GA (USA)
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