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I-BIZ TIPS - Monthly E-Mail Newsletter
*Providing Tips on Making the Internet Work for your Business*
A Free Service of Tech Direct, Inc. – Ruth Rainey, Editor
http://www.techdirect.com - mailto:IBIZ@techdirect.com
Number 12
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TOPICS
Topic 1: Biggest Mistakes New Web Site Owners Make
1. Re-purposing content from brochures or other materials as
their web site content.
Reason: The web is a different media that needs a specific
writing style that is "keyword oriented" and takes full
advantage of linking to further information. Most brochures
are not written in this style. Additionally, if a visitor
requests additional information you will probably send your
brochure. Why pay printing costs, postage and handling to
provide information that visitors have already read?
2. Thinking keywords only go in meta tags.
While meta tags provide a way to list the words that visitors
search for, they are not a "cure all." Keywords must be part
of the content on each page. More importantly, your site
should be built around your keywords.
3. Thinking that just submitting to hundreds of search engines is
all they need to do to get traffic.
Submitting to 750 search engines is great but if you don't
optimize your pages for high placement before you submit you
may be disappointed. If your entry is number 4,000 in 750
search engines you are not gaining the results that you
desire.
4. Using an initial page (index.html file) that does not contain
text that can be categorized by search engines. An example of
this is a page that loads a graphic with a link that says
Click Here to Enter. Worse yet, your description in the
search engine may read: Click Here to Enter.
5. Choosing a Web designer according to price, not marketing
concepts and return on investment. Keep foremost in your mind
that the web is about content-not flashy graphics and slick
programming that not all browsers can interpret. Prevent
disappointment by reviewing your Strategic Marketing documents
before you establish goals for your Web site presence.
Topic 2: Effectively Handling Email Requests for Information with
Eudora Pro's Stationary Feature
How do you answer business requests that you receive from the
Internet? Do you write a separate response to each prospect or do
you use a prepared message that is automatically sent to each
person who makes an inquiry?
Every email message, excluding SPAM, that is sent to your site
should receive a reply. Many companies on the Internet don't get
the opportunity to bid on a project or obtain new customers
because they don't respond to email requests for information at
all or take too long to send their reply.
As we've mentioned in earlier issues, Internet email is part of
the sales cycle. Think of it as a lead that is sent to your
company. Make sure you respond quickly and thoroughly. If you
are writing an individual response for each email message, you are
working too hard! Through the use of online CGI forms, guide the
visitor to requests for standard sales information. Since this
information is already created, automate the process of sending it
to your prospects with the stationary feature of Eudora Pro.
Stationary is similar to form letters as the body of the email
message is standard. The To: field is the only field of
information that changes from prospect to prospect. In Eudora
Pro, create a new message. Compose your message using 55
characters per line so it doesn't wrap strangely if the email
window is resized or appears on a 14" monitor. Fill in the
Subject line but do not complete the TO field. Now save the
message as a stationary file by selecting File/Save As. Check the
box for Stationary at the bottom of the dialog box. Then type
DESIGN as the filename. By default, all stationary documents are
saved to the Eudora/stationary directory with a .sta extension.
Now that the stationary document is complete, set up a filter to
automatically send the message to anyone who requests information
from the on-line form for design information. The CGI form has
been set up to include the Subject: RFI: Design Quote when a
request for design information is sent.
Create a mailbox named "Design Quotes" with the mailbox/new
command. Use design quotes as the mailbox name. Then set up a
filter so that any mail with the Subject: RFI: Design Quote will
be transferred to the Design Quotes mailbox and receive the reply.
Specify what actions should happen when email is received with the
subject "RFI: Design Quote". For instance, transfer the mail to a
sub-mailbox called "Design Quotes". Choose TRANSFER TO for
filtering the message to the "Design Quotes" mailbox.
Now set up the automatic reply with your stationary file. Choose
REPLY WITH to specify which stationary document should be sent in
response to the email message. Use the Browse button and select
DESIGN.STA. Save your changes and try a test run. Go to your
online form and request a design quote. When the message is
downloaded to your local PC, the message will be transferred to
the "Design Quotes" mailbox and the stationary document will be
queued up to be sent to the sender's reply to address when Eudora
Pro does an email check on the server.
Stationary works like an autoresponder. The main difference is
that the files are on your PC, not a remote server. An
autoresponder reacts within minutes whether you are online or not.
Responses sent via stationary are only sent when your PC is
online. If you have a dedicated connection, the only delay is the
time that you have specified between mail checks (5 minutes, 15
minutes, etc.) If you are not online frequently, the inquiry will
be sent the next time you are online and the response will be sent
the next time your email program checks the mail server. While
the response may be slower, it is a free option if you own Eudora
Pro.
I recommend that you use your autoresponder accounts first (if
your Web hosting service includes them) and then use stationary
for additional documents-perhaps the documents that are less
frequently requested.
Topic 3: Eliminate SPAM sent to email addressed posted on your Web Site
It seems that the spammers are more active on the weekends than
during the week. During the weekend my email box is just brimming
with advertisements and solicitations. Here is one way to help
prevent some of the SPAM sent to email addresses posted on your
web site
SPAMBOTS are actively scouring the Web for email addresses.
Ultimately these addresses become part of someone's spamming
efforts. A spambot is a little program that automatically and
systematically moves from web site to web site collecting email
addresses and adding them to an ever-increasing list of places to
spam.
Now you can keep spambots from mining your address by using an
effective utility called the Mailto Encoder
[http://www.siteup.com/encoder.html]
Visit their site and type your email address in the box.
In a few minutes you will receive a specially encoded version of
the email address to use on your web site. Visitors can still
use this address to contact you, but spambots will choke on the
programs thereby preventing them from picking up your address. All
you then need to do is make sure that you only use the specially
encoded form of your email address on your site and in your
postings to discussion groups, message boards and newsgroups.
Topic 4: Misc. Tips
Tip 1: Search Engine Update
Many search engines are changing their rules to eliminate sites
that aren't appropriate. Many sites that were at the top of the
lists are no longer in the top 200.
It is common for Search Engines to change their algorithms in
order to keep relevancy high. Our next issue will address changes
in search engine listings.
-----
Yahoo has just added a directory for Senior Citizens.
http://seniors.yahoo.com
-----
Business Searching
Try Northern Lights new business-oriented search features.
http://www.nlsearch.com/search.html
Features found in the Northern Lights Search Engine make it a
great tool for "power searchers." Now only does it possess the
unique ability to sort results into "folders" and for its
collection of special documents not available on the Web. It
recently added a new "Industry Search" capability, which gives you
the ability to narrowly focus business searches.
Search options include check boxes to select specific industries,
date fields to limit results to a specific time frame, and check
boxes to restrict searched documents to press releases, product
reviews, or job listings.
-----
Internet.Org Your Internet Business-to-Business Information
Service
Find companies by name, domain, network, location or industry.
Gather informative statistics. Search lists of other domains in
your zip code,
http://www.internet.org/
-----
New Vertical Market Search Engines
Lawyers: http://www.lawcrawler.com
Indexs only law and legal related content on the Internet.
Computer Crowsnest: The Software, IT and Hardware Solutions
Search Engine ™
http://www.computercrowsnest.com
Tip 2: Plan Now for Christmas
If you have a Christmas site, sell gifts online or can benefit in
anyway from links from Christmas pages, now is the time to prepare
your pages and get them listed in the Search Engines. Then start
searching the Web for other Christmas sites with which you can
exchange links.
A new Christmas-related resource for listing your Christmas site
is Christmas Market. Add the link yourself in up to 3 categories.
Once the link is posted you can update your entry as needed.
http://www.christmasmarket.com
Tip 3: Translation of Foreign Language Web Sites
Have you ever followed a link from a great site and then stopped
short in your tracks due to the site being published in a foreign
language?
AltaVista has a feature called "Systran" that lets you enter in
the name of a URL and it will automatically translate a web site
written in French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish into
English or vice versa. Go to http://altavista.digital.com
Choose the Services box on the right and choose Translation.
There is a personal version that you can download to translate
your personal documents on your own computer.
Tip 4: E-Commerce Resources
Designing Your E-Commerce Site for Service
http://www.webreference.com/ecommerce/design/
WebMarket
Newly launched WebMarket is your one-stop online comparison
shopping resource. WebMarket searches the top online stores to
bring you the best prices on the items you're looking for. Just
pick a category and start your search.
http://www.webmarket.com/
What Every Online Merchant Ought to Know
Seth Godin discusses the results of a survey that they ran on
their ecommerce site.
http://www.marketingreport.com/imarketing/index_imarketing_nojava.
html
Study: E-Commerce Set for 300% Growth Over Two Years
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/1998/05/1903-study.html
Study: $23.6 Billions Planned for E-Commerce Upgrades in 2002
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/1998/05/1101-study.html
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