| LED Digest 1972: Site Quality & Customer Confidence |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. May 19, 2005 Issue #1972 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Site Quality & Customer Confidence ==-- ~ Nancy Cardinali "...how many people, like me, look at a site's code before doing business with them?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== The Incredible Disappearing Ezine ==-- ~ Judy Vorfeld "My email program, The Bat! doesn't read HTML" ~ Geiselle Thompson "BellSouth.net installed a system-level spam filter..." ~ Johnn Four "...here's a couple of small tips that might help..." --== Traffic Stats from RSS Feeds? ==-- ~ Allan Burns "I myself would prefer not to the commercialisation of RSS feeds..." --== Problems with Web Design ==-- ~ Rick Gortatowsky "In the future your digital media will be piped in and have various associated revenue models." --== The Enemy is Always Present ==-- ~ John Smart "Dealing with people that abuse the internet is a problem." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== URL Correction ==-- ~ Kathryn Martyn ======== NEW ===================================== From: Nancy Cardinali Subject: Quality of Code Hi all, I'm wondering how many people, like me, look at a site's code before doing business with them? Someone mentioned a credit card entity that would allow small usage with no yearly fees. (I can't locate the URL. It may have been another site I visited as a result of url posted here.) When I checked the code, I was not pleased with it. Am I the only one who thinks the code is important factor in using what the site offers? Especially if it's related to finances (credit card processing) or web design. I've had someone try to sell me SE software from a web site made with a plug-n-play, and... well, lets just say it needed a lot of work. When I brought this to the owners attention, he unsubscribed me from his newsletter and requested I never subscribe again! This is a case of 'taking your toys and going home'. ;-} Thanks again for all the great info. Nancy Cardinali http://www.taylor-dth.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Judy Vorfeld Subject: The Incredible Disappearing Ezine > So, LED Digest members and gumshoes, what is behind > the mystery of the incredible disappearing e-mail newsletter? - Martha Retallick, LED 1971 Martha Retallick's right. I just realized that I haven't been receiving her ezines since she changed to HTML. My email program, The Bat! doesn't read HTML, however it often gives the components, breaking down the graphics from the text. Martha might consider sending a text only message to her subscribers just before or after she issues the HTML version and mention that those whose email programs don't accept HTML can read the ezine at ---and give the URL. Her ezines are excellent, and this would ensure that they get the exposure they deserve. P.S. I avidly devour each issue of LED. It's considered an Internet historical treasure. Judy Vorfeld Editing and Writing Services - Photo transformation www.editingandwritingservices.com | www.digifeld.com -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Geiselle Thompson Subject: Disappearing email > And, FWIW, his ISP is BellSouth. I don't know what e-mail > program he's using, or whether this is the source of the problem. - Martha Retallick, LED 1971 Martha, I can tell you about a year ago BellSouth.net installed a system-level spam filter which dumps email that it considers high risk to be spam. The reason I know this is that the system-level spam filter ate several pieces of legitimate and important business email from clients! We were not able to retrieve the email, nor were we able to white list those clients. On the other hand, we were / are still receiving a large amount of true spam. BellSouth.net changed our account management system about 6 months ago. I'll be honest with you...I don't know if they retained the system-level spam filter. However, we have an option to add spam-assassin to our web hosting accounts, which doesn't seem to have an option for white listing. Occasionally, legitimate email from clients still goes missing. All of this is to say that your hypothesis could be a strong possibility. Good luck in getting to the bottom of the problem. Geiselle Thompson, IT Director QSS, Inc. -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Johnn Four Subject: Disappearing email Can't help with diagnosing the missing e-zine, however, here's a couple of small tips that might help in the future: Place a 1x1 transparent gif graphic at the very top of the HTML newsletter. Name it according to your issue / volume number for easy and unique tracking. Use your weblogs to determine crude open and preview rates. And, in Martha's case, it's a good indication people are receiving the newsletter. Perhaps adding one with a different name at the bottom would indicate that some issues are getting through whole. Sign up for Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, and AOL accounts and subscribe to your own e-zine. Check these accounts to determine successful delivery. It's also helpful for getting an idea of what your list members will see. Hotmail, for example, until recently, would butcher CSS. Cheers, Johnn Four -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Allan Burns Subject: RSS traffic > ... does anyone have goods stats on how effective > their feed is in generating business? - Tom Aman, LED 1971 I feel I must comment on Tom's post. You can get a good idea of the number of subscribers to your RSS feed and the click through rate by using Feedburner. I use them for republishing my RSS feed and they do a great job in providing stats. I am not in anyway affiliated with them but I do run an RSS related site and thought that this may be valuable to some of the readers of this digest if they are looking to verify their stats. I would think this is also beneficial if you are considering monetising your feed at some point. I myself would prefer not to the commercialisation of RSS feeds although I understand and appreciate webmasters choice in monetising their RSS traffic. Regards Allan Burns http://www.newsniche.com -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Rick Gortatowsky Subject: Web design Hi All! In LED 1971 Tom Anson added some interesting points to the Plug n Play web discussion as also mentioned in LED 1970. What is important to realize in the future is that we are not speaking of minor players. In fact, I was a bit astonished at the statement of 20,000 successful sites built using a PnP platform (LED 1970) via a non-giant firm. The giants are now stepping into the fray. That means AOL, Microsoft to name two. What is also important to realize is the vision of the future. There are countless problems with the technology as it sits today that must be addressed and are in fact being addressed. In order for change to take place relating to the problems of the computing / digital technologies the WAY people use the technology must change. PnP webs are only part of the picture as is the associated operating system that will sit on your PC to fully leverage it. Other parts of the picture deal with issues of web content, digital copyright, media piracy and personal security. All of these are major headaches and several resulting in literal severed arteries of revenue. Just as we as folks though that diskettes were the fling and video tapes, scant years later we have optical CD's, DVD's, then reader / writers. Software Piracy alone is now on the scale of organized crime, thats not me saying that... Thats the Federal Government. That is mass replication of software that is resold to unsuspecting consumers as the real McCoy cept' the publishers / authors never see a red cent. Hence why you can visit eBay and find a $50 game at CompUSA for $20 that appears to be legit but in reality is an exacting replication box and all. DVD piracy is rampant, music piracy is rampant. Quite frankly I never understood why the public is so "Anti-protect" this stuff. "I should be able to do what I want". But, they need realize the lost revenues equate to economic damage to themselves or their future / children. In the future your digital media will be piped in and have various associated revenue models. Pay per play, subscriptions etc. Real re-occuring revenue models. People will scream and yell but thats the way it has to be. Rick Gortatowsky -------- new post - new topic --------- From: John Smart Subject: The enemy > I wanted to share a recent request received by someone wanting > me to develop a custom toolbar for them. I publish it here so you > get an idea just how low some people want to go. (Money seems > the root of this evil.) - Marty R. Milette, LED 1968 Dealing with people / companies that abuse the internet is a problem. Standing up to these people is fine - if that is what you want to do. Marty stood up in his way. He refused this persons money. Good for him! Many would have taken the money and run. Frankly I admire Marty's stand. And this is Marty's issue - the person came to him, not us. Marty chose to share the news. It is not for us to say how else he should handle it, and rightly so. So before we all get on our horses, get our lassos out and go to round up these varmints (That sounds so daft from me - I am in California now, but am a brit, with a very 'BBC' type accent!. I just cannot carry off the word 'varmint'!) we should respect Marty's right to handle this how he wants to. John Smart, Technical Director InternetDesign.com - A Human Touch in a Digital World ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: Correction > Actually, the REAL lesson is to test every URL > before mailing. ;-) The URL was corrected as > soon as I received the last LED and clicked > on the link, purely out of habit and... OOPS! - Ken Evoy, LED 1971 Good object lesson, Ken. Even the long-time pros have a oopsie now and then. LOL When I send my newsletter, I first send it to myself, then I physically click each and every link out, to make sure it goes where it's supposed to go. Invariably I find a bad link and then I can easily make the correction. It's rare for me to send one with a bad link, but it still happens. I did something similar recently, in my March newsletter, Bits-n-Bites for People Who Chew, with a new free e-book download, "5-Steps to Blast Through Weight Loss Plateaus." I quickly learned I'd given a bad link (see below on how I did that), then I corrected it, found that was wrong, recorrected it, etc. Spin once, shake twice. Through a series of mishaps I think I corrected it and re-corrected it about five times, each time somehow creating another error. It became a comedy for me, but probably not so funny for those who tried and failed repeatedly to get it. Suddenly it not only wasn't free, it was costing time and frustration. My Error Checking Script Solution: I also use a script that lets me know of errors to the site, and to let me know when one finds a 404 page so I can quickly go fix any errors. It's Fluid Dynamic's Guardian: http://www.xav.com/ The only downside to that script is I also get an e-mail for every attempt by robots, etc. to pages that don't exist, attempts to break in, etc. so on occasion I've received thousands of e-mails advising of errors. That's not fun. I have the error messages sent to a specific mailbox so I can download it separately. It's been very useful for me, but for a very large site, a regular full-on site link checking would be a better solution. I do link checks, but not as frequently. I'd also hire someone willing to go through an entire site and check every single link. I've done it, but man, it takes a long time ;-) Thanks for the link Ken. I got it on the first pass because I figured out the error (I tend to try to guess what they did wrong -- sometimes it's a period at the end that shouldn't be there, or capitalization is a common one), then I got it again when it was mentioned here, thinking maybe I'd missed it, and I went and downloaded it again just now because I'm compulsive that way, so I'm covered, but if you are counting downloads, I count for three. Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP Ending Emotional Eating, One Bite at a Time http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Language is symbol. Written language is symbol of symbol." - Aristotle |
