| LED Digest 1829: The End of Email as You Know it? |
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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 adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ................................................ June 29, 2004 Issue #1829 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== The End of Email as You Know It? ==-- ~ Abu Haider "Embracing new ways of delivering the content... will help the continuation of great lists." --== Yahoo's Poor Customer Service ==-- ~ Brian Gomme "...you will have to push through to the next level to get truly good customer support." --== The End of I-Sales ==-- ~ Martha Retallick "I, for one, am not averse to shelling out money to join professional organizations." ~ Steven Rothberg "I was sad to learn of [I-Sales] passing, but also not surprised." ~ Kurt T. Francis "...there may very well be a shakeout in this area of the Internet..." --== Image Search ==-- ~ Rich Dudley "Every time photos of our work show up, it's an ad for our site." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== 301 Redirects ==-- ~ Tom Anson ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Abu Haider Subject: End of Email > The only viable answer for email publishers seems to be > a method to "bypass the SMTP protocol altogether in the delivery > to subscribers" but, without altering the way email publishers > produce the content that we all cherish and benefit from. - Joe Halbrook, LED 1828 That is a very interesting idea. In fact a number of technologies have been established that works in the publisher / subscriber model. RSS (Really Simple Siyndication) is perhaps the most popular. You have an RSS Reader (Like you email client) that looks up verious feeds you subscribe to, and presents it in Title / Summary / Detail Format (or variations) that you can read. RSS can be employed as an aid to the email discussion list. Many web based discussion boards already offer RSS feed so we can stay updated without going to the actual website. RSS feeds are in the form of XML and having an RSS feed for an Email discussion list will require that posts are entered in a structured database so the RSS engine can read the database and feed the clients. Email lists are probably not structured and maintained that way. However, its a much better approach for many reasons. The sophisticated search functionality a database can offer, and organization and integrity of discussion threads are two major advantages. It will be a bit of work to setup the system and make the transition from Email only to Database driven Email + RSS (and possibly + Web) interface. But it will also open more ways to bring revenue. I would also predict that the reader / subscriber base will increase with these enhancements, specially for a quality list like LED. The concern of SPAM issues affecting Email lists is certainly valid. Embracing new ways of delivering the content and keeping up with the technology changes will definetely help the continuation of great lists. If Adam decides to incorporate the enhancements and he needs further resources, I am sure many LED subscribers will come forward with their expertise. Abu Haider ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Brian Gomme Subject: Yahoodwinked > Has anyone else had similar issues with Yahoo's > customer service, especially with category sponsorship > services? How did you deal with it? - Jim Girardeau, LED 1828 As a web marketer I have utilized Yahoo's Directory submissions as a tool for building link reputation on certain clients for years. It has always been an extremely easy process, pick your category, complete the submission form, pay and wait for their decision. I have done this dozens of times with never a problem. That was until two weeks ago. I went through the same process as always. After I had completed the form it went to process the order and came back with a socket exception error and asked me to correct my information and submit again. I tried twice more that day, two times the next day and two times the day after that. The order never completed even though all the information was accurate. To be on the safe side I checked my credit card account and found that Yahoo had charged me 6 times on that order! I called to number on the bill immediately and explained what had happened. After calling long distance and being on the phone for 21 minutes I was told that the request would be escalate and I could expect a resolution in 2 to 3 weeks. I told them they could do all the research they wanted but that I was not loaning them US$1,800.00 while they fixed their problem. When that person could not help me I told him I needed to talk with a supervisor. The supervisor listened, put me on hold and then came back and told me that for whatever reason this happened some times and that they were hopeful that they could fix the issue. He said that they would review the submissions and any that were not tied to submitted information would be credited back within 2 business days. I watched the account and indeed it was. I then tried the submission of that site again and it worked the first time! Unfortunately it seems that you will have to push through to the next level to get truly good customer support. I would recommend calling and asking for a supervisor right away. The gentleman I spoke with said that is how I should follow up if I did not get a satisfactory resolution. Good Luck Brian Gomme ebasedevolution.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Martha Retallick Subject: End of I-Sales > ... in my opinion this is what ultimately caused I-Sales to go > away. The community did not value the lists enough to put their > nickel on the line, not for the Audettes and not for Andy either. - Komra Moriko, LED 1828 Nowadays, there are plenty of professional associations that offer members-only e-mail discussion lists and Web-based discussion boards. But when the I-Lists started back in the mid-1990s, the "free on the Internet" business model predominated, which made charging for anything a dicey proposition at best. And we can look no further than the Dotcom Bust to see how viable that business model was. I, for one, am not averse to shelling out money to join business and professional organizations. Right now, I'm paying around $500 a year to maintain memberships in three such groups. And I'm about to join a fourth. So, if an outfit came along and offered me membership in a discussion group with top-quality discussions among members of the highest professional calibre, well, they may just get a new member named Martha.... Martha Retallick "The Passionate Postcarder" http://www.postcardmarketingsecrets.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Steven Rothberg Subject: End of I-Sales I was a happy subscriber and regular contributor to I-Sales. I was sad to learn of its passing, but also not surprised. Although the people running the show are very dedicated and seem to be very bright, they made a series of blunders that would have put just about any of us under. Changing your name once is tough, but multiple times within months? Changing from a free subscription model to paid is tough, but making that change and then changing again to free for some and paid for others to who knows what they ended up with? Changing your look-and-feel once is tough, but multiple times and then going heavily HTML at the same time as an increasingly large number of email clients are blocking anything that even remotely looks like spam? I wish those guys the best and hope that my path crosses with theirs again. I valued their work and will miss their excellent publications. Steven Rothberg The Highest Traffic Job Board for Students & Grads http://www.collegerecruiter.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: K Francis Subject: End of I-Sales Hi, Adam -- I got the same message about I-Sales, and was a bit surprised, after not hearing anything is such a long time. But I guess it was coming, at least in some folks eyes (not including mine; I just figured there was some of re-organization / re-scheduling / reformatting / whatever in the wind). As for the larger picture, there may very well be a shakeout in this area of the Internet, just as we are seeing shakeouts in many other areas of Internet activity, and drastic changes, if not precisely shakeouts (yet, anyway) in still other parts. (Yahoo's expansion of free mailboxes 25-fold this week and the beta Gmail are but 2 examples of the latter.) That said, I figure there are enough hard-core people who are of like mind with me to keep a list such as LED alive and kicking -- even, we hope, prospering mightily. And I suspect you and other moderators of similar offerings will find your hard-core loyalists to comprise a larger group than you might think. In the case of LED, think of the household names in their professions who regularly contribute their vast expertise -- for absolutely free -- via this digest. To cite just one case in point, I have learned more from Shari Thurow's postings here than I could ever possibly afford to pay for, given that my own web site generates no income at all. Yet she, and others like her, give generously of her time, experience, knowledge, and expertise. (No, I don't know Shari, I have no financial interest in her company, etc. etc. etc. disclaim disclaim disclaim.) And there are many others; the story is the same with them. If I may turn my comments to my fellow LEDer's. especially those who are like me in that I am here to learn, not because I have very much to offer; in every area in which I have a tad of knowledge there invariably are several more LEDer's with much broader and deeper knowledge than I have (thank goodness!). In a way, it may be especially incumbent upon us, those who take more than we are able to give -- not because we are in the least *unwilling* to give -- to help Adam make sure LED survives, grows, and prospers, not only by using his advertisers, when applicable and appropriate, but through that wonderful, time-honored method of supporting via word-of-mouth advertising. Adam certainly deserves such support. As for you genuine experts -- I'm speaking to the Shari's out there -- you might tell your colleagues and business friends just what it is about Adam's digest that leads you to be so kindly willing to share your thoughts and knowledge here. I don't mean to be at all preachy, and I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do, only to make some suggestions, as I sure as heck don't want to see the demise of this or other favored e-mail digests I receive. Sincerely, Kurt T. Francis, Web Master Bangkok's Voice On The Web http://bangkokatoz.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Richard Dudley Subject: Image search > ... can anyone offer an up-side [to getting images indexed]? And > if there is one, how does one get images indexed and ranked? - Tom Anson, LED 826 Tom, In our case, it would be good to have our images indexed by Google. We're a wedding vendor, and brides are relentless researchers. They want to see endless of pictures of bouquets, dresses, etc. We maintain a portfolio gallery on our site, featuring photos of our own work, as well as that from some commercial books we have permission to reproduce. The photos of all of our designs are stamped with our URL, and have been protected by a Digimarc watermark so we can track where they are used. A great number of brides have their own personal webpages / blogs on sites like The Knot, where they post pictures of their favorite bouquets, dresses, etc.. Photos are also inserted into the message threads. A good number of our images are posted to these sites, and each time they are viewed, it's an ad for our site. I can directly correlate weddings we are doing this year to a bride seeing one of our photos on another bride's page. Brides see our photos posted by other brides all over The Knot, they see our ad in the local Wedding Pages, and they see us as a featured florist on the local site. It's all part of our advertising plan. Most of these images are posted by copying the path and inserting it as a link in the page, rather than uploading the image to The Knot or wherever. This means the images are fed off our server, and we can track each and every time an image is viewed. We know which ones are the most posted, and that lets us track upcoming trends in design. We do from time to time login and see how our images are being used, and what else the bride posted. This also helps us look at trends in color, dress style, etc. Same thing for Google images. Every time photos of our work show up, it's an ad for our site. We don't have many images in Google, partly because we just haven't spent the time to optimize the site for them (spending more time on Froogle). I do know from working on other websites that ALT tags are important, as is the image name (a search for "spacer" or "transparent" turns up a lot of nothing in addition to real stuff). Interestingly, I've noticed a strong increase in the amount of ancillary "swag" brides are posting about. Before the economy slowed down, brides were also looking at a lot of extra accessories, but that interest waned for a couple of years. Now, the interest seems to be back (and has been for several months), hopefully indicating an economic upswing. Rich Dudley www.bloomeryweddings.com ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Tom Anson Subject: 301 redirects I'm a little off topic again (I see a pattern developing here... ), but I have a question about getting my site indexed -- especially in Google. I have a few pages that have had great SERP rankings for their most important keywords, but the majority of my pages aren't even indexed in Google. Several of my previously-ranked pages have essentially disappeared. Two questions that come to mind: 1) My business is MLM, my website has left-side navigation which includes a link to the corporate site (where people can register to join the business or purchase products at a discount). Would the link to the corportate site (on every page) send the spiders away, never to return? 2) My masthead includes an image map with a link to my "parent company". That website has some broken links (a fix is just short of launching). Would that affect my other site? Something seems to have happened somewhere to all but un-index my site. Any pointers would be appreciated. Tom Anson Anson Aromatic Essentials http://www.therapeutic-grade.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America." - William J. Clinton |
