| LED Digest 1846: Form or Function? HTML Editor Wars |
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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 ................................................ July 26, 2004 Issue #1846 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Google Dancing Again? ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "Google introduced rolling updates earlier this year." ~ Floss Caskey "I just checked my site and we have dropped..." --== Affiliate Network Consolidation ==-- ~ Martha Retallick "...if AOL is betting on Advertising.com, I'd suggest put your own betting money elsewhere." --== Adding Disclaimers to Ezines? ==-- ~ Mekhong Kurt "I vote for the disclaimer." --== Site Redesign Blues ==-- ~ Cheryl Berry "...we are pleased as punch with our lack-luster code." ~ Joe Taylor "While I agree that the coding Frontpage does looks ugly, I think it's what you do with it that counts." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== The End of Email as You Know It? ==-- ~ Steve Pronger ~ Kathryn Martyn --== Attorney Referral Needed ==-- ~ Martha Retallick ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Michael Martinez Subject: Google dancing > I'm hearing rumors through the grapevine that Google > will soon be dancing again. Anybody have any info on that? - A. Brantley, LED 1845 Google introduced rolling updates earlier this year. Unless they are about to implement another major design change (they do that once or twice a year), there should be no more dancing. Michael Martinez, Author Visualizing Middle-earth, Parma Endorion, and Understanding Middle-earth http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Floss Caskey Subject: Google dancing Morning, I just checked my site and we have dropped from the first position on the first page to the middle of the third page. Search term is: Fairbanks, Alaska Bed and Breakfast. Not sure this is because of the dancing but I can't really explain it. Most of the time we enjoy this really great position on Google but sometimes we drop out of sight or to a lower position. I haven't changed anything on our site. Floss Caskey Cranberry Ridge Bed and Breakfast; Alaska Flying Tours www.alaskaflyingtours.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Martha Retallick Subject: Affiliate marketing > So is what Advertising.com just announced REALLY > an affiliate network, just glorified CPM / CPA advertising > or some new type of hybrid? - Linda Buquet, LED 1845 True story: In the late 1990s, I published an e-zine on Internet marketing. The list host was a company called OakNet Publishing. They did an absolutely wonderful job. Then came word that they were selling out to a Big Company called Advertising.com. "Uh-oh," I thought. And my fears were justified. Within a short period of time, it became obvious to me that Advertising.com didn't have the first clue about the list hosting business. This also became obvious to a lot of other people. Quite a few onetime OakNet customers dropped Advertising.com like a hot rock. I was one of them. Hence, if AOL is betting on Advertising.com, I'd suggest put your own betting money elsewhere. Martha Retallick "The Passionate Postcarder" http://www.postcardmarketingsecrets.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Mekhong Kurt Subject: Ezine disclaimers > So, my question to LED-ers is: Should you include > disclaimers in your e-zine? If so, what should they say? - Martha Retallick, LED 1844 In LED 1844, Martha Retallick asked if she should use a disclaimer in her online publication. Here's how I feel. I vote for the disclaimer. Many web sites have such disclaimers you could copy, but you will undoubtedly want to run whatever you come up with past your attorney. Good luck with bullet-proofing yourself! Mekhong Kurt, Web Master Bangkok's Voice On The Web http://bangkokatoz.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Cheryl M Berry Subject: Redesign blues > But Lee, you are right on when you say there's a heck of > a lot more to HTML than learning some stuff about tags. > I'd say about two year's worth at least if you really want to > know your stuff... - Stephen Mareches, LED 1844 > I would tend to agree, but the problem with WYSIWYG editors > is they don't follow standards as much as they should. - Lee Roberts, LED 1843 Lee, impressive bio so I'll take your comments as valid. I'm certainly no pro at hand coding - a few tweaks here and there but I am still learning so your information is valuable to me as I work to improve my skills. I'm a dreaded FrontPage user and am sure you'd find the code on my site appalling from a standards standpoint. Nice feature in FrontPage, however, is the spell check. Unless one has the quintessential editor's eye, simple errors can go undetected as noted on your homepage. The center column on your site contains 3 paragraphs, each containing a string of title / sentence that missed a space "Professional Website DesignCan..." "100% Satisfaction GuaranteedWe .." "Marketing Servicesare available ..." FrontPage which would have caught that little boo-boo, underlined it as an error, and brought it to my attention for correction. It goes to show that different programs have different advantages for different people. By the way, my sloppy code supports 50,000 visitors a month, helps my clients gain new work (something that's hard for many folks to find these days), and supports my family and me. I'm learning hand coding slowly and do make some manual changes to the code but in the meantime, we built an entire business with out-of-the-box Microsoft, and are pleased as punch with our lack-luster code. ..you're welcome on the edit... :) Cheryl Berry, President www.bookkeepinghelp.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Joseph Taylor Subject: Redesign blues Hi Fellow LED'ers, Been a subscriber since around 1999-2000, great newsletter. Sorry to see all the FrontPage bashing going on. I wouldn't have my business without it. It started as a "lark" in 1997 with a copy of FP '97 while doing a sales/marketing consulting project for a German company. Lo and behold, the little web site I cooked up for them produced sales - I was hooked. Using FrontPage 97, I started two web sites in 1998, this past June of 2004, combined they receive over 130,000 visitors and 2 million page views each month. Since then I have moved up to FrontPage 98, then to FP 2000 and I am now using FP 2003. The new search and replace feature in FP 2003 alone is worth the money because of the time it saves me editing 1,000+ pages on my web sites. While I agree that the coding Frontpage does looks ugly, I think its what you do with it that counts. I am by no means an expert coder, nor do I know what the HTML standards are. Heck, I couldn't code a thing with Notepad, but I do make a nice, six-figure income from my two sites, all thanks to FrontPage. Very Truly Yours, Joe Taylor http://www.powderandbulk.com ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Steve Pronger Subject: End of email > ... no Spam filter is perfect, the best of them will identify > the occasional good message as Spam so it is not really > safe to let a filter actually delete anything... - Tom Aman, LED 1844 So true. Pity Hotmail don't follow Tom's advice. I recently discovered that 75% of my new subscriptions were unverified. Being a "double opt-in" system, new subscribers are sent a request to verify their subscription by clicking on a link in an email. But they weren't responding. On closer inspection I noted that the majority of the addresses were Hotmail or Yahoo. So, I subscribed myself from Hotmail and Yahoo addresses and discovered that Yahoo were sending my mail straight to the "junk" folder and Hotmail simply deleted them. They didn't bounce the mail, they just didn't deliver it. My mail was being treated as spam despite the fact that subscribers had specifically asked to receive it. Turns out my domain had been added to a couple of spam lists. No idea how. I only ever mail to double opt-in subscribers. Getting off those lists is proving to be a huge headache. Guilty without a trial it seems. Being a SiteSell affiliate I had a closer look at Ken Evoy's "Deliver My Mail" campaign and implemented many of the strategies recommended in dealing with this situation. I would urge all LEDers to get involved with this campaign and spread the word. If you maintain a mailing list and this problem hasn't effected you yet, it soon will. http://deliver-my-mail.sitesell.com/ And to Ken I'd just like to say thanks to going to bat for us little guys. Steve Pronger http://www.stevepronger.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: End of Email > I've found a great service that I've used for a couple years > now at pobox.com... it has powerful server-side sp*am > filtering capabilities... you can say that you do not want to > accept any mail from China or Nigeria. - Adam Boettiger, LED 1845 Oh, my goodness, Adam! You are suggesting to eliminate an entire country, i.e. China? Heaven help us. I realize there are a lot of scams, and frequently certain geographical areas are worse than others, but frankly, if you must resort to refusing service to a country of 1.3 billion people (including many US citizens) then we have a sorry state of affairs indeed. > Or you can have all of your incoming email checked against > one or more known blacklists and either bounced / rejected > or flagged as sp*m. Flagged is okay, rejected is simply not acceptable for a business site - are you willing to risk losing clients to the faulty filtering in place today? I'm not. > They even have an option now for incorporating Verified Sender > and SPF technology which are two new filtering techniques that > are extremely effective. Verified Sender? Let us know how that goes, but it's no less likely to fall prey to the 12-year old computer whiz who's one step ahead of these "solutions." SPF? This idea doesn't sit well with me. I'm not interested in AOL or Microsoft determining what mail gets through based on some scheme they control. And yes, I am paranoid. It's an election year. At this point I'm not willing to let any third party handle my business e-mail - I prefer to do it myself using MailWasher Pro, but I'm certainly interested in new solutions. My method is not ideal, and yes, it takes time (I flag suspected junk, but still check sender and subject headers before deleting), but I think for the money spent to acquire a new client, it's worth the time to not let any legitimate e-mails slip through the cracks. Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Martha Retallick Subject: Attorney > ... I was wondering if anyone had any referrals > for a regular business attorney that understands > commercial software and licensing issues... - Emanuel D. Errico III, LED 1844 Permit me to recommend my family's intellectual property attorney, William H. Eilberg. He's based in suburban Philadelphia, but practices nationally and internationally. URL: http://www.eilberg.com Martha Retallick ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." - H. Jackson Brown, Jr. |
