| LED Digest 1513: Scrooge |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest ................................................. February 7, 2003 Issue #1513 ................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== UK Search Engines [was: Kanoodle] ==-- ~ Don Baker "Espotting has been rated...as the #1 European CPC service." --== Outsourcing Web Development ==-- ~ Bob Harrington "...how do you spell Scrooge?" --== Web Design Pricing ==-- ~ Martyn Gay "We avoid clients who expect us to jump through hoops in a bidding process." --== Google Toolbar ==-- ~ Ivan J. Jimenez "...there MAY an exception to the ISP rule." ===== GEEK TIPS ================== --== Glitches in AOL Email? ==-- ~ Jim Ryan ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Domain Registration Encore ==-- ~ Will Bontrager ~ Jeff Allen ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Don Baker Subject: UK search engines > I also wanted to ask if anyone knows of a really good > CPC search engine in the UK? I have seen espotting > but it is a high buy in rate... Unless they get the traffic > of Google I can't see it. - Mary Lee, LED 1512 Mary, Espotting ( www.espotting.com ) has been rated by Danny Sullivan (the SEO guru) as the #1 European CPC service. They don't have Google's searchers, but do have Yahoo UK and other major European SEs as clients. Their interface is like Overture's, but allows multiple search phrases to be attached to a single description, as does FindWhat. I think it's worth a try, if you're after the UK consumer market. If you can track conversions (Espotting referrals becoming sales), you should be able to judge within a couple of months whether it's cost-effective for your clients. Don Baker NSI Partners ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Bob Harrington Subject: Outsourcing Having seen jobs dissapear to India, I can say they do great technical work. However you have to supply your images and North American expertise because they don't have a clue. So what's the point, except to show everyone that you can't afford to hire local, more inventive and better talent. (Quickly- name the top 10 great inventions of the 20th century out of Asia) The great thing about offshore work is it fits offshore markets, even if residing here now. So if you are an offshore kind of company marketing to a niche population group go for it. Otherwise how do you spell Scrooge? Bob Harrington ezclean.ca ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Martyn Gay Subject: Pricing > I've found that instead of having prospects send an > e-mail requesting a quote, setting up a "form" with > detailed questions works far better. - Ivan Jimenez, LED 1512 Ivan, Whilst I would agree that having such a form would cut down the number of less-than-serious inquirers, I think it may also put off some legitimate ones too. Firstly, I don't like filling in forms. They are rigid and my specification may not fit into the structure of the form. I'm not alone. I'll find this frustrating and it shows poor design on the part of your site that it can't cope with my request. I may take the view that I don't want to give my business to someone who doesn't make it easy for me. Secondly, a client can quite legitimately send their specification to 3-4 developers for quotes and comments. Making them fill out a form on your site means they will probably just skip it and go to another site that accepts the document by email. We avoid clients who expect us to jump through hoops in a bidding process. Most are timewasters and many have solicited at least 20 companies to bid on one relatively small project. We are happy to accept specifications by email in any form, but we insist that the client writes the document, not us. We don't mind giving free consultations and advice about serious inquiries, but if the customer won't expend any effort in writing a specification, then he's probably not serious about building the site. Martyn Gay www.cactushop.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Ivan J. Jimenez Subject: Google toolbar > Most toolbars (Google, Alexa, etc.) record your IP > address and will count multiple visits from one > IP address only once... - Ivan Jimenez, LED 1511 Reading my previous post, I noticed there MAY an exception to the ISP rule. AOL will generally assign a new ISP to the same user therefore multiple visits / sessions may count. Why did I say "may count"? Only some toolbars log "sessions" and I'm not exactly sure if Google is one. If anyone can add to this, please do. I'd be interested to learn more... Thanks all! ivan j. jimenez, business development cosmicbreath.com ===== GEEK TIPS =================================== From: Jim Ryan Subject: AOL email > Over the past few months, some of my clients and > associates on AOL have had intermittent failures > sending email to my domain... My host claims it's > a problem with AOL's name servers. - Patrick Brown, LED 1512 AOL and many other large ISPs have too many clients per server so their mail servers may be too busy when your client attempts to send the email. AOL could state "our mail servers are too busy, please try again later", teeing off the AOL client at AOL or "message failure: Host unknown or host not found", which tees off the AOL client at the receiving host company. Which method do you think they are going to use, admit they have oversold their service and need to add more mail servers or blame it on the other party? You often find this same problem when a hosting company adds thousands of low paying clients to one server. The error message will be be "404: site not found", not "408: Request Timed Out " Jim Ryan ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Will Bontrager Subject: Re: Domain Registration Encore > Our domain is up for renewal at Network Solutions... > To whom should we go for registration that is fast, > accurate and competitively priced? - Don Johnson, LED 1512 Not TotalNIC. When I recently tried to move a domain registration from TotalNIC to 000domains.com (our preferred registrar), I found TotalNIC had locked the domain, requiring a notarized statement postal mailed to their headquarters in Australia before they would release the domain. Further, their answering email, when I inquired about the lock, stated in part: "A domain name must be in the TotalNIC ICANN system for at least 150 days after any monetary transaction before a transfer can be allowed... if the domain name is within 30 days of the expiration date, or if the domain name is in an expired status, a renewal will be required." That gives you only a 180-day window in a 1-year registration within which you could move to another registrar. When I received their email, my thought was they they must have been taking lessons from Network Solutions. Sincerely, Will Bontrager Sooner or later you need CGI. http://willmaster.com/ ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Jeffrey Allen Subject: Domain registration I highly recommend GoDaddy.com. Very reasonable rates. 1 year $8.95 and 10 years for $69.50. Transfers for $7.95 which include a one year extension. They also have Blind and Private options. Very easy to make changes. Jeff Allen www.ironq.com ------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995-2003 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Golf is a good walk spoiled." - Mark Twain |
