| LED Digest 2421: Email Programs for Macs |
|
|
|
================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Marketing, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. June 1, 2007 Issue no. 2421 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= <Moderator Comment> ~ Welcome our New Sponsor --== New Email Client Sought ==-- ~ Brad Waller "While not perfect, I'd suggest Thunderbird..." ~ Marina Tadiello "...I decided to give Mailsmith a try, and I haven't looked back." ~ GJ Berg "I've received some private responses and thought I would follow up..." --== Marketing Artwork Online ==-- ~ Robert Joy "...it's all in the presentation and the overall marketing of the website." ~ Nathan Holley "You should be leveraging the power of online video in a big way." --== Blocking Bots ==-- ~ Michael Martinez "Firefox users can activate the prefetching capability..." --== Losing Rankings to Scraper Sites ==-- ~ Dirk Johnson "...I think that maybe you have [bought] into the 'great content trumps all' theories..." ======== CONTINUING =============================== <Moderator Comment> Greetings LEDer, I'm excited to announce that Bruce Clay's SEOToolSet.com is now sponsoring the LED. You'll find ad copy for their SEOToolSet Training program ( http://www.seotoolset.com/training/ ) in the masthead and footer of every issue. If you want to learn about SEO - how to analyze site data, how to apply the findings to your site, how to optimize ethically and efficiently - this course is a great place to start. There are several levels of courses available - from the basic to advanced - and they update a directory for those who have completed a certification process following the courses. Check out the site right here: http://www.seotoolset.com/training/ Here's a rundown on their curriculum: http://www.seotoolset.com/training/courses.html Welcome to the LED, Bruce & Company :-) Have a great weekend, Adam Comment? --------------------- From: Brad Waller Subject: Email clients > My favorite email program, Eudora, is an orphan... > So, I'm looking for suggestions for an email program. - GJ Berg, LED Digest 2420 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1824/55/ While not perfect, I'd suggest Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/). I'm writing my email on Thunderbird on a PC now (I admit I use Mail on the Mac), and I use i to check and send email for six addresses and have some that check automatically and some that never check without prompting. It has very good spam filtering and folder filtering, so it hits all your requirements. According to the support site, it should ask about importing and will do so from Eudora, so I think it also hits all your "nice to haves." Brad Waller Manage and Sell your own site advertising http://adjungle.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Marina Tadiello Subject: Email clients I found myself in a similar situation a few months ago. After asking around, I decided to give Mailsmith a try, and I haven't looked back. Just for the record, - Mailsmith's advantage is that it answers all your requirements. In particular, my migration from Eudora went smoothly and successfully in all the crucial aspects (i.e. messages, mailboxes, and address book). - A few disadvantages, which are however much smaller than the problems I had encountered when trying to migrate to other mail agents: a) Mailsmith is not free software (around $50 US, if I remember correctly). b) I wasn't able to import my Eudora filters, but setting up the equivalent in Mailsmith was very easy. c) After 10+ years with Eudora, it took some time for me to get used to Mailsmith's different interface. Things are much smoother now, 6 months down the track - although there are still a few (small) "quirky" things I haven't completely got used to. Mailsmith is made by Bare Bones Software, http://www.barebones.com/ With sympathy :-) Marina Tadiello in Australia - G4 768 (Mystic), OS X 10.4.9, Mailsmith 2.1.5 Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: GJ Berg Subject: Email clients I've received some private responses and thought I would follow up with those recommendations and follow ups. Mac Mail was recommended, but the writer could not confirm that I could set ports for sending / receiving (which was one of the reasons that I have to change mail programs). Gyaz was recommended. In looking at online documentation it does not seem to have nearly the "power" features I need. (Also available for Windows platforms.) Mozilla's Thunderbird was recommended and may be the way I go. (Also available for Windows / Linux platforms.) I've tried to do a little with it: - does not want to import my 200+ filters / rules from Eudora, - had to work around address book importation (export to text, manipulate in Excel and output as CSV), - won't import identities. - mail (folder structure / message) importation seems to work just fine. I like the fact that I can combine RSS reader and email program, but I hate that RSS feeds are alphabetized (I had a nice custom order defined in another reader with the "important" sites at the top). I was able to (eventually) figure out how to import my subscriptions. I don't like that I cannot have multiple windows open with different stories. (Haven't yet tried to "email" URL which is something I do with more interesting stories I like to share. But I could not "copy" URL; clicking URL resulted in opening article in web browser; no popup menu.) Also having issues getting reader to sort properly by date, but may just be a configuration issue (and have to set on a per-source basis; a pain). And some feeds do not seem to supply title (so all I got was a blank title with a date). Haven't figured out "standardized" (i.e., Eudora stationery) outgoing message boilerplate handling. It will allow me to set the incoming / outgoing ports for email (which was the main reason I've been looking for a new program). Thanks for the help thus far!! LED-ers are the best. GJ Berg Comment? ============ Sponsor Message =========== Will the real King please stand up? Sit down Content, you're no King. You're pictures, logos, imagery ... all kinds of stuff Google and the other SEs totally ignore. You, copy! Stand up! You're the Real King! You're words. You're the only page elements SE bots even look at. For the best search-engine-optimized website text in cyberspace, see the Copy Kings at www.GetWebContent.com/LED ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Robert Joy Subject: Marketing Artwork > Is marketing art any different from marketing any other product? > What are the best SEO practices to use in marketing art? - Stan Bowman, LED Digest 2420 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1824/55/ We have three websites for artists one is a gallery in the USA and the other 2 websites are for the artists themselves. The gallery website does very well and generates many sales. The 2 artist websites are generally used so that prospective clients can see the artists work on line and then the client contacts the artist and sales are made. Personally I don't see any difference from selling prints or art on line, it's all in the presentation and the overall marketing of the website. Robert Joy Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Nathan Holley Subject: Marketing artwork One word: video. You should be leveraging the power of online video in a big way. This is really the space to watch and savvy marketers are already using it to advantage. After Google bought YouTube they've been looking for ways to monetize the site. One easy way is integrating YouTube videos directly into search results. You'll see these videos coming up fairly high for competitive searches all the time. For an artist, I'd put together videos showing what you do - showing your artwork - that kind of thing. As far as SEO, the same fundamentals apply. It may be difficult to really benefit from organic searches, because many times people don't know what they want for artwork until they see it. Then again, some people may search for "inspiring cornwall sea watercolor print" or something... I doubt it though. Video. Food for thought... Nathan Holley Comment? -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: Blocking bots > What's the easiest way to erect a barrier [to robots], > without inconveniencing my real visitors. Is there a > way that doesn't make visitors fill in some text? - Shaun Johnston, LED Digest 2419 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1823/55/ > People do things robots don't... There is normally a > measurable period of time between a page load and > the action of following a link. The absence of such are > a good indication the visitor is a robot. - Will Bontrager, LED Digest 2420 Firefox users can activate the prefetching capability and grab a lot of pages for their cache very quickly. They would look like robots if you just measure time between clicks. Google's Web Accelerator uses that prefetching protocol for the same purpose. Michael Martinez Comment? -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Dirk Johnson Subject: Lost rankings > I am watching the formerly pretty good ranking of my > web site dwindle... when I look at sites that rank higher > than mine, they are "placeholder sites" and link farm > sites, and sites with "scraped" content... - Peggy Deras, LED Digest 2418 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1822/55/ Peggy, Your frustration is understandable, but a bit of insight might help you see more clearly. Please bear with me. I am not defending the "scraper" sites. I am just telling you that they are out there, and you have to deal with them. You can compete. First, from reading your entire post, I do think that you need to adjust your concept of what works in SEO. I think that maybe you have spent far too much time buying into the "great content trumps all" theories that are rampant in the SEO world. More significantly, you also willingly assign "illegitimacy status" to sites that you deem as not worthy. Maybe they are, maybe not. You have been influenced by people who think that *their own efforts* at SEO are always superior to those of others, and that other sites have no merit. While this type of thinking makes people feel better, it is a very bad policy for competing. Search engines are machines, not people. They don't really do a good job of distinguishing between a well-formatted "scraper" site and a site like yours. What's more, it is entirely legitimate for a website owner to build a genuine "kitchen portal" and then try to profit from the traffic. Large publishing houses are built on that model, and nobody seems to question their motives. Again, I am not claiming that these sites you mentioned are legit. If they are stealing content, they are not, and you should pursue your rights in those cases. But, that is not the point. You will not win this war by complaining about them, either way. No matter how much support you get from people on SEO forums, you situation likely will not change unless you take a new approach. You said that you have "done everything right". I'd have to ask, according to who? A lot of misguided SEO people claim that you should sit back and wait for the world to discover your own "great content". That is such a huge misconception. It does happen, but it is highly unlikely. I looked at you backlink profile. For a site that has been around for a while in the home products and services realm you have a very modest number of unique domains pointing to you (301 by my count using LinkSurvey). Toss out the sites pulling their link content from DMOZ, and you have about 210 unique domains. Other people can advise you on the specifics about one-way link campaigns, but I can tell you from experience that, had you been actively pursuing reciprocation all this time, you unique domain count would likely be between 1000 and 2000 domains, all in the home / real estate realm. You'd likely be beating the brains out of these scraper sites. How do I know this? Because we have several clients who are in the home-related realm, and after several years that is exactly where they are. At the top. They are not affected much by scraper sites, because they actively take control of their link development, on a consistent basis. They do not sit and wait for the world to find their content and reward it. And since reciprocation is affordable, accessible, and provides stable links in large quantity, that's what they have relied upon, for the most part. People can argue all day that reciprocation is or isn't the right way to go, but since it seems to have worked consistently, through all the various Google updates, they simply ignore all that and keep doing it. You can recover from this, but your recovery will not be by using quality judgements against your competitors. It will be by becoming proactive with link development and also, your ongoing content development. Can you get site users to participate on a forum or a blog, or post photos of their own kitchens, etc.? Peggy, I am not trying to make you an example. You are not alone in your frustration. Most likely, from reading between the lines of your post, you have been on the SEO forums, and getting some patently bad advice with respect to what works, from people who have some very odd concepts. SEO forums are rife with people who are rather confused. To find out what works, you have to ignore the SEO theorists, and look at what actually does work. Links, combined with content and optimization. That is what works. And links usually must be cultivated. Best regards, Dirk Johnson, Partner - Operations DomainDrivers LLC www.domaindrivers.com Comment? ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED SEOToolSet.com Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification Join the certified SEO directory: www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/120/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/77/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/86/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." - Johann von Goethe |
