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LED Digest 2173: Time and Email Print E-mail
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List Moderator:                     Published by:
Adam Audette                          LED Digest
adam, led-digest.com     http://www.led-digest.com
..............................................
June 1, 2006                        Issue no. 2173
..............................................



            .....IN THIS DIGEST.....


======= NEW ====================

        --== Lost Sites: The Sandbox ==--

                ~ Martha Retallick
"...I realized I had to focus to being found by clients."


==== CONTINUING =================

        --== Dealing with Our First Advertiser ==--

                ~ Renee Kennedy
"Here are some things to consider what to charge..."

        --== Search Engines Finding Sites ==--

                ~ Jeré Matlock
"...many search engines (including Google) have
'submit URL' pages..."

                ~ Ian Faulkner
"...it would seem that Google does indeed use
Whois to find sites..."

        --== Email Cloaking ==--

                ~ Ron Coble
"...everyone has to decide for themselves where
their time is best spent."

                ~ Michael Linehan
"I'm not sure if there is a misunderstanding here..."

                ~ John Smart
"I just want to share a great tool that is not too
easy to get hold of!"


==== BILLBOARD ===================

        --== Web Hosts ==--
                ~ John Brumage
                ~ Tom Aman


========== NEW ===================================

From: Martha Retallick
Subject: Lost Sites

Another variant on the "Getting Found by Search Engines" theme...

Last summer, I launched a new! improved! website for my design
studio. And I worked with an SEO expert to get the site ranked in
the Almighty Google and other search engines.

He warned me that since my site was new, and had a newly registered
domain name, it might end up in the Google "sandbox." (If you've
never heard of this term before, think of it as the search engine
equivalent of purgatory.)

Well, the SEO guy was right. The sandbox was where my site went to
wait, wait, wait until the Googlistas decided that it wasn't one of
those spam sites.

So much for being found by the search engines.

Lesson learned: Instead of focusing on being found by search
engines, I realized I had to focus to being found by clients. And
this effort has required a multitude of marketing tools, rather than
just sitting back and waiting for the engines to bring me some love.

I would encourage the owners of other "lost" sites to do the same
thing. It can be quite helpful to your business.

Martha Retallick

Western Sky Communications
Web/Graphic Design & Consulting
http://www.westernskycommunications.com


======== CONTINUING ===============================

From: Renee Kennedy
Subject: First advertiser

> A rather large advertiser approached my client, but
> neither one of us has any experience in this area.
> You could say we've been thrown into the deep end
> of the pool... we have no idea what to charge.
        - Diane Schips, LED 2172

Diane,

Hope this helps:

Ad Placement - yes, it means above the fold (at the top of the page,
before someone has to start scrolling) or below the fold.  It can
also mean on the right or the left of the page.  You might say,
"above the fold on the right."

Format - probably means the extension of the ad (.gif, .swf (flash),
jpg)

Ad Unit - This is the size of the ad - (120x600, 300x250, 728x90,
468x60, 160x600, etc.)

Third Party - means that a third party is serving the ad.  Probably
that the ad will go through two different ad servers before reaching
the destination page.  Both ad servers will track these ads.

Reasonable loop for flash - can be anything.  We have some ads that
are whole programs where people can play with them.  They can be
nasty, but anything is reasonable, depends on the audience.

Impressions - how many impressions your site will get (usually per
month).

CPA means that someone has to sign up for a newsletter, purchase, or
do something in order for you to get paid.  Ususally you will run
ads by CPM.  However, you might make more money on an action or a
click than on an impression.

Flight - not sure, might refer to scheduling.

Third party tags mean ads from companies like Double Click.  You
need to state in your Privacy Policy if you are serving this type of
ads, because they will be tracking these people with Cookies.

How much to charge - you will charge based on what you're offering.
If you are offering a very targeted audience, you will charge more.
Here are some things to consider what to charge:

1.  Type of audience
2.  Size of Ad
3.  Placement of Ad
4.  How many people they can reach per month
5.  How long the Ad is running

For instance, if you have a site geared to a specific type of
physician, you might charge upwards of $60-$70 CPM.  If you have a
site geared to all types of physicians, you might charge $40-$60
CPM, if you have a site geared toward a specific type of patient,
you might charge $40-$60 CPM, if you have a site geared toward all
types of patients you might charge $25-$50 CPM.  If you have a site
geared to any type of person (no specific target) it might be $1-$25
CPM.

Try this site for more info: http://www.iab.net/

Renee Kennedy
http://www.e-healtharticles.com


-------- new post - new topic ---------

From: Jere Matlock
Subject: Finding sites

> Apart from search engine submissions and links from
> other websites how do Google and MSN find websites?
> Do they look at recently registered domain names?
        - Sarah Hayes, LED 2170

Answer:  There are no other methods.  The search engines find sites
by crawling through other websites looking for links.  So getting
links from other websites is important if you want your site to be
found.

If you want to speed up the whole crawling and indexing process,
many search engines (including Google) have "submit URL" pages which
will send their crawlers around to your site.

We maintain a free list of links to SE Submission pages here:
http://www.wordsinarow.com/search-engines.html.

Directory submission pages are here:
http://www.wordsinarow.com/wheretogo.html, along with a lot of
history and advice about the best way to go about submitting your
site yourself.

Jere Matlock
http://www.wordsinarow.com
Website Design & Marketing  / SEO


-------- new post - same topic ---------

From: Ian Faulkner
Subject: Finding sites

I recently signed up with a new hosting company for a .eu domain.
Three days after signing up I had just checked if FTP was working by
transferring a single page with no links and just the name in text
of "Chatterie de Gailande." No problems but a few hours later the
site went down and I could get no feedback from the hosting company
for 15 days!

When the site was finally accessible I decided to do nothing other
than to use InternetSeer monitoring service to see if there were
going to be more outages. (I didn't want to put up a site that was
going to be inaccessible).

A few weeks later with still no changes made to the site I Googled
my own name for other reasons and up came my three word site!

So in conclusion it would seem that Google does indeed use Whois to
find sites and get information as my name appears nowhere on my 1
page site.

Ian Faulkner


-------- new post - new topic ---------

From: Ron Coble
Subject: Email cloaking

> Frankly, I post my email address on my business website
> because I *want* people to see it and write to me using it.
> If a few of the emails I receive are spam, so be it... What's
> the point in making it hard for potential clients to reach you?
        - David W. Starr, LED 2170

> It's just not worth my time worrying about spam. Focus on the
> positive. Fighting spam is a poor use of scarce resources.
        - David Swiggum, LED 2171

After reading the views of the two Davids regarding spam I have to
say that I disagree with them.

First I believe every industry is different and may be subject to
more or less spam than other web sites from other industries.

Had I only 250 spam emails a week to deal with as David Swiggum
states is his level, I would probably not have had to take the
action I did about 2 years ago.

I had my email address posted two places on every web page within
our 200+ page web site.  That email address was one that I had since
1995 and I was also OK with the amount of spam mail being received
until about 2002 or 2003.

It seemed to explode exponentially and at it's worst I was dealing
with 700 to 900 per "DAY" of spam emails.  After a year or two of
this and trying all kinds of methods to reduce it, I finally reached
a very difficult decision.

It took me about 2 months to change all my web pages over to links
to a contact page, I changed my email for all business
correspondence, newsletters, etc. over to a new address and
ultimately shut my nearly 9 year old email address down for good.

I had to shut it down because the ISP was still receiving the junk
and the only way to stop it was to take this drastic action.

If I had only 200 or so spam mails a week to deal with, I probably
would still have my old email address, however, 700 to 900 does take
away from the precious resource called time when you have to sort
through it to find the genuine email.

So bottom line, I believe there every industries exposure is
different and everyone has to decide for themselves where their time
is best spent.  I do not feel that having visitors click on a
contact link to send us an inquiry has hurt our business in any way
and it certainly has freed up more of my time to spend with my
granddaughter when she visits.

Ron Coble

Coble International Marketing Services
http://www.importexporthelp.com


-------- new post - same topic ---------

From: Michael Linehan
Subject: Email cloaking

> It's just not worth my time worrying about spam. Focus on the
> positive. Fighting spam is a poor use of scarce resources.
        - David Swiggum, LED 2171

I'm not sure if there is a misunderstanding here about what encoding
is and the effect on a website. It takes seconds to do, a minute or
two to add to a site, and provides NO interference at all with
someone clicking on a link on your site and sending an email.

Yes, fighting spam is a poor use of resources.  Just as is dealing
with any problem after it's a problem.  That's why I've posted a few
times over the last couple of years about preventing the spam BEFORE
it happens. Prevention is enormously easier and more effective.
Encoding your email address takes almost no time, there is no fight
involved and there is no effect "making it hard for potential
clients". And so far, it is still effective.

Michael Linehan

Marketing Alchemy
www.marketing-achemy.com


-------- new post - same topic --------

From: John Smart
Subject: Email cloaking

This [discussion] is leading to spam filters. My e-Mail address
( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) has been the address I have used for
over 7 years. I am on a LOT of mailing lists - most of them I do not
want to be on. I was receiving in excess of 1,000 spam items per
day,l and that was destroying my productivity.

I played with Cloudmark, and other local spam filters but they were
all more trouble than they were worth. I had 'spam assassin' on the
server, all that did was make the server crawl and stop about 25% of
the trash mail.

I mentioned recently that I work with OpenSRS (Tucows) for domains -
well they do more than domains. They have MXMail - I route my MX
server through them, and they filter out the trash. They send me an
easy to read and navigate report every day (or week, as I prefer)
and it is wonderful!! I now get about 40 spam per day, and it is
very rare that the filter tries to stop legitimate mail (it happens,
but not often) I could not recommend this product enough.

Now, I never make sales pushes here, but you do need to spend $200
to sign up with OpenSRS (I believe that figure is correct, I
apologize if I am wrong!) You do not have to host with me for me to
supply you with this tool. Adam, cut this part out if it is
inappropriate - I am not trying to drum up business, I just want to
share a great tool that is not too easy to get hold of!

Kindest regards

John Smart, Technical Director
InternetDesign.com - A Human Touch in a Digital World


==== BILLBOARD ===================================

From: John "Zeke" Brumage
Subject: Web hosts

> Can anyone recommend a US based host with
> excellent Windows hosting and support?
        - Magnus Brattemark, LED 2170

I rent a server from Rack Shack (www.ev1.net) in Texas [USA], it's a
dedicated machine, and I get two 80 gig hard drives and 1.3 T of
transfer for $165 per month.

To put the bandwidth in perspective, if you could evenly fill a 3
Meg pipe 24/7 for a month, you would have ONE TERABYTE of transfer.
I have fiber at my house, and 3 Megs costs almost $400 per month.

So not only is it cheaper than operating a server at home, the burst
speed of the server is the speed of the 100 base T lan card, so in
the real world, where there is no traffic at all some hours, and 30
or 40 megs at others. Furthermore if I built the server at home I
would also have to pay in front for the hardware and software, which
at rackshack is included in the rental.

According to Alexa "Speed:  Very Fast (83% of sites are slower), Avg
Load Time: .9 Seconds."

I have no relationship with rack shack other than being a satisfied
customer.

John Brumage
www.bikinibreak.com


-------- new post - same topic ---------

From: Tom Aman
Subject: Web hosts

Check out ValueWeb by affinity.  Even their basic package includes
most everything Windows based.

Tom Aman
http://www.cyberspyder.com


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