| LED Digest 1940: HTML Ezines, also Billing Hours |
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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 This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. March 3, 2005 Issue #1940 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== Ezines - Transitioning to HTML ==-- ~ Martha Retallick "If you have been hesitant to make the transition from text to HTML, don't be." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Total Hours vs Billable Hours ==-- ~ Richard Stubbings "First gather information. Find out where the time goes." ~ Kathy Wilson Anderson "...are you satisfied with your employees giving you billable hours of only 22% of their time?" --== RSS Feeds, Spam, and The Future of Publishing ==-- ~ James Miller "Digital certificates might work!" ~ Rich Dudley "Thunderbird is both an RSS and e-mail consumer." ~ Michael Martinez "Don't mistake every tool out there for a piece of gold. It may only be another pick or shovel." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Working with Framed Sites ==-- ~ Nancy Cardinali ======== NEW ==================================== From: Martha Retallick Subject: E-zines - Making the transition from text to HTML If you publish an e-zine and have been hesitant to make the transition from text to HTML, don't be. After many months of hemming and hawing, then about two months of e-zine template design and beta-testing on a very willing (and patient!) group of friends and business associates, I made the text to HTML transition on March 1st. So far, I haven't noticed an increase in angry e-mails from subscribers. (NOTE: Being on the receiving end of the hate mail is one of the occupational risks of being an e-mail publisher.) The bounce rate appears to be about the same as it ever was. And, most important, sales are looking a lot better than they have been in the past few weeks. Two recommendations I would like to make: 1. Beta-test, and do it several times. I lost count of the number of times I tried it out on my group of testers. And we're still friends. 2. Notify your readers in advance of the change. I gave a month's advance notice, then mentioned the change again in the week preceding the first-ever HTML issue. I'm still figuring out how to post the back issues on my website. I've noticed that a lot of e-zine publishers just post the whole issue, and that looks like the easiest way to go. And, since inquiring LED minds are still discussing this topic.... I still haven't fielded any requests for an RSS feed. Coincidentally, I just attended a City of Tucson Town Hall on property crime. One very computer literate fellow asked why the police couldn't set up RSS feeds relating to calls for service and crime reports in various neighborhoods. While this would be useful in helping neighbors keep tabs on their area, most of the people at this Town Hall didn't understand what the man was talking about. So, RSS has a way to go before it reaches critical mass here in Tucson. Martha Retallick "The Passionate Postcarder" http://www.postcardmarketingsecrets.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Richard Stubbings Subject: Billable hours > Last year my crew of 2+ designers / programmers hit about > 22% of their total time worked as billable hours... I don't know > if that's good or bad. I don't expect anywhere near 100%, but > wondered if we couldn't do better too. - Brian Rideout, LED 1939 To me this is bad. What are they doing all day? They should be filing in timesheets and accounting for all hours in each day. First gather information. Find out where the time goes. I suspect your clients are getting a lot of free hours. Then ask them why they are giving the time away. Are your clients asking your crew for the odd favour? These little favours can grow out of all proportion? Do you underestimate the work involved and under quote? Once you know where the time is wasted you can then decide how to increase efficiency. Richard Stubbings Kulture Shock http://www.kultureshock.co.uk ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kathy Wilson Anderson Subject: Billable hours The question is, are you satisfied with money you're making with your employees giving you billable hours of only 22% of their time? You must be tracking their production regarding which jobs they worked on, what they did, and how long it took them to do it, otherwise you wouldn't be able to come up with the 22% number. How does that compare with the dollar amount that you bill? If you're not satisfied with it, and you must not be or else you wouldn't be questioning it, then it's time to look at ways to increase the time your employees spend on billable work. Frankly, I don't care for the bookkeeping and taxes hassle of having employees, so I have a guy who subcontracts to me. Almost every second of his time is billable. Love, Kathy Wilson Anderson www.under-one-roof.net ------- new post - new topic -------- From: James Miller Subject: Curing spam Digital certificates might work! But on the other hand, I get a lot of e-mails from all over the world for some of my products which are aimed at a very low level market. For instance, I have sold many copies of a refreshing browser to kids who play some of these new-fangled computer game thingies. None would want or could afford a certificate. I'm also dealing with an engineering company that has a spam problem. Why? Because they are part of a large group and the IT Director gives them the unsuitable software he has decreed. Installing anything else is instant dismissal and reasonable requests are always refused. As I'm married to a lawyer, I feel that the best solution is to make sending of the wrong type of buld e-mails a serious offence. Also groups such as the EU and the US should push for countries that allow spammers to be prosecuted instead. Let the lawyers sort it out! James Miller Daisy Analysis: www.daisy.co.uk ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Richard Dudley Subject: RSS and more > I still prefer e-mail... because I like the delivery system. > I turn it on, and it's delivered. I don't have to open another > program or visit another site to read my RSS feeds. - Kathryn Martin, LED 1938 Mozilla's Thunderbird application is both an RSS and e-mail consumer. It's quite nice, too. Upon opening, mine is set to automatically check my configured e-mail boxes and my subscribed feeds. All in one app, open source and free. You can get it from www.mozilla.org. Rich Dudley www.bloomeryweddings.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: RSS and more > [My list host] asked me if I had received any requests for > an RSS feed. I had to tell him the truth: I hadn't. And I still > haven't. So much for RSS-ing and Martha. - Martha Retallick, LED 1939 There are third-party RSS-feed generators which will do this for you for free (for now). BigBold.Com is one such service (I am not affiliated with them). > I've heard a lot of ballyhoo about blogging. But I have > yet to meet anyone who can tell me that the blog is a > money-maker for their business. The people making the money are the people running the blog services that charge a fee. This is another case of the only people making money in the gold rush being those who sell the picks and shovels to the miners. > ... my e-zine still pulls in sales. So, I think I'll stick > to it and other tried-and-true things that make me > money and bring in business. Keep in mind that at any given time, MOST people are NOT looking to spend money on the Internet. People spend most of their time looking for information, following or participating in games / discussions, and being entertained. Some recent studies have concluded that 80% of all search engine searches are non-commercial in nature. Your eZine creates a targeted market where you are delivering an authoritative message. Blogging is a cheap way of creating a personal Web site. In fact, as I review many personal Web sites, I find that most of them are now being created with Blogs (which is a very bad trend, as it stifles creativity). RSS is a cheap way of distributing links to other sites. Nothing more. If the sites have a lot of visitors, they MAY click on the links. And search engines MAY crawl them, depending on how the links are included in the content. Don't mistake every tool out there for a piece of gold. It may only be another pick or shovel. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Nancy Cardinali Subject: Frames question Hi all, What is it with frames? I may be working on a site using frames. When you look at the source, there isn't anything there! Well, a bit of a redirect or something. I would never use frames as I don't think I've ever seen anything good said about them, or maybe it's just my ignorance. How do search engines feel about frames? I can't see how there would be much to crawl, but I have learned here that SEs crawl what the viewer sees. In that case, frames would be fine. Here's the URL, but be prepared - it ain't purty. (And I apologize to anyone whose toes I just stepped on.) www.livingintruth.org We are having a nice thread with the RSS and I hate to waylay it as I'm learning a lot. So, maybe someone out there can email me with a quickie update on this. Thanks in advance, Nancy Cardinali nancy52, cwo.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains © Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "There are no facts, only interpretations." - Friedrich Nietzsche |
