It was a rush job because she was announcing her candidacy around 48 hours after she contacted me, and the site had to be fully up and running by then. (I was sworn to secrecy until the announcement)

Anyway, I raced into town and took the photo’s of her against the outside wall of Sexie Coffie (my favourite local café) which provided a perfect backdrop. It took 10 minutes max, then we went inside and discussed the site over a coffee.

I built it with WordPress on Sunday (using a great premium theme) on one of my own domains because of the secrecy angle, and transferred it to her launch site on Monday morning,  just making it in time for the big announcement. Phew!

Still not quite finished, of course. I need to integrate Facebook into it, and set up the blog and add content to it, plus give her a few lessons on how to post to it. And I guess I need to add a mobile theme too, because I’ve just seen it on an iPhone and because of the header image size it sucks.

At the time of writing it’s just one static page, with an incoming Twitter feed, and links along the top to her Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter pages.

But I’m quite happy with it. And more importantly so is the client.

Quite a few people living in my part of the world read this. If you’re one of them please click on Margaret’s Facebook Like icon. Assuming you side with her politics, of course. Do it even if you don’t live here, she’s a lovely lady

# # #

I’d like to take a moment to say a quick thanks here to my old mate, Bill Burdin, who helped me out with advice on a code fix on the site.

For those of you with long memories, Bill was behind some of the great early site building tools and content generators. And has been a good friend ever since. These days he runs a very successful business concentrating on site building, and social media, for big and small businesses in Canberra (the capital of Australia)

# # #

Last issue I wrote about the importance of getting into creating your own products, to provide you with a steadier flow of dollars than the ups and downs of affiliate marketing or relying on the position of your sites in the search engines. Lot’s of you trusted me enough to grab the less than $20 Product Creation Video Course, so thank you.

Anyway, the special offer for the  ”4 Hour Product 2012 Edition” was supposed to be closing last Friday, but because I wanted to mention it here again in case you didn’t read the previous issue, I managed to talk Robert into keeping it open until Wednesday. So that’s tomorrow. Or today depending on what time you see this email.

So act now if you didn’t get it last week. Note: this closes 28th Feb 2012

The current price is just $17. A bargain by anyone’s standards.

# # #

Talking about Content Creation

When you’re trying to earn a crust online you can’t wait for inspiration to slam you between the shoulder blades before you start pounding away on your keyboard.

If you’re a novelist perhaps you’ve got an excuse, but even then you’ve got to get the words out every single day, or the novel will never leave the critic free zone inside your head.

(Slightly of-topic side note… Back in the days when I wrote novels I used to get up at 4am without fail, and write until my daughter Kate woke up at 6 or so. Not that I ever finished
one. Kate was a very expensive daughter because of having Phenylketonuria (PKU), so money worries always seemed to get in the way and I’d have to quit the novel I was working on and write for magazines instead, to bring in some quick extra cash. And, to be truthful, my long but unfinished novels were never very good. Far too weird said one publisher.

Ok, let’s get back to reality. If you’re a novelist you’re probably not reading this, you’re too busy trying to find a publisher, or working out how to format your work for Kindle.

So back to the here and now.

When you’re writing blog posts, or web site content, you need to bash it out. Get it out there. Out of your head I mean.

And the best way, if you find yourself slacking, is to set a deadline. Having a fixed deadline, something you can’t break, really, really works.

Promise yourself (and write it down, plus ideally tell someone) that by 4pm, or whatever, you will have a new, long post on your blog, or you will have done 10 new tweets plus 3 big posts on your Facebook business page. Just work solidly on whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.

— Sidenote —

If you have trouble sticking to the task here are a couple of tools that might help:

if you use the Google Chrome browser try the StayFocusd Extension (that’s Focused without the E, not a typo on my part).

It works by blocking access to sites for a length of time you choose. So if you’re keep popping into Facebook while you are supposed to be churning words out for something else, you can block it for the length of time you choose and you can’t change it.

Something I find handier is the iPad app, Repeat Timer Pro. It’s just a few dollars on the app store. Basically you can set a timer for, say, 30 mins, another to give yourself a 10 minute break, then it will run the 30 minute countdown again.

—End Sidenote—

Back to giving yourself a deadline.

Deadlines REALLY work.

If you’ve GOT to have something done by a certain time or there’ll be huge consequences, you nearly always get it done on time.

Back in my newspaper days we lived with deadlines. Sometimes several a day. And the next morning’s paper wouldn’t have come out if we’d all sat around waiting for inspiration.

We had schedules to keep. Page 22, for instance, might have to be ready for 2pm. Features for the weekend edition might need to be with the features editor by Tuesday lunchtime. And there’d be hell to pay because you’d be holding up the work of a whole chain of people if you didn’t meet that deadline. Lots of shouting happened.

It’s true that we newspaper folk frequently south out the pub for ‘inspiration’ but that was just an excuse. Two hours in the pub at lunchtime (meeting contacts) just meant you had to stay maybe an hour longer at work in the evening. Why not two hours? Well the beer always seemed to make the words flow faster

The very best way to get work completed is to know in advance what you want to achieve that day, the next day, and the day after, and then just buckle down and do it. Personally I can’t work at all unless I give myself deadlines. Perhaps you’re the same. Lots of people are, sometimes without knowing it.

If you’ve got to write a blog post on a certain topic then think about it in advance while you’re doing other likes like having a shower, or out doing the grocery shopping. By the time you sit down to write you should know roughly want you want to say, and then just bash it out.

Not straight onto your blog, or website of course, in case something goes wrong before you save it and it all gets lost. Write it on paper with a pen. Or in a file on your computer
and make sure it’s backed up in the case hard drive dies. Personally I do all my writing in Evernote these days, and constantly keep syncing it to make sure nothing will get lost.

Whatever you do don’t publish it to your blog the second you’ve finished getting it out of your head. Unless you’re a certified writing genius you’re bound to want to make
changes before people get to read it.

Take a break. Go for a walk. Get a coffee, or read a magazine or something, and then come back to it.

I can guarantee that on a second read through, you’ll make changes that improve the flow of the piece you’ve written. And you’ll find errors, and probably not just typo’s and
grammatical mistakes.

I found several grammatical and spelling mistakes in this newsletter when I was adding it to my blog, after already mailing it out to thousands of people. I should have proof read it better. At least give you self a chance of correcting it before it’s seen by the public or whoever your audience is.

The reason for the errors is that a) I wrote it late at night when I was over-tired, and b) I didn’t follow my usual procedure which is to print it out and go through it paragraph by paragraph.

What I really like to do is give it some time, by printing it out out and taking it with me into
town where I have a coffee and read the papers, then have another (double espresso if you’re asking) and this time go through my printout making corrections and cutting out words or whole sentences that just aren’t necessary and add nothing to the piece.

Sometimes, when you do this, you will realise that something you write near the end
of the piece really belongs at the beginning. And often you’ll cut out huge chunks that serve no real purpose.

Ok. That’s the end of this week’s content piece. Hope you found at least one useful tip in it.

# # #

This proves I’m brain-dead

After buying Premise 2.0 a few weeks ago I was looking for a WordPress theme for a new site I’m going to use Premise with (to read about Premise see issue 393 on the blog) It’s from the same team that produces the Studio Press themes and (naturally) they say their themes and Premise are a perfect match, so I thought I’d check them out. It makes sense that they would be, but my primary concern was something that had the right look, plus good code behind it.

I knew the code of the StudioPress themes would be good because they all run on top of their highly regarded, automatically updating, Genesis framework (for WordPress). What I hadn’t realised is that all their themes are actually child themes of Genesis.

While scrolling through all the child themes available for $24 a time (after you’ve bought the Genesis framework which is $55) and thinking that quite a lot of them looked really good and I might buy the package deal offering all the themes, I suddenly realised that maybe 5 or 6 years ago I bought a theme package from the same company.

A search through my old emails found my login info for their support forum, and after a bit of digging around, I found that I was grandfathered in and had access to the framework and all the child themes.

It made me very happy, and also feeling very stupid at the same time for spending lots of money on other themes over the years.

I built the political launch site I talked about higher up, with Genesis using the Focus child theme.

As you can see if you go to the Studio Press site and click on the green ‘see all our themes’ image, I’ve changed  the look quite a bit. But it was a doddle. Very easy to
modify to suit your needs.

No sales pitch for the themes here, though if you are in the market for a top-notch WordPress theme they have a great reputation for both their design and underlying functionality. Importantly they’re also simple and straightforward to modify to get the
exact look you want.

I guess that was a bit of a sales pitch after all.

Anyway, they’re very good.

# # #

Had to laugh at something in an email from Conde Nast Traveller magazine. They’re running a travel photo contest, so (as always) I checked the small print to see what usage rights they claim over the submitted entries. And right at the bottom, in small print, it said: “In the event the winner is a resident of Canada, winner will be required to correctly answer
a time-limited arithmetical skill testing question”

Is there something about Canadians I don’t know?

ok, that’s it for today.

phil

Well so much for getting a newsletter out every week. This one’s been 11 days.

I’ve got an excuse though. I’m one of those two finger typists and I sliced one of them open with a carving knife while I was cutting up some fillet steak for the cat. (not his usual food, but after buying it I’d accidentally left it in my car for a day, in the Australian summer heat, when I brought the other groceries into the house)

Have you ever tried 2-finger typing using your middle finger? Slow is not the word for it, especially when there’s a great big bandage in the way.

Now on to the important stuff, words are at a premium today rather than rambling on the way I usually do.

I was chatting with one of my ‘big name’ Internet marketing friends the other day about the current state of Internet marketing and affiliate programs, and we concluded by agreeing that it’s really necessary to be the merchant now – in any niche – which means
e-commerce stores, and creating digital products. Especially creating your own digital products, so that you’re the merchant rather than the struggling affiliate.

We came to this conclusion because affiliate marketing is getting harder and harder. It has been for a few years now, especially selling internet marketing products to internet marketers.

People just aren’t buying IM products as much as they used to. A lot of this is down to the rubbish that’s been peddled over the past few years, all the one-click for success type programs, and fake promises of fake riches.

But there are ‘huge’ and ever increasing sales happening away from the IM niche. I’m not going to talk niches here because there are an unlimited number of them, and my typing finger isn’t up to it (before you ask why I’m not using Dragon or another dictation program, it’s because they never understand my half northern England/half Australian accent. Plus I somehow think a lot quicker when I’m writing than talking)

So to achieve major success, and not just the pocket money that you probably make from affiliate programs, or running ads, you’ve ‘got’ to become a product creator.

Easier said than done of course.

I’ve done it just once, when I wrote my hit ebook Mini Site Profits, which made me more than I’d earned in the last 10 years of my well paid day job. (Why I’ve never repeated it isn’t a mystery. The book put me in touch with a lot of smart people who took me in another direction, plus Google Adense arrived on the scene, and the days of mass site building arrived)

But now the circle has turned and I’m itching to move back into product creation. This is why I just picked up a bargain, on the Warrior Forum, for the “4 Hour Product 2012 Edition”

I really like it, and so do a lot of other people. It’s easy to see why. It’s because there’s no fluff in it, and no hype or exaggeration, just lots of solid content from someone who is doing exactly what he preaches.Apparently this is the 2nd edition of the ’4 Hour Product’ I missed the previous one because of being out of action for so long. Unlike the year old version this one is video based, with quite a lot of the techniques and methodology updated to what-works-now.

Robert, the product creator, says that this new version provides everything that the 2011 edition had but also focuses on creating products faster, and getting traffic faster, so you’re getting sales faster.

One thing I like about it is that Robert has packed in information on how to create a quick and easy product, then shows you how to take that single product and build on it it. Turning it into a number of products for the same target market. So once someone has purchased from you, and they’re in your funnel, you can keep selling ‘your’ products to them rather than hitting them with affiliate offers. This makes sense, because if someone has bought from you once (and you’ve delivered a good product) you’ve already got their trust, so the sale will be a lot easier than sending them off to another merchant.

So the create multiple products for one target market has a sound and simple strategy behind it, and what would have been a one-time customer now has the option to buy from
you again and again and again, essentially becoming a “fan” for life.

I don’t want to waffle on too much here, so I’ve just cut about 8 paragraphs from my ‘review’ of it, and I’m going to show you what other people have been saying about it.

It’s the first Warrior WSO I’ve seen with zero negative comments. So to save you from having to read through 5 pages of comments and find the price has increased when
you click through to buy, here are three that convinced me.

Quote 1

Quote 2

Quote 3

Ok, back to my words again.

Normally I stay totally away from video products because of my slow Internet connection, but knowing these were short, to-the-point ones, I decided to go for it.

You get a ‘lot’ of product for the low cost. There are 5 videos in Module 1, 6 videos in module 2, 4 videos in Module 3, and 3 videos in Module 4. They range from 7 minutes to
22 minutes in length, so they’re short info packed ones with no fluff, and they aren’t going to bore you. Two downloadable mindmaps are also included for reference while watching the videos.

If you’re already a product creator, or been in this game a long time, you’ll definitely want the upsell because it delves into the more advanced methods and tactics. For me the upsell was the best part.

1. Premise lives up to its promise

2. Why you need to improve your content

3. Dumb subscriber abuse

4. A quick mention of something you dont seem to like

I hope you find at least one thing interesting, or useful here. Let me know by commenting. You’ll also get yourself a do-follow link.

ok, let’s get on with it.

1. Premise lives up to its promise

Ever since I started writing this ezine/newsletter many years ago, I’ve been buying stuff to test. Some of it I end up using or learning from, but a lot of it gets pushed away into a folder on my hard drive and never sees the light of day again.

Anyway, a couple of days ago I picked up Premise 2, the all singing, all dancing, sparklingly new version of Premise (for WordPress)

Until last week, Premise (which is from the well known Copyblogger team) had but one purpose in life, and that was to build landing pages that could be used for promo’s, or getting optin’s, or everything else that you could use a landing page for.

Premise 2 does everything the old version did, but now it’s also full-blown WordPress membership site software, like Wishlist and Memberwing, and (at the moment) it’s far cheaper than both.

Something else too – not only can you easily build WordPress based member sites, if you’re just selling a report or ebook or video you can dispense with the member site setup and just protect and securely sell the product you’re selling. So it’s great for selling plr products, or content you’re created, or got resell rights for.

In my case it’s going to replace the hard-to-use Rapid Action Profits, with it’s multiple paid addons, which is far too complicated for a technical simpleton like me. Plus replace Memberwing which has an annual license/upgrade fee and doesn’t do as much as this brand new software.

Here’s exactly what it offers you:

• Lets you build rock-solid membership sites with WordPress
• Automatically drip member content out over time
• It also lets you securely sell ebooks, software, and other digital downloads without setting up a member site.
• Take recurring payments with automated access management
• Easily build check-out pages for PayPal
• Importantly Premise 2 works with any WordPress theme
• You can build multiple types of landing pages
• Lets you create private forum areas with vBulletin (other forum software being added)
• You can quickly set up password-protected content libraries
• You can use Premise 2 on an unlimited number of sites, and it comes with unlimited updates. So no annual upgrade fees or anything.

Right now it’s in launch sales mode. Meaning right now Premise 2 is heavily discounted. They haven’t given a cutoff date for the launch sale, so it could end tomorrow for all I know. And I certainly wouldn’t place a bet on the low price lasting much longer.

It’s got me quite excited And seeing it’s all point and click, and tick boxes stuff, it’s very easy to use. So if you’re a technical simpleton too, or you just want to do things quicker and easier and cheaper, jump in fast.

2. Improve your content.

Collectively and probably individually) the techies at Google are much cleverer than any Internet marketer I know, and that includes me. It ‘definitely’ includes me

Google hire lots of really smart engineers, computer scientists, and mathematicians with multiple degrees and PhD’s, and then they give them unlimited resources and support. They also work on growing their already big brains by continually bringing speakers and lecturers in to give talks like “Your Brain At Work – Optimizing (Internal) Data Processing“

You can watch lots of other ‘training’ videos via the above link.
There’s some fascinating stuff.

Also, at Google, these big brained people are given massive amounts of freedom, encouraging them to share ideas with colleagues and maybe team up on projects. By getting these really clever people to informally interact they keep learning and evolving and working out new ways to do things like wipe out rubbish content from their search results.

What does all this mean for us? It means we’re not going to beat them.

Although I’ve more than dabbled in what used to be called blackhat (and perhaps still is) for years now I’ve been playing the game the search engines demand.

So Instead of trying to beat them with short term things like

• sites stuffed with crappy auto written content
• tricks and cloaked keyword rich pages that auto redirect
• low-quality articles grabbed from article depositories and probably used by 100′s of other people
• adding thousands of links from sources like forum profiles.

and half a dozen other things, you should simply give them what they want. Which is good quality content that people happily devour, and then tell their friends about on Facebook and Twitter, and Google + and all those other places where people share their thoughts.

Let’s look at my travelfoodandwine.com site as an example of how adding better quality content can add $ to your pocket.

I’ve had the domain for years (though never talked about it here until recently) and it used to be filled with junk articles and low quality content. Then the place I was hosting it went bust and the site got wiped. Next I filled it with low quality articles from various article directories. This worked for a while, and in fact if you scroll back far enough through the posts you’ll start finding quite a few added over several years with auto blogging tools.

But now it’s all decent quality writing and other content that’s not been used elsewhere, and is a notch up from the type you’ll find being offered on article directories. Some of it is several notches up and would happily grace the pages of printed magazines and newspapers.

Every day I get several queries from people about writing a guest post , but after I send them a reply telling them we’re after quality writing 95% of them never contact me again.

Here’s the email I send to people who contact us (though if their initial contact is badly written, full of spelling errors, and talking about SEO, or how many dofollow links they want to put in the article I just ignore them).

——–

“We’re looking for posts 700 words minimum, preferably longer, that are well written, have not been published elsewhere, and are of a higher quality than the type found on article directories, or just written for SEO purposes. And they also need some personality rather than reading like something out of a travel brochure.

Photo’s should be 630px max wide and screen/email resolution, but if you can’t supply them that’s fine because we can source them elsewhere.

It’s the quality of the writing, and the subject matter that’s important. Perhaps a few touchs of humour. Keep it light-hearted anyway. And no sales pitches. Don’t make it like something you’d read in a travel brochure that’s trying to get you to book a certain package deal.

We look forward to seeing something from you, or hearing your ideas.”

———

By improving the quality of the content, and by using guest bloggers, the site has seen a massive increase in visitor numbers, and the figures are rising every week.

Quite a few of the recent posts have also had extra content added with Curation Soft, and that’s obviously helped a lot too.

As an ex magazine and newspaper journalist I’m a big believer in good quality content. It doesn’t necessarily have to be brilliantly written, or a hundred percent grammatically ‘correct’ but it’s got to be interesting and written in a ‘voice’ or style that connects with your reader.

The journalist’s and sub editors on some of the UK’s biggest selling newspapers (and I’m talking about them rather than USA papers because I’m more familiar with the British ones) are equally excellent on both The Times and The Sun. They’re both published by the same company, News Limited, but the tone and style of the writing, and the type of headline used, is completely different. They are written to appeal to their target audience. And both do a great job of connecting with that audience or readership.

You’ve got to do exactly the same when writing for your online audience.

* Who is your target market?

* Who buys what you are selling?

* Men or women? People with young children? Fans of a particular sport? People with a certain hobby?

You’ve got to profile them. You’ve got to know exactly who your typical reader is. And when you’re creating your content you do it just for them. Give them what they want to read or view or listen to.

If you struggle to write for a certain niche readership a quick tip is to find a photograph of the type of person who buys the product you’re selling/promoting, and print it out and tape it to the edge of your screen while you’re writing.

If you’ve got an affiliate site selling a certain type of motorbike helmet print out a photo of a someone wearing one. Become friends with that person inside your head, have a chat with them, get to know them, and when you’re writing your web content write just to them, no one else.

This is explained a bit simplistically, but try it and you’ll see a lot more success.

I’m going to be writing a lot about content creation over the coming months. Stay tuned.

3. Dumb subscriber abuse

A few days ago I logged into Facebook (a once a week thing at most. Usually I just look at Facebook using Flipboard on the iPad) and I had about 30 new friend requests.

After saying yes to most, an angry msg arrived from one of my new ‘friends’

“I did not ask to be your friend and do not want you on my Facebook. Please unfriend me. Get off my Facebook”

Normally this wouldn’t rate a mention here, but a few minutes later (just after I’d unfriended them) the same person sent me an angry email “I don’t think it is funny that you won’t let people unsubscribe from your idiot emails. Please take me off your list and get off of my Facebook page”

Then yesterday an email arrived from someone else “Why the (censored) are you sending me emails you (censored censored) I’ve never heard of you. Remove me from your (censored) lists before I (censored) report you.”

Apart from the expletives, if they’d subscribed while I’ve been off ill I could understand them having forgotten me. But they only signed up last week and it’s double-optin

Talking of forgetting me, the open rate for the two newsletters I’ve mailed out has been terrible. So I guess most people ‘have’ forgotten me, which is understandable after so long out of the game.

So it would be great if you could help spread the word that I’m alive and in action again. Give me and my philwiley.com site a social mention or two, and I’ll love you for ever. If you’re reading this on my blog at least click the facebook like icon. Please.

Right, that’s it for today. If you haven’t already bought Premise, and you’re a WordPress user, here’s the link again If you’re using a mishmash of tools to get the job done you’ll find that this one replaces them all.

phil

These are words to live by and work by. Think about these words when you’re working on a product to sell online.

It’s a look inside the heads of nine successful bloggers including Leo Babauta of Zen Habits fame, Brian Clark from Copyblogger, Darren Rowse from Problogger, and Gretchen Rubin the author of The Happiness Project and a Psychology Today magazine expert.

Blogwise is inspiring and had me scribbling lots of notes in the margins of the copy I printed out. And I should imagine it’s going to do the same for you too.

The added bonus is good. It’s a pdf covering 21 common productivity problems bloggers face, with some quick answers from the interviewed bloggers to get you on the right track.

Well it’s obviously worked for me because here’s the second Letter from Phil in a week instead of the one a year I’ve managed for the past couple of years.

It will probably boost the amount of work that you can do in a week too. Recommended.

# # #

More on Curation Soft.

It’s hard to admit this publicly, but in the past week I’ve made a grand total of 5 sales of this excellent tool. And 1 of those came from someone reading my online review ‘before’ I mailed out the newsletter last week

481 of you clicked the link in my email to read the review.

328 people have clicked my affiliate link on the blog (though some of those would have been before I mailed the newsletter)

This tells me one of 6 things.

# you’re not interested in content curation, though obviously interested enough to click-through to the review.

# the curationsoft sales page doesn’t convert (and I’ve got no way of measuring this, but I doubt that’s the case because I believe it’s selling very well)

# you believe content curation is unethical or wrong (but then surely you wouldn’t be one of the people clicking the link)

# you (in the broader sense of you, I probably don’t mean you in particular) changed the Clickbank affiliate link to your own.

# you’re too broke to invest in it / you thought it was too expensive.

# adding content to your site is not a sexy enough subject and I’d be better off writing hyped up promo’s and sending you to sites that sending you promo’s that promise to bring you automated, instant riches.

So which reason is it?

Can you please do me a favour and post a comment about it on the  CurationSoft review on my blog, or on this newsletter post. If you tell me that you changed the aff link to your own before buying, use a fictitious name and email address so I don’t get mad at you J

By the way, this week’s stats on the site talked about in my review have risen again this week. They’re already higher than last weeks record high, and look like they’re going to fly past it. This is probably due to 2 new articles being added to the site. One of them connected to a topic in the news, and both of them complete with CurationSoft added tweets and paragraphs from other on-topic sites.

Quite a few people have emailed and asked me to give the URL of the site the stats are from, but the answer is no. For one thing it will warp the stats, and more importantly it will increase the competition.

# # #

Un-boring snippets from a boring book

A few weeks ago, with the thoughts of getting back to action in my head, I lay in bed reading a book about making $100k in 100 days. A thin, printed book picked up in the library, about the methods used by the Aussie entrepreneur Mal Emery.

Even though it was only 60 something pages long, after falling asleep a few times, lost interest in it. Not saying it was boring, but the targeted readers were people operating local businesses like hairdressers, small deli’s, etc.

But I do want to share a couple of snippets with you, one’s you should pay attention to.

“I would rather be a WEALTHY MODELLER, than a BROKE ORIGINAL THINKER.”

In other words copy what works, what’s been proven to work. If someone is making decent $ from something that doesn’t need a particularly difficult skill-set, so can you.

Find out what’s selling, work out why it’s selling, and how it’s selling. Copy the ideas, add a twist, modify and try to improve on the sales and marketing techniques they’re using.

Another is

“The most stunningly successful entrepreneurs seem to share one special quality – they are profoundly stubborn! Put another way, they are persistent and they take action – and then they are more persistent and they take more action!”

It’s true, you’ve got to slog your guts out. And keep doing it. Keep trying things, tweaking things until they work. And then doing it all over again.

Believe in yourself, and stop watching TV so much and put some work hours in instead. And that doesn’t just mean being on your computer or iPad reading newsletters like this

It means creating. Doing. Perfecting. Marketing. Selling. Then repeating the cycle. It means keep taking action until your eyes burn.

# # #

Kitchens, Amazon, and Pinterest.

Last week ago our ilve electric/gas cooker / range made a loud bang, did something nasty to the house electrical system, and blew up my computer. Well it was time for a new computer anyway, so I didn’t get too worked up about. And seeing that (after previous disasters) I’ve got everything important backed up on 3 separate external hard-drives, including an encrypted one I keep in bubble wrap in my car in case the house burns down, I didn’t get too worked up about it. (I can’t back up to the cloud because of my awful and limited Internet connection)

So the next morning I went out and bought a speedy new laptop (it would have been nice for the stove to have waited for Intel to release their new top end processors, but I didn’t really fancy getting by with just my iPad for a few months, and you wouldn’t have liked it either because my newsletters would have been packed with errors from the iPad’s terrible autocorrect)

Anyway, this computer stuff hasn’t really got anything to do with what I started out to write. We’re supposed to be talking ranges/stoves/cookers here.

A week after the big bang (we got by on bbq’s and eating out until then) I forked out $155 for a man from an appliance repair place to come and fix it. Except he couldn’t. After 15 minutes with his head in the innards he said “you need a new fan mate. It won’t cost much”

Turns out not much was $830, on top of the money I’d already paid. So yesterday, after thinking about it for days, we went out to buy a replacement range instead, and were shocked to find that we’d been boiling our eggs on an $8500 model (It was already in the house when we moved here) and that price is without the $3k plus extractor chimney hanging above it.

“You’re looking at the Rolls Royce of cookers, “said the salesman when he saw us gawking at it “The oil might need changing sometimes, but it’ll keep going for ever.”

Well I quite like the idea of having an old Rolls Royce, so he talked himself out of a sale and I’ve ordered the new fan instead.

And all this brings me, in a long, rambling, and roundabout way, to saying that I did a search on Amazon (and if I lived in the US that’s where I would have looked to start with) and it seems that expensive ranges like mine have potential as a lucrative subject for an affiliate site. An updated version of mine is US$6500, 2 grand cheaper than I’d be paying here.

But what shocked me most of all is that I haven’t got the Rolls Royce after all. Type the word Ranges into the Appliance Department on Amazon and then sort from high price to low, and you’ll find one on sale for a whopping $46,000 with 23 more selling for over $20k each.

A lot of the ultra-expensive ones link from Amazon to external stores, and before you clever clogs tell me that Amazon doesn’t give commissions on goods sold on external sites, I know about that. However, follow some of the Amazon links to those external stores and you’ll see that several of them have affiliate programs of their own.

The one selling my ilve, Ajmadison has an affiliate program, though it only pays 3% which is around $200.

Katom Restaurant Supply, which is selling some ovens for $20k+ pays 6% commission, so sell one of their Wells WVOC models and you’re looking at a tasty $1200 in your pocket (their aff program is run through shareasale).

Instawares, which sells $19k + cookers has an affiliate program with Linkshare. And Shortorder.com with some $15k prices are also though Linkshare.

The appliancesconnection.com store, which sells $15k ranges, run their aff program through Commission Junction. And of course there are quite a few high end models $10-$15k sold directly from Amazon.

And the list goes on. Much better than earning a commission on a $20 toaster J

Thinking about this, expensive kitchen equipment like this could also be worth promoting on Pinterest.

Take a look. Lots of women, and it’s predominantly women, post photos of their dream kitchen’s and the stuff in them. So once you’re an affiliate of a company either direct link using your aff link, or save some of their product photo’s to your own affiliate promo site and then link from Pinterest to the page on your site promoting that particular product.
(not sure what value the search engine’s give to a link from Pinterest, but it can’t hurt)

Personally, if I was going to promote kitchen equipment on Pinterest (which I’m not) I’d go the mini site option, getting the women to click through to my site. The main reason is because Pinterest uses a service called Skimlinks to change affiliate links to their own.

This link change happens almost immediately, but there is a way around it. You can edit the link to change it back to your own aff link, as long as you do so before your Pin has been reppined.

BTW the few pins I’ve made about travel have already started driving traffic to my main travel site, TravelFoodandWine.com. Early days yet, so I’m not sure how much traffic it’s going to send, but clicks from Pinterest are already showing in the stats after several of my travel pins were repinned.

In case you didn’t get to see last week’s issue here’s my Pinterest board, or whatever they call it.

# # #

Blood and Boobs

And now for the bit you’ve been looking for

I read an interesting story in The Times this week, about photos of crushed heads and deep flesh wounds being less offensive than photos of breastfeeding.

On Facebook that is. It seems they’ve come firmly down on the side of violence over nudity. A leaked document called ‘Abuse Standards Violation’ reveals what photographs users can post.

“Deep flesh wounds are OK to show. Crushed heads, limbs, etc, are ok as long as no insides are showing.”

But nudity is banned, including pixelated nudity plus “mothers breastfeeding without clothes”, and “people using the bathroom”

The bit that made me laugh though, said that photographs of ‘snot’ are ok, but not earwax.

A strange world indeed.

Here’s my Facebook page, which I’ll probably get a bit more active on as energy permits. Guaranteed, no snot pictures.

# # #

Ok, that’s it.

And if you want to copy me and get more done, and faster, and also get to sleep 12 hour nights, get that Blogwise book I talked about at the top. For the next few days it’s 25% off making it a real bargain

# Getting back in action.

# Feeling the urge to create.

# Feeling the desire to help you with your online business challenges.

I’d write “getting back in the saddle” but that seems to have sexual connotations, so I’d better not breathe a word on that subject here.

Most of all I want to have some fun, and making money out of nothing IS fun. So I’d like to take you along for the ride. Definitely no sexual connotations there, and if you think there is you’ve got a dirtier mind than me.

Note: This section is all about me, rather than about YOU.

Normally when you’re writing stuff get the word ‘you’ in it lots of times. People (you) connect with it much better.

But bear with me. I’m just explaining where things are at, and what I’ll be doing this year to help you achieve your dreams.

Right, back to me.

I’ve been away too long, and although I’m still ill, I figure I’m never going to get better than I am now, so I’m going to work smart, not hard. I still need lots of sleep, living in the Land of Nod for 12 to 15 hours out of every 24, but in theory that still leaves plenty of time for other things.

Sidenote: This fits into the almost unbelievable category. A great-aunt, and briefly my father, actually lived in The Land of Nod.

It’s a tiny one street village in Yorkshire, just down the road from Holme on Spalding Moor. Which is also an interestingly named place. I used to stay in The Land of Nod when I was a small child, and even then the name made me laugh out loud. Look the village up on Wikipedia if you don’t believe me.

Anyway back to now.

This is issue 391. Letter from Phil 390 was published way back in March last year. But it proved a false start, and I’ve been in hospital 3 times since then. However, I’m now better than at any time in the past 2 to 3 years and on a lower dose of mind numbing medication.

So, all being well, and taking it slowly at first, I’m going to build up to my past productivity. Though the way I feel that might take a few months. Who knows though? Each day is different. Sometimes my head has been encased in a sack of cement and I can’t lift it from the pillow and other times I can leap out of bed like a 5 year old on Christmas Day.

I’ve done a lot of thinking while I’ve been away. Lots of reading and absorbing books and magazines and websites. I’ve read extensively about business, and psychology and marketing and selling and growing your income. I’ve kept up with the latest trends, lying in bed for days on end glued to my iPad, studying what’s working online right now and is likely to work long-term.

And, although much has changed in the ‘internet marketing’ niche while I’ve been away (much of it for the better, the general demise of really high ticket, overpriced products, and the Clickbank crackdown on hype and lies for instance) people are still buying solutions to problems, tools and advice that give them shortcuts to achieving a goal, and lots of other things.

So I’m not out of touch. In fact, watching from the sidelines, and following the action from a distance has helped me know what’s important, and where to refocus. And I’m going to pass on everything I know to you. Unlike a lot of people in this game I’m not desperate for money, so I’m not going to be hitting with you promo emails every 5 minutes. There’ll be some of course. But not enough to annoy you.

See, I ended this on the You note, because it’s YOU that’s important. I know I’ve said this once already, but it’s worth repeating. So think about the ‘you’ thing when you’re writing your own promo’s, creating content for your websites, participating in online discussions. Be nice to people, and, in general, they’ll be nice back to you. Connect with people and if your copy is targeted enough they’ll buy from you.

Ok, onto other things.

# # #

Today’s Home Business Tip

You’ve got to learn to throw out ‘perfection’ because you’re never going to reach it. Instead work on getting something out there. Get it out there where people can see it, read it, use it. You can keep working on it, adding to it, changing bits, renewing it, freshening it, and developing it. Making mistakes and learning from those mistakes, and improving your content or your product is all part of the game.

Sometimes it’s hard to grasp this, and you just want everything to be perfect, but try to get your head around the fact that it’s never going to be. Things change. What you think is perfect right now might not seem perfect to others or to yourself in 3 months’ time. But don’t worry about it. Get it out there. Get it seen. Get it used. Get people buying from you.

# # #

Interesting Pinteresting

Like many of you I’ve been getting into Pinterest lately. Though in my case, seeing I’ve only just got back online, I only started pinning things this week. And it’s an experiment really, rather than something that’s lured me in and won’t let me go.

Pinterest essentially is online “scrapbooking” without the scissors and glue. I guess that description makes it sound terribly boring to most men and more than a few women, but as you must surely know it’s rapidly turning into the social site of the season, getting an enormous amount of traffic and users. Mainly women who post pictures of shoes and dresses, things they want to buy, and places they want to go. And there’s LOT’S of wedding stuff, so if that’s your online niche you definitely need to be there.

One friend, Laura  a great graphic designer who visited me from the UK a few weeks ago on her way to collecting an award for Australia’s Best Personal Website of 2011, on behalf of the Aussie agency she’s working for, is obviously obsessed with getting married (only teasing you Laura) Check out the winning site here. It’s done on WordPress.

Lots of pictures of cats on Pinterest too. Have you ever noticed how many cat photos there are online? They seem to be everywhere. Not that I’m complaining, but while I’ve been on Pinterest this week my own cat, a vicious creature who keeps the snakes away, keeps trying to type on the laptop. I think he’s try to turn on the webcam and pull funny faces so I’ll pin the photo for him.

But cats aren’t the main users. The demographics for the USA (using the most commonly quoted figures) show that 80% of users are women, and 55% of these are aged between 25 to 44. Though in the UK, from a much smaller user base, it’s a more even match with the figures I’ve seen quoting men actually coming out ahead, with 56% male and 44% female. This however is from a relatively small UK user base of just 200,000.

Anyhow, after spending a bit of time on the site I can see why it’s such a hit. It’s addictive. So if you can leverage great visual content it’s somewhere to get your stuff seen.

Seeing it’s reached a user base of around 13 million users in just 10 short months I think you need to be there.

I’ve pinned the best article I’ve found about leveraging its user base for your own gain, to my Pinterest page, on the Marketing& PR board (it’s the pin with the big P Pinterest logo)

Obviously I’ve done that to get you to sign up and follow me. It says invite only, but take no notice of that. Simply enter your email address and in a day or two they’ll send you details of how to open your account. Well I think that’s how it works. If it doesn’t email me and I’ll send you an invite.

Meanwhile the stuff I’m adding to Pinterest is going to help you know me better. Well for better or worse. And seeing I’ve managed to add pawn (not the chess kind, but the ‘pawn’ I can’t spell out here because my newsletter will end up in your spam folder) plus getting my leg stuck down a French toilet, into my first few pins, it will probably be for the worse.

I guess I’m not using it the way most people seem to be, because I’m adding quite long descriptions to most of my pins. On one of them I wrote a 20 line caption. Maybe it’s the record for longest Pinterest picture description. Let me know if you see a longer one

# # #

 My New Secret Weapon

Well it’s not really new, only to me. Though it is newish. And it’s definitely not secret, but it is a powerful weapon that adds a special something to your websites…quality, hand-picked (by you) content. My daughter, Kate, has been using it on a website and seen a very significant, and growing, targeted traffic increase.

You’ll see from the graph below that the traffic numbers have grown rapidly. It’s not up to date though, so I’ll get a new image up at the end of the week showing the latest results, rather than only up to week 3. Weeks 4 and 5 saw a slight dip in visitors, but this week, with a day to go, looks like being a record high. And the site hasn’t been touched for a few weeks.

Update: here’s the latest traffic stats graph showing up to the end of week 7 (late Feb)

The site hasn’t been added to since week 4, which I thought accounted for the slip in visitors in weeks 5 and 6. But I guess I was wrong. If this keeps up it’s going to be a very profitable site.

Ok, that’s it for today, I hope you found at least one thing interesting it. But, fingers crossed, there’ll be another newsletter next week.

Right, it’s 33c here today, so now I’m packing a bag and heading across to the island to spend the weekend swimming from that lovely beach you can see on my Pinterest page.

phil

Note: updated traffic stats near the bottom of this review.

(In case you think that software is a terribly mean present to give to a girl for Christmas I also bought her a nice white iPad to play with )

She loves both presents, though the email telling her about Curation Soft didn’t excite her anywhere near as much as opening the iPad box. And so far she’s spent about 3 hours using CurationSoft and she’s used the iPad until she’s boggle eyed and the tips of her fingers are sore from tapping and swiping the screen.

But it’s CurationSoft that’s making her money. Now that she’s seen how using it has almost immediately increased visitors to the site she’s using it on, she’s totally won over and singing its praises.

BTW, before you ask, there’s no way I’m giving you the name of her site, or even the niche. So please don’t email me about it. She wants me to keep quiet about it because she knows that a mention here will have dozens of you niche marketers rapidly jumping in to compete with her. And you would, don’t deny it

Anyway, the reason I’m telling you Kate’s traffic success is because I’m personally amazed at the huge traffic increase it’s given her. I thought it might help a bit, but in a month her visitors have more than quadrupled. And get this – she hasn’t added any new articles, and she’s not done any backlinking.

All she’s done is just semi-automatically (drag and drop) added fresh content to 15 of her existing articles. (BTW, the software works on both Macs and Windows)

And it took her less than 10 minutes an article to curate the content she wanted to use on her pages and add it to the existing mix of articles and reviews.

So she’s spent just two and a half hours quadrupling her visitor numbers (real people, not bots)

To me this is amazing. Especially as Google like’s what she’s doing, and so do the individuals whose content she has used a line or two from and linked to. They like it because a) they’re getting a link to their content, and b) quite a few of them are chuffed because she’s ‘quoted’ them. She knows this because they’ve tweeted about it, or commented on her site.

And she’s not gone out and added any new links, though some people whose tweets and other content snippets she’s used have linked to her. In fact it seems they’re quite proud of being ‘featured’ on a web site so they’re tweeting about it and posting a link to the site on their Facebook pages. This probably explains the traffic increase more than anything else.

Also, we all know that part of Google’s new ranking algorithm is favoring fresh content. It seems that adding to, or reworking existing content works just as well.

The full version of the software is just $59 (a year) but there’s a fully working free trial you can test. The only difference is that you’re limited to just one content source (Google Blogs) rather than the 8 in the paid version.

Seeing all you do is enter a keyword or short phrase, select the content source you want to use, and press go, it’s very simple to use. If you’re not convinced simply give the trial a go. You’ve got nothing to lose.

It’s been out for six months, or maybe longer now, and the people behind it are all well respected online: Jack Humphrey and Peter Lenkefi to name but two.

>>>> Highly Recommended <<<<

Stats Update 20th Feb – A record traffic week.

Stats Update 5th March – Compare week 7 above to the graphic below. Week 8 of using Curation Soft caused the visitor numbers to smash past the previous record week.

At first I had my doubts about the whole curation craze. My thinking went along the lines of “It’s theft. Sites are stealing using other people’s content to profit from”  But I’ve changed my mind. Sites use just a short snippet of your work. Maybe 2 or 3 lines, and in return you get a link back to your site. You get traffic from it, from both searchbots, and real people who are interested in your content and want to see more. It’s been written in more than one place that ‘curation’ is what the web of 2012 will be all about. And on the evidence of Kate using this blog curation software for just a few weeks, I can see why some people are saying that.

There’s quite a lot of content – examples and stuff like reviews and news items about the world of curating – on the blog on the curation software site. The site is not a sales pitch one. So if you want to know more about curation blogging you can read a lot more before even testing the free trial offer.

phil

A free weekly online newsletter for Internet entrepreneurs.

We also cover better business, computing, home-office,
mail-order, marketing, motivation, publicity, sales,
telecommuting, and writing skills.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
issue2 – 30th Aug 1997
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*please forward a copy to friends*

For subscription (or un-subscription) details,
and legal jargon, please see the last page.

++++++++++++++++++IN THIS ISSUE+++++++++++++++++++

1. Clippings: the best from the print media.

2. Tip of the Week: Impact of ad banner placement.

3. Article: Baring my soul – the mistakes and all,
launch of an Ezine. A step-by-step guide,
part 2.

4. Business opportunities and classifieds.

5. Article: Beware of Publisher 97 when building websites.

6. Tip of the Week No2: Hemingway’s Writing Rules.

7. Humour: a computer joke.

You’ll notice that this second edition is shorter than
the first. It’s not because I’m running out of steam already
Here’s why it’s not so long:

1. It was planned that way. You don’t get all the
introductory stuff this time.

2. I can’t believe this but quite a few people complained
there was too much in it. That it took too long to read.
If you hate staring at a monitor print it out and read it
in the coffee shop – that’s a good idea anyway. It’s what I
do with the better online newsletters.

3. I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the first issue.
Thanks everyone who wrote to say they enjoyed it. Thanks
to all of you who have subscribed throughout this long week.
We’ve gone from zero to 500+ subscribers in just over a week.
That’s 500+ e-mails I’ve had to send out.

4. I’m suffering from RSI in my mouse hand. My clicking finger
is aching. Whoever invented the mouse – “I don’t like you.”

(note: having just said all that I’ve discovered that this
issue is, in fact, slightly longer. I’ll have to tighten up
my editing for next week)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hi, Katie here!
Just a reminder of our introductory advertising rates. There
will be 5% off all rates to the first three advertisers this
week.
ALL ADVERTISERS PLEASE NOTE: The E-mail address for advertising
is now mailto:katie1@cybergal.com NOT katie@2-cool.com.
E-mail me for our advertising rates, or see below.
Thanks!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CLIPPINGS:

COMMUNICATE MORE EFFECTIVELY WITH CUSTOMERS.

It’s all about communication, says London based author
Mark McCormack.
Keeping six simple phrases in mind will help make us
better communicators with other employees, with
customers, and with potential customers, says Mark.
In his most recent book, Mark lists the six phrases as:
* Talk up, not down, to me.
* Surprise me.
* Tempt me.
* Flatter me.
* Tell me what you want.
* Tell me I am wrong.
” If you cannot communicate, you cannot manage. You
cannot sell, and you cannot negotiate,” he told
London’s Financial Times newspaper.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

TIP OF THE WEEK:

IMPACT OF AD BANNER PLACEMENT
If you think that a banner ad placed at the top of a web page
is the best place for impact think again.
It might be one of the first things people see on the page,
but many people (me for one) won’t want to click on it
and leave the site they’ve come to look at. I tend to read
through the site’s contents and then rarely get back to
clicking on that top placed advert.
And a survey, by graduate marketing students from the
University of Michigan, has confirmed my thoughts.
The students found that ads next to the right scroll
bar (in the lower right corner of the first screen)
generated a 228 per cent high click-through rate than ads
at the top of the page.
The survey also found that ads placed a third of the way
down the page generated 77 percent higher click-through
rates than ads at the top of the page.
But results from placing two ads on a page, for example
one at the top and one on the bottom, were inconclusive.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Article:

Baring my soul – the mistakes and all, launch
of an Ezine. A step-by-step guide

Part 2

ZERO to 500+ IN ONE WEEK.
HOW DID I DO IT
WITHOUT A WEB SITE?

Easy!
No it wasn’t. It took lots of hard work actually. I’ve
spent hours and hours online writing and answering e-mails,
trawling the free classified advertising sites, promoting
myself in newsgroups, writing to publishers of other
ezines, listing myself in directories, etc, etc.

One thing I haven’t done is spam the web by using an
email address grabber and sending my message to hundreds
of thousands of people. The temptations been there. And I
can live with a few flames, but I just don’t like the idea
of it. (for more on unsolicited e-mail see a piece written
by Al Bredenberg, at the end of this article).

Also I’m after a targeted readership – like minded
people who are interested in working from home and
building an online or offline business.

Sure I could build up my subscriber base rapidly by
spamming half the e-mail addresses of the world.
But I want ACTIVE AND INTERESTED READERS not just people who
subscribe to everything offered free.

I want to be around in this business for a long time. And I
can see spammers being the ruin of email marketing.

Spams, for instance, are ruining Usenet. I used
to frequent newsgroups regularly until about a year ago and
the spams weren’t too bad. I went back last week and found
that in some groups the majority of messages were cross
posted how to get rich quick spams.

This newsletter isn’t about get-rich-quick. I wish it was.
I wish I could get rich quick, and you too. But things
don’t usually work that way, not unless you win the lottery
or a rich old aunt you didn’t even know about dies and leaves
you a fortune. You, as a reader of this newsletter, should stop
using get-rich-quick and start using get-rich-slow. Because
that’s what you can do if you have the right product and market
it correctly.

You might not even get rich. I don’t expect to get rich
from this newsletter or marketing on the Internet. ( though
I’d certainly like to break even with “all the secrets…”,
pay for my time) What I want to do is continue to make a
living in an interesting way. I want to have fun. I want the
challenge of carving out an income by doing something like this.
Besides, it’s a lot better for my mind than watching TV.

I told you last week where I was going to promote myself, so
I won’t list them all again (email me for a copy of
issue 1 if you missed it).

As I’d expected the biggest number of new subscribers
came from New List. This is a mailing list which informs
people of new mailing lists and zines.
(NEW-LIST@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU).

The second largest number from readers of my newspaper
columns. And I only mentioned it once. Thank you readers.
It just goes to show that the big press barons aren’t finished
yet. Newspapers and magazines will still be around for a
long time. (I hope so they help pay most of my bills).

The third largest puller of subscribers came from marketing
myself in newsgroups. Not an easy task this. Every time you
post in a newsgroup you will probably receive dozens of
spams. I’ve got so many that I’ve stopped reading them. They
were a novelty at first, but not any more. Any temptation I
had to buy a bulk email program and join the mob has gone.

Last week I gave a list of newsgroups you could freely
advertise in. I discovered that the list is not quite accurate.
Some of the newsgroups listed are now moderated and turning
away outright advertising, which is all I’ve been placing.
So check them out first to make sure they are taking ads. Most
of them still are. But long term you would be better off
by participating in the newsgroups which cover your area of
interest and marketing in a quiet way by use of your signature
file. I’m going to start doing this next week. I’ve got to
find the time to participate properly in the business newsgroups.

Whatever your target market chances are there is a
mailing list or newsgroup where the right people gather to
discuss business, exchange ideas, and find answers to relevant
questions. A quick keyword search through Yahoo using the name
of your market’s category and the words “mailing list” and/or
“newsgroup” will often uncover the appropriate list for you to
join and – most importantly – participate in.

Next on the list of subscribers were people responding to
brief mentions in a few other ezines. This is where I see most
future subscribers coming from. I read lots of ezines and I think
we should all help each other out. We’re not rivals, we’re all
in this together the way I see it. I’m going to be writing for,
and advertising in, the better marketing ezines. If they’ll have
me that is. Incidentally this article, and all others written by
me and published here, are available for publication in your
online newsletter. Just ask me.

The least number of new subscribers came from placing adverts
in free classified sites. These places exist by the hundreds,
by the thousands really, and you can promote your product
and get exposure without any cost to you.

But I found them a pain in the bum. I’ve got more to do with
my life than hang around them.

If you are more patient than me, here’s a list that someone
spammed me with. They claim they the 10 best classie sites on the
net and that I’ll make a fortune for free by using them.

Now I’ve got no doubt that they’ll work for you in a small way.
If you post your ads to all of these sites on a very regular basis,
you’ll have a steady stream of inquiries. But not flood.

1. Internet Yellow Pages

http://www.ebp.com/cgi-win/classent32-1.exe?

2. Gateway Classified Ads

http://www.gatewayads.com/class.html#6

3. CVC Business Opportunity Ads

http://cvcprod.ca/west/busoport.htm

4. Best Mall Classified Ads

http://www.bestmall.com/class/submit.html

5. Business Classifieds

http://www.bizclassifieds.com/

6. Hitch Hikers

http://www.hitchhikers.net/classifieds/index.phtml

7. Business Solutions Classifieds

http://www.bizsol.com/

8. Five Star Classified Ads

http://www11.pair.com/vw/5starads/

9. Classifieds 2000

http://www.classifieds2000.com/

10. First America Mall

http://www.1second.com/addad.htm

So what comes next? I’ve got to find time to keep promoting
heavily next week. I’ve also got hundreds of names to enter
into Netmailer, which is the mailing list program I’m going to
be using (and indeed did use to send last weeks ezine to some
of you).

The Australian distributors kindly sent me Netmailer for free
so that I would write about it in one of my columns. It’s good
to have that kind of pulling power. Most of my software arrives
unasked for in my mailbox. In a later issue I’ll show you how
to get your own computer column. If you can write a bit that is.
by Phil Wiley
…..to be continued.

+++++++++

Al Bredenberg has some good stuff to say,
about unsolicited e-mail, in I-Sales Digest 513.
(reproduced here with Al’s permission)

From: Al Bredenberg
Subject: Targeted Unsolicited E-Mail

Rather than looking at the question of direct e-mail
marketing as a black-or-white issue, I’ve been thinking
of it in terms of *risks*. I do think ethical issues
enter into the picture, but practically speaking many
marketers won’t evaluate a promotional method based on
whether it’s ethical or whether it conforms to standards
of etiquette and courtesy.

I’ve been writing and consulting about e-mail promotions
and recently started speaking on the topic. I’ve come up
with this maxim:

The risks of direct e-mail marketing are directly
proportional to the number of people who don’t want to
receive your message.

The risks can include such consequences as loss of Internet
access, flames, mailbombs and especially damage to the
company’s reputation. Risk to reputation was evidently the
reason for Barnes and Noble’s hasty retreat from spamming
earlier this month.

Various methods of e-mail marketing can result in a greater
or lower level of risk, depending on how many people don’t
want to receive your message (and how vehement they are
about it). Here’s a chart that I call “The Direct E-Mail
Hierarchy of Risk”:

HIGH RISK
* “Rented” bulk e-mail spam list (from a spam
provider)
* Homemade spam list (addresses harvested yourself)
* One-time spam (letting recipients know this is a
one-time mailing)
* Cold prospecting (one-by-one unsolicited personal
contacts)
* “Rented” opt-in or voluntary list (from a provider
such as PostMaster Direct)
* In-house opt-in or voluntary list (developed
yourself from customers, Web site visitors, etc.)
LOW RISK

Hiring the services of a bulk e-mail spam outfit engenders
high risk because your message goes out to many people who
don’t want it and the practice is so widely hated. Using an
opt-in list is less risky, although I couldn’t say the risk
is always zero. Some people will forget they signed up; or
someone may forward the message to a friend who doesn’t
know where it came from.

Sending targeted unsolicited e-mail might present medium
risk, but the risk can be reduced, as many I-Sales members
have pointed out, by more careful targeting and
personalization.

I personally think spamming is not only risky but unethical.
I recommend this simple policy for companies that want to
advertise by e-mail: No one should ever be placed on an
e-mail list without their permission. No one should have to
ask to be removed from an e-mail list they never asked to be
on in the first place.

Regards,
Al Bredenberg

Editor, The Direct E-Mail List Source
Web directory of e-mail media
Advertise by e-mail without spamming!

http://www.copywriter.com/lists/

ab@copywriter.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++BIZ OPPS AND CLASSIFIED ADS+++++++++++++

Answering a classified ad is simple! Just send an e-mail
message directly to the address listed in each ad you’re
interested in!

Remember we are interactive. Read your newsletter using
a current browser or e-mail program and you can simply
double-click on any WWW or “mailto:”address.
Checking out ads is a breeze.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NIL – 500 SUBSCRIBERS IN ONE WEEK

Hi! Katie here.
If you have a business of your
own to promote you might like to take advantage of
our special intro advertising offer

contact me at mailto:katie1@cybergal.com

*** LESS THAN $3.50 A WEEK ***

special opening offer
- a 4 line (68 characters inc spaces) ad run for the
next six issues for just $20, or up to 8
lines for $25. (US dollars)

Go on – make some money on us

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

++++++++++++++++++++++++

New failsafe sponsoring system makes this business great for the
experienced or the beginning home business. Have up to 3279 people
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with. No personal sponsoring required.

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++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE BEST BOOK AROUND ABOUT HOW TO SELL ONLINE.

This newsletter has been inspired, in part, by the success of
Jim Daniels, publisher of n online newsletter called the
Biz-Web E-Gazette. Jim’s just published a book called
“Insider Internet Marketing ” and
I truly believe that it is the best book around on
making money online. You want to make a living on the net?
Buy this book.
I’ve got a shelf full of books on the same subject, but
this one is both the easiest to follow, and the most
practical how-to-do-it guide. It costs around $24 (US dollars)
and you can buy it right now (get your credit card ready) by
going to http://www.bizweb2000.com/d1097.htm
Jim comes on a bit strong with his sales blurb, but just
whiz through it and click on the buy-it-now button.
It even comes with marketing rights, so it will directly make
you money. THIS BOOK IS A MUST IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT
ONLINE PROFITS.

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++++++++++++++++++++++++

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++++++++++++++++++++++++

IF YOU’RE ENJOYING READING “all the secrets…” HERE
ARE A COUPLE OF OTHER FREE NEWSLETTERS YOU MIGHT LIKE
TO SUBSCRIBE TO….and please let them know I sent you.

*****
MTE’s NETfabulous Marketing Newsletter
full of hot stuff for both seasoned and budding
netrepreneurs….
to subscribe send a message to mailto:mariani@icanect.net.
with SUBSCRIBE (ref: “all the secrets…”) in the
subject line.
*****
“OPPORTUNITY DIGEST”
YOUR SOLUTION TO ON-LINE MARKETING
to subscribe send a message to mailto:SSee559@aol.com
with SUBSCRIBE (ref: “all the secrets…”) in the
subject line.
****
++++++++++++++++++++++++

CONTRIBUTORS WANTED
Share in the success of “all the secrets…” by mailing
us your articles and tips for possible publication.
No payment, just free publicity for your own business.
Send your material to Phil at mailto:wiley@reporters.net

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Article:

BEWARE OF PUBLISHER 97
WHEN BUILDING WEB SITES

If you think I haven’t got a web site you’re wrong.
I have, it’s just that it’s stuck on my hard drive.
So unless you come around to my house (and sunny Queensland,
Australia is a lovely place to be) you can’t see it.
In fact I’ve got a huge site. It’s probably 300 pages
at the moment – and some of them are very long text filled
pages.

But there’s a big problem with it.

You see, when I was putting together my site I took
the easy option to save time. No HTML coding by using the
WYSIWYG style of Microsoft Publisher 97. I even used one
of the built in wizards to do half the work for me.

But with the site nearly finished I’m very unhappy.
Several problems have emerged.
Using Publisher I converted the pages to HTML to post 150 pages
or so to my ISP as a test to see how it looked on the web.
And I found that my, mainly text filled pages, panned out to a
whopping 6 megabytes when they shouldn’t have even taken up
half a meg of space.

Searching for the problem I discovered that the graphics
on each page were saved over and over again. For example
my banner/logo at the top of each page was saved as 150
separate images. Each page had 4 vertical lines in the
design grid I’d placed on the page, and they were saved
as 600 images.

The other problems are that the pages look really good
in Publisher, but when placed on the web they look terrible
in Netscape. As expected they look ok in Microsoft Publisher.
But as a bigger percentage of people still use Netscape
it’s yet another problem.

Making sure that your pages look fine in both these programs
is something you have to think seriously about when you’re
putting together a business page. So it pays to have both
browsers on your machine.

And another warning. Although most of us use SVGA monitors,
make certain that you design your pages for VGA 640×480
resolution. Remember that your web page will be up for
viewing world-wide, and in countries where they’re
still using older monitors your pages developed at the
higher resolution will be too big for their screens. Also
lots of people using 14-inch monitors set their screens to
640×480 because everything looks larger. In fact I personally
don’t know one person with a 14-inch monitor who sets it to
800×600. Except me. All my friends have bad eyesight I guess.

I think I’m going to have to start my web site again.
Right from the beginning, using HTML.

I’ll keep all the information, I like the content, but the
design just doesn’t cut it. I’m not really knocking Publisher.
It’s a great program, and if I’d stuck to what the wizard
offered me I reckon it would have been ok. But I like to fiddle,
and that’s what I did.

My graphics have ended up too chunky and garish. And the layout
of my text columns isn’t too hot. My daughter did a home page
in less than an hour using one of the Publisher wizards,
and her web page is fine. So perhaps it’s just me. Lacking in
design skills.

So once again… I’m knocking Microsoft Publisher 97 here.
In fact I can’t see why anyone would want to buy something like
Quark for eight or nine times the money, when Publisher does
much the same job. It’s terrific for flyers, postcards,
greetings cards and newsletters. In fact it’s terrific at
everything except producing huge web sites (it’s fine for
small ones) and when you view the results in Netscape.
Could there be a reason for that I wonder?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

TIP OF THE WEEK NO 2: Hemingway’s Writing Rules.

Hemingway’s writing Rules have been stuck above my desk for
years now. I might not stick by them all the time. Especially
when, as now, I’m not limited to filling an exact space in a
newspaper column. But I think we should all take note of them.
Especially for online writing.

USE SHORT SENTENCES.
USE SHORT FIRST PARAGRAPHS.
USE VIGOROUS ENGLISH.
BE POSITIVE, NOT NEGATIVE.
AVOID PASSIVE VOICE.

That’s it. Print these out in large type.
Stick them above your desk.
Follow them. Improve your writing.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
COMPUTER HUMOUR:

submitted by Rob (Tonnochy@bigpond.com)

An Engineer and a Programmer on a Plane
A programmer and an engineer are sitting next to each other on a
long flight from LA to NY. The Programmer leans over to the
Engineer and asks if he would like to play a fun game. The
Engineer just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines
and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks.
The Programmer persists and explains that the game is really
easy and a lot of fun. He explains ‘I ask you a question , and
if you don’t know the answer, you pay me $5.’ Again, the Engineer
politely declines and tries to get some sleep.
The Programmer, now somewhat agitated, says ‘OK, if you don’t
know the answer you pay me $5, and if I don’t know the answer,
I will pay you $50!’
This catches the Engineer’s complete attention, and he sees no
end to this torment unless he plays, so he agrees to the game.
The Programmer asks the first question. ‘What’s the distance from
the earth to the moon?’ The Engineer doesn’t say a word, reaches
in to his wallet, pull out a five-dollar bill and hands it to
the Programmer. Now, it’s the Engineer’s turn. He asks the
Programmer: ‘What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down
with four?’ The Programmer looks at him with a puzzled look. He
takes out his laptop computer and searches all his references.
He taps into the Airphone with his modem and searches the Net and
the Library of Congress. Frustrated, he sends E-mails to all his
co-workers and friends he knows. All to no avail.
After over an hour, he wakes the Engineer and hands him $50. The
Engineer politely takes the $50 and turns away to get back to
sleep. The Programmer, more that a little miffed, shakes the
Engineer and asks, ‘Well, so what IS the answer?’ Without a
word, the Engineer reaches into his wallet, hands the Programmer
$5 and goes back to sleep.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
IMPORTANT: Please forward a copy of this newsletter
to your friends and associates, help them achieve success.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We aim to make this online version of “all the secrets…”
the most successful entrepreneurial newsletter on the
Internet. The information & resources found in each issue of
“all the secrets…” are intended to help BOOST your profits
whether YOUR business is online or offline by providing unique
articles, numerous interesting tips and helpful links.
It will arrive in your mailbox free each weekend
unless you ask to be removed from our mailing list.

If a friend passed this on and you want to SUBSCRIBE, e-mail
me at mailto:wiley@writeme.com or mailto:wiley@reporters.net
with subject line SUBSCRIBE.
Want to UNSUBSCRIBE? ( I can’t believe you would )
E-mail me with subject line UNSUBSCRIBE.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Standard disclaimer.
Please note that absolutely NO legal, accounting or
other professional advice is EVER given or implied.
The authors, editors, publishers and marketing agents
expressly disclaim any liability for the use of any
information contained herein.
“all the secrets…” accepts no responsibility whatsoever
for the content or legality of any customer’s advertisement
shown in any e-mailing. It is the advertisers’ responsibility
to check and abide by the Local, State, Federal laws and
International laws pertaining to the products, services
or business opportunities they advertise.
Although we believe that every advertiser in this
publication to be honest and upstanding, we can take no
responsibility as to the content of there offers.
Thanks, and we will see you next week.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“all the secrets…” is a FREE publication,
from Phil Wiley (c) copyright Phil Wiley 1997.

: -X : -X : -X : -X : -X : -X : -X

” ALL THE SECRETS…”

: -X : -X : -X : -X : -X : -X : -X

A free weekly online newsletter for Internet entrepreneurs.
We also cover better business, computing, home-office,
mail-order, marketing, motivation, publicity, sales,
telecommuting, and writing skills.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
issue4 19th Sept 1997
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*please forward a copy to friends*

For subscription (or un-subscription) details,
and legal jargon, please see the last page.

++++++++++++++++++IN THIS ISSUE+++++++++++++++++++

1. A letter from Phil.

2. Business opportunities and classifieds.

3. Article: 10 reasons to use Netmailer.

4. Tip of the Week: 5 simple ideas to turn your
customers into raving fans.

5. Computer News: All the latest from the chip shop.

6. Free Lifetime E-mail Address.

7. Humour: A definition of Windows 95, and more

Letter from Phil,

Ok, as you’re probably all aware, we had huge problems
mailing last week’s newsletter out to all of you.

Some of you have received multiple copies, and 2 people
have complained that they only got half a newsletter – with
it cutting off at the beginning of the ad section. (If anyone
else had that problem please email me and I’ll send you the
issue again – just once, not four or five times).

I’ve found the problem. IT WAS NOT OUR FAULT.

Here’s what my ISP wrote to me on Tuesday:

Phil,
Recently Networx had installed a “SPAM” filter that would
remove any un-solicited e-mail from being delivered to users,
internal and external.
I had noticed however that your “List” message has been
filtered and have now rectified it. I apologise for this, it
was something that i would not have expected. The fix that i
have applied is temporary however, and therefore i shall be
installing the new “Mailing List” software today and shall
contact you with details on how to administer your list
through this.
Regards…Leon

Here’s what my ISP wrote to me on Thursday when I complained
that people had been receiving multiple copies:

“Apologies once again, i only installed it two weeks ago, and
it saves all the trash messages that it filters. Your’s just
happened to be one of them.
The repeating could have been caused by the re-enabling of
the filter to accomodate your mail.
We shall have to keep our eye on it, keep me informed.
I am still attempting to complete the setup of the Mailing
List Software for you too. I shall contact you soon.”
Leon

So…as you can see, our ISP stuffed up our mailing.
But I’m sure it’s a one off problem. They’re very good and
helpful people and we won’t be leaving them.

Actually we partially caused the multiple copy problem ourself
by repeated attempts to mail it out, rather than contacting
our ISP to see if the problem was at their end.

Anyway, enough said.

This issue is short because of my trip into the Aussie
Outback. It’s now Thursday night and I’m only just starting
writing “all the secrets…”. Because of this weeks time
constraints it’s also a slightly different format to the
previous issues. No Clippings section, only one article.
But enjoy it.

Phil.

++++++++++BIZ OPPS AND CLASSIFIED ADS+++++++++++++

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS
we can’t be free without them

Answering a classified ad is simple! Just send an e-mail
message directly to the address listed in each ad you’re
interested in!

We would prefer payment by credit card, cash, International
Money Order, or American Express Travellers Cheques…
please only send cheques as a last resort. It costs us
A$15 to have them processed by the rip-off banks here.

Payment should be made payable to either Deer Park Press,
or Phil Wiley – and mailed to:
PO Box 1269, Rockhampton, Qld 4700, Australia

(our street address for your info is
70 Bean Ave, Parkhurst.
our phone number is: +61 079 362692
our fax number is +61 079 304366

But e-mail us first and we’ll place your ad in the next issue.

Remember we are interactive. Read your newsletter using
a current browser or e-mail program and you can simply
double-click on any WWW or “”address.
Checking out ads is a breeze.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi! Katie here.
If you have a business of your
own to promote you might like to take advantage of
our special intro advertising offer

contact me at mailto:katie1@cybergal.com

*** LESS THAN $3.50 A WEEK ***

special opening offer
– a 4 line (68 characters inc spaces) ad run for the
next six issues for just $20, or up to 8
lines for $25. (US dollars)

Go on – make some money on us

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

++++++++++++++++++++++++

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++++++++++++++++++++++++

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You want to make a living on the net?
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It’s a real book, not a homemade job, and it’s packed with
sensible how-to advice. I’ve learnt a lot from it.
Most of my books are review copies and come for free, but I
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It costs around US$24, and it’s yours now by going to:

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Jot down this Sponsor number first ID#:PW7216
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Article: 10 REASONS TO USE NETMAILER FOR YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS
by Phil Wiley

When I started this newsletter I planned on using Microsoft
Outlook 97 to mail it out to you all.

But it’s not worked out that way. With the flood of new
subscribers each week it is too time consuming to type
each e-mail address into the Outlook contact list. Adding a
new contact into Outlook is not as quick and easy as it
should be.

I was hoping to use a combination of Outlook and Word’s
Mail-merging function to send out personalized email.
The same way I use Word to send printed product
information. But can you believe that Office 97 didn’t
think that far ahead? You simply can’t do mail merge e-mail.

There are several programs, however, which do allow
e-mail merging. Two of them are:

Arial Software’s Campaign

http://www.arialsoftware.com/products/CTour1.htm

and
Alpha Software’s NetMailer

http://www.alphasoftware.com/netmailer/

Using these programs you can design an e-mail campaign
with a series of timed messages personalized with your
customer’s or prospect’s name, address, etc.

Netmailer’s the one I’ve chosen to use. But I’ve got to be
honest here and tell you that’s because they sent it to me
for free so that I’d write about it in my newspaper
columns. I’ve never even seen Arial Software’s Campaign.
Though I’ve heard that it’s a good product.

So here’s what I know about Netmailer, and why I think it
could be beneficial to you.

1. It lets you send personalized email messages to your list
of contacts. You might have got a 100 or 10,000 email
addresses on your list. Netmailer allows you to send the
same email to all of them, (or to just a few of them) but
personalized with their name (or other details) eg:

Dear Bob,
I’d like to tell you about our latest offer…

(Always assuming you’ve got people’s names that is. Many
of you have not given me a first name, so I can’t
personalize my messages in this way. Then again, if you
do get one with your name on you know that it’s only
been sent to you and not to hundreds of people).

2. Your messages won’t have long, revealing “To:” and
“CC:” lists. You just type your message, choose from one of
your lists and press the Netmailer button. It’s as easy
as that.

3. You can maintain as many databases of e-mail addresses
as you want, and each database can have multiple list
selections. you can perform queries to choose which
contacts receive which message. In other words you can
send your message to just a selection of people on your
list, depending on if they meet the criteria of your offer.
For example you might only want to send your offer to women.
Or only to people in a certain state or country, or just
to people who advertise on your web site or in your
newsletter.

4. Netmailer keeps a log of each message you send.

5. If you’ve already got a database of email addresses
don’t worry. Netmailer can import your data from other
email programs, contact managers, or databases. It can also
verify the addresses, and automatically find incomplete
addresses.

6. You can send attachments, or/and use any text file as
the body of your message.

7. You can add a custom signature.

8. If you haven’t already got a contact manager, Netmailer
can be used as one. Not only is it a powerful email list
management program, it’s also a database which can
hold a lot of information about each contact, such as:
name, address, phone numbers, URL, and other fields that
you can define to meet your needs.
So it gives you the power and flexibility of a contact
manager, and an electronic mail merge program in one.

9. You can keep different lists. eg: likely advertisers,
people who have bought from you in the past, subscribers,
people who have enquired but not subscribed or ordered.
Whatever you choose.

10. It’s perfect to use as a sales tool. What happened
in the Old World? You got an inquiry by mail or phone.
You would write a sales letter, send a brochure, follow
up, follow up again. Make a sales call, etc.
Well Netmailer allows you to do all this by email. It’s the
ideal program for helping you use email as your sales tool.

However there is a BIG snag.

It takes forever to mail out a message the size of this
newsletter. This is because each message is sent
individually. It’s a file of around 30,000k. Imagine the
time it takes to send 700 or a 1000 of those.
When my subscriber base reaches more than a perhaps 1500
or 2000 I’ll have to stop using it to send the newsletter.
It will simply take too long and cost me too much.

But I believe that I will still keep using Netmailer for
a long time to come for shorter messages.

At US$49.95 it’s a steal.

Ok, I got this program for free, but that doesn’t mean I
have to tell you to buy it. There are computer writers
around who praise every program they write about. I’m not
one of them.

No, that’s wrong. Come to think about it I usually do praise
them. What happens is that if I think a program is not up
to scratch, or there is something much better around for
the same kind of price, I won’t even write about it.
The program gets wiped off my machine and I give it
away or throw it in the bin. Computer CD’s or useless
programs make fascinating spinning, glittering mobiles to hang over
babies beds.

(c) Phil Wiley 1997

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tip of the Week: 5 simple ideas to turn customers into
RAVING FANS.

The secret of how to make your customers fall in love with
your business is simple:

Customers are people, and people like to feel special.
They like to feel that the company they are doing business
with CARES about them and MAKES AN EFFORT. The alarming
reality is that 99% of all businesses do as little as
possible just to “keep the customers happy”.

Here are just five simple ideas that you can use tomorrow
to delight your customers and turn them into raving fans:

1. Instead of sending a thank you letter, send your best
clients a massage voucher.

2. If you’re a painter, steam clean the carpets after you’re
finished, or send a bottle of champagne to the household.

3. If you’re a builder, send a photographer to take pictures
of the family in their new home, and present them with
framed copies.

4. If you’re in men’s wear, offer a complimentary shoe
shine to your customers while they wait.

5. Help your clients grow their businesses – try sending them
business books or audiotapes.

Adapt these simple ideas to suit your own situation. What can
YOU do to make your clients LOVE you a little more?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

IF YOU’RE ENJOYING READING “all the secrets…” HERE
ARE A FEW OTHER FREE NEWSLETTERS YOU MIGHT LIKE
TO SUBSCRIBE TO…and please let them know I sent you.

*****
MTE’s NETfabulous Marketing Newsletter
full of hot stuff for both seasoned and budding
netrepreneurs….
to subscribe send a message to mailto:mariani@icanect.net.
with SUBSCRIBE (ref: “all the secrets…”) in the
subject line.
*****
“OPPORTUNITY DIGEST”
YOUR SOLUTION TO ON-LINE MARKETING
to subscribe send a message to mailto:SSee559@aol.com
with SUBSCRIBE (ref: “all the secrets…”) in the
subject line.
****
The Internet ONLINE Business Newsletter
Mailto: List@ReidNet.com with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line
++++++++++++++++++++++++
You”’ find a longer list by pointing your browser to

http://www.intersuccess.com/ezines.htm

++++++++++++++++++++++++

CONTRIBUTORS WANTED
Share in the success of “all the secrets…” by mailing
us your articles and tips for possible publication.
No payment, just free publicity for your own business.
Send your material to Phil at mailto:wiley@reporters.net

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

COMPUTER NEWS: ALL THE LATEST FROM THE CHIP SHOP

Want to access the net on your mobile phone?
Motorola is planning to market a cellular phone that allows
callers to view a full page of e-mail or a full Web page,
by a tiny device like the viewfinder on a video camera. The
device is called CyberDisplay and is 1,000 times smaller than
a laptop screen. When I first heard about it I thought you’d
need great eyesight to read a web page, because it’s built
around a liquid crystal display screen slightly larger than a
grain of rice -0.28 inch in diameter.
But apparently, when you look through the viewfinder from a
few inches away, you see an image equivalent to one on a much
larger screen. A full-page fax or
E-mail message is readable, as is a graphics-rich Web site. It
also receives faxes. Not only that, it can receive a fax while
you’re talking on the phone.
I reckon I can live without one for now. But by next Christmas
who knows?

If world chess champion Garry Kasparov decides on a rematch
with IBM’s famous Deep Blue computer, he could be in even
more trouble. Deep Blue has just got deeper. The IBM RS/6000 SP
computer “Deep Blue has received hardware and software
enhancements expected to make it 58% faster. Much of the speed
increase is due to the latest version of IBM’s 604e Power PC
microprocessor. I think I’ll stick to playing my Pentium at
chess. It beats me every time anyway. But then so did my old 286.

It could only happen in America. Or could it? A prisoner, serving
a 23-year sentence for molesting teenage girls, has been convicted
of using a computer he was allowed to keep in his cell, to sell
child pornography.
The man was found to have an optical disk containing pictures of
juveniles engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and was selling
the photographs online.
The prosecutor said: “This case is an object lesson that the
information age must have some limits. It’s obvious that
prisoners should not have access to the Internet.”

If I said “Tillamook” you might think it was a rare bird or
beast. Or perhaps you’d think I was swearing at you in Swedish.
But it’s a word you’re soon going to know, because Tillamook is
the name of Intel’s latest computer chip.
I can’t quite hear myself saying “I’ve got a Tillamook”, but I
suppose we all thought Pentium was a strange name when it first
came out.
Designed primarily for notebook computers, it’s an MMX style
chip, which advances clock speeds for mobile computers from
166 to 200 or 233Mhz. And later in the year a 266 version is
due.
IBM will release a series of Tillamook based computers with
fantastic specifications. And probably, knowing IBM’s pricing
structure, fantastic prices.
The ThinkPad 770 series will contain a swag of new features,
including 5GB hard drives, 13- and 14-inch screens, and both
200- and 233-MHz processors. These features match fast,
higher-end desktop PC’s. Even in screen size. A 14-inch LCD
screen is roughly equivalent to a 16- or 17-inch CRT monitor
in viewable area.
And their top of the line 770 model, which I ‘d love to own
(if you win the lottery this week remember me) will contain:
a Tillamook 233-MHz Pentium MMX processor, a 5GB hard drive,
a DVD-ROM drive, 32MB of memory, and a 14-inch active-matrix
screen.

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FREE LIFETIME E-MAIL ADDRESS

In issue one I wrote about how to get a free personalised
e-mail address, which is yours to keep for life.

The offer, due to expire at the end of August has now
been extended until the end of September. So if you didn’t
get around to signing up, point your browser to

http://yahoo.iname.com

It’s a great free offer, from “iName.com”. Think how useful
an extra e-mail address could be for your online marketing
business. You can’t use it for spamming (quite rightly iName
will cancel your account) but it can be great for targeting
responses to your different promotions.
Full details are at the web site.

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COMPUTER HUMOUR:

A definition of Windows 95:
Windows95 (noun): 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a
16-bit patch to an 8-bit operating system originally coded for
a 4-bit microprocessor, written by a 2-bit company, that can’t
stand 1 bit of competition.

10 WAYS TO CONFUSE, WORRY, OR JUST SCARE PEOPLE
IN THE COMPUTER LAB.

1. Log on, wait a sec, then get a frightened look on your face
and scream “Oh my God! They’ve found me!” and bolt.
2. Laugh uncontrollably for about 3 minutes & then suddenly
stop and look suspiciously at everyone who looks at you.
3. When your computer is turned off, complain to the monitor on
duty that you can’t get the damn thing to work. After he/she’s
turned it on, wait 5 minutes, turn it off again, & repeat the
process for a good half-hour.
4. Type frantically, often stopping to look at the person next
to you evilly.
5. Before anyone else is in the lab, connect each computer to a
different screen than the one it’s set up with.
6. Write a program that plays the “Smurfs” theme song and play it
at the highest volume possible over & over again.
7. Work normally for a while. Suddenly look amazingly startled by
something on the screen and crawl underneath the desk.
8. Ask the person next to you if they know how to tap into
top-secret Pentagon files.
9. Make a small ritual sacrifice to the computer before you
turn it on.
10. Bring a chainsaw, but don’t use it. If anyone asks why you
have it, say “Just in case…” mysteriously.

This weeks humour contributed, once again, by Rob Tonnachy
(Tonnochy@bigpond.com). Thanks Rob.

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(c) copyright Phil Wiley 1997.