========================================== Business Marketing Bulletin ========================================== December 11, 2007, Issue #80 Terri Seymour, Publisher http://www.seymourproducts.com mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com © 2007 All Rights Reserved Worldwide ========================================== In This Issue ========================================== 1. Top Sponsor Ads 2. Privacy Policy 3. What's New? 4. Feedback 5. Freebies & Biz Helpers 6. eCommerce Marketing Tip 7. Feature Ad 8. Resource-A-Day 9. Article: The Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions 10. Feature Ad 11. This 'n That - Little Bit of Everything! 12. Subscription Management & Contact Info ========================================== Top Sponsor Ads ========================================== Get A Professional Website for Your Business! A poorly designed website will drive potential clients away. If you are an Entrepreneur and want an online business people will take seriously, you'll need a professional site at an affordable price. HighPowerSites.com offers everything an Entrepreneur needs for a powerful online presence. For a 10 day FREE TRIAL, please stop by HighPowerSites.com or click the link below: http://www.highpowersites.com/ *************************** Free Download - eBay Workshop Collection The workshop titles included in the ebook are... *From Hobby to Home Business *How to Compete in a Crowded Market *Understanding the Basics to Importing Physical Products to Sell.........and much more! You can download it for free here: http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/kh_freeebookWorkshops.asp?kbid=1028 ********** ATTENTION ********** You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to it. As a subscriber you have acknowledged that there will be both in-house and third party advertising as part of our content. This allows BMB to remain free. If you would like to be removed from this list, please see instructions at the end of this newsletter. Seymour Products values your privacy. http://www.seymourproducts.com/privacy.shtml Seymour Products is hosted by ICDSoft Hosting. No set-up fees, 1000 MB of space, $72 per year, plus numerous features! Incredible support system...minutes, not hours! You have a bigger plan option as well. http://www.icdsoft.com/?aff=terriseymour ========================================== What’s New? ========================================== Hello everyone and welcome new subscribers, I thank you for your decision to subscribe to our ezine and hope we provide all the help you are looking for. Thank you as well to our continuing loyal subscribers for staying with us. ;-) For us business owners, the Christmas season is almost over and the New Year will be upon us. I hope everyone has met or exceeded their goals (business and personal) for this year and we wish you even more for next year. These sites might help you learn more about how to focus on reaching your goals: http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/how-to-reach-your-goals/ http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Keep-Your-Resolutions-and-Reach-Your-Goals&id=7440 In the News Google Reveals 2008 Plans For Google Apps http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/01/google-reveals-2008-plans-for-google-apps/ New Ebooks this Week: Resell Ebooks Just $1.00 Each! Unlock Your Secret Gourmet (ecookbooks) The Lake of the Sky (animals & nature) A Complete Guide to Autoresponders (int. marketing) Marketing Graphics Pack (web design & graphics) 1..2..3... Shortcuts (software & scripts) Meta Manager (web design & graphics) Easy List Builders (blogs/ezines) The Grizzly King (animals & nature) The Mysterious Island (classics) Instant Blog Traffic (blogs/ezines) 25 Data Recovery PLR Articles (plr articles) Internet Business for Newbies (online & home biz) How to Create a Mini Site in 30 Min. or Less (web design) Computer Games (entertainment & leisure) Job Search Tips (jobs & career) http://www.seymourproducts.com/ebooks-resell **Weekly Subscriber Special** Offer Valid from 12-11-07 to 12-14-07 Pick a Package! Pick any package you want from our store and get it for half price! Just let me know which package you want at 50% off and we will finalize payment via Paypal. NOTE: New eBooks listed above are not eligible for Weekly Subscriber Specials. Join the Seymour Products Trivia Challenge! Find the hidden trivia question and be the third person to send in the correct answer for a free feature ad in next week's issue of the Business Marketing Bulletin. Send your answer to mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com?subject=answer Congratulations to Debbie Huff for being last week's trivia challenge winner. Last week’s Q: What is the most extensively grown and eaten food? Last Week’s A: Wheat Join in the fun and try to win a free feature ad. Good luck all! If you know anyone who could benefit from this ezine, please feel free to forward them a copy in its entirety. Thank you. If you would like to advertise in the BMB, please visit: http://www.seymourproducts.com/newsletter/advertise.shtml for more information. Advertising prices are as low as $2.00. I am also looking for ad swaps from other ezine publishers. BMB goes out to 720 subscribers. ========================================== Feedback ========================================== Please send in your comments, suggestions, questions, etc to mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com?subject=feedback We appreciate all feedback, good or bad! Thank you very much and I am so excited to market your eBooks. I will be back for more. I have just referred your store to my best friend from the US. He loves eBooks!!! =) I did not expect such gracious offer, thank you so much. I am so glad to have met you and to have found this wonderful opportunity!!! I love your site, your products, and the promise that this business brings. * Bernadette I wanted to let you know that i really think your site is great and I have learned so much from it. * JL Everything looks great and fine both the set up and the banner to me you are a star in the darkeness I will always come to buy from you. Again thanks so much for your help. * Deborah ========================================== Freebies & Biz Helpers ========================================== Cagora - Social & Business Networking In A Web2.0 World http://www.cagora.com/go/wahmteresa ****** New Article Directory - submit your articles now! http://www.businessarticlelibrary.com ****** Free Download: TimeBridge Stop the endless email back-and-forth to schedule a meeting. Find a time to meet in just one step! Get your very own personal scheduling manager. Takes less than a minute. And it's free. http://www.timebridge.com/home.php ****** Write Better Ads - Do It Free! http://www.WriteBetterAds.com ========================================== eCommerce Marketing Tip ========================================== Increase your search engine ranking by getting your link on the top sites. Do a search using keywords that people would use when searching for your site. Visit the top sites and see how you could get your link on them. Either by advertising with them, seeing if they accept article submissions, offer your free ebook, participate in their message boards..... Look the site over and see what opportunities you can find to get your site listed on their site. ========================================== Feature Ad ========================================== Are YOUR Ads Making Money? Competition's High but My Prices are Down-To-Earth! Quality, Affordable & Friendly Ad-Writing Services! http://www.freewebs.com/suz1of6/ ========================================== Resource-A-Day ========================================== Today's Resource: How to Be Successfully Self-Employed http://www.resource-a-day.com/ez/dec/9.html?Terri Join this program for free and earn money as well as getting resources delivered to your inbox everyday! http://www.resource-a-day.net/member/index.cgi?TerriSeymour Who won Favorite Actor in the First Annual People's Choice Awards in 1975? mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com?subject=answer ========================================== Feature Article ========================================== The Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions by Kalena Jordan © 2007 Having worked with web sites for the past eleven years, I've seen a LOT of errors, poor judgment and embarrassing gaffs on the web. Sometimes they are the fault of the client, the web designer, the IT Manager, or the SEO, but human error is always to blame. The saddest thing is that the problems are usually preventable. Here is a list of what I consider to be the Top 10 dumbest web site decisions ever, in reverse order, David Letterman style : 10) Misspelling a Domain Back in the glory days of the late 1990's when I was working for a large Internet agency, the web designers had responsibility for the registration of domain names on behalf of clients. One particular designer had a face to face meeting with a major client, during which the client asked him to register CarTuneCentral.com (or so he thought!) The staffer did a check and was delighted to see the domain available. He made the purchase and proudly emailed the client. An hour later his boss called him in to his office to say that he'd had a call from a very frustrated client who *actually* wanted him to register CartoonCentral.com. Needless to say the desired domain wasn't available and the whole office dined on his mistake for months. 9) Letting the Domain Name Expire Now what type of company would allow their domain to expire a month after site launch? A very large one, that's who. I'll save the company some embarrassment and won't reveal their name but the site was offline for a total of 2 days while they scrambled to pay their registrar, sort out DNS propagation and cover their tails. 8) Flashing your Cyber Underpants One of the most common web site management platforms provided by hosting companies used to store the site statistics in a common folder called /statistics/. You could password protect this folder, but the default was to leave it open to the public and so many unwary webmasters unwittingly published full traffic data for their site on the Internet, open to any person who knew where to look. I learned this the hard way in a public forum from a member who said he had just reviewed my traffic for the previous month and was very impressed. Publishing site statistics for all the world to see is what I call flashing your cyber underpants and I've never let it happen again! 7) Publishing Sensitive Company Information Quite a few companies have been guilty of doing this, including AOL, who published a search data report in 2006 that contained the private details of thousands of AOL customers. Although the report was taken offline within a few days, it had already been mirrored and distributed across the Internet. The fallout eventually led to the resignation of AOL's Chief Technical Officer. Although not quite as serious, an ex-client of mine once published a page that had notes on it from the Sales Manager about the best way to strong-arm a customer into purchasing a higher-ticket item. Apparently the web designer didn't realize the hand-written post-it notes were not part of the web page copy. Duh! 6) Using an Insulting 404 Error Page I clash with the web design team of one of my clients on a regular basis. Earlier this year, my client completely re-designed their web site and so I recommended they ask their web design team to design a custom 404 error page in case visitors navigated to a page on the old site that no longer existed. Their web design team put up a message that read: "404 Error. You've obviously typed in the wrong URL. Either that or the page you are looking for no longer exists." That was it! No apology for the missing page, no recommendation to use the navigation to find what they were looking for, just an insulting message that accuses the visitor of being an idiot. Persons viewing that page would be clicking the "back" button as fast as they could. 5) Taking a Site Offline for Maintenance I find it fascinating that very large sites run by intelligent people still get taken offline for maintenance on a regular basis. Search engines don't understand the "Back in 15 minutes" sign and the longer the site is down, the bigger the risk. If search bots try and index a site while it is down, they will most likely assume the previously indexed pages have expired and remove them from the search index. This means that all your hard-earned rankings could be flushed down the toilet until search engines can successfully re-index your site. Surely a mirror site for maintenance periods isn't that difficult to set up? 4) Buying a Dot Biz When the Dot Com Was Available Ok, I'm putting up my hand on this one. I'm not going to reveal the domain but yes, I registered a dot biz domain back in 2000 when the dot com was actually available. The dot com version of my domain was bought by Yahoo a short time later and turned into a product site. Ack! My excuse is that, at the time, dot biz sites were rumored to be the next big thing and all companies were being urged to choose them over dot coms. Ok, I was wrong! 3) Allowing a Customer Complaint to Remain on a Site for 12 Months When I was working as a public relations consultant, I was given the responsibility of re-writing the web copy of a large real estate client. One of the areas I was asked to re-write was the welcome paragraph on the Customer Feedback page where existing customers of the estate agent chain could login and leave comments about their experience. While writing the copy, I scanned some of the customer feedback and came across an aggressive message left 12 months earlier by an obviously unhappy customer. She had used some of the most colorful language I've ever seen (and some that I hadn't) and very detailed descriptions of how she was going to take her revenge on the company for allegedly allowing a tenant to destroy her house. Nobody in charge of the web site had even noticed the comment and I still wonder how many potential customers would have been put off from using the estate agent after reading it. 2) Switching a Web Site Off for a 3 Week Christmas Vacation Yes, many moons ago, an ex-client of mine decided to take her entire web site offline (without telling me!) while she was on a 3 week vacation over Christmas. Only a month earlier, she had paid me $5,000 to optimize it for search engines. It had just achieved some impressive top 10 results and all the carefully optimized pages were attracting good traffic when she shut it down and replaced the entire site with a 1 page sign that said "closed until after Christmas". I noticed the traffic and search ranking declines in her stats and was completely flabbergasted when I found the site gone. Her response when I confronted her? "Why didn't you TELL ME this could happen?" And the dumbest web site decision I've ever witnessed? 1) Promoting a Domain Name You Don't Own: My Alma Mater, the University of Newcastle, have spent thousands of dollars on television advertising here in Australia, marketing their new site for online post-graduate coursework: GradSchool Dot Com. There's only one problem. The domain for this site is actually Gradschool.com.au. They don't even own Gradschool.com! Sadly, this glaring marketing error seems to have totally escaped them and they are happily referring to their brand as Gradschool.com on all their marketing material and throughout their .com.au domain. It's tragic to think of all the potential students typing in Gradschool.com expecting to find the University program. I see that whoever purchased Gradschool.com has slapped up some AdSense code on it so at least somebody will reap the benefits of those thousands of advertising dollars wasted by the University. Don't let any of these web site tragedies happen to you. Make sure that your site decisions aren't in the hands of dummies! About The Author Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects. http://www.searchenginecollege.com/ ************** If you would be interested in any of my articles for reprint or reference you can see the complete list at http://www.seymourproducts.com/articles/index.shtml Feel free to use any of the articles you feel are appropriate. Also, if you would like to be added to my personal mailing list for articles only, terri@seymourproducts.com ========================================== Feature Ad ========================================== Gold Canyon Candles make awesome Christmas Gifts. Call or email with your order & receive 15% off your entire order. Visit http://www.mygccandle.com/debbie to view our products! Gift Wrapping Available Email me at dhuff@seidata.com or call toll free at 877-899-8152 with your order. Sale ends midnight Tues. Dec. 11th in order to receive by Christmas. ========================================== This ‘n That - A Little Bit of Everything! ========================================== Huge archive of poetry about love and romance. http://lovepoemworld.com/ He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. * Roy L. Smith Fun Christmas games http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/christmas/games.htm This week's riddle: What Am I? It is greater than God, More evil than the devil, The poor have it, The rich need it, And if you eat it, you'll die. What am I? Answer at the end of the ezine. ========================================== Subscription Management ========================================== Subscriptions to this weekly ezine are free. To receive this newsletter: Send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@seymourproducts.com To not receive this newsletter: Send blank email to: mailto:unsubscribe@seymourproducts.com ========================================== Contact Info ========================================== Terri & Terry Seymour Publishers, Business Marketing Bulletin Owners, Seymour Products http://www.seymourproducts.com mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com ========================================== Legal Disclaimer The Business Marketing Bulletin does not make any warranties, express or implied, regarding the use of the links that we provide in our advertising. We don't guarantee the accuracy, completion, usefulness or legality of any advertisements, resources, information, products, services, income processes or programs. We disclaim any responsibility and/or all liability arising out of, or relating to, any item listed in this ezine, and/or websites. ========================================== Answer to riddle: Nothing