My 2¢ Worth

volution. It's not just a theory. It's a fact. I'm not talking about Charles Darwin and his theory of human evolution and natural selection though. I'll leave that to the scholars.

owever, it is true that everything changes. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst. However, there is no stopping the inevitable march of time. And the changes that take place over the course of time, I call evolution.

ake this publication for example. Web Sm@rts has come a long way since its humble beginnings in April of 2000. There have been several changes both in the look and the "feel" of this E-zine. But I have never lost touch with my original goal of providing you with valuable content.

eb Sm@rts is now taking another turn in its evolutionary course. Not so much in look or "feel," but rather, in its method of delivery.

e can no longer expect dependable upon delivery of this E-zine due to all the spam filters in place. Therefore it has become necessary to change our delivery methods in an attempt to get around the spam filters.

eginning next week, you will receive an announcement message instead of the actual E-zine in your Inbox. This announcement message will say something like, "This weeks issue of Web Sm@rts is ready." And you will be provided a link to read it on the Web or to download it in a zip file to read at your convenience.

any E-zine publishers are opting for this kind of newsletter delivery, because of the large percentage of newsletters, which are not delivered to those who specifically chose to receive them. All because some well meaning programmers and ISP's have deemed that certain words in the newsletter indicate that it's actually spam. Although I applaud these efforts, sometimes the cure is worse than the problem.

pam mail has gotten so out of hand that spam filters are popping up everywhere! And now what's happening? The "real" spammers are making sure that those 'blacklisted' words are not included in their E-mails. So they get through while many legitimate E-mails and newsletters don't. How sick is that?

n some ways, this is good because I can then considerably expand our offerings each week and make this an even more valuable E-zine. I will no longer be constrained by size (in bytes) limitations. Rest assured, this does NOT mean more advertisements. It means more valuable content and possible quizzes and polls and whatever I can dream up. Perhaps more than one article per issue.

ook for the announcement message next week and be sure to read Web Sm@rts on the Web or download your copy.

Feature Article

5 Common Mistakes New E-zine Publishers Make

by: Alexandria K. Brown E-zine Queen

Everyone's finally catching onto the idea that publishing an e-mail newsletter (or "e-zine") is a super way to market their businesses. But unfortunately I still see many people making the same mistakes that could lead to losing subscribers, and worse.

To help YOU get off on the right foot, I'm listing the five most common mistakes I see new publishers make. Watch your step!

MISTAKE 1: Sending out their e-zines from their own everyday e- mail programs.

Sure, it seems easy at first, you just create a "group" in your e-mail program and start from there. But once you get over 50 subscribers, you're going to have nothing but problems. Not only will you have to manually handle all sign-ups and removals, but you may get into trouble. Most Internet service providers (ISPs) won't let you send an e-mail to more than 30 people at once. They set limits like this to help prevent spammers from using their networks.

Also, your entire list resides on your computer, so you'll have to be extra meticulous about making backups of your list - imagine instantly losing a list of hundreds or thousands of subscribers that took months to build!

Save yourself some time and headaches NOW, and sign up for a reliable online list service or purchase list management software.

MISTAKE 2. Signing up people without their permission.

Even if you're my best friend, I'll honestly be perturbed if you launch your e-zine and automatically sign me up for it. That's a big no-no on the Net, and it can get you in hot water.

If you're wondering how to get your list started, send out a one-time *invitation* to everyone you know, along with a *sample issue* of your e-zine and clear instructions on how to subscribe. That way they can *see* how great your e-zine is, and they'll realize they should definitely sign up.

MISTAKE 3. Not giving their readers useful content.

Some publishers only use their e-zines to talk about how great they are. "We won this award and hired this new person and landed this new client... blah blah blah." This gets boring and turns off readers.

Instead, focus on providing information that will be *useful and educational* to your readers. This will make them love you! (Besides, there's plenty of room to tastefully plug yourself at the end of each issue.) Aim for a ration of about 75% helpful information and 25% self promotion.

MISTAKE 4. Not promoting their own businesses.

Here's just the opposite problem: Many people serve up great content to their readers, but don't take the opportunity to toot their own horns!

While your articles and features will be softly selling your expertise, there are several other ways to reinforce the fact that *you* are whom your readers should contact when they need the services you provide. After the article, give your full contact information, and a few sentences about WHAT you can do for your readers. End it with a call to action -- tell them to call for a free consultation, visit your Web site to read clients testimonials, or write you for a free quote.

MISTAKE 5. Not publishing on a regular basis.

Publishing regularly suggests to your readers that you're organized and can meet deadlines and commitments. But I still see many e-zines published on a random schedule - one colleague of mine even brags at the top of each issue that she basically sends out her e-zine "whenever she feels like it." By doing this, she appears flaky and unprofessional.

Your e-zine should be a steady "pulse" of your business, reminding your readers about your fabulous products and services on a regular basis.

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Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is author of the award-winning manual, "Boost Business With Your Own E-zine." Learn how to write, publish, and promote an e-mail newsletter that PROMOTES YOU and attracts new clients. Learn more now and sign up for FREE tips at www.ezinequeen.com

Change an Image Daily

Here is a nice little script that will automatically change an image that is displayed on your webpage based on the day of the week. This is a great script for displaying a "special of the day", or just to give your page a fresh look each day. This is limited only by your imagination.

Be sure that you edit the names of the images inside of the following script, to match the names of the files you uploaded to your server - or vise versa.

<script language="javascript1.1"> today = new Date(); day = today.getDay(); arday = new Array("Sunday.jpg", "Monday.jpg", "Tuesday.jpg", "Wednesday.jpg", "Thursday.jpg", "Friday.jpg", "Saturday.jpg"); document.write("<img src='" + arday[day] + "'>"); </script>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insert this script on your webpage in the location that you would like the images to appear. Yep. It's that easy!

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for your web site, free. *

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Comments?

If you'd like to comment on any aspect of this publication, send an E-mail to comments@para digmwebdesign.net

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NOTICE to subscribers at WebTV and the free online e-mail services

In the event you haven't received all issues of Web Sm@ rts, you should re subscribe using a different e-mail address.

We have found problems with delivery to WebTV as well as the free online e-mail services. This is a major challenge for dependable delivery.

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FYI: Web Sm@rts will never share your E-mail address or personal information with any other party for any reason what-so-ever.

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