My 2¢ Worth

o you offer an iron-clad guarantee with your product or service? If not, you may want to rethink your business strategy. Here's why.

ast week I purchased new spark plugs for my car. It ran like crap ever since I replaced the old plugs. The engine missed and would stall at stop lights, it was terrible.

ell I had a mechanic check it out yesterday. It took several hours, but he finally discovered the my new set of plugs were defective. Of course I had long since parted with my receipt, but I took the plugs back to the parts store anyway. They replaced them free of charge, no questions asked.

e have 4 parts stores in town and I've never been particularly fussy where I bought my parts before. An auto part is an auto part was my thinking. I've now had a change of heart. There's only one parts store for me now. All thanks to an iron-clad guarantee.

Feature Article

Starting A Successful NET PLAN

by: Harry Sturhahn WEB-MASTER-CENTER

So you have decided to start your dot com business. In this article I am going to help you put together a brief NET PLAN.

Take the time for your NET PLAN you don't have to right a short novel, just a few key points. Set aside some time with a note pad in a quiet place away from your computer and start thinking about the following points and start writing them down.

Once completed you will find that you have a very clear idea of what you want your new venture to become.

Your NET PLAN is also your call to action. It will guide you and keep you on track during your online business venture. Most of all have fun, enjoy what you do and you will always succeed.

Step #1: Decide on your product, service or program. Sounds simple enough? Here are some things to help you make your choice. Then write your choice down.

Don't write down things you would like to do. Try not to build your NET PLAN from a wish list, it won't work.

If you don't have any special interests or lack basic html skills, you can always look at an affiliate or referral program to get you started. Just find a product or service that you can really get into.

Now get clear about what it is you want to do! Write it down. This is a very important principle. Once you see our goal and vision on paper your subconscious mind will go to work, with out any effort on your part the ideas will start to flow and you will have a product or service in place in no time.

Step #2: Surf the web, subscribe to forums or newsgroups that feature the topics, products or services you are interested in. Go to any search engine and just enter forums+the topic or subscribe to newsgroups using your email client package.

It has been my experience that newsgroups are already saturated with people trying to push their products and services. Many of them send the same message or a variation of the same one. Find out what they are talking about. Find out what they like or don't like. Talk with them learn and share your experience. Just become involved!

Start a journal or open a notepad on your desktop. You are now going to gather data and information about your interest. Collect links and make notes. This will become part of your NET PLAN.

If you have found some affiliate programs, bookmark the links to the affiliate join page for future reference.

Compile your notes. Put these into action steps that you can use to get your product, service or affiliate program online. Some examples may be: Create a page feature A&B product... with links to this affiliate program, or create simple web site 2 pages, using a great sales letter.

I know from experience that once you start, you might get taken in many different directions. You might just see another item or thing that you can incorporate into your package. Make a note of this and you can always add it later. Resist the urge for perfection it will really slow you down.

Now that you have your action steps and information, is there anything you need to learn. Surf the web! Make it your objective to learn all you can about that topic. Remember have fun, love what you do and take time for yourself. There is no rush you have more time than you think.

**************

Harry Sturhahn is owner of Web-master-center.com , and writes weekly reports to webmasters featuring articles on web marketing.

Status Bar Messages

Have you ever noticed the status bar on your browser? You know, the strip at the bottom of the window that shows you the status of current document transfers and connections to remote sites. Did you know you can code a message to appear in that box in place of the default on mousing over hyperlinks? This is very easy to do and can entice the user to click if the right message is used. Here's how it all works:

<a href=" home.html" onMouseOver="self.status='Go Home!' ; return true;">Home</a>

<a href=" page2.html" onMouseOver="self.status='Go to Page 2' ; return true;">Home </a>

Notice the JavaScript I've included within the anchor tag. This defines the message and targets the URL in question. You can have as many of these as you have links on your page! Custimize the fields in red to reflect your own links and status bar message.

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

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Imagine your ad above! For rates click HERE

Second Article

10 CD Burning Tips For the Computer-Savvy

by: Mark Goggin CD Sleeves.com

1. The #1 thing you never want to do is put a CD-R or CD-RW in direct sunlight. Unlike CD-ROMs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs are light sensitive. In some tests, CD-Rs left out in the sun for as little as 2 hours, were completely erased of the music, data and photo files on the CD-Rs. This is especially important if you listen to CDs in your car. Putting a CD-R on the dashboard in the summertime, or in the direct sunlight can quickly destroy a CD.



2. If you are going to burn a CD that you want to last for years, you need to use an archival quality CD. If you only have a short-term use in mind for the CDs you are burning, almost any CD you buy that works with your computer will be fine.



3. In labeling a CD for a short-term use, almost anything will suffice. Paper labels are fine; but at times, a bit tricky to apply. If the paper labels are not applied perfectly, they can unbalance the CD, delaminate the CD, or even damage the CD Reader. However, if you want a CD to endure for years, your choices are more limited. The most cost-effective option is to use a CD Marker. There are several of these out on the market, and their inks have been specifically formulated for CD use. Markers with alcohol in their formula are not recommended, such as a permanent marker or even a ballpoint pen.



4. When you burn a CD-R or CD-RW, always do a quality check to make sure it contains all the information you wanted burned onto the CD. Never assume that your CD Burner will always burn properly.



5. Short-term storage of CD-Rs and CD-RWs is very forgiving; vinyl and paper sleeves are fine to use. For the long-term use, the only storage options I recommend are the Tyvek sleeves and Jewel Cases. Only these two media will be benign and chemically inert over time. Jewel cases are especially recommended because they protect against accidentally dropping as CD or something being dropped on a CD, which let’s face it, happened to us all.



6. When mailing CDs, you need to be aware that the U.S. Post Office can easily damage CDs. With the new regulations as of July 2002, the U.S. Post Office now imposes a surcharge on all CDs. One possible way around this is to mail one or two CDs at time. Hand addressing mailers containing CDs is also likely to get them processed so that they are not sent through the OCR sorting machines where most of the damage happens. But, if you are sending a large number of CDs or you simply want to be sure that nothing happens to your CDs, you have to use a stiff cardboard mailer. These cost more than ordinary envelopes, but they do get the job done. I have a customer who mails religious CDs to 143 countries using one of my very rigid mailers, and as a result they all get through to his customers intact.



7. Catalog your CDs as you burn them. By cataloging your CDs, you will know: when you burned your CDs, what was on your CDs, what program you used to burn your CDs, and anything else that will make your CDs easy to retrieve. It doesn’t take long to have so many CDs burned that you lose track of what’s what-trust me. That’s why we offer a number of CD Freeware and Shareware cataloging programs as part of a book we‘ve put together, that is available for download on our website.



8. Always update any CD you’ve burned when you install a new version of any program you used to first create the CD. It doesn’t take long for a program "migrate" to the point where you cannot open a CD you burned with an earlier version.



9. Be sensitive to the environment in which you store CDs. I had a customer from Boston write me when I was creating my book on CD handling and storage. He said he’d burned some music onto CDs and brought them onto his boat. Within something like 6 weeks the sea air had delaminated the CD. This could have been the fault of the CD brand he was using, however it points out the general principle that in order to keep data, music and photos files on CDs that you burn, you have to be aware that they should be stored in a reasonably stable environment, which includes a stable temperature and stable humidity levels. Extreme vibration is also recommended against.



10. Finally, be aware of the human error" factor. Human error can constitute for a high percentage of mistakes made when burning CDs. Be sure to always have a backup CD if the data on the CD is important. Also be sure to keep a copy of the original program used to create the CD.

**************

www.CDSleeves.com
Mark Goggin is the owner of CDSleeves.com. Mark has been in business for over 28 years, 5 of which have been with CDSleeves.com. Mark is an expert in the area of storage, archival and burning of CDs. Because of his expertise, Mark has written articles for publications such as Target Magazine, Studio Photography & Design, Rangefinder, REPRO Report, amongst others. Mark loves to speak to those wanting more information on his articles at the following number: (818) 865-7942.

**************

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