My 2¢ Worth

here was a printing error in the article I wrote last week on Browser-specific Style Sheets. Please view the revised version here. Many thanks to Scott C. for pointing that out.

hristmas arrives in two days, in this part of the world anyway. You may be surprised to learn that it was only in the fourth century, that the Christian churches decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus and observe the same as a holiday. While Christianity was still in its infancy, Easter used to be the main holiday for the Christian community in most parts of the world.

ddly enough, the bible has no mention of the actual birth date of Jesus Christ. According to some evidences in the bible, Jesus is supposed to have been born in spring, though this fact remains dogged with controversies. According to the historical records available, Christmas was first celebrated on January 6 according to the old Julian calendar. The day was also observed as an official Roman holiday starting from A.D. 534. The celebration of the day was switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1743. This resulted in a change of date for Christmas celebrations, which fell on December 25.

Feature Article

Come At It From A Different Direction!

by: Ken Darby The Pebble

This man was going up to bed when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed which she could see from the bedroom window. Then he looked for himself and saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, but they told him that no one was in his area to help, so he said ok, hung up, counted to 30, and phoned the police again... "Hello. I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people in my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now cause I've just shot them all!"

Within five minutes there were half a dozen police cars in the area, an Armed Response unit, the works. Of course, they caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the policeman said to this man: "I thought you said that you'd shot them!!"

He replied, "I thought you said there was nobody available!!"

In the world of internet marketing everyone makes their offers by pushing, pushing, pushing. Everywhere you look you are having information almost forced upon you.

How can you compete with that? How can you get yourself noticed? How can you get your message read and acted upon instead of others getting the sale?

In truth, of course, no one knows. Those who tell you they do are again pushing something. Even those who show you their last years band statements are revealing history and not necessarily the present.

Going back to the Big Dog days there was a time when the owners of the program were really raking in the dough, because they had everyone believing their sales message. Then it died out because there were so many selling it the internet was full of it. All the Big Dog headlines and messages were easily recognizable and people simply hit the delete button.

Why don't you try coming at your sales message and headlines from a different direction? Try being subtle, not pushy. Try showing and relying on your integrity rather than write up some hype.

The article is not telling you it will work. We are saying to you that when your headline and sales message comes at the sale a different way, then you have a much better chance of getting a sale. What we are trying to say to you is that to get noticed what you need to do is something different than the flock.

You will notice the police in the joke above responded in their normal way to a phone call that must have been a typical phone call. Yet when the homeowner tried a different direction, a different method, he got results.

You can, too. When you step outside what the flock of internet marketers are doing, you can find ways of getting your prospects attention and getting his actions to be what you want.

This different direction might be a different sales message, a different method, one or more different web sites, one or more different ezines. Any or all methods should be tried until you come across the formula that appears to work.

Remember, too, that often what works today does not work tomorrow. The internet shifts and sways like sand bars in a river. From month to month things change. Keep yourself continually looking for new methods that work. Like any company anywhere, you must keep doing things that are new if you want your company to grow. Failure in this task will often spell failure of the company.

The something new need not be dramatic. It may only be new to you. The point is that to step out from the flock and get noticed you must —

Come At It From A Different Direction!

To your continued Success —
Ken Darby.

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

Ken Darby writes articles, books and other material helping people achieve their goals. Find out if an internet business is for you. Find the facts and methods that will help you decide. Send a blank email by clicking on this link professional@rr-email.com or go to www.first-cornerstone.com

Use your own image to submit a form

To submit a form normally you would use an INPUT with type="submit". This creates a dull grey button with the word submit on it. But sometimes its nicer to jazz thing up a bit using your own image for a submit button. This can be done by using an INPUT with type="image", like this:

<input type="image" src="your-button.gif" border="0">

Here's what you get:

Notice that I've used the border="0" attribute. This prevents having that blue line around your image.

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

---

ad box #4 PrePromote: pro-active pre-promotion software PrePromote is a free, easy-to-use and effective software tool that will help prepare your website for being listed on search engines. PrePromote can: Create metatags which describe your pages to search engines. Analyze your web pages and point out possible improvements. Generate doorway pages to get higher search engine positions. PrePromote is freeware, which means you can download and use it forever without charge - no strings attached!       Download PrePromote today at: paradigmwebdesign.net/zips/prepromote.Zip

Imagine your ad above! For rates click HERE

Second Article

How To Accept Credit Cards Online

by: Jim Edwards TheNetReporter.com Online E-newsletter

Anyone with an online business, whether for auctions, services, or virtually any type of product, has asked the same question at some time during their quest to create the ultimate online business - "How do I accept credit cards?"

Since over 90% of all transactions on the Internet involve customers paying by credit card, accepting plastic money rates a must for almost any business.

The problem for most small online business owners involves the high cost of setting up and maintaining a credit card merchant account.

With startup fees ranging from $200 to $500, minimum monthly fees of at least $40 to $50, plus per transaction fees and a percentage of sales, most people who want to supplement their income online or test an idea can't risk that kind of money.

Add in credit checks, 48-month service contracts, expensive equipment purchases or leasing, financial statements, and last 3 years' tax returns and most people throw up their hands and give up before they even get started.

Fortunately several companies responded to this problem with unique solutions that enable smaller online merchants to accept credit cards at a fraction of those high startup costs with no long-term commitment, no equipment purchases, and zero minimum monthly fees.

PayPal.com

PayPal has gotten some negative press over the last couple of years, but that press has been mostly undeserved.

PayPal makes it easy for you to collect money for your online sales, send money to merchants, bill people monthly, collect dues and donations and integrate a free shopping cart into your site.

Of all the payment and money transfer services online, PayPal ranks as the absolute lowest in cost and the easiest to set up.

PayPal allows merchants to sell physical and downloadable products along with personal services.

ClickBank.com

For a $50 one-time fee ClickBank enables online ebook, software and other electronic information sellers to not only accept credit cards, but provide instant delivery of their products to online purchasers.

ClickBank allows any merchant to accept virtually every major credit card on the planet.

The online merchant simply adds a purchase link to their site, the customer clicks the link, fills in their payment information and the credit card gets authorized on the spot.

Once the card gets approved ClickBank redirects the buyer to a page that enables them to download the ebook, software, or other product they have just purchased.

ClickBank also operates a fully integrated affiliate program that automatically pays affiliates who sell your products for you.

ClickBank heavily restricts what merchants may sell through the service and does not allow the sale of physical goods.

PaySystems.com

Of the three, Paysystems behaves most like a traditional credit card merchant account.

The service allows the merchant to integrate with a number of third-party shopping carts as well as use the PaySystems shopping cart system.

Merchants pay a small transaction fee and a percentage of the sale, but don't sign up for any long-term service contracts or equipment leases.

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

Author and co-author of several highly successful ebooks, including "How to Write and Publish your own eBook... in as littl as 7 Days" www.7dayebook.com. Writes a syndicated offline Newspaper Column - www.thenetreporter.com - focusing on ebooks, tips, tricks, expert interviews, & more!

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

Download of the Week

Greenface Greenface is a challenging mix of several classic arcade games: Boulderdash, Pacman and Bomberman among others. This fun game does not contain any violence and is suited for players of all ages. A real family game. This shareware game costs US$ 19.95, but there is a free demo. Download now

---

Comments?

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

---

If you enjoyed The Web Sm@rts Newsletter, forward it to your friends, family and associates. They'll thank you for it!

---

Do you know someone who might be interested in receiving
Web Sm@rts?
Recommend us!

---

NOTE: You have received this message because you or one of your friends added your name to our list of those who may wish to receive this newsletter.

If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please point your browser to http://paradigmwebdesign.net/unsubscribe.html

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

---

This newsletter is never sent unsolicited.
To unsubscribe, point your browser to http://paradigmwebdesign.net/unsubscribe.html

Tell them Web Sm@rts referred you!

Recommended Reading

I highly recommend the following E-zines.

ThePortalToSuccessE-Zine

Interactive Marketing Ezine

Looking for free newsletters? Just visit the EzineXchange, Select the ones of interest and subscribe. It's free!
ezinexchange.com

Find other great e-mail newsletters and Ezines at the Cumuli Ezine Finder: www.cumuli.com/ezines/

Web Site and E-zine Promotion for Idiots
Get your copy from PWD and get lots of traffic to your Web Site or E- zine instantly.

Use Link Crafter to drive more traffic to your site. Free download from PWD.
lc.exe

Text Tally from
Harmony Hollow software
is a handy text counting utility. Download it free from PWD
Download now

E-Zine Advertising WORKS!
Place your ad in 100s of e-zines like this one. The E-Zine AdSource Directory is the place to find discount e-zine ad space. Come see!
ezineadsource.com

Tutorials

Elated Webdesign Tips
Javagoodies JavaScript Repository
Website Abstraction Westciv: CSS Resources