My 2¢ Worth

ave you noticed a reduction in the amount of spam you receive since the first of the year? That's what I thought.

resident Bush recently signed into law the Can Spam Act of 2003. This new law went into effect on January 1, 2004 and its purpose is to cut down on the rising level of unsolicited commercial e-mail. You can read the new law in its entirety at www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html

s I predicted last year, this law, along with other spam laws which recently went into effect, is doing absolutely no good what-so-ever. Instead of a decrease of spam — it's increased! I am now receiving at least double the amount of spam I used to.

he worst part though is that somebody is going to get burned by this new law. It won't be the spammers either. It will be some legitimate marketer doing her level best to survive in a changing world. She unwittingly break some new requirement and pay the ultimate price while the spammers keep right on doing as they always have.

ark my words folks. This will happen. Only you probably won't hear about it. The press will never report something like that. They'll find one case where a real spammer is penalized and tell you how wonderful the Can Spam Act is.

Feature Article

How Do You Know Your Clients Can't Pay More?

by: Marcia Yudkin

"My clients can't afford higher rates."

When more than 330 business owners and self-employed professionals checked off reasons why their income was not going through the roof, this statement was chosen more often than any other.

If you're tempted to agree that what clients can afford limits you, let me first ask: are you certain of that? You can't make a leap from what people say about this to whether or not they can find the money if sufficiently convinced that it's important.

Years ago, someone starting up a new business called me for a consultation and told me he could pay no more than such and such. It turned out that the most convenient place for our meeting was his house, which I could not help noticing had the size and glitziness of a small mansion, with a market value of at least three-quarters of a million dollars. What he named as his paltry budget reflected what he felt advice on this matter was worth, not what he had to spend. By pointing out how much getting his business onto a sound footing was worth to him and how much in wasted expenditures I could save him, I'd have been able to reshape his thinking on what it was reasonable to spend.

Another time a client launching a catchy new product wanted to know what kind of publicity services I could offer her for a couple of hundred dollars. I didn't hear from her again for quite a while, at which time she told me she'd hired a traditional PR firm, paying a retainer and fees of more than a thousand dollars a month. I'd gotten the impression that she didn't have that kind of money to invest, and I was very wrong.

At the other end of the spectrum, more than once I've been startled to learn that a client who paid relatively high rates without complaint was having trouble scraping money together for rent.

In truth, until you confidently raise your rates, it's impossible to know who will go along and who will not.

This is particularly so when you do great work and educate clients on the value they receive.

Remember too that when you raise your rates, you can lose some clients and still make higher profits overall from those you retain.

In addition, you can earn more from each customer without raising your rates by selling them additional products and services. In this situation, they're paying you more but don't feel they are.

Finally, if you're in one of those rare situations where clients truly don't have money, consider whether this is the audience you most enjoy serving or whether you think you're only worthy of working with them. In the former case, it's still often possible to find outside entities, such as corporate sponsors, to support your work.

Sometimes what feels like an absolute limit to your earnings only means you have not yet enjoyed a freewheeling, creative brainstorming session!

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

Marcia Yudkin marcia@yudkin.com is the author of the newly updated classic guide, 6 Steps to Free Publicity (Career Press), and 10 other books. As an author, marketing consultant and coach, she has spent 22 years successfully turning words into money.
By going to www.marketingformore.com/survey.htm, you can read the full results of her survey and download a free report, "Charge More & Get It," that expands on four other common self-sabotaging beliefs about money.

Make a Sound on Mouseover.

Some of our readers have been requesting a script that would generate a sound on when a visitor mouses over a link or other object on a Web page. This script should work nicely.

Place this code between your <head> tags of your html page. Change the field in red to your particular sound.

<script language="JavaScript" tyle="text/JavaScript">
<!--

var aySound = new Array();
// Below: source for sound files to be preloaded
aySound[0] = "My_Sound.wav";

// DO NOT edit below this line
document.write('')
IE =
(navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE")!=-1 && document.all)? 1:0;
NS = (navigator.appName=="Netscape" && navigator.plugins
["LiveAudio"])? 1:0;
ver4 = IE||NS? 1:0;
onload=auPreload;

function auPreload() {
if (!ver4) return;
if (NS) auEmb = new Layer(0,window);
else {
Str = "
";
document.body.insertAdjacentHTML("BeforeEnd",Str);
}
var Str = '';
for (i=0;i

Once you have the code placed on your page, you can mouse over the link and hear it in action. If you are not hearing a sound, be sure that you have placed your sound file online, and are pointing to it in the script.

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for yourweb site, free. *

Second Article

How to format your hard drive properly
(In Windows 9x)

by: Matthew Zator Computer Universe EZine

Before beginning this procedure, I stress that this is only a last resort! But if you have tried everything else, I recommend doing a full format of your hard drive making your computer like it was when you got it. And if your computer can go to the OS obtain all info about your internet dial-up or cable or network connections before continuing and back-up important data or software. So now let's begin!

Step 1: Restart your computer and insert your start-up disk into the 3 1/2" floppy drive.

Step 2: Wait until the computer starts up with the start-up disk. After it's loaded all diagnostic programs & drivers it will display a menu. Scroll down to start the computer with cd-rom support and press enter.

Step 3: Then it will display the A:/ prompt. To format your C:/ drive, type in format c:/. It will display: All data on non-removable drive will be lost! Continue?- type y and then it will begin deleting your hard drive data.

IMPORTANT! Make sure your windows c.d. isn't an upgrade!

Step 4: After it's done, it will display: Volume Label: type in an desired label for your hard drive. If none, hit enter Then insert your Windows 9x, ME,XP c.d. into the cd-rom and type in D:/ to go to the D:/ prompt.

Step 5: Type in setup, and then it will load the setup of Windows 9x or WinME, XP.

Step 6: Follow the on-screen instructions.

Step 7: Now reinstall all drivers & software by way of your backup disks or original c.d.'s.

If you don't have back-up disks, your in trouble, but most of the stuff is on original cd's except software you downloaded or got on-line or personal/important documents.

Refer to your computer documentation if you have problems installing drivers or software that came with your computer.

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

Matthew has written many articles about business and computers and has helped many people in the field of computers & online business. He strives to help people succeed in business and computers.
Subscribe to Computer Universe EZine at: compuniverse.bizhosting.com

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