My 2¢ Worth

here are a couple of terms being used interchangeably by laymen and professionals alike. The terms "Web design" and "Web development." What's the difference?

Web designer is similar to a graphic designer. In fact, many graphic designers are Web designers and vice versa. Sometimes the term Web designer is used to describe a Web developer, but really a Web designer focuses on the user interface. They are responsible for layout, color palettes, and sometimes usability. A Web developer, on the other hand, is responsible for programming the functionality of a Web site.

any larger firms hire both designers and developers. Sometime great arguments arise between the two camps as to which is more important; functionality or visually appealing.

eing, for the most part, a one-man operation, I get to do both types of jobs and more. This is a good thing. You can no more have a successful Web site without applications which work as expected than a site which looks like a 5-year-old's view of the world.

'm probably more design oriented myself. That's where I find my greatest strengths lie. Sometimes I have opportunity to work with others whose strengths lean more toward development.

hen searching for a designer for your site, you must determine your needs and find I design firm which can incorporate those needs into your site.

Feature Article

How to Build a Responsive List

by: Linda Offenheiser Stress-Free Copy

Everything you read concerning Internet Marketing tells you that you must have a list to succeed. That's true but it doesn't go far enough! If no one pays any attention to what you have to say, your list is worthless.

Here are some tips on how to get the response you want from your list:

Give Your Subscribers Time and Reason to Trust You.

Most marketers are too impatient. They think that just because someone has agreed to receive their ezine, emails, etc. they are going to run right out and buy everything they recommend. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It takes time to build rapport with those on your list. You have to let them get to know you; learn what makes you tick. Here are few ways you can do that:

If you have an ezine or newsletter that contains nothing but ads, with maybe an article thrown in here and there for good measure, you aren't going to build anything but disinterest. Tell your readers about you! Let them into your life. Let them know what's important to you; what your thoughts are. Just relate to them like a real person.

You have to prove to them that you aren't just focused on the almighty buck. You have to show them week after week that you want to help them succeed. Give them ideas and tips that will help them along the path to that success.

Don't Throw Every Product That Comes Along at Them.

If you want your subscribers to trust you, you have to be very careful what you recommend to them. Make sure it's a quality program or product before you endorse it. That means you have to have personal experience with it. How can you honestly recommend anything that you've never used or been a part of?

If you're selective with your recommendations, eventually your list will trust what you say and at least check out your recommendations. If the product or service is something they can benefit from you'll have a new customer or affiliate.

If you always make the best interests of your subscribers your first priority they will come to realize that. Remember, if you want a responsive list you have to provide solutions to their problems. The only way you will ever succeed is to help them succeed.

Don't Bombard Them!

How many ezines or lists have you subscribed to where you receive multiple emails everyday? How long does it take you to click on the "unsubscribe" link? No one wants to feel that s/he's being hounded.

Most people understand that we all have to earn money and they will be receptive to the occasional extra mailing. However, if you abuse that understanding you'll find the size of your list decreasing rapidly.

Sure, if there's something exciting that you feel will really benefit your readers, by all means let them know about it. But . . . we all know this doesn't happen every day. The more "exciting" announcements you send, the less your subs will respond. Finally, horror of horrors . . . they'll just stop paying any attention to your emails at all.

Finally, Follow the "Golden Rule" . . .

Treat your subscribers the same way you want to be treated. Respect their time and intelligence. Let them know you're there to help them and, when they ask for that help, always go the extra mile to provide it. The Internet may be a gigantic network but in many respects it's a small, interwoven community. If we help one another, we all succeed.

"You will get everything in life that you want if you just help enough other people get what they want." - Zig Ziglar

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Linda Offenheiser is the owner of Stress-Free Copy, a copywriting and editing service designed for small home businesses. You'll find the write words at the right prices. She also publishes a weekly free ezine, All the Write Stuff!, that's informative, friendly and fun! You can visit her at www.stress-freecopy.com
Or subscribe at www.stress-freecopy.com/subscribe.htm

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 yourweb site, free. *

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Second Article

Advertising - What is Your Best Option?

by: Monica Woolrich

Need to sell something? The answer is in the advertising; the collective word given to attract public attention to an item, product or service for sale. Advertising can be undertaken via many different medians. You can advertise in newspapers, on radio and on television. You can even advertise on the World Wide Web. The sky is the limit with advertising!

Advertising can be seen on everything from telephone poles to billboards to buses. With so many advertising opportunities available, it pays to research the appropriate type of advertising required before you start advertising your item, product or service especially if the end result needs to be a sale.

Advertising can be walking and talking. How many times have you seen products just walk out the door from word of mouth advertising? Advertising does not need to be expensive, however it needs to fit the purpose and audience for which it is intended. For example, if you are selling a piece of used furniture, your most obvious choices would be to seek advertising in the newspaper classifieds or on the community notice board to gain the attention of the general public. Should you want to sell some high value new products, an advertising campaign would need to be devised in order to target the appropriate audience.

How about advertising on the World Wide Web? Performing a search via a search engine will produce multiple listings of free online classified sites. While all sites may promote free advertising, it still pays to look around the web for the most useful advertising.

Perhaps you might like to consider online auction sites where you pay a small percentage for the advertising of your items and people from all over the world can bid for your goods. If you choose an online auction site for advertising the opportunities are limitless!

Keep in mind that it does not just stop at advertising. A successful advertising campaign is only one part of the sale of your item. Having a viable item, product or service available is the first key to success with advertising there to spark the initial interest. You need to make sure you can also back your item, product or service with exceptional service back end sales. Happy selling!

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Download of the Week

It is important to have a good zip ultility to unzip all your other downloads. WinZip is one of the best ultilities for this purpose. You can even use it to zip your own files. WinZip includes built-in support for popular Internet file formats such as TAR, ZIP, UUencode, XXencode, BinHex, MIME, and Unix-compressed files. WinZip 8.1 SR-1

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Recommended Reading

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Interactive Marketing Ezine

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