Dynamic Internet Marketing Newsletter

Issue - January 2001

Search Engine News Flash

+ NBCi.com has launched a new Paid Submission Service that allows web sites for inclusion into its "Top Sites Directory". Due to its "TWO-Tier" listing structure, when you do a search on NBCi.com, the results will be displayed in two parts, a listing of sites that have been reviewed will be listed on the "Top Site Directory" section on the top and any member sites will be listed on the "LiveDirectory" at the bottom. Any NBCi member can submit a site to its "LiveDirectory" set of listing, if you wish to have your web site listed in the "Top Sites Directory", NBCi is charging $199 for those who want an answer within five business days about being included in its directory. However, the price is only $99 as an introductory offer until Feb. 15. To submit a site, please go to: <http://livedirectory.nbci.com> <http://livedirectory.bnci.com/>

+ Go.com (former InfoSeek) has roll out a paid inclusion program. Its new US $199 "Premium Service" will add any URL submitted to its crawler-based results within 48 hours and revisit that URL on a weekly basis, for one year. If you wish to have your web sites listed in Go.com database quickly, please go to its Premium Service Add URL page at: <http://www.go.com/AddUrl?pg=SubmitUrl.html>.
Go's Free Add URL service is still available at: <http://addurl.go.com/dynamic/freeNewUrl>, but pages submitted via this may not get added for up to 10 weeks. To improve the odds of a free listing, a site listed in the Go Guides directory should put it on the priority list for Go's spider. Sign-up to become a Go Guide and submit your site at: <http://guides.go.com/>

+ Inktomi's paid inclusion program is another easy way to make your Web content searchable through its 125 Inktomi Search/Web partners, including AOL, iWon, MSN & HotBot. Rolled out in November 2000, it charges $20 for the first URL(or Domain), $10 for each URL with the same domain after that and offers a further discount if more than 100 URLs are submitted. Currently, this service is provided through Inktomi's strategy partner Position Technologies, Inc at <http://www.positiontech.com/inktomi/>. More information about Inktomi's Paid Inclusion program can be found at <http://www.inktomi.com/products/search/pagesubmission.html>

+ The price of LookSmart's "Basic Submit" service has been increased from $79 to $99. Basic Submit guarantees that a site will be reviewed within eight weeks for possible inclusion into the directory. The price of "Express Submit" is still $199, which guarantees a site will be reviewed within 48 hours. To Submit A Site for LookSmart, please go to <http://submit.looksmart.com/>

+ New TLDs Update: On 16 November 2000, ICANN has approved 7 new Top Level Domains (TLDs) like .com and .net, etc. They are:

.aero
.biz
.coop
.info
.museum
.name
.pro

At this stage, No company has been given authorization to register these names, the new domains are not available until the second quarter of this year. If you find a registrar who says that you can register or pre-reserve these names now, they might NOT be telling you the truth. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sent out an alert calling any registrar who tries to register names early as, "scam artists." According to ICANN, the FTC "advised consumers to protect themselves by '[a] voiding any domain name pre-registration service that asks for up-front fees, guarantees particular top-level domain names or preferential treatment in the assignment of new top-level domain names.'" For more information on this take a look at: <http://www.icann.org/tlds/> and <http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/domainalrt.htm>

How to Drive Traffic to your Website for FREE?

Many of you choose to read this article for one obvious reason. You want to increase traffic to your website? Just imagine you have a website, but nobody knows of it or visits it. This is synonymous to a shop with no visitors and is as useless. After many years of experience in the field of Internet web promotion, I have compiled some strategies you may implement to maximize your exposure on the Internet. Please ensure you implement as many of the mentioned strategies as possible to exploit the benefits of the Internet. It will cost you nothing except a couple of hours.

1. Search Engine Listing
Getting listed with search engines is by far the most crucial means of attracting visitors to your website. According to a survey conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology, 86% of all website traffic is generated through search engines. Submitting your Web site to ALL major Search Engines is the most effective way to promote your web site on the Internet. Surfers actively searching for specific information on their chosen subjects submit keywords to Search Engines in order to locate suitable Web sites to visit. There are hundreds of directories, spiders, and links out there on the Internet today. Most of them are continuously updating their databases both through active 'spidering' throughout the Web or by accepting submissions from Webmasters.

In order to drive real traffic to your web site, you need to regularly submit your Web site details to these Web directories and search engines. There are 3 ways you can register with search engines.
a) Manually submitting to search engines. This would be a very tedious task if you submit to many search engines.
b) Hire an agent to submit your website for you. You would have no control of how your website is submitted.
c) Do-It-Yourself by using a quality program that will automatically do the submission for you. For more information, please go to http://www.submission2000.com/sub2000.html

2. Newsletters
Maintaining a monthly newsletter will keep you in touch with visitors to your site and remind them to visit you again. It could also attract new visitors to your site as news spread. It will establish your credibility as an industry expert and give you a legitimate reason to contact your visitors or subscribers and remind them of you and your products.

You do not need to be an expert to produce a newsletter. If you have time, you can write your own newsletter and distribute it monthly. Alternative you can collect some of the free articles on the Internet and use it in your newsletter. A good site to collect free articles is: <http://ezinearticles.com>

3. Opt-In emailing
A valuable resource to keep would be a database of all visitors to your site and those who have enquired about your products. These are your potential customers. It is very important to keep in touch with them occasionally and remind them you exist. It takes a number of contacts before a successful sale can be executed. So keep in touch with them. Make an effort to collect as many email addresses as you can and send personalized messages to your visitors occasionally. Sending personalized emails to your visitors would be very simple with a quality emailing software. For more information go to : http://www.edynamicsoft.com/doe.html

4. Press Releases and Article Submission
Issuing a press release or submitting an article to press release or announcement sites can bring you a burst of traffic. However, you must be careful when writing press releases or articles for the press as they are very strict and will not accept articles that have promotional elements in it. Try not to use hyperbolic language in your articles and be as objective as possible. Before you submit your article or press releases, check that there are no spelling or grammatical errors as they look unprofessional. Some of the sites you can post articles or press releases include: <http://www.erspros.com> and <http://cyberjournalist.com>. Remember to visit these sites frequently and ensure your article is listed with them. If not, post it again.

5. Free Classifieds and Listing
List your website with as many directories as possible to maximize exposure and maintain a steady flow of traffic to your website. Most search engines, libraries and directories offer free listings.

6. Newsgroup Posting
Newsgroups are discussion forums where people with similar interest come together and share their ideas and learn what is new. Participating in newsgroup or posting your ads with them is a very effective form of marketing your business online as you have targeted audience who are in the right kind of mind to understand what you are talking about. However, you must be cautious when posting your ads. Make sure your product is appropriate to the topic being discussed. Do not try and Spam participates with irrelevant products. Try to avoid hyperbolic language and make your ad look like a notice and not a sales pitch.
That is all from me for this issue folks. I hope you enjoyed this article. In the next issue, I will touch on how to secure top positions on major search engines.

Does the Advent of .Sex Mean My Site Needs New Protection?

Is your domain name going to be at risk when new TLD (Top Level Domains, such as .tv, .biz and .sex) are released? Do you really need to own your name in every top level domain to protect it?
The answer is no, for those who know their rights and how to defend them. Although it may be in the best interest of registrars to collect their annual fee from you in every new TLD that is approved, that expense is unnecessary as a means to defend your name. There are now federal laws and arbitration case history that will defend you against attacks from cybersquatters, competitors, and others who attempt to steal your name in another domain. Yourwebsite.com is safe from attack by Yourwebsite.sex. But this hasn't stopped the run to pre-register new TLD. ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is calling this premature and says it should not be encouraged. New TLD are being considered, but are still going through the review process. (for an update, visit <http://www.icann.org/tlds/report/report-iiib1a-09nov00.htm>) Most likely, soon some new TLD will be approved, raising fears that existing web sites will be at increased risk from cybersquatters.
Well-informed web sites that understand cybersquatting guidelines have some pretty easy mechanisms available to them to defend their rights. They can readily assess the strength of their claim to their site name and make moves to protect it further if need be. These guidelines, developed by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), apply three tests to settle cybersquatting disputes: bad faith, confusingly similar trademarks, and illegitimate use of the domain name. The WIPO site http://wipo2.wipo.int/process1/report/finalreport.html#IV <http://wipo2.wipo.int/process1/report/finalreport.html> provides the detailed guidelines. Any site in a legitimate business that registered their name in good faith (e.g. not in order to steal some one else's brand) and has a trademark in their domain name should feel secure.
Does this mean domain name registrants should register their site's name as a trademark? Registration can help, but it's not required for protection under trademark law. To learn about the requirements for trademark protection and registration, visit redPatent at <http://www.redpatent.com/nameYourProduct.htm>. Or, if you are ready to register, you can go straight to the trademark office for an online application, <http://www.uspto.gov/teas/index.html>.
Since these cybersquatting guidelines favor trademark holders, are bad-faith trademark registrations the next stomping ground for domain name speculators. While the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) has reported a sharp rise in domain-name related trademark applications, it hasn't moved away from its stringent requirements for trademark approval.

The USPTO explains that the Internet address elements of trademarks (such as the http://www at the beginning or .com at the end) aren't significant parts of the trademark. This is because they don't have any source indicating significance according to the USPTO. Source identification is at the heart of trademark law, and without it, a term can't be protected as a trademark. This means that once you have a trademark on yourwebsite, you don't need a separate one for Yourwebsite.com and yourwebsite.sex, or any other web address. The USPTO won't require trademark holders to get new protection, nor will it grant trademark protection to someone attempting to infringe upon your mark combined with a new TLD.
But knowing the rules alone can't protect you from infringers or cybersquatters, and they won't stop other companies from accusing innocent domain name holders of infringing on them. Disputes may still arise. To settle any dispute, the owners of web sites now have on-line dispute resolution available to them. This alternative to costly legal battles now has a proven track record of resolving complaints quickly (within 45 days) and at a low cost (about $1,000). In addition, those with complaints have the added protection afforded by the Anti-cybersquatting Act in the U.S., which give additional recourse to infringed parties.You can read the whole Act at internetcourt.com (<http://www.internetcourt.com/ACPAanalysis.htm>). There is a summary of domain name disputes and examples at redPatent <http://www.redpatent.com/domainNames.htm>.

redPatent Inc. provides information, expert advice and useful tools for managing and protecting intellectual property on the Web at <http://www.redpatent.com>.

What Separates the Winners From the Losers

If you have an affiliate program, you know how important email is. Recent studies, and my own experience, have shown the dramatic impact effective, email marketing can achieve. A new term is popping up, called "Permission Marketing." It simply means you have to gain permission from people to send email to them. Most often, this is achieved with a free, no sale initial offer. More importantly, permission marketing is based on the principles of direct response marketing:

1. People rarely buy on impulse. For example, how many times have you bought the first time you heard about something? Therefore, you need to get familiar, develop trust and be able to remember who you are buying from.

2. People most often buy on 3rd or 4th contact. It is simply human nature: You have to follow up to make sales.

How does this impact affiliate marketing? First, remember that most affiliate programs are run by banners, depend heavily on impulse marketing and do little -- if anything -- to invite consumers to give you permission to market to them. A simple gift certificate, discount or free information is enough, but most affiliate networks assume that customers are so motivated and so energetic that they will return on their own.

As such, they spend all their time chasing new customers, which actually decreases sales, for you and your affiliates.

The fact is, however, that you have to remind people of who you are -- and do so quickly. Most businesses ignore this fact religiously. They should have staff dedicated to monitoring email, conducting follow ups and improving ad copy.

I've seen most companies literally ignore all email inquiries. (To this day, it amazes me -- you would answer your phone but you won't answer email!) For example, I've seen multi-million dollar companies actually hire 17 year olds (uneducated about the business) to run their email! The results are frightening.

Email, done correctly, and with an in-depth knowledge of the principles of direct response marketing, is professional and targeted. Now think hard for a second: How many 17 year olds would you trust with such an important position? Companies have found their entire lists "CC'd" to customers (i.e., every name on the list was given away to possible competitors), and spam has been introduced because the message is so poorly written, not targeted, and simply a waste of time.

It is amazing when people think that anyone can write and deliver email. Permission email marketing is as important a skill as that of a webmaster, a programmer and a customer service representative. Yet it is continually ignored because companies don't fully understand that the relationship you build with your customers is primarily done via email.

Meanwhile, the companies who treat this like an important part of their business are reaping the rewards -- Xoom.com is an excellent example of a company that built their reputation on their multi-million subscriber list.

eMarketer.com recently released a study of email (commissioned by Fortune Magazine) in 1999 that is quite stunning:

- In 1999, 3.4 trillion emails were delivered in the U.S.
- 9.4 billion messages are exchanged in America every day
- 81 million Americans use email
- 26.4 emails are sent/received daily by the average American
- People receive twice as many emails as they send, on average
- 2.1 billion emails are sent each day by American Internet users -- and, in addition, another 7.3 billion commercial email messages are sent every day.

The study notes that 107 billion pieces of first class postal mail were sent in the U.S. in 1999, as a comparison. (This is just the U.S. here, not the whole market!)

As you can see, if you are not emailing you are not in business. Case closed. From Xoom.com to small businesses following up via autoresponders, the figures are staggering.

Unfortunately when you talk about email marketing, many assume you mean spam. So they don't do it. This is your advantage, because the short-sighted nature of many online businesses is literally paving the way for domination by a few companies who build their lists through targeted, effective email.

----------------- About this IMC Contributor -----------------

Article by IMC expert contributor Declan Dunn -- for more on Declan, visit <http://activemarketplace.com/w.cgi?winning-9322>

Why reinvent the wheel -- wasting time, effort and money going at it alone -- when a bunch of highly successful webmasters and Internet marketers have SPILLED THE BEANS at a new Private Website? Learn our secrets and especially from our mistakes, and you'll have more time to actually grow your business! Click for INSTANT access: <http://www.MarketingChallenge.com/>