In
this issue...
EZINE
KICKSTART
WHAT
DO YOU THINK?
BIGRESOURCES.COM
UPDATES
LAST
HEARD IN THE COMMUNITY
WEEKLY
FEATURE
WHY
SUBMIT?
EZINE
KICKSTART
Welcome again to the BigResources.com
Weekly Ezine. After last week's edition, my inbox was flooded with praise
and comments over the new HTML design. Unfortunately I could only fit in
a few emails into the newsletter this week, but please keep sending in
the feedback; I try to reply to just about every letter that I receive.
As you'll see in the feedback
section below, your opinions do count. I've made some changes to this
week's ezine based directly on the feedback of one of our readers.
To submit feedback about
this issue, feel free to contact me: editor@bigresources.com.
Jason M. DesRoches
Big Resources Ezine edôRï{
in chief
[TOP]
WHAT
DO YOU THINK?
Last week the Ezine kicked
off in its new HTML format, and I asked for opinions of our new layout,
I received a flood of helpful comments:
"Hi Jason
Love the Ezine, the new
look is great, but not very easy to move about. I would
recommend that bookmarks
and the like are used, eg using the bookmarks at the
start take you to the
article but not back to the start.
A section with all the
web addresses so that one could look and click here
without reading the relevant
sections.
Most important is the
navigation for busy readers
Patrick Noonan
1STEncounters.com"
Thanks Patrick,
Point taken, I considered
creating a "top of page" anchor after each segment to get back to the index,
and starting this issue it'll be done. As far as a link index without the
relevant info with it, I'm still unsure about it. I might wait and see
if others have an opinion on this.
-Jason
"Wow,
What a difference, definite
improvement for the eyes, Keep up the good work - excellent mag
Kind regards
Annie
kingsword.co.uk"
Thanks Annie,
It's hard work putting
our weekly ezine together, but at least it's appreciated!
-Jason
This week, I'd like to take
opinions on the weekly feature "Micro-Charging for Your Content". Do you
think this idea can help supplement falling advertising revenue? Are visitors
willing to pay to access quality content? What do you think?
To reply to "WHAT DO YOU
THINK", write to: editor@bigresources.com.
[TOP]
BIGRESOURCES.COM
UPDATES
Well, the past two weeks
may have gone by without a newsletter, but our website updates have been
most eventful just the same!
A1JavaScripts.com (http://www.a1javascripts.com)
Ian MacDonald has added 5
new scripts this week. Looks like we've got some unique additions that
you won't find elsewhere.
MouseOver
PopUp Script
This script by A1 will open
and close a new window by placing your mouse over a link. All window properties
can be specified in this script
Scrolling
Message of the Day
This dynamic script by A1
JavaScripts combines the "tip of the day" script and the dynamic "marquee"
script. The result is a different scrolling message each day for a month.
This script is cross browser compatible and easy to set up.
Site
Popularity Script
This script will calculate
your websites rank on the internet based on the traffic it receives.
Cross
Browser Compatible Stars
Creates colored dots that
hover around your mouse pointer. Any color can be selected for each dot
in NS browsers but in IE you are fixed to a single color.
Time
of Day Greeting
A very simple script which
welcomes you depending on the time of day. Morning, Afternoon and Evening.
123Webmaster.com (http://www.123webmaster.com)
123webmaster is the largest
directory of free webmaster resources on the planet. This week, it got
better.
Micro-Charging
For Your Content
by Jason M. DesRoches
This guide to web shortcuts
covers such acronyms as technical, business, chat room, and emoticons.
News: 3000 Links Reached!
The 123webmaster web directory has reached 3000 links again! This is the
2nd time 123webmaster has reached this milestone. After we reached 3000
links last time around, we had a massive link clean out, and removed an
entire category. Will we retain 3000 links this time around?
FreeWebTemplates.com (http://www.freewebtemplates.com)
The famous "user submitted"
category of freewebtemplates has been split up into sub categories to simplify
browsing. With over 200+ user template submissions, something had to be
done :).
FontFiles.com (http://www.fontfiles.com)
Another 25 fantastic fonts
have been added this week. Among the more interesting additions are: Ann
Stone, Animal
Tracks, Angeltos,
and Orange.
Or you can check
all the newest fonts here.
[TOP]
LAST
HEARD IN THE COMMUNITY
It can be said that this
section goes hand in hand with the one above. Taken from our community
forums, at http://www.htmlforums.com,
are some of the more interesting conversations that are taking place right
now.
Trouble
with custom 404 error page
If you've ever had trouble
setting up your 404 error page, then this thread might be for you. If you're
STILL having trouble setting up your 404 error page, then this thread is
definitely for you.
I
need Internet Connection Statistics. You tell ME!
"Just the facts". In this
thread Dr. Web collects information on the average speed of web users.
You'll find some vital statistics here for determining the average download
time of your page. Things might not be as speedy on the web as you think.
html
compressor
Pixel Monkey is at it again.
This time he's looking for an HTML Compressor that won't crash his system.
This thread turns into an all review of one particular HTML compressor,
that seems to stand up to a rigorous exam.
Not looking to join a lengthy
discussion at the moment with our active community of webmasters? Well,
it doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you (although it might),
but you might just want to stop by and get a free
review of your website anyway. Our community is always happy to help.
[TOP]
WEEKLY
FEATURE
Micro-Charging for Your
Content
by Jason M. DesRoches
It's not exactly news that
Internet ad spending has taken a hit on the nose over the past year. Many
webmasters still cling to the hope that the average banner CPMs for mass
reach banner networks will crawl out of their current rut, and at least
start hitting whole numbers again. New ad gimmicks such as pop-up pages,
and tower ads are being rolled out by these “mass reach value networks”
to help supplement revenues. Websites that once made their money solely
on CPMs are now seeking out CPC and CPA programs. It’s getting rough out
there, and it will take more than wishful thinking to turn around one’s
revenue stream. Some of these methods may indeed help to keep your revenue
afloat for some time, but how much longer can these creative new ad methods
last, before they too go the way of the banner? A more long-term method
of securing your revenue might just very well be micro-charging your visitors.
Just what is a micro-charge?
Well, basically a micro-charge is just another way of saying “charge your
visitors a very small amount of money”. If you were to charge your visitors
a small monthly fee to view your content, or supply an additional benefit
to your web site’s paying members, then they might be willing to pay a
small fee. A $1.00 monthly membership fee could go a very long way towards
supplementing your website’s banner revenue. If the average visitor to
your website views only 100 pages a month, and your website’s CPM is under
$1.00, then a $1.00 monthly access fee would earn you 10x more per visitor
then by running advertising banners.
Understandably, not everyone
is willing to pay to view a website. There are several factors that can
directly contribute to your visitor’s comfort level. Possibly they don’t
feel safe handing their credit card information to a web database, or maybe
they just don’t like the idea of paying for something that they feel should
be free. However, there are a few things that you can do to help improve
your visitor’s comfort level with purchasing a membership to your site.
1. Create a visible privacy
policy.
It is important to have
an official privacy policy for your website if you plan on charging for
a membership. A privacy policy will inform your visitors of your billing
practices, and what happens to the information that they submit to you.
Be sure that your privacy policy is always viewable, especially on the
page of purchase. If you do not already have one, you can create one for
free at: http://www.truste.org/wizard/
2. Own a domain name.
If you are attempting to
sell a product or service on the web, and you’re still operating from a
free server without a domain name, your chances of success are low. Domain
names can be purchased for as low as $10 per year and are an absolute must
for survival. It’s true that it is much more difficult to find a good domain
name then it was a few years ago, however a slew of tools have been released
that aid in creating unique name combinations. You can find several of
these domain generators at: http://www.123webmaster.com/Online_Tools/Domain_Lookups/
3. Maintain a professional
appearance.
Ok, this should be obvious.
If your font faces are all over the place, your site takes a very long
time to load, or if any part of your page just looks sloppy, it will be
hard to win your visitor’s trust, and to gain a purchase, there must absolutely
be trust. If you don’t have the budget to hire a professional designer,
you might want to look into the free template scene. Bigresources.com’s
own Freewebtemplates offers a variety of free business templates that needs
only your content to complete it. You can check out the business category
of Freewebtemplates at: http://freewebtemplates.com/templates/business/
4. Have content worth buying.
Once all of the above is
achieved, you need to give your visitors a reason to want to buy a membership.
If you are offering information that can basically be found just about
anywhere else, your visitors probably won’t buy from you. You’re going
to need a large collection of unique information, which will need to be
updated frequently (why would your visitors pay monthly for information
that never changes?) It’s always a good idea to offer some of your content
for free as an appetite wetter, and also to give your non-members a reason
to come back a few times, and give them the opportunity to become comfortable
and familiar enough with your site to want more.
We’ve now discussed why you
would want to micro-charge your visitors, and how to get them interested,
but one important thing remains, how do you process your visitor’s charges?
One solution would be to open up a merchant account, and coordinate billing
with your bank. However this solution obviously isn’t for everyone. For
those of you that want a simpler solution, you might want to look at http://www.webcredit.com,
http://www.paypal.com, http://www.ccbill.com, or check out http://www.123webmaster.com/Commerce_Center/Online_Billing/
for more billing providers.
A sharp decline in banner
CPMs has been felt by a large number of Internet companies, and many of
the former “big spenders” have gone belly up. While you’re free to take
your chances on the recovery of banner CPMs, or try to look for new opportunities
such as pop-up advertisements, tower ads, and affiliate programs, I would
strongly suggest evaluating your site’s content and ask yourself
“is this something my visitors would pay a small monthly fee to access”?
If you find the answer to be a resounding yes, you should then ask yourself
“how much more of my page should I sacrifice to flashy ads if my visitors
are willing to pay”?
[TOP]
WHY
SUBMIT?
Why should you submit original
content for us to publish? Check out what Corbbmacc O'Connor from http://www.justforwebmasters.com
had to say about it, after submitting an article to us for publishment:
"You recently featured my
article in The BIG Resources Newsletter. The article was called How to
Build a Database-Driven Site Using SSI. I would like to thank you very
much for doing this. I have received subscribers to my newsletter and have
received a lot of hits to my web site. Thanks again!"
Get in on the great exposure
we offer, submit your work to us! We're looking for original articles,
tutorials, and product review submissions to be featured in both our Ezine,
and on http://www.123webmaster.com.
If you feel that you are a talented web writer, and are knowledgeable with
website promotion, webmaster tools, graphic design, webmaster tips, or
web scripting (any language) then please send your article submissions
to editor@bigresources.com.
All approved articles will
be published with full credit to their author (including a link, email
address, and any other information that you would like included), and will
be read by over 65,000 webmasters. Submit today, and get published!
We are now also looking for
graphic tip submissions for FresherImage.com, read the criteria for graphic
tip submission here: http://fresherimage.com/Tips/Submit/.
[TOP]
Questions about this issue?
contact the editor at: editor@bigresources.com
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