Big Resources Ezine http://www.bigresources.com Issue 3 Volume 3, Mar 29, 2001

EZINE KICKSTART

Welcome back to the Bigresources Ezine! After being MIA for 24 days we have returned with some giant news, which will hopefully explain our longer than usual gap between mailings.

If you’ve visited a site that is a part of the Bigresources.com Network in the past, you have probably noticed some changes. We are proud to unveil our new site design across the network, which is a result of our partnership with Office.com, the top-ranked online business center. Our relationship with Office.com enables us to build and strengthen our brand while providing us with a new audience for our web developer resources. In turn Office.com offers you deep, relevant news and information on nearly 150 industries as well as access to tools and resources businesspeople like yourselves need most. We encourage you to check out Office.com today. 

Does that mean Bigresources is under new management? 

In short, no. Bigresources is still owned and managed by the good folks at Big Resources, Inc. We still produce all the content that you love, and still run the Big Resources Ezine. The role of Office.com was created to mutually extend the reach and brand of all involved. It can be considered as a tight knit “partnership”. 

Jason M. DesRoches
Big Resources Ezine editor in chief
editor@bigresources.com

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

In the last ezine to reach your inboxes, I asked you guys to send in feedback about our Weekly Feature which was titled "Micro-Charging for Your Content" (which can still be found here). I asked if you thought that charging your visitors a small membership fee could help to supplement falling CPM advertising, and here's what you had to say:

David Swift of http://www.acommunity.co.uk writes:

Hi Jason,

For ages now people have got used to using the internet for getting free content. Webmasters have been able to provide this content thanks to the money the got from banner advertising. But, as you said, there has been a huge fall in the banner market, (as I know well having recently paid quite a bit of money for wasted advertising.) 
So I see no problem in charging a small price for good quality content, but most internet surfers might, after all the years of getting things for free. So, while micro charging for content may enable you to keep a site going, but it may loose you lots of traffic.

Just my $00.2,
Dave.

Jerry Norsworthy of http://penguin-colony.com adds:

I don't think many will be willing to pay for content unless:

1. It's material not available (for free) anywhere else (including.....gasp......local printed media). 
2. Every content provider on the Internet simultaneously starts charging for content. 
3. Surfers start feeling a lot more secure about the security of their credit card numbers being whisked away to the farthest reaches of the 'Net.

Great feedback guys. I think that "visitor loyalty" also plays a large role into the decisions of your audience. Fans of larger sites that have been around a while, whom frequent often, may be willing to dig into their pockets. Newer sites that are just building their audiences may not have much luck.

This week, I'd like to ask everybody about a specific advertising issue, the skyscraper (tower) ad. Still a somewhat "untraditional" form of advertising, it is beginning to catch on more and more. Standing 400 pixels high and 125 pixels wide, it covers a total of 50,000 square pixels, nearly double that of a 468x60 which covers a total of 28,080 square pixels. Additionally, the skyscraper ad is placed along side of a webpage, so it is usually still viewable while a user is looking at content. With all of these advantages over traditional banner ads, do you think that it has the ability to catch a visitors attention, and reach greater click rates? If so can it help to reverse the downward CPM trend which has been ever present throughout the past year? Tell me, What do you think?

To reply to "WHAT DO YOU THINK", write to: editor@bigresources.com.

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BIGRESOURCES.COM UPDATES
Have you seen the latest updates on our network sites? 

A1JavaScripts.com (http://www.a1javascripts.com)
In addition to implementing the same facelift given to the rest of the network sites, Ian McDonald has managed to squeeze in a new script release this week, and add the first "how to" tutorial of the site.

Time of Day Status Bar JavaScript
by Blake Birkenfeld
This status bar script displays several different messages depending upon the time of day. 

Layer Hiding and Showing Tutorial
by Mark Wray
This lesson in DHTML shows how to hide or show layers of your choosing on visitor input. Specifically, It shows how to display all layers contained in your page at once, or only one at a time.

123Webmaster.com (http://www.123webmaster.com)
123webmaster is the largest directory of free webmaster resources on the planet. This week, it got better.

Prevent Email Harvesting
by Jason M. DesRoches
Learn how spiders collect your email address, and how to prevent their harvesting. 

FresherImage.com (http://www.fresherimage.com)
This week's ezine graces us with two updates at our friendly neighborhood clipart depot and design resource.

Macromedia Flash Tutorial: Learn to make UFO Rings
by Lars Østergaard 
You have probably seen those popular rings around a logo countless times on the web, and its actually pretty easy to do with Fireworks. Learn how it's done.

Photoshop Tutorial: Making Screws
by Mike DeFelece
Learn to make realistic screw heads.

FreeWebTemplates.com (http://www.freewebtemplates.com)
FreeWebTemplates' loyal audience of graphics enthusiasts have submitted another 60 new user templates! Ranging from business, to table, to fun themed templates, this update is not to be missed!

FontFiles.com (http://www.fontfiles.com)
If you have an interest in typography, then you'll love the latest 25 fonts added to FontFiles.com. Among the points of interest in this update are: Athletic (for you sports fans), Bird Silhouettes (which should appease both animal lovers, and wingding fans), BeeBop (for all of you free spirits), and Barcode (I know one of you will find a great purpose for this one!). You can also view the rest of our latest fonts here:
http://www.fontfiles.com/Fonts/New/15-Mar-2001.html

HTMLforums.com (http://www.htmlforums.com)
Upgrade to Vbulletin 2!
To help us kick off our network relaunch, we've upgraded our community forums to the latest version of vBulletin. With the upgrade comes a slew of new features and widgets. Members of our webmaster community are now able to create polls, private message each other, put avatars (small 50x50 pictures) under their names and titles, and check their posts with a much needed spell checker! If you haven't visited our forums for a while (or if you've never been there), you're not only missing out on free help for all of your developing, promotional, and profiting needs, but you're also missing the opinions of your fellow developers. Stop by, and get in tune with the pulse of the web!

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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.

Free Domains: The End of</