CHECK OUT BOBBY!

We all know that web browsers from rival software producers how pages a little differently to each other.

Sometimes a page optimised for Netscape looks terrible in
Internet Explorer and Mosaic. Now it wouldn't be too bad for designers if there were these 3 browsers around- you could probably keep each on your hard drive and keep fiddling with your page until it looks great in each of them.

But there are lots of different browsers around. So how do you know what people are seeing when they call up your web page?

To ensure your creation performs well on all kinds of browsers, you need to know whether it meets HTML standards.

Enter BOBBY, a free service that examines a web page and
shows deviations from accepted standards that could cause
problems on different browsers.

Go to the Bobby site at http://www.cast.org/bobby/
select the web page you want to examine and the browser that you want to be tested against, and press the SUBMIT button. Bobby returns a version of the web page with annotations indicating any problems.

ADD THE RESOURCES OF 130
NEWSPAPERS TO YOUR WEB SITE.

Now you can add the resources of over 130 of America's
newspapers to your web site - free!

The NewsWorks network (http://www.newsworks.com) is
an alliance of over 130 of the country's (USA's) best-known
newspaper web sites. NewsWorks offers its visitors the ability to search for news across the entire network of sites.

That means visitors who search for news stories get results
from more than 25,000 qualified, accredited journalists from
America's best publications.

If you run or are involved with a site where your visitors are
eager for information - on any topic, ranging from sports to
technology to business - NewsWorks encourages you to add the collective content of their network to your site. You can utilise NewsWorks powerful search engine in two ways:

1) NewsWorks Search

Install the NewsWorks search bar on your site. Your visitors can enter any search terms they wish, and will get back complete newspaper articles on those topics of interest. Just go to the following web page,

http://www.newsworks.com/NewsWorks/static/addsearch/
addsearch.htm

copy and paste the html listed there into your site, and
you're in business.

2) NewsWorks Smarttags

Smarttags allow your users to quickly get more information
on any particular items, topic or story that YOU specify.
When a user clicks on a Smarttag, he or she will receive a
list of articles from over 130 newspapers about that topic,
and can access the corresponding article from the newspaper site.

For example, if a home-office site wanted to allow its visitors to access all articles on teleworking, all the webmaster needs to do is add a line of copy to the appropriate page, such as "For articles on teleworking from over 130 newspapers, click here", and hardcode the keyword search terms for the subject into the link that "click here" (or whatever language you use) sends people to.

Just use the following URL as an example:

http://search.newsworks.com/addquery.html
?qt=keyword+keyword+keyword .

and substitute your search terms for "keyword". For
example, the link in the example above would be:

http://search.newsworks.com/addquery.html?qt=teleworking

For more detailed information on adding Smarttags, go to:

http://www.NewsWorks.com/NewsWorks/static/smarttags/
smart.htm

You can see another example of a Smarttag at work at

http://www.NewsWorks.com/NewsWorks/static/
smarttags/smartexample.htm

Using META Tags.

It is very important to insert META tags into all of your
web pages since some of the more popular search engines rely on these tags. (AltaVista and Infoseek to name a couple.)

The META tags you use tell the search engines two things...

1) The description of your web page(s).
2) The keywords relevant to your page(s).

If you know html, you probably know how to use meta tags. However if you're using one of the many web authoring software programs now on the market, inserting META tags can be tricky.

As a Microsoft Frontpage user, I fall into that category.
Therefore I'll use my own experience as an example.

The newest version of FrontPage lets me edit html code from inside the program. No problem. However the previous version and many other web authoring programs do not offer this option. Here's how I accomplished the feat.

Using Windows Notepad, I opened up each .htm file in my Web and inserted the following lines of text between "<head>"and "</head>".

<meta name="description" content="My Page Title">
<meta name="keywords" content="my keywords">

Naturally, you'll be replacing "My Page Title" with "your page title" and "my keywords" with " your keywords" relevant to your pages. Leave the rest of the text as is.

If you haven't done this on your web page(s) I suggest you do it today. There's no doubt you'll receive better ranking in the search engines that use META Tags to index pages.
This tip courtesy of JDD Publishing, Home of "The BizWeb E-Gazette!"
For a free lifetime subscription, Mailto:Subscribe@JDD-Publishing.com
For free information on low cost, effective internet marketing, send
Mailto:infoFree@infoback.net or visit http://www.bizweb2000.com
This is just one of the hundreds of tips from Insider Internet Marketing, the best book on marketing your online business. Read more about it here

LEARN DYNAMIC HTML RIGHT NOW
OR BE LEFT BEHIND!

Dynamic HTML is the latest Internet buzz word - and with
good reason. Used intelligently it's going to help
transform your online store into a shopping experience.
You'll move from a static display of individually loaded
pages to a screen filled with a winning sales
presentation.

How good is it going to be? Think of the very best
animated GIF banner ads you've seen. Now imagine them
filling the whole screen but loading much faster. Think
of those quick-cut music vids. Dynamic HTML is going to
be a whole new visual experience - and if you get your
act together you can use it as a selling tool, leading
your visitors along to your order form rather than
waiting for them tho click their way there.

The bad news is that Dynamic HTML only works with the
latest browsers, IE4 and Netscape 4. They also both
render the pages slightly differently, but both have
promised to abide by the decision of the World Wide
Web Consortium, which is currently deciding a standard.

So what exactly will you see with Dynamic HTML?

1. More interactive sites with faster loading pages
and changing information.

2. Drag and drop elements on the page, or click on
an object and the response will be immediate - you
won't have to wait for information to download from the
server.

3. More animation. Developers will be able to hide and
show text and move it rapidly around the page so that
text animations appear lightening fast.

4. Like a slide show presentation pages can be made
to dissolve away from the screen, instead of the screen
simply clearing. Or you can do things like make a
graphic or text slide into position from off the edge
of the screen. If you're familiar with Microsoft
PowerPoint, you'll know the kinds of animations I'm
writing about. The effects in Dynamic HTML are very
similar.

To find out more, and see Dynamic HTML in action
look at these sites:

1. Netscape-Webmonkey Dynamic HTML Contest Winners at
http://developer.netscape.com/devcon/jun97/contest/
contest.html

2. Netscape Dynamic HTML Resources:
http://developer.netscape.com/library/documentation/
htmiguid/dynamic_resources.html

3. Macromedia's Dynamic HTML Zone:
http://www.dhtmizone.com/

4. WebCoder.com - Your Home for Javascript and Dynamic
HTML on the Web:
http://www.webcoder.com/howto/

5. SBN Dynamic HTML Gallery:
http://www.microsoft.com/gallery/files/html/default.htm

(newsletter editors please note: if you'd like to use this
piece on Dynamic HTML in your publication please ask me)

10 REASONS TO USE NETMAILER FOR YOUR
ONLINE BUSINESS
by Phil Wiley

When I started this newsletter I planned on using Microsoft
Outlook 97 to mail it out to you all.

But it's not worked out that way. With the flood of new
subscribers each week it is too time consuming to type
each e-mail address into the Outlook contact list. Adding a
new contact into Outlook is not as quick and easy as it
should be.

I was hoping to use a combination of Outlook and Word's
Mail-merging function to send out personalized email.
The same way I use Word to send printed product
information. But can you believe that Office 97 didn't think that far ahead? You simply can't do mail merge e-mail.

There are several programs, however, which do allow
e-mail merging. Two of them are:

Arial Software's Campaign
http://www.arialsoftware.com/products/CTour1.htm
and
Alpha Software's NetMailer
http://www.alphasoftware.com/netmailer/

Using these programs you can design an e-mail campaign
with a series of timed messages personalized with your
customer's or prospect's name, address, etc.

Netmailer's the one I've chosen to use. But I've got to be
honest here and tell you that's because they sent it to me
for free so that I'd write about it in my newspaper
columns. I've never even seen Arial Software's Campaign.
Though I've heard that it's a good product.

So here's what I know about Netmailer, and why I think it
could be beneficial to you.

1. It lets you send personalized email messages to your list
of contacts. You might have got a 100 or 10,000 email
addresses on your list. Netmailer allows you to send the
same email to all of them, (or to just a few of them) but
personalized with their name (or other details) eg:

Dear Bob,
I'd like to tell you about our latest offer...

(Always assuming you've got people's names that is. Many
of you have not given me a first name, so I can't personalize my messages in this way. Then again, if you do get one with your name on you know that it's only been sent to you and
not to hundreds of people).

2. Your messages won't have long, revealing "To:" and
"CC:" lists. You just type your message, choose from one
of your lists and press the Netmailer button. It's as easy as that.

3. You can maintain as many databases of e-mail addresses
as you want, and each database can have multiple list
selections. you can perform queries to choose which
contacts receive which message. In other words you can
send your message to just a selection of people on your list, depending on if they meet the criteria of your offer.
For example you might only want to send your offer to women.
Or only to people in a certain state or country, or just to people who advertise on your web site or in your newsletter.

4. Netmailer keeps a log of each message you send.

5. If you've already got a database of email addresses don't worry. Netmailer can import your data from other e-mail programs, contact managers, or databases. It can also
verify the addresses, and automatically find incomplete
addresses.

6. You can send attachments, or/and use any text file as
the body of your message.

7. You can add a custom signature.

8. If you haven't already got a contact manager, Netmailer
can be used as one. Not only is it a powerful email list
management program, it's also a database which can hold
a lot of information about each contact, such as: name, address, phone numbers, URL, and other fields that you
can define to meet your needs.
So it gives you the power and flexibility of a contact
manager, and an electronic mail merge program in one.

9. You can keep different lists. eg: likely advertisers, people who have bought from you in the past, subscribers,
people who have enquired but not subscribed or ordered.
Whatever you choose.

10. It's perfect to use as a sales tool. What happened in the Old World? You got an inquiry by mail or phone.
You would write a sales letter, send a brochure, follow
up, follow up again. Make a sales call, etc.
Well, Netmailer allows you to do all this by email. It's the
ideal program for helping you use email as your sales tool.

However there is a BIG snag.

It takes forever to mail out a message the size of this
newsletter. This is because each message is sent individually. It's a file of around 30,000k. Imagine the time it takes to send 700 or a 1000 of those.
When my subscriber base reaches more than perhaps 1500
or 2000 I'll have to stop using it to send the newsletter. It
will simply take too long and cost me too much.

But I believe that I will still keep using Netmailer for a long time to come for shorter messages.

At US$49.95 it's a steal.

Ok, I got this program for free, but that doesn't mean I
have to tell you to buy it. There are computer writers around who praise every program they write about. I'm not one of them.

No, that's wrong. Come to think about it I usually do praise
them. What happens is that if I think a program is not up to scratch, or there is something much better around for the same kind of price, I won't even write about it. The program gets wiped off my machine and I give it away or throw it in
the bin. Computer CD's or useless programs make
fascinating spinning, glittering mobiles to hang over babies beds.
(c) Phil Wiley 1997

BEWARE OF PUBLISHER 97
WHEN BUILDING WEB SITES

It took me a long time to get this web site up and running. Why?
Because I had a big problem with it.

You see, when I was putting together my site I took the easy option to save time. I decided on no HTML coding by using the WYSIWYG style of Microsoft Publisher 97. I even used one of the built in wizards to do half the work for me.

But with the site nearly finished I became very unhappy.
Several problems  emerged.
Using Publisher I converted the pages to HTML to post 150 pages or so to my ISP as a test to see how it looked on the web.
And I found that my, mainly text filled pages, panned out
to a whopping 6 megabytes when they shouldn't have even taken up half a meg of space.

Searching for the problem I discovered that the graphics
on each page were saved over and over again. For example
my banner/logo at the top of each page was saved as 150
separate images. Each page had 4 vertical lines in the design grid I'd placed on the page, and they were saved as 600 images.

The other problems were that the pages look really good
in Publisher, but when placed on the web they look terrible
in Netscape. As expected they look ok in Microsoft
Publisher.
But as a bigger percentage of people still use Netscape
it's yet another problem.

Making sure that your pages look fine in both these
programs is something you have to think seriously about
when you're putting together a business page. So it pays to have both browsers on your machine.

And another warning. Although most of us use SVGA monitors, make certain that you design your pages for VGA 640x480 resolution. Remember that your web page will be
up for viewing world-wide, and in countries where they're
still using older monitors your pages developed at the higher resolution will be too big for their screens. Also lots of
people using 14-inch monitors set their screens to 640x480 because everything looks larger. In fact I personally don't know one person with a 14-inch monitor who sets it to 800x600. Except me. All my friends have bad eyesight I guess.

I think I'm going to have to start my web site again. Right from the beginning, using HTML.

I'll keep all the information, I like the content, but the design just doesn't cut it. I'm not really knocking Publisher. It's a great program, and if I'd stuck to what the wizard offered
me I reckon it would have been ok. But I like to fiddle, and that's what I did.

My graphics have ended up too chunky and garish. And
the layout of my text columns isn't too hot. My daughter
did a home page in less than an hour using one of the Publisher wizards, and her web page is fine. So perhaps
it's just me. Lacking in design skills.

So once again... I'm not knocking Microsoft Publisher 97 here. In fact I can't see why anyone would want to buy something like Quark for eight or nine times the money,
when Publisher does much the same job. It's terrific for
flyers, postcards, greetings cards and newsletters. In fact
it's terrific at everything except producing huge web sites
(it's fine for small ones) and when you view the results in Netscape. Could there be a reason for that I wonder?

ADD A SEARCH ENGINE
TO YOUR OWN COMPUTER

I enjoy reading online newsletters and zines.
I subscribe to too many of them, On busy weeks I've got
too much to read. But I've installed Alta Vista Personal
Search engine on my computer. It's just like the online
version, so when I want to know about anything I just fire
it up and it pulls the exact info I'm after from all the
newsletters, or other information, stockpiled on my hard
drive. I think everyone should have this software on their
Machine. You can download the latest release
AltaVista Search Personal eXtension 97 from
http://palomar.altavista-software.com/VcDownload/
VcPromo1CouponRequest.asp
It costs around $25 and is well worth it if you've got plenty
of spare hard drive space. It works by indexing every word
on your drive, so it can build up a pretty big index.
But when it comes to searching your computer, for info
you know you have somewhere, (even a word or two
buried deep in your e-mail files) nothing beats it. This
program is a winner. Make use of it.

GUARD AGAINST INTERNET NASTIES
by Phil Wiley

A guard dog is patrolling my computer to keep it safe from
intruders. If there's trouble he'll start some pretty savage
barking - and the good thing is I don't even have to pat him
on the head or feed him a tasty reward when he grabs the crims.

You see my canine friend is a new software program called
Guard Dog Deluxe. And he's just as impressive as Doctor
Who's trusty sidekick K9.

Once I'd introduced my new pal into his new home, he had a
good sniff around to check that all was okay, and then he
went straight to work doing the job he's been trained for
- protecting my computer and my privacy from outside attack.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that he's just another old
virus buster. Destroying viruses is just a small part of Guard
Dog's job.

He's been trained to stop his owners being attacked over
the Internet - guarding against viruses, and hostile Active
X controls and Java Applets, which can delete your data files,
corrupt your hard drives, or steal sensitive information.

Something else he does well is put a blocker on all those
unwanted "cookies" which web sites can use to monitor your
browsing habits.

Guard Dog Deluxe comes from the kennels of CyberMedia, and because total protection doesn't come cheap, he has a
recommended price of $89.95 (in Australia) which
includes a year of free updates over the web.

Guard Dog works in the background monitoring individual
Internet sessions for potentially harmful threats, and
notifies you of any attack or intrusion by barking. But even if
you're not attacked he's still hard at work building a personal
"firewall" around your Internet activities, by protecting
your passwords and other sensitive files like your financial
records, so that they can't be accessed by unauthorised
programs.

Mind you, he's not perfect. Far from it. He kept my up half
the night when he first arrived by refusing to let me log
onto the net. Every time I tried to use Outlook Express,
which is Internet Explorer 4's built in e-mail program, he
locked my computer up. Bad doggy.

Looking through the box he arrived in, I found a note saying
that he refused to have anything to do with IE4, and that an
update had to be downloaded from the CyberMedia web site.
Fair enough I thought, but like the vigilant security guard
dog he is, he refused to let me download the update.

So sadly I had to kick him out of the kennel for a while by
clicking on his uninstall button. With IE4 working now, I
connected to the CyberMedia web site (www.cybermedia.com)
and downloaded the update, then re-installed Guard Dog and
updated him with the file I'd just downloaded.

But he still refused to have anything to do with the Internet.
Even though it was well past both our bed times he still
wouldn't work. That's it I thought, first thing in the
morning it's off to the dog pound with you, old chum.

Then he pulled out a note which said he simply refused to
work with Starfish Software's Netmeter, which I like to
use to monitor my Internet usage. Off with Netmeter, and
bingo, Guard Dog Deluxe was romping around like the toe
nipping young puppy I always knew he would be.

He's been with me for a few days now, and now that he's
over that naughty puppy stage, he's just about the best
companion I've ever had.
copyright (c) 1997 all rights reserved.

MASTERCLIPS 202,000
by Phil Wiley

I've got so much clip art it's leaking out of my computer
and spreading over my desk. It's the Masterclips 202,000
package, and I reckon it must be the world's biggest clip
art pack. It comes in a huge, almost beautiful box, and I
thought "Oh yeah, here we go again. A great big box with
nothing but a CD in it."

But I was wrong. There are 15 CD's and a thick book which
catalogues all 202,000 images.

This mega Masterclips pack includes thousands of
exclusively commissioned clip art images from around
the world, representing cultural and ethnic diversity.
More than 87,000 fully scalable vector-based WMF images,
18,100 web-ready images, more than 1000 holiday
images, and 3D clip art.

And that's only the start of it all: there are over
50,000 royalty free photographs, including archival
images portraying famous personalities and historic
events. 47,000 black and white images, 2000 True Type
fonts, and sound, video, and animation clips.

To find your way around this massive collection, Disc 1
holds a browser where you can search by topic or keyword.
There's also an image editor, and an Instant 3D program
which offers hundreds of 3D objects, and materials for
presentations which can be converted into web formats.

Sorry all you Mac users, but strangely it's a Windows
only product. It's going to make someone you love a great
Christmas present. And it's fabulous for dressing up your
web site and brochures.

ZDnet Software Library 10,000.

What's 1200 pages long, weighs a lot more than my brain, costs US$49.95 and and is cheap at the price, and comes complete with hundreds of programs?

You won't guess, so I'll tell you.

It's a monster sized new book called ZDNet Software
Library 10,000 - with 2 shareware packed CD's stuck inside
the back cover. It's available now from good book and computer stores, and it's jam packed enough to keep any computer lover occupied for months.

It's Father's Day on Sunday (in Australia), so forget the
cordless drill or the garden tools, if you can run to the
money buy him this book. He'll love you forever.

The ZDNet Software Library 10,000 is a bit like one of
those thick film and video review books, that some people
use before they pop off to the video store. It contains
reviews of 10,000 programs (well they're not numbered
and I didn't count them, so I'm going by the books title
there), and they're split into special interest chapters.

There are reviews of Internet tools, Web publishing
programs, games, home and educational software, graphics, personal finance, programming resources, and much more. Just take a look at the Internet section: more web browsers than I've heard off, not just the big two. Plug-ins, off-line readers, cache managers, Net Nanny, newsgroup readers, FTP programs, Telnet clients. I could list them all, but you
get the idea.

And it's the same in every section. Take the games: there
are 31 pages of reviews of DOOM add ons - scenery, maps, new levels. The list goes on.

But if the book held nothing but reviews I, personally,
wouldn't give it the time of day. It's the fact that hundreds
of the programs reviewed are on the two CD's that I like so
much. Whatever you're looking for it's probably here. A few
months ago I looked all over the net for a program called
Writer's Dream. Gave up, but here it is on one of the discs.
But wait there's more. The thousands of reviewed programs
that don't make it to the disc can be downloaded for free
from one of ZDNets web sites. Each review comes with the exact web address and file name. You just type it into your browser, click the button, and within seconds it's winging
its way across the oceans onto your hard drive.

As you can tell, a highly recommended book for all you
computer addicts.

work at home index - affiliate programs success - internet marketing - tools & resources - make money - newsletter archives - discussion forum - search engine advice