__________________________________________ «¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤) ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Merle's Mission Ezine- "The Best of the Net Straight to your Door" March 15th,2003 Issue #107 ISSN: #1527-3105 Edited & Published by: Merle- Merle@MerlesWorld.com http://www.MerlesWorld.com/ Tell A Friend: http://recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=3463949 __________________________________________ «¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤) ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ NOTE: This newsletter is by subscription only. The only way it could have ended up in your inbox was by YOUR SUBSCRIBING to it. If you no longer wish to receive it please see the link at the very bottom of this ezine and I shall never darken your doorway again. ****************************************** Donations Wanted: If you enjoy this ezine and feel you have gained valuable information from it, please make a donation through Amazon's Donation Service. Your small gifts will help support the website and this newsletter (and bones for "the boys"). Dakota says "thanks". http://tinyurl.com/21se If you prefer to donate using PayPal use this link http://www.merlesworld.com/adtracking/lm.pl?paypal ______________________________________________ Sponsor ______________________________________________ If you have an autoresponder you have an INSTANT income! Finding an autoresponder is easy ... but writing profit-generating sales messages is not - until NOW! Turn Your Autoresponder Into A Cash Cow! Discover how 52 professionally written sales messages can sell your products, build your downline and more. http://www.bizinfocenter.com/cgi-bin/track/tracker.cgi?mm (1x) __________________________________________ «¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤) ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ School... "Be nice to the nerds and geeks in high school- you'll be working for them in the future." Compliments of http://www.Coolsigs.com ----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>> E D I T O R' S N O T E ----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>> Hi Kids! Good morning and welcome to a brand spanking new issue of Merle's Mission. If this is your first issue, welcome and I hope you find it useful. Wow! March 15th already, can you belive it. That tax deadline is looming closer and closer. I haven't done mine yet. I have a pile of papers in folders about one foot high but still need to go through them and break it all down by expenses and income. I always owe. Every year, what's up with that? I'm not a rich person but Uncle Sam continually seems to think he needs more of my money. If he continues I think he should come work for me and sit in front of this computer and do all the daily chores I have to do for my Net businesses. Sounds fair to me? If I'm going to pay you, the least you can do is earn it. Here in Northeast Ohio we're having a heatwave. It was 60 degrees yesterday and today looks like a repeat. It might not sound like much but for those of us who live here it's been a long cold dark winter and this just gives us something to look forward to. You can't be fooled by this type of weather though it is mid March. We all know the snow will return and things won't improve permanently until April, but this little teaser gives us hope. It also reminds us if we haven't been doing our sit ups that we better get started. You can't hide the fat in the summer, no where to run, no where to hide. Big bulky sweaters make it easier but in the summer it all "hangs out". Excuse the pun. Do you own a dog? I have two, Teddy Bear and Dakota. I think if Teddy were a "real boy" he'd have to ride the special bus. How I ended up with a dog with "special needs" I don't know, but he's a daily challenge. He seems to forget things, like where he should go to the bathroom. I mean how much could he have going on in that mind of his. How hard can it be to be a dog? Sniff....eat...go to the bathroom and repeat. Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL have all increased their sp#m filtering. See I can't even say that dirty word for fear of being sent to the trash. So if you use one of these services to get this ezine, please add the email address of mmezine@merlesworld.com to your "friend list" or "approved" senders" list, address book. Whatever you need to add it to so you'll be sure of getting each and every issue. I recently changed the email address so if you were housing the old one please change it to this one. Hey, change is good! In the future any and all bounces will be automatically taken off this list so if you want to keep every issue coming make sure you do this so we don't get bounced or sent to your trash bin accidently. Now you wouldn't want that to happen, would you? This week's winner for a free ad is.... Rosanne of http://promotiontools.net For your own chance to win fill in the survey. You'll find the link at the very bottom of this ezine. A winner is pulled twice a month. Enter now. Thanks for joining me, let's get to the good stuff. If you have any comments you can send them to mailto:merle@merlesworld.com Merle http://www.MerlesWorld.com http://www.EzineAdAuction.com http://www.MCPromotions.com PS: Another PayPal scam going around pretending to be a security check from PayPal telling you your account has been placed on "limited access status" and asking for your bank and cc info. Don't believe it I confirmed it with PayPal it's someone trying to get your account info. Bad, bad people. -------------------------------------------------- IN THIS ISSUE -------------------------------------------------- => 1. News From the Net => 2. Feature Article-"Is Your Site A Post-It Note Or Super Glue?" => 3. Webmaster Resources => 4. Promotional Resources => 5. Other Ezines of Interest => 6. Just for Fun or Useful => 7. E Books and Things of Interest to Publishers => 8. Freeware and Shareware to Download => 9.Subscribe/Remove Information --------------------------------------------------------------- 1. NEWS FROM THE NET -------------------------------------------------------------- AOL offers subscribers way to block pop-up ads http://tinyurl.com/7kpm -------- Habeas Petition - Sign it at http://stolencarreports.com/ ------ Yahoo! Mail Unveils New Version of SpamGuard to Help Protect Users from Spa**ers http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030311/115284_1.html ---<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>> Please Support our Sponsors ---<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----sponsor adv "Attn: Affiliate Marketer: Wonder Why Your Commissions Don't Grow?" Affiliate Warriors Vol. 1, our expert level manual, includes: 1. Proven techniques to help you increase your commissions. 2.What merchants do to trick you and how to expose this! Get your copy today, before your competitors do: http://www.actualaffiliate.com (1X) --------------------------------------------- 2. FEATURE ARTICLE --------------------------------------------- Is Your Site A Post-It Note Or Super Glue? By Anne Marie Baugh Traffic, traffic, traffic, that's all we hear. You'd think we were all craving two hours commutes on the Los Angeles freeway. The question is, if you've got traffic, what are they doing? In other words, what's your stick-ability? When people come to your site are they met with a roadside sign announcing your business and not much else or do they have a reason to stick around? If they aren't sticking, you aren't succeeding. And you've missed the major rule of online engagement. That is simply, "Information rules on the Internet." If you ain't got it, they ain't staying. So let's say you've currently got yourself Post-It note traffic. The kind that arrive but leave just as quickly. Boy, the logs look great, but where are the sales? Time for some Super Glue folks. The kind you can't get from website bells and whistles. This only comes from content,the kind you have to create. Consider these Super Glue techniques: 1. Free Advice: Free advice can be formatted in several different ways. Perhaps a list of articles that the visitors can't pass up. Not the same old, same old we see everywhere. But fresh, new, material that adds to the education of your visitor. This can't be beat for making them stick. Make sure one article leads to another valuable place on your site until finally it leads to the sale. Free advice builds confidence in your target audience. After all, how do they know if you've got the right stuff if you don't tell them a little to prove it? 2. Community Chat: People like people. And we love to get together and talk about our favorite subject. Many online gurus making millions online by first offering a free one-hour chat a week. Meet the maker of the site and you've built trust in your audience. Invite them to participate and your no longer the only one making the moves at your site. Let the people get to know you and sales will soar. 3. BillBoards : Let them have their say. Billboards provide a safe way for the shy ones to have their say too. It's an inter-exchange of information, which often builds the content of your site. It also enlists in stick -to-itivness as people who roam the billboards are staying put. They are getting friendly with your site. 4. Learning Tools: Give your visitors other ways to learn. Books, e-books, forums, shareware, etc. Change your content often and visitors will want to return to see what you've added that will be worthwhile to them. 5. The Newsletter Yes, the newsletter. The number one tool for bringing your visitors back to your site. If your aren't capturing them the first time with a free opt-in newsletter, then you have to keep going out and finding them. That's very expensive. Your newsletter is a forever link to your clients and prospects. 5. A Treasure Hunt Yep, I'm talking a contest in which you give away something free. However, this contest works a little different. By placing a small graphic in different parts of your site weekly, ask the visitors to find it and then enter the contest by telling you where the graphic is located. What does this do? It persuades your visitor to play a game and in the process takes them through your site. While they are looking, they are learning about you. See, it's not hard to add a little SuperGlue to your Post-It Note and get those visitors to stick around long enough to actually buy! ________________________________________________ By: Write-Promotion is the only online business that effectively combines publicity with online promotions to bring your web business dynamic, sales propelling results. We have a package for every budget and a smile for every bottom line. Publicity * Promotion * Promotional Writing * E-Books * Articles * And Much More!Please visit today at: http://www.write-promotion.com or write to: mailto:write@write-promotion.com ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ 3. WEBMASTER RESOURCES ------------------------------------------------- 404 RESEARCH LABS If you don't have a 404 error page on your site you're losing visitors. Sample some of the best error pages out there to get your creative juices flowing the learn how to make your own. http://www.plinko.net/404/ --------- QUICK CHAT Want to add a chat room to your website? It's easy to do and so much fun. Just sign up for free and paste the code you're given onto your website. http://www.quickchat.org/ ------- ONLINE SCROLL BAR GENERATOR Ever visit a website and instead of those boring gray scroll bars they have really cool colored ones? It's easy to do with this online generator that will allow you to pick your colors and generate the code to add to your site. http://tinyurl.com/7kpn ====================================== Tip ====================================== CSS Tip With background images in HTML they always repeat. To get more control of your background image on a page use this Cascading Style Sheet tip: .