Groundzero Webmaster Newsletter : Issue #5
Copyright (c) 2002 : http://www.ground-z.org
May 28 2002 : All Rights Reserved
Editor : Rik Tairea - webmaster@ground-z.org

This is a FREE monthly newsletter created for webmasters and website owners who are looking for resources, website tools, editorials, software, eBooks, promotion and design tips to help get the most out of a website. For in-depth webmaster resource reviews, website related articles, website awards and past newsletter issues then visit the Groundzero website located at http://www.ground-z.org


- In This Issue -

1. Introduction
2. Recommended Resources
3. Top 10 Resources @ Groundzero
4. Editors Corner
5. Promotion Tip
6. Recommended eBook
7. Design Review
8. Recommended Software
9. Contact/Unsubscribe/Subscribe/Privacy
10. Final Thoughts
11. Newsletter Details


- 1.Introduction -

Welcome to Issue #5 of the Groundzero Webmaster Newsletter. This month in the "Editors Corner" I do some venting about my dislike for spam. We also have the usual recommended resources, software, eBook, promotion tip and design review.

If you haven't visited the Groundzero website for a while then you should take the time to have a look at it's new design. After you've done that it would be great if you could tell me what you think about it's look, usability, content and loading time.

Groundzero - http://www.ground-z.org

As always feedback about the Groundzero Webmaster Newsletter is very highly appreciated. Tell me what you think about it, what you like or dislike about it, or what you think it needs. Maybe even recommend a new section or two.

Thanks to the people who have sent in feedback, it's great and some of the comments have really made my day. It really makes all the work that goes into publishing this newsletter really worth while.

Remember that past issues of the Groundzero Webmaster Newsletter are available at the website. The past four issues are up there now and this issue will be archived at Groundzero in late June.

For those who don't know, current issues will not be posted on Groundzero until after a month has passed. This is to make sure that subscribers get total exclusivity to all the information that is provided.

By the way, I'm currently on the look out for articles relating to search engines and design to post at Groundzero. If you write about optimizing pages for Google or increasing PageRank then I would post it in a second. Of course full
credit will be given (signature, byline, etc).

It would be great if you guys could send in any tips you may have about increasing website traffic and/or website promotion. If I use it in the newsletter you will get full credit (name, website address, etc).

Enjoy this months issue!


- 2.Recommended Resources -

Pandia Post Newsletter - http://www.pandia.com/post
The Pandia Post is the bimonthly newsletter/eZine of the Pandia Search Central website, your online guide to Internet searching. You get the latest news from the world of search engines, useful tips on how to improve your search skills, insight into the mysterious world of search engine ranking, as well as information on the development of Pandia Search Central. The Pandia Post contains only original articles not found in other newsletters.

PHP.net - http://www.php.net
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. If you are new to PHP and want to get some idea of how it works then try the introductory tutorial available at the PHP.net website. After that, check out the on-line manual, and the example archive sites and some of the other resources available.

Google FAQ -
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2829.htm
Everything you wanted and/or needed to know about the most used search engine on the Internet can be found here. I'm sure most of you are aware of the fact that Google is one of the best providers of free website traffic around and optimizing your pages for this search engine is very important. The WebmasterWorld Google Knowledgebase V2 provides answers for questions that include submission, googlebot, indexing, pagerank, adwords and a whole lot more.


- 3.Top 10 Resources @ Groundzero -

Here are the top 10 rated webmaster resources reviewed at Groundzero - http://www.ground-z.org - Visit the resources section to read in-depth reviews on various website tools, affiliate networks, traffic generators and eZines.

1 : A Best Web
2 : Website Forums
3 ; Shareasale
4 : Vibrant Media
5 : Trafficology
6 : Sitepoint Tribune
7 : Commission Junction
8 : Popuptraffic
9 : Sphosting
10 : Hits4me

The top 10 list can update during the month.


- 4.Editors Corner -

"Hands up, who else is sick of spam?"

I don't mean the mystery meat that comes in a blue can (I've never tasted the stuff myself). I mean the mass-delivered, unrequested commercial advertising delivered via e-mail or posted in discussion groups that is extremely of low or no value what so ever to anyone (pretty good definition huh).

Spam has many definitions and can come in many forms, shapes and sizes. In some cases one persons spam is another persons treasure (and in some cases livelihood).

The two main places I encounter spam is in my e-mail or at the webmaster forums that I frequent. I can sum up my feelings for spam in one word, annoyed. So guess what? I'm sick of it and I just need to vent.

For some reason I have six e-mail accounts (and I actually use them too), don't ask me how I ended up with that many but I'm sure a few of you have a similar amount (or even more). I have 2 Hotmail accounts, 2 my own e-mail accounts, 1 ISP account and of course my webmaster@ground-z.org address. Guess what? They all get spammed.

I expected my Hotmail accounts to receive junk mail because of all the stories I kept on hearing but I didn't realize there would be so much of it, it just keeps on coming and coming. It's so bad that I'll receive the same piece of spam 3 times over in the space of a week despite my attempts to block it using the junk mail filters featured in Hotmail.

Here's a word of warning, don't submit your websites to FFA's (free for all sites) unless you want 70 pieces of spam in your e-mail on a daily basis for about three weeks (stop laughing at me, I only did it once). Good thing that e-mail address was web based and free because I was forced to close it down and stop using it.

Over the last couple of weeks, all of my e-mail accounts have received the same spam advertising about a Multi Level Marketing scheme called Cash Evolution. I'm not a stranger to MLM spam because I usually get it now and then but I've received "information" about Cash Evolution around 20 times.

Now for all I know, Cash Evolution could be a good scheme but I will never investigate what it's really about because all this spam has left a bad taste in my mouth. Out of all the e-mail I received about this company I've probably only read about 2 lines of info. There lies the problem.

Because of all the spam I receive I have developed the habit of ignoring, and then deleting e-mails that have suspect subject headings or content. I can pretty much guarantee that I'm not the only person with e-mail that does this.

Like I said before, for all I know Cash Evolution could be a legitimate MLM scheme but because of all the spam I refuse to look into it any further. But the real problem is that all spam that is going around is causing a negative effect on genuine offers and opportunities.

For example, I receive offers from companies wanting to advertise on my websites or offer me opportunities that sound very legit. The problem is that at first glance the message may look a little bit suspicious but turn out not to be, which in turn can cause the old ignore and delete reflex action. When that is done it could mean that I have missed a good opportunity that could have benefited me.

The major problem is that I'm not the only person who does this and apparently, it's done on a very large scale. This results in innocent e-mails and newsletters getting caught in the crossfire.

Now I have no solution for this matter, spam is here to stay and if one spammer goes down then 50 others come in and take their place. You can use anti-spam programs/services but in the end they are not the total solution because they are not 100% affective.

The only thing I can do is not to send any spam myself and hope others have the same idea. Spam SUCKS!


- 5.Promotion Tip -

"Get an award program up and running"

Adding an award program to your website is a good way to get some extra traffic to your webpages. By offering a website award to other webmasters you have the potential to increase not only traffic but link popularity as well.

There are a lot of awards program out there (I'm estimating at least over 1000 - 2000) so creating a quality award website is very essential.

Be sure to :
- establish the purpose of your award
- review other quality awards sites
- clearly define your criteria
- define the application process
- develop support pages
- design a award image
- test and evaluate
- tweak\tune your program

I could go into a whole lot more detail about creating an award program because developing a quality award website is a lot of work but the results are worth it. I might go into it a bit more in a future newsletter issue.

Now when you get your award program/section up and running be sure to promote it. Make sure you have a link on every page of your website pointing to your award section and make sure the award section gets indexed in the search engines.

Besides search engines and directories, in my opinion there are only two other places you need to get your program listed at.

For a quick listing be sure to visit Website Awards
http://websiteawards.xe.net and submit your site to the Website Awards Worksheet. The worksheet is usually updated weekly so it could take either a few days or a couple of weeks to be listed.

The next thing you need to do is get your site rated by Award Sites http://www.awardsites.com which is the definitive website awards rating service. Be sure to read the guide lines about requesting a rating when submitting your award. The ratings range from 1.0 to 5.0 (5.0 being the highest) and it could take around 6 weeks to be rated.

You could submit your award to other award directories but in my experience, these are the main places to list. It's can also be a good idea to submit your award section to directories like the ODP and Zeal.


- 6.Recommended eBook -

Title : How to Write Ezine Ads That Guarantee Results
Size : 329KB
Price : Free
Format : Adobe Acrobat Document
URL : http://www.ezineadauction.com/ebooks/greatezineads.pdf

Ezine advertising is a great way to hit your target market but your ad needs to grab the reader's attention and pull them in. Download this free report that will tell you how to write award winning ads that will improve your sales.

This eBook was created by Merle who is (in my opinion) an expert in this field and is the powerful force behind MC Promotions Press, Merle's Mission and Ezine Ad Auction. I have a few of Merle's articles posted @ Groundzero (with a whole lot more to come from her) and if you read her work then you'll know why.

Reading (or should I say studying) this eBook feels like you are taking some sort of advertising/writing class (I wish they taught me this stuff in school). I especially found the"Power Words" section highly useful.

If you compare this months newsletter issue to last months issue, I'm pretty sure you will notice the changes I have made based on the information in the "How to Write Ezine Ads That Guarantee Results" eBook. Highly recommended for those who want to get more from eZine advertisements, whether they are placed in your own eZine or placed in others where you have purchased advertising space.

This eBook requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.


- 7.Design Review -

Site Name : MoserArt
URL : http://www.moserart.com
Type : Artist Gallery and Information

I viewed this website using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 with Java, JavaScript and Flash enabled with a 56k modem and an 800 x 600 screen resolution.

The MoserArt website highlights the museum quality artwork of Moser and features images, paintings and drawings. Descendant of painter James McNeill Whistler, Moser began painting under the instruction of pop artist Robert Indiana.

MoserArt is a previous winner of the Groundzero Design Award (awarded January 12th 2002).

The design and layout is simple and looks great with the green color scheme which fits in real well with the artwork. MoserArt is simple, clean and elegant. If you have heard the saying that less is more then you can see why it won the Groundzero Design Award and I why I have used it as an example of good design.

This site was made with the purpose of showcasing the art of it's creator and because of it's lack of clutter and the centering of the thumbnailed paintings, the mission of focusing on the artwork is achieved.

This brings up a good usability point, decide what you want the visitor to look at (or what you want them to do at your website) and make that the supreme focus.


- 8.Recommended Software -

Name : Netscape 7.0 Preview Release 1
Size : 26MB
Price : Free
Operating System : Windows 98/NT/2000/XP
Minimum Requirements : 64MB RAM
URL : http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/7/default.jsp

Netscape 7.0 PR1 is the latest preview release of the Internet browsing, e-mail and instant messaging software suite from Netscape. It is intended for users to test so they can send feedback to Netscape.

The top features introduced since Netscape 6.2 include :
- Radio@Netscape
- Tabbed Browsing and Bookmark Groups
- Click-to-Search
- Search Tooltips in My Sidebar
- Quick Search within mail and Address Book
- Mail Alerts
- Download Manager
- Get Map
- Performance/Stability enhancements to Navigator and Mail

Personally I'm not a fan of cross-browser compatibility because it means you have to do more work or make more considerations when designing webpages (I can hear some of you calling me "lazy" and yes, you're right) but it is very essential even if only a small % of your visitors use it.

Although I don't use Netscape as my browser of choice I do have a permanent copy of Netscape Navigator 4.08 on my machine for cross browser compatibility tests and I usually download new browser releases of the top 3 browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape and Opera).

In my opinion, it's usually a good idea to download new browser releases just for the sake of seeing how your webpages are rendered. This is why I have recommended Netscape 7.0 PR1 this month.


- 9. Contact/Unsubscribe/Subscribe/Privacy -

If you have any questions regarding this newsletter then please feel free to contact me by e-mail. You can also send in any feedback about the Groundzero Webmaster Newsletter. I love receiving e-mail so feel free to send in a message to just say hello or, if you need any help (website wise) then send in a question that I might be able to help you with.

contact - webmaster@ground-z.org
unsubscribe - unsubscribe@ground-z.org
subscribe - subscribe@ground-z.org

I absolutely despise SPAM and I will respect your privacy. I will not share or sell your e-mail address with anyone, I will not send you any unsolicited mail or collect any demographic information about you. Your e-mail address will only be used to receive the Groundzero Webmaster Newsletter and any correspondence with me will remain confidential.


- 10.Final Thoughts -

I hope you enjoyed Issue #5 of the Groundzero Webmaster Newsletter. Remember you can always read past issues of this newsletter on the website and the next issue will be sent out June 28th 2002. Please feel free to send any feedback or comments you may have about this newsletter.

If you want to recommend some webmaster resources/websites, eBooks, software or any well designed websites then let me know, even if it's yours. If it benefits others then I'll feature it in an issue of this newsletter so send it in.

If you want to just say hello then go for it!

If you think you know someone who might be interested in reading this newsletter then do them a favor and forward them this entire e-mail or point them to the Groundzero website located @ http://www.ground-z.org

Just remember to inform them that "you" are recommending them the copy because I don't want to be perceived as a"spammer". If you want to help out some more and you think that this newsletter is useful then feel free to put a link on your website pointing to http://www.ground-z.org

Thanks for your time and stay safe.
Your humble editor : Rik Tairea


- 11. Newsletter Details -

You are receiving the Groundzero Webmaster Newsletter because you submitted your e-mail address by way of a sign-up form located at Groundzero or at one of our partner sites. You may have also subscribed by e-mail. If you do not wish to receive this publication anymore then please follow the unsubscription e-mail link located in section 9.

No part of this newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission. You may forward this newsletter by e-mail as long as you forward it in its entirety. It is forbidden to post this newsletter on any website or republish it in print or other media without prior written consent from the editor.