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((((((((((((((((( WEBREFERENCE UPDATE NEWSLETTER ))))))))))))))))) November 18, 1999
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Now with over 86300 subscribers!
http://www.webreference.com http://www.webreference.com/new/ http://www.webreference.com/new/submit.html New this week on WebReference.com and the Web:
1. HELP WANTED: WebRef's Hiring! 2. INSIDE WEBREFERENCE: Newsletter Promotion: Pounding the Pavement, and Hitting the Web 3. NET NEWS: * W3C Releases Two New Specs as Recommendations * Web Traffic Bounces Back; AOL Still on Top * Allaire Announces New Version of Homesite * NetMechanic Announces EngineStarter Site Promotion Service * Even Bill Can Try to Dance his Cares Away
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Every Thursday the Update features a new article contributed by our readers through our Open Publishing Initiative. We encourage you to submit your own article ideas. Those that make the cut receive a free copy of GoLive 4 and a cool internet.com T-shirt!
http://www.webreference.com/new/submit.html
Spread the word! Feel free to send a copy of this newsletter to your friends and colleagues, and while you're at it, snap a link to WebReference.com.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+ SHE'S GOT A TICKET TO RIDE (DO YOU?) Hop on the Internet Tourbus! Net gurus Rankin and Crispen (aka the "Click & Clack" of the online world) explain Internet technology in plain English, with a dash of humor. Since '95, Tourbus riders have been getting the scoop on Search Engines, Spam, Viruses, Cookies, Urban Legends, and the most useful sites on the Net. All Aboard! +-------------------> http://www.TOURBUS.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. HELP WANTED: WebRef's Hiring!
The contestants are out of the gate, but the race isn't over yet: It's a rare event, but WebReference.com is hiring. We're looking for columnists to cover Graphics and Design topics for our Web site. These are paid contract positions. Only serious, dependable experts need apply! A sense of humor is required, but some Zen training would be helpful. ;)
For more information, check out the writer guidelines at: http://www.webreference.com/writers.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. INSIDE WEBREFERENCE: Newsletter Promotion: Pounding the Pavement, and Hitting the Web
The voice of my editor, Andrew King, came forth from the corner office : "Go forth and increase our subscribership!" Ok, so he didn't sound quite that biblical, but he is persistent, and generating new subscribers for the WebReference newsletter is an ongoing priority for us. If you're a webmaster yourself, then I'd lay odds that it's a priority for you as well. As we've stated before, an e-mail newsletter is one of the most effective ways of promoting your site, and for generating repeat visitors. If you're not producing one for your site, now's the time to start thinking seriously about it.
So what to do? We've been practicing what we preach, keeping up with the steps we have listed in Andy's "Tips for Increasing Subscribers" article (http://webreference.com/new/tips.html), and I'll assume you have as well. We've been doing the right things locally (signup forms accessible from every page, contest promotions, and so on), so it was time to start pounding the pavement, and promoting on the rest of the Web.
Like any other topic you might be interested in these days, there are multiple Web sites dedicated to e-mail newsletters. Some of these have articles and suggestions on creating effective and popular newsletters, some have related software, and several have giant lists of newsletters about every subject under the sun. Many of these sites are listed on WebRef's "Internet:Discussions" link page (http://webreference.com/internet/discussion.html), so I chose that as my launching point.
My goal was to find the largest and best maintained lists of mailing lists, and to get the WebReference update listed. Here are some of the ups and downs of what I found along the way:
The "list of Publicly accessible mailing lists", started in 1981(!), maintained since 1992 by Stephanie da Silva. Ms. da Silva has got her site's philosophy displayed clearly on the front page: "We might not be the biggest, but we personally guarantee that our listings are the most accurate." Currently, they index over 7500 lists. A quick search reveals that WebReference Update is already listed, (with keywords "development internet www") so I move on.
This is actually a collection of sites, thirteen in all, including such descriptively-named domains as http://www.ezineseek.com, http://www.ezine-tips.com, and so on. Taken together, this network of sites makes this the most comprehensive service listed in this article. (And in the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that this is a site that our parent company internet.com has invested in, though I can truthfully say that I didn't know that when I started this article.) List-Universe features lots of good tips and strategies on maintaining and promoting newsletters, as well as a variety of promotion services.
A review of six free list-hosting services catches my eye, but my goal today is to get us listed in any newsletter lists that we're not already present in. Searching for keywords "web developer" turns up 119 other lists, but not us. Doing a straight search on "webreference update" shows me that we are listed. Hmmm... so we're in there, but where? Rather than searching by keyword, I try my luck browsing by category. This shows that we're listed in the "Home :: Computers and Internet / WWW / Webmasters " category. That's fine by me.
While I'm here, I'm going to submit us on another List-Universe affiliate site, http://www.bestezines.com, which reviews Ezines and newsletters. Their choice site picks are featured on the BestEzines site, and in their own topic-focused newsletters. List-A-Day.com is another related site that sends out daily mailing-list announcements. I'll be coming back again in the future to check out ezine-swap.com, an affiliated site that helps list-masters swap promotional ads. (Any of these "lists of lists," by the way, would make great resources for list-masters looking to swap ads.)
"The Mailing list Directory," this site features information on over 90,000 mailing lists, as well as junk filtering features built into its search engine. Diving in, I find that we're listed, but not with as much information as I would like. So rather than adding WebRef, I'd like to just update our information.
This is a little less direct than you might like it to be: When I go into the "Edit/Add" screen, Liszt request I identify our mailing list by entering the subscription address of the newsletter. All fine and well, but it appears that Liszt tries to key the name of the list automatically to what appears before the "@" in the mailing address. In our case, this is "subscribe@webreference.com". Seeing as how we're not named "Subscribe," I get a little worried, but I plow in anyway, and hope that I can make corrections later in the process. There are a lot of other features for adding built-in information about list subbing, etc, but it doesn't fit easily with how our list server is set up, so I bypass most of it. With enough monkeying around, I massage our information to a point that I am satisfied with. All's well in the end, right?
This site offers services to automate subscribe/unsubscribe processes for existing lists, to make things easier on both users and list managers. Sounds great, but it only works with Listserv, Listproc and Majordomo-hosted lists. Currently, we use Lyris, so I can't go any further here.
"The Reference to Internet Discussion & Information Lists." Nothing overly fancy here, just lists of lists again. I check, we're listed with a fairly current description, and so on I go.
http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/
In existence since 1993, updated in June 1999, this is a nice looking site covering 4200+ different lists. Easy to browse by topic, but no search functions are included, which seems a little odd to me. We're in there, and so I'm moving on again.
And so it went, off and on for two fun-filled afternoons. But what's the end result? Is all of this scurrying around going to actually help generate traffic? Well, though it's far from scientific, I can state that our daily subscriber rate last week went up between 25 and 50 percent. Last Sunday, traditionally one of our slowest days, we had over 320 new subscribers; on an average Sunday, this would be around 90. That's a good enough answer for me....
By Eric Cook, Assistant Editor, WebReference.com ecook@internet.com
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****************************************************************** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. NET NEWS: W3C Releases Two New Specs as Recommendations, Web Traffic Bounces Back; AOL Still on Top, Allaire Announces New Version of Homesite, NetMechanic Announces EngineStarter Site Promotion Service, Even Bill Can Try to Dance his Cares Away
>W3C Releases Two New Specs as Recommendations
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) this week recommended two new specifications. XSL Transformations (XSLT) and XML Path Language (XPath) represent further agreement on technologies to enable the standardization of transformation and styled presentation of XML documents. http://www.internetnews.com/wd-news/article/0,1087,10_240951,00.html InternetNews.com, 991117
>Web Traffic Bounces Back; AOL Still on Top
The average amount of time U.S. Internet users spent on major Web sites rose 9.3 percent to more than eight hours in October from September, said a study Nielsen/NetRatings, in a sign that Internet use was rebounding from seasonal softness during the summer and early fall months. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1451918.html CNET.com, 991117
>Allaire Announces New Version of Homesite
Allaire Corp. Monday announced that a new version of HomeSite 4.5, will ship next month. Improvements in this new version of the popular HTML editing tool include a flexible project management system, scriptable deployment, and easy integration with the latest Web technologies. http://www.internetnews.com/wd-news/article/0,1087,10_239351,00.html InternetNews.com, 991115
>NetMechanic Announces EngineStarter Site Promotion Service
NetMechanic this week announced EngineStarter, the first service in its Web site promotional tool suite. NetMechanic's EngineStarter service was designed to help webmasters by providing an efficient and cost-effective method for search engine registration. http://www.internetnews.com/wd-news/article/0,1087,10_240121,00.html InternetNews.com, 991116
>Even Bill Can Try to Dance his Cares Away
Here's one thing Bill Gates doesn't have a monopoly on: bad dancing. At this year's COMDEX, the elite meet, but that doesn't mean that they know how to move their feet. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/feed/a10951-1999nov17.htm WashingtonPost.com, 991116
That's it for this week, see you next time.
Andrew King Managing Editor, WebReference.com update@webreference.com
Eric Cook Assistant Editor, WebReference.com ecook@internet.com
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Webref wants you. Yes, you! You too could be in this space, sharing your thoughts with the rest of the WebReference readership. Just submit your article idea at: http://www.webreference.com/new/submit.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sponsoring the WebReference Update is a cost effective way to reach thousands of qualified buyers. E-mail ffazio@internet.com to find out how. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Also on Internet.com .... http://www.Internet.com
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