Conversion: Review: Call to Action
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Review of Call to Action by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg. It is a comprehensive volume on all of the elements in your website that, working together, will help raise your overall conversion rate. Highly recommended. Date: Apr 20, 2005, 20:37 PST"

E-Mail Marketing: Improving Your Subscription Confirmation Rate
From: www.wilsonweb.com

" Date: Apr 13, 2005, 15:34 PST"

E-Commerce: Shipping Calculations with Drop-Shippers
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Figuring shipping charges when your drop-shippers are scattered can be challenging. Charge standard shipping fees by sales total or weight that average out your actual costs. Use fewer shippers and pick products that are hot and not overly competitive. Date: Apr 6, 2005, 13:34 PST"

E-Commerce: Receiving Affiliate Payments in Disallowed Countries
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Countries with high fraud or an unsophisticated bank infrastructure have difficulty receiving affiliate payments from merchants who pay via PayPal only. Article suggests a friend or relative in an allowed country who can send payments to the disallowed country via MoneyBookers or iKobo. Date: Mar 30, 2005, 11:19 PST"

Ads and Affiliates: Google AdSense vs. Other Advertisers
From: www.wilsonweb.com

"Google AdSense payouts have decreased, but it still provides the most revenue for many sites, even if it don't disclose its revenue share. Date: Mar 16, 2005, 16:23 PST"


Cali Legislature Returns Fire at Internet Hunting
From: www.webpronews.com

"As of yesterday, Californians will no longer be able hunt exotic animals from the comfort of their own homes."

Microsoft Discloses New Windows 2000 Bug
From: www.webpronews.com

"Private security firms GreyMagic and Secunia develop proof of concept code, and Microsoft acknowledges the bug does exist."

It's A Dead Man's Party
From: www.webpronews.com

"Two of them, actually, and though neither piano player will be returning for the performance, their music lives on in high-resolution MIDI."

Major League Blogging
From: www.webpronews.com

"Om Malik reports that Six Apart might have snagged a deal with Major League Baseball to launch weblogs."

Pay Up, Intel
From: www.webpronews.com

"1965 issue of Electronics magazine containing Dr. Gordon Moore's article where "Moore's Law" is first mentioned is found in the home of a Surrey engineer."


All the News That's Fit to Wiki
From: www.wired.com

"Six months after launching an experimental site that lets anyone become a reporter, organizers of the Wikipedia encyclopedia are finding the news business is a far cry from running a reference website. By Joanna Glasner."

DVD Looks to One Future
From: www.wired.com

"Sony and Toshiba agree that a standard DVD format would benefit all. Also: India's parliament finds a new use for SMS.... Playboy becomes available on the PlayStation Portable.... and more."

Check Yourself Out on Google
From: www.wired.com

"The search behemoth unveils its new feature, 'My Search History,' which lets users view their past search requests and results. Google hopes the feature will be a hit, but privacy advocates fear the information could get into the wrong hands."

Webmonkey Says, Let Adobe Be
From: www.wired.com

"Adobe Systems' acquisition of Macromedia is a good thing, argues the editor of Webmonkey, even as some geeks chatter about stagnation and monopoly. Commentary by Michael Calore."

Online Game Gets Feeding Tube
From: www.wired.com

"The massively multiplayer online game There gets a new lease on life. Following months of struggle comes a flood of money and staffers. But what about new players? By Daniel Terdiman."


Users To Blame For Spam
From: webword.com

" "Eighteen percent of users admitted that they'd clicked on the "unsubscribe" link in spam, another behavior that's exploited by spammers, who then know the address, and perhaps the entire domain, are active and so potential targets for follow-on spam campaigns."

I don't like the tone of this article. The locus of blame is on the user; attack the victim. Clicking on an unsubscribe link in an email is natural. In fact, I could argue that 82% of users are doing something wrong by NOT clicking. Clicking on an unsubscribe link seems a lot more sane than doing...nothing.

Bad analogy: You can ignore cancer and hope that it goes away or you can take action via surgery, radiation, and/or chemicals. What makes the most sense?

Read the article..."

The constant design balance
From: webword.com

" Apogee (Szuc and Gaffney) -- "In architectural and technical drawings, different layers or transparencies are often overlaid to assemble the complete design solution. A similar "design transparency" approach can ensure that product teams are working towards a common goal, gaining a balanced view, and increasing the chance of success."

Simple article with a simple message. And, I like the questions the authors are asking.

Read the article..."

Jakob Nielsen, Email Spam, and useit.com Images
From: webword.com

" Jakob Nielsen is doing something weird. On useit.com he is using a combination of text and images to display email addresses. Visit the site and scroll to the bottom. Highlight the text, if you need to, and you'll see what I am talking about. Is he trying to avoid email harvesting? Is he trying to be clever? Why not just make each email address an image? Is this a lame attempt to save bandwidth? Bizarre."

North vs. South, Black and White, Cream and Sugar, Heads or Tails
From: webword.com

" Structure. Format. Ordering. Why do these things matter? I think it boils down to the fact that humans generally like the comfort that regularity offers.

* Breaking tradition (smashing, violent!)
* Thinking outside the box (outside, cold, alone!)
* Breaking taboos; breaking free (smashing, violent!)
* Walking outside the lines (risky!)
* Changing paradigms (strange word; obsfucation!)
* Play by the rules (veiled threat, warning!)

Any time you do something new, there is risk. Any time you are different, there is risk. Any time you throw off the blanket of regularity life is less comfortable. It might be more exciting, but it is usually less comfortable.

This, my friend, is why risk is rewarded. Most people are afraid of change. They are afraid of risk. But, since change is difficult, it can pay off.

But there is more to the story. There is something subtle going on that I can't quite explain. I've noticed that some things go together but they only go together in a certain order. I can't seem to figure out why the order is the order, but it is there. Definitely. I'm sure you've seen these before:

* North vs. South
* Black and White
* Cream and Sugar
* Heads or Tails
* Bread and Butter

These "pairs" just look right. The order is correct. However, read the entries below:

* South vs. North
* White and Black
* Sugar and Cream
* Tails or Heads
* Butter and Bread

Admit it. These don't feel right, do they. The words are fine but the normal order of the pairings are odd. They are wrong.

Why?

p.s. Sorry that I've not posted much recently. Very busy. Chicago, Washington, Montgomery (Alabama). Not sure when things will slow down. "

Lessig preaches openness to Flash faithful
From: webword.com

" "It is absolutely critical that we begin to support the development of free content built on proprietary platforms"

Other tools?

Read the article..."


'Uh Oh' Here It Comes Again!
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"Another Internet Marketing shockwave will hit in the next few days... ...Are You Ready For It?..."

Thank You, Microsoft
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"I recently reported that Yahoo was in the process of launching its own AdSense type program (which is great news for web publishers). Well, it appears as if Microsoft won't be far behind... There's no news yet about Microsoft creating..."

More Yahoo 'AdSense Clone' News
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"News.com recently reported more information about Yahoo entering Google's AdSense territory. Check out the story here. Yahoo is already building an opt-in notification list for publishers that are interested in their "upcoming programs." Get on the list NOW to be..."

Good News For Us!
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"Well, it appears as if my speculation is finally coming true... Over a year ago, I predicted that Yahoo would follow Google's AdSense lead and release a similar program of their own. They'd have to in order to keep up..."

I Have A Strange Feeling...
From: www.marketingsecrets.com

"I have a strange feeling that long form sales letters on the Web are going to become less and less effective. Call it a hunch. As an avid tester, I am discovering some interesting things about how long visitors stay..."