I’ve had half a dozen subscribers email me in the last 48
hours to say that Jason Potash is trying to steal my throne
as the undisputed “King of Online Articles!”

…Well, maybe that’s a bit of an overreaction

Get the whole story here:

=> http://TurnWordsIntoTraffic.com/Jason/

Jason has come out with a killer new program on publishing
articles to get fr.ee traffic from the search engines… the
*one* aspect of articles I have never covered because I’m
not an expert in that area.

Yes, it’s true.

I’m not a search engine expert, but I have tens-of-thousands
of listings in the search engines (thanks to articles) and I
get thousands of visitors to my websites every day without
paying a dime (thanks to articles)… it’s also true that
many other people are doing the exact same thing — getting
FR.EE traffic (lots of it) from the search engines.

But Jason knows a lot more about the search engine aspects
of promoting articles than I do.

Jason’s course is differnt from my two courses on articles
in that it focuses on search engines and syndication…
*PLUS* he has come out with a new piece of software we’ve
been secretly testing for the last 6 weeks.

This software is absolutely amazing in that it has cut our
article submission time by 75%! Previously, we did all of
our article submissions by hand… but now we can get 4
times as many articles submitted as doing it the old way.

FACT: This piece of software is worth TWICE the price of
Jason’s entire course.

If you’re serious about getting traffic you DON’T have to
pay for… then you *must* check this out:

=> http://TurnWordsIntoTraffic.com/Jason/

To your next BIG WAVE of fr.ee traffic,

Jim

PS – He’s already pulled limited 2 bonuses for those who
acted first, so don’t hesitate…

=> http://TurnWordsIntoTraffic.com/Jason/

I am in the airport right now on the way back from speaking in Las Vegas.

At the conference, 3 presenters got up and claimed that people publishing content in MP3 format who were not paying licensing fees were subject to civil and criminal penalties and fines.

They further stated that the company that owns the patent rights to MP3 – http://www.mp3licensing.com were building a spider and had hired a staff of lawyers to pursue people online who are viloating their rights (and to find a way to collect on royalty fees owed).

I actually tried to call the company that owns the patent to MP3, but since they are in France, I didn’t get very far.

I have several emails out to companies and attorneys I have relationships with to check out the facts in the story.

My buddy Michel Fortin has made what I consider an intelligent post about the issue here: http://www.MichelFortin.com

I found a pretty interesting pdf report here that you might consider reading on the issue:
http://www.nicktemple.com/mp3patentissues.pdf

I’m doing research now and will have an article for you tomorrow.

Change is difficult…

Jim Edwards here with an article (below) that should serve
as a wake-up call if you plan to operate a successful online
business.

Spam has made it virtually impossible to operate the
customer service of an online business using email
exlusively.

With all the email filters, emails get lost… customers get
angry… and things generally go poorly.

You may have noticed that we (along with many online
companies) implemented a “help desk” solution at
Ebook Fire Support

This isn’t because we don’t want to answer emails… it’s
because we DO want to answer them — and too many emails
were getting lost and spam was eating too much time.

There have been a few bumps in the changeover, and I
apologize if things seemed a bit out of sorts the last
couple of weeks… but we’ve got it down to a science now.
(smile)

But the great news is that now we are spending more time
serving customers rather than deleting spam and tracking
down lost emails.

Feel free to share this article on your blog, on your
website, in your autoresponder, or in your newsletter (see
simple reprint instructions at the end).

To your success,

Jim

PS – If you have a comment about this newsletter issue,
please feel free to post your comments here

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

No Customer Left Behind

– by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
The Net Reporter
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As more companies make the jump to cyberspace every week and
billions of dollars flow across the Internet, nobody can
deny that ecommerce plays a significant roll in business
today.

However, as the aisles of your local online shopping site
get more crowded, the tendency for customer service issues
and contact to fall through the cracks increases
dramatically.

The main problem for any site revolves around the fact that
email as a means of communication has become unreliable over
the last couple of years.

Spam (unsolicited commercial email) lies at the heart of the
problem since it clogs the email boxes of both the company
and the customer.

In an attempt to stem the tide of spam, email gets filtered,
lost, or deleted on both sides, often leading to hard
feelings as customers think their emails have been ignored
when actually they’ve never been received.

As a result, many companies, large and small, have started
using “help desk” software to manage their customer
communication.

Gone are the days of just emailing for support and getting a
simple reply back from a live human being on the other end.

Spam makes it impossible for a company of any size to
operate with email-only support.

A help desk makes it possible not only to maintain a “chain”
of communication, but also avoids messages disappearing into
cyberspace.

Help desk solutions run the range from free to several
thousands of dollars for a custom program.

Two very workable and reasonably priced solutions are
Kayako.com and Perldesk.com.

(You can also do a search in Google for “free help desk
software” if you don’t want to spend any money.)

Both offer the choice of installing the software on your own
server, or paying a monthly fee to get a copy of the
software installed and maintained on the provider’s server.

Which option you choose depends on your level of technical
ability, level of customization needed, and how much support
you’ll need over time.

I suggest starting out with the hosted version until you get
the hang of the system, then switch over to a version on
your own server to avoid the monthly charges.

An online help desk operates fairly simply.

A customer submits a ticket through a form on your website,
the customer support staff (even if it’s a staff of one)
responds to the ticket through the website, and all
communication gets posted on a private web page.

Both Kayako and Perldesk enable customers to search a
“knowledgebase” or collection of articles to try solving
their problems on their own (especially during non-business
hours), thus frequently eliminating the need to get a live
response.

Anyone who does business online should consider installing a
help desk solution from the start rather than putting it off
until the future.

Get your customers conditioned to operating with a ticket
system rather than switching on them in mid-stream once your
business gets too busy to handle support via email.

Here are a couple of other tips to help you.

Designate one person to act as the “sorter” answering the
basic issues, then referring off the ones they can’t answer
to other staff members.

Also, post your help desk hours and stick to them.

Answer questions the same day if possible, but no later than
the next business day.

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
money-making mini-sites…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!”

Click Here => Mini-Site Creator Course
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your
ezine, blog, autoresponder, or on your site so long as you
leave all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.

If you do use the material please send us a note
so we can take a look. Thanks.

© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC

Now this went from being an interesting experiment in people reading URL’s to a demonstration of the dark side of human behavior.

Let me give a quick message to the pinheads who emailed to share their self-righteous opinions with me about what a “BAD” person I am all of a sudden and how they “Lost all respect for me”:
READ THE URL

http://www.USTodayOnline.com/june/16/

THERE IS NO A at the end of US.

REPEAT…. THERE IS NO A at the end of US.

Here is the story…

Michael Campbell wrote a very nice review of my Mini-Site Creator Course… I was very flattered.

He is definitely an expert whose opinion we should all take very seriously (good and bad, he knows what he’s talking about).

His review was 100% TOTALLY unsolicited… I didn’t ask for it, he just provided it out of the clear blue sky.

Side Note: you should sign up for his newsletter at
http://www.InternetMarketingSecrets.com

Back to the story…

I was busier than a one-armed paper-hanger today, but wanted to share his review (it’s actually and excellent EXAMPLE of a GREAT way to write a balanced review).

Sooooooo….

I put the review up on what I think is a VERY cool domain… I didn’t think it was a big deal… and it WASN’T… until a few pinheads decided to say I was “misleading” people (there were only a few… but here’s a special message just for you, “Learn to read you self-righteous morons!”).

My sole intention was just to see what would happen… if a domain could influence the clickthroughs… but I was also testing a short, sweet email message format too.

I wanted to see what effect a review landing page would have on my own audience for my own product… but written by someone else.

I actually plan to use the domain mostly for pay-per-click traffic(NOT on my list)… but the bottom line at noon today was I just wanted to get it up on the web and SHARE a POSITIVE with the group for a change!

Bottom Line: (and then this is the END of this issue, which is a NON-issue blown out of proportion by idiots)

1. I just threw it up on that domain to see if the domain name would get more clicks (a bit of an experiment)… no deception intended… but it DOES prove that we need to READ the urls we click and not to ASSUME what the HELL we ARE clicking.

2. I was psyched about Michael’s review and wanted to share it.

3. I discovered some very interesting results about managing perception and influencing clicks with the actual domain name and more…

I’ll be publishing an audio about it in the near future.

Stay tuned

Jim

We got a letter recently that I think you should read
(below).

Why?

Because it was written by one of the most respected
educators on the entire Internet.

His name is Michael Campbell, and he’s the author of several
best selling ebooks, including “Clickin’ It Rich” and
“Revenge of the MiniNet”

This guy has a solid reputation as a straight shooter and
he’s been successfully selling online for almost 10 years.

Here’s what Michael had to say about this website
=> http://www.minisitecreator.com

-=-=-=-=-=-

“There’s an old adage… you get what you pay for. Never has
it been more true than in the case of Mini Site Creator.

This video series is painful to watch… not for me, but I
feel “his” pain. Jim Edwards must have invested hundreds of
hours into this course. I remember having to learn all this
stuff the hard way, by trial and error, making lots of
mistakes along the way.

Nowadays, I take the basic mechanics of website design for
granted. I think nothing of popping off graphics in
Photoshop, or uploading sites with FTP. Making webpages is
second nature. It’s so easy to blast off a dozen or so per
hour…

But not so for the beginner, dropped off in a land of info
overload and overwhelm… which leads to distraction, which
leads to inaction… heads up… all of you! If you’ve been
buying stuff and hoarding and not really doing anything with
the information you’ve collected, this course will connect
all the dots for you.

This is not just a course on how to create minisites as the
title would have us believe. It is the most complete html
tutorial that I’ve ever seen. You’re shown how to use the
free Mozilla Composer to create your sites, starting from
scratch, and assuming you know absolutely nothing about html
or making web pages.

Some courses tell you to – figuratively speaking – go boil a
pot of water. This course assumes nothing. Jim tells you
what a pot is, where the kitchen is, what water is, how to
put the water in the pot, then put it on the stove, how to
turn on the stove and when to turn it off. That’s the kind
of attention to detail we’re talking about here.

The focus of the course is creating minisites, specifically
landing pages and squeeze pages where you drive your PPC
(pay per click) traffic. But it goes way beyond that, and
you’ll certainly be set free from the land of templates and
site builders after watching this course.

Unlike other beginners’ courses which gloss over the html
part, or kindly refer you to online tutorials, Jim shows
every little conceivable step.

And I do mean everything. Starting with downloading and
installing Mozilla on your hard drive, you’re shown
formatting basics like how to make text bold and centered.
Then from there, we’re slowly lead -in baby steps – all the
way to crafting a sales page, with an ecommerce system,
complete with order page, thank you page and a series of
follow-up autoresponders.

There’s a video for everything. And it’s very well done.

When you complete this course, you’ll be able to make good
minisites, or websites of any kind, from scratch, with
confidence, and be able to whip through hosting, ftp, domain
names, making graphics, autoresponders, Clickbank set up,
and just about everything else you can think of.

(Even I learned a few things, like Jim’s secret “Ultimate
Opt-in Subscription Box” which I plan on implementing on my
own sites

The only downside of this course are the production values.
Compared to the some of the slick and professionally
polished tutorials that are out there, the Mini Site Creator
course is real meat ‘n potatoes kind of stuff.

Jim sometimes messes up and pauses during the videos when
something doesn’t go as planned. He then wonders out loud
why one thing happened when he expected another.

But you know what? He’s human, and that’s exactly the sense
you get when you’re watching this course. It’s just like
being in a live classroom where stuff happens and the
teacher needs to adapt. Although it’s a little quirky at
first, you easily get used to it and it’s almost like having
Jim sitting beside you, guiding you through every step of
the html process.

If you’re prepared to put in the time to learn, this course
will break you free from the use of templates and site
builders, into total html freedom. You’d pay ten times more
to learn this stuff without help. And I’m glad someone
finally and the strength and determination to put together
the most complete web training course -for would be
marketers – that I’ve ever reviewed.

To quote Benjamin Franklin, “If a man empties his purse into
his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment of
knowledge always pays the best interest.”

This course – my friends – is a heck of an investment and
money well spent. Empty this information into your mind and
you’re never likely to go hungry again.

by Michael Campbell

Author of Clickin’ it Rich, Revenge of the Mininet,
and the Internet Marketing Secrets Newsletter.
Visit ==> http://www.InternetMarketingSecrets.com

-=-=-=-=-=-

So if you want to put up your own money-making mini-sites
fast… and learn from someone who knows exactly what they
are doing and, more imporantly, can show YOU how to do it
too… head on over and get more information about the
course right now.

=> http://www.minisitecreator.com

To your success,

Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards here with an article to help you save time and
cut down on a lot of BS hassle with emailing files.

Has this ever happened to you?

You send a large file to a friend or customer as an email
attachment.

After waiting 15-20 minutes for the file to upload and pass
through your email server, you get a message back that says:
1. the attachment is too big for their mailbox – or
2. they don’t allow that file type – or
3. the person you’re sending it to says “I didn’t get it.”

Well, if you send files to anyone through email, the free
services I reveal in my article below will help you solve
these problems (and more).

This stuff is so simple, yet so valuable when you’re trying
to move files around online.

Feel free to share this article on your blog, on your
website, in your autoresponder, or in your newsletter (see
simple reprint instructions at the end).

Enjoy!

Jim

PS – The year is half over…

How close are you to the goals you set this past
New Years Eve, Dec 31, 2004?

It’s NOT too late to reach out and claim your dreams!

If you know what to do and how to do it, you can accomplish
more in the space of a few weeks and months than most people
do all year…

The only thing holding you back is understanding that
there is a *system* that anyone can use to achieve success.

I have isolated that *system* into a simple, 5-Step program
that ANYone can use… to get ANYthing they want.

Now that’s a tall promise, but when you click the link to go
to this website right now, you’ll see I can back up every
word and more!

=> http://www.howtogetanythingyouwant.com

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Transfer Huge Files Online Fast And Free

– by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If this problem hasn’t hit you yet… it will.

With the ever-increasing popularity of sharing home-videos,
mp3 audios, and other large files online, actually
transferring those files to your customers, friends, and
family presents a problem.

Most email systems limit the size of the files you can send,
and often completely restrict some file types, such as .exe,
from passing through their email servers.

Most computer geeks say, “Just ftp it to your server and
I’ll download it from the Web.”

Unfortunately, that solution often proves too much of a
hassle, and actually rates impossible for those without ftp
access to a website and the knowledge to use it.

To solve this problem, a new breed of website file transfer
service has emerged to help the technically or time-
challenged masses share their huge files online.

** http://www.YouSendIt.com **

I discovered this website as most people discover new sites,
I saw someone else using it.

A friend wanted to send me a 10MB “zip” file while he
traveled from San Francisco to Boise.

He couldn’t use his ftp program to upload it to the Web, and
his ISP wouldn’t let him send such a huge file.

So, he logged on to www.yousendit.com and completed a 4-step
process.

(1) He entered my email address, (2) chose the file he
wanted to send by browsing his hard drive, (3) entered his
email and typed in a brief message, and (4) clicked the
“send” button.

The service uploaded the file to the web and sent me an
email message with a link to download the file from their
website.

After I downloaded the file, I clicked a link to delete the
file from their server.

If I didn’t bother to click that link, the server would
automatically delete the file after 7 days.

A few things make this service unique.

First, it allows you to send files without forcing you to
register as a user; it’s totally anonymous.

Second, it allows you to send up to a 1 gigabyte file.

This enables you to send virtually anything you can think of
to anyone with an email address and Internet connection.

The site appears to make its money from advertising revenue
generated by popup ads and Google AdSense (where they earn a
commission every time someone clicks a link).

Third, like Hotmail.com did when first starting out,
YouSendIt.com encourages message recipients to turn around
and use the service to send files to their friends.

This “viral marketing” effect should help them spread the
word quickly without a huge marketing budget.

** http://www.DropLoad.com **

DropLoad.com also enables users to send large files, though
they restrict file sizes to 100 MB.

However, DropLoad.com offers one extra feature lacking in
YouSendIt: delivery confirmation.

Dropload enables you to know when the person you sent the
file to actually clicks the link to download the file.

This cuts down on the “I never got the file” claims and acts
like the Post Office making them sign for registered mail.

You can’t prove they read it, but you can prove they
received it.

DropLoad.com does require you to register for a username and
password, but the service is free.

Overall, both services do an excellent job of solving a
growing problem for a huge audience worldwide.

Also, if you sell information products customers download
from the Internet, the link expiration and confirmation
features can come in handy (such as giving out free samples
or preview copies to potential joint venture partners).

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
money-making mini-sites…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!”

Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your
ezine, blog, autoresponder, or on your site so long as you
leave all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.

If you do use the material please send us a note
so we can take a look. Thanks.

© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC

Jim Edwards here with an article that may just save you from
the same email “demons” that plague me…

… I’m talking about spam.

I thought the problem was supposed to be getting better, but
it’s not.

I thought the government was going to save us from it…
but I guess we couldn’t expect the government to save us
from something like that.

Turns out, nobody can save us from spam, except ourselves.

And, we can do this by just taking simple steps (steps I
didn’t take in the beginning when I set up my business) to
stop spam before it gets started.

That’s what this article is all about (below).

*NEWS FLASH*

The early bird discount deadline for my “eBook Power Cruise”
is tomorrow!

If you want to set sail with me for 5 full days of tropical
fun in the sun while learning all my insider secrets for
selling THOUSANDS of ebooks online every year… then don’t
wait.

We have a few seats left at the “early bird” deep discount.

So if you’re serious about using ebooks to create wealth
online, go check out this site and sign up right now:

=> http://www.TheJimBoat.com

To your success,

Jim

P.S. The price of the cruise workshop goes up at 11:59 p.m.
on Friday, June 10, 2005

Don’t wait to book… go do it now

=> http://www.TheJimBoat.com

Feel free to share this article on your blog, on your
website, in your autoresponder, or in your newsletter (see
simple reprint instructions at the end).

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

How To Avoid Spam Robots

– by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Despite the fact that Federal legislation (the CANSPAM act)
made it illegal, harvesting email addresses from the web
using automated robots remains alive and well.

Spammers who need fresh email addresses release software
spider programs that comb the Internet and suck email
addresses off Web pages, guest books, and anywhere else you
might post your email address.

Once they get your email address, spammers will trade it
around like 5th graders with a new pack of Pokemon cards at
recess and you can expect the avalanche of email to begin
flooding your inbox.

In order to combat this still rampant practice of stealing
email addresses from websites and sending people email they
don’t want, the following tips should help protect you.

** Break It Up **

Obviously the best way to avoid getting picked up by an
email harvester is not to post your email anywhere on
anyone’s website (including your own).

If the only way someone can get your email is if you give it
to them, that creates a similar situation to operating with
an unlisted phone number.

If telemarketers can’t get your phone number, they can’t
call.

If you must post your email address, post it in a way that a
robot won’t recognize it as an email address. Instead of
posting YOURNAME@YOURDOMAIN.COM, you can put YOURNAME (AT)
YOURDOMAIN.COM and then, in parenthesis, put (replace AT
with @ to email me).

Though it seems like an extra step for legitimate email,
you’ll find it a very effective technique.

** Use An Image **

Currently, online spiders (ANY spider, including search
engines) cannot read text that appears in a graphic or
picture.

If you must display an email address on a page, then do it
by typing your email address into your favorite graphics
program and saving the image as a .gif or .jpg.

Then post the image onto your web page so people can see the
email, but spiders cannot.

This too creates an extra step for people because they must
type in your email address, but it’s an effective solution
if you must display an email address on your own website.

** Use An Email Form **

Another way to cut down on spam originating from your
own website is simply not to display an email at all.

Instead, allow customers and prospects to contact you
through a form where they fill in fields, click a button,
and your website emails you their message.

A note of caution: make sure the form script you use does
not keep your email address visible in the form code.

If the form code contains the email address, spam robots can
find it even though you don’t see it on the page.

** Make It Hard To Guess **

Sometimes you’ll get unsolicited email because a spammer
guessed your email address.

It’s not a far stretch to imagine that someone probably has
the email Jim@yourdomain.com, so spammers will do a
“dictionary” attack on common usernames.

One way to defeat this is to place a “dot” (.) in your email
address, such as Jim.Edwards@yourdomain.com. The dot makes
it virtually impossible for spammers to guess your email
address.

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
“Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-