SuperTips Ezine: Issue 14

July 7th, 1999
Harvey Segal, Editor:

IN THIS ISSUE

1. Greetings!

2. "When your PC Backup is not enough"
- by Harvey Segal

3. Readers Forum
3.1 Alternative backup solution
3.2 PC slowing down
3.3 Ken Evoy's affiliate program

4. Disk crash - It can happen to you !

5. "How to Increase Your Website Traffic by 100 Visitors a Day in 7 - 10 Days! Free!"
- by Harmony Major

6. Next Issue

1. Greetings!

About a year ago I tried to predict how I would be able to recover in the event of a PC 'disaster' and wrote an article which was subsequently published in many newsletters.

I've reproduced it today "When your PC Backup is not enough"

One snag though - it had never been put to the test. Just like practising a fire drill can never prove how you will react if a real fire occurs.

So when my hard disk crashed two weeks ago here was the opportunity to see how my predictions stood up and write a follow-up.

It's worth reading because ... it could happen to you.

----------------

No doubt about the appeal of a great headline: Harmony Major's one was so good that I had to read her article and it's a worthy entry in today's issue.

2. "When your PC Backup is not enough"
- by Harvey Segal

If you are dependant on your PC for running a business venture on the Internet then it is vital that the loss of your PC does not damage or cause the downfall of your business.

In other words you must make sure that you regularly backup the data on your PC. Now this should not be news to you, but here are two vital warnings.

1) It is NOT SUFFICIENT just to backup your data.

How do you know you can RECOVER it ?

Have you ever tried ?

Yes, I know it's meant to work but who knows what can go wrong.

When my car once failed to start the mechanic correctly identified that the battery needed replacing.

Did he check that the car would start after fitting the new one ?
No need - it's "supposed" to work
Did it start ?
No !

So are you going to take the RISK that something will work because it is "supposed" to work - and say goodbye to your online business if it doesn't.

Because you'll have lost all your data - gone forever.

So test out the recovery option - NOW.

2) If you make backups of ALL of your hard disk (maybe you have a high capacity backup unit) - then skip this section.

The rest of us are making copies (hopefully) of our CRITICAL data to floppy disk.

So if your hard disk crashes you will be up and running in no time ?

Afraid not.

What about the programs and utilities that you regularly use
- do you have the original disks ?
- if you downloaded them from the Internet do you remember the source ?

Can you recall the personalised configurations that you have applied to your software or those simple shortcut keystrokes which you use so often that it's hard to recall the original method ?

Can you remember all the passwords you are using - for connecting to your ISP, retrieving your POP mail, checking the statistics on reseller sites set up for you ?

Do you have vital contact information such as your ISP dial up number ?

Are there files, not directly under your control, which need to be part of your critical data - for example address books embedded in your Email software ?

Imagine this situation.

Your computer has been wiped out, stolen, gone up in flames.
All you have left is a backup copy of your critical data. (And, by the way, you are keeping a spare copy in a separate building - aren't you ?)

In your hour of need when you are desperate to get back online and attend to a mounting army of Emails or orders the last thing you need is to struggle to connect to the Internet, to find your passwords, to be deprived of the tools which simplify your PC work.

What is the solution ?

You need to keep a RECORD of all the vital information mentioned above (passwords, configuration details etc).

* Put this into a file which is part of the critical data that you regularly back up.

* Keep a PRINTED copy handy - and another one in a REMOTE location.

* You can even copy the file to your web site.

And also review the backup content of your critical data to check for any other files, such as address books, that need to be included.

Do this NOW.

3. Readers Forum

3.1 Alternative backup solution

Reader Donna Barron has kindly pointed out that there are disk mirroring products which eliminate the problem of a hard disk crash.

If you are interested she has information at <http://www.arcoide.com>

3.2 PC slowing down

My turn this week to ask our readers for help - one of the perks of having your own newsletter.

My Windows 98 PC is new and working very efficiently. When I work my way up and down through the various folders and subfolders of My Documents they all appear instantly, but ...and this happens every time ... after a while the speed at which it does this continually degrades.

So I end up trying to access a sub-folder say and it can take 10 or more seconds.

When I restart the PC it's fine to start with but again the speed degrades.

Do we have any experts out there who can advise ?

3.3 Ken Evoy's affiliate program

Following my review of Ken's outstanding book last week "Make Your Site Sell" (which you can read here some readers have asked me to clarify the position with his affiliate program.

Well you can join as an affiliate for free - you don't have to purchase the book. You will actually receive for free a 224 page book which will tell you everything you need to know about promoting any affiliate opportunity.

If you belong to any other affiliate program and think that online acknowledgement of your sales is the ultimate then you will be amazed at the stats that are provided here. Full details and simple joining instructions here.

4. Disk crash - It can happen to you !

My new PC was a mere 6 weeks old when the problem struck. I phoned the PC Technical Suport Desk ... and phoned and phoned.

It's all very well saying that you offer free support but if you can never get through it's an idle boast.

Lesson number one - if it's important for you to get technical support when buying a PC then try making contact beforehand and see how quickly you get answered.

The Support Desk asked me to try various commands then decided to send for an engineer.

As I had paid extra for a one year onsite warranty with a 16 hour response I naively assumed this meant that within 16 hours an engineer would be at my house fixing my PC. Not so. It's actually 16 working hours, which means it could be 2 days later. Further, I was told that this actually means they will 'respond' in 16 working hours not that the job will be completed by then.

Lesson number two - make sure you understand your service contract.

The hard disk had to be replaced and I then started the recovery operation. I keep backups on Zip disks. I highly recommend having a Zip drive, I used to spend an hour backing up to about 10 floppy disks which could only hold a fraction of my data. Now it takes 5 minutes to copy all the data I require.

But in order to get your PC to recognise your Zip drive you need to first install the Zip software. Obviously you cannot have this on the Zip disk or you would have a Catch-22 situation. You need to install it from the floppy disk which comes with the Zip package. So remember it's not sufficient to simply store away a Zip disk as backup.

Lesson number three: you will also need the Zip installation disk.

The recovery process worked well. I was pleased to see that by copying the PMAIL directory of my Pegasus software it not only recovered the mail files (and addresses and lists etc) but also the configuration settings. I had made a list of them separately as suggested in the previous article but it was still a relief not to have to reinput them. (It would be useful if manufacturers of software indicated which files or directories need to be backed up).

Now here's a perfect example of something that's hard to predict until you come to do it for real. I was about to run Pegasus when I realised that the mail outfolder contained mail that was waiting to be sent at the time of the last backup. So it would have been resent.

Something else I had overlooked. I recently acquired a mouse with a wheel. Again, something I highly recommend. It allows you to scroll easily through documents without having to position your cursor on scroll bars. But hey - it had stopped working. Of course I should have realised that the mouse installation software was just another software product, like Pegasus, Microsoft Works, Compuserve etc that I needed to reinstall.

Now for my biggest mistake: I only make backups once a week. I was due to make a backup when the disk went and so I lost a week's work. Amongst other things I had to retype the last newsletter from memory.

On reflection it does not make sense to have a rule which says make a backup every week or every three days or whatever. If you made no changes for 3 days say there would be no point in backing up on the third day. Conversely if you spent one morning making massive changes you might wish to make a backup there and then. The only advantage of a regular backup frequency is that it gives you the discipline to do it.

Now why was I only making backups once a week ?
One reason perhaps was I was still recalling my old floppy disk days with the deterrent of an hour's backup. 5 minutes with a Zip disk is no problem.

But the main reason was the following thinking:

"I'm only taking backups because of the one in a thousand chance of a disaster, anyway my PC is brand new. Disk crashes only happen to other people."

Be warned - it can happen to you.

Finally, two positive outcomes from the experience:

* When I complained to the PC manufacturer about the poor response and the failure of the hard disk they offered me a free year's extension to the warranty.

* I had been using a software product on a 30 day trial. The number of days remaining is displayed each time you run it. The figure is maintained somewhere on your system so when I reinstalled it the full 30 days were available again !

Some people will try anything to avoid paying for software.

5. How to Increase Your Website Traffic by 100 Visitors a Day in 7 - 10 Days! Free!
- by Harmony Major

In this article I'm going to give you a strategy for getting at least 100 more visitors to your site, each and every day! Whether it be your own personally designed website, or a self- replicated site, this strategy can work wonders for you. I increased my traffic by 250% in less than two weeks.

There really is no Insider's secret to present to you, nor is there any secret formula to use to "magically" produce results. I'm not going to mislead you and tell you that there is. But, I am going to tell you step by easy step, what you can do to give your traffic that extra needed boost. I used the "art" of free submission services, free-for-all links submissions, and search engine optimization.

The first two steps below only apply to those of you that have your own website or webpage that YOU can edit. It can be a simple gateway page, but you need to have control over the HTML code. See our gateway page for an example here: <http://gatewaypage.cjb.net> (Ours redirects, but yours doesn't have too.)

Nothing to it, right? :-)

If you want to get results as fast as you possibly can, you really need to take control over your entry page. Create one! I recommend The Icestorm Network at http://www.icestorm.com. They don't display any advertising banners or pop-up ads, and their connection is SUPER-fast. You don't want to put ANY outside banners on your gateway page, but I'll explain why later. So, go get a free page at Icestorm if you need to, but hurry. They only take a certain amount of free sign-ups per month.

Now, after you've set up your gateway page, you can start using these five easy steps to get you on the road to "Traffic Heaven!"

1. Optimize your meta tags.

"Oh no," you say! "Anything but that!" Relax . . . its not as complicated as it seems. Just check out this article on optimizing your meta tags at http://www.webmarketingtoday.com/articles/checklist.htm

But, don't get distracted! There are some excellent tips that you'll want to GO BACK and check out. However, for today you only need to focus on tip numbers 1 - 3. The first three tips tell you how to set up your basic title, description, and keyword meta tags.

If you don't know how to construct meta tags from scratch, there are a number of free meta tag generators that will do it for you. A really fast automatic meta tag generator is: http://www.metatagbuilder.com/

Now that you've made your meta tags, let's set up your page if you need to. All you want on your gateway page is a link to enter your main website, and no more than two images. You don't want too many graphics to distract your visitor from your page, which is why you don't want any outside advertising banners. But you'll need enough to successfully "hide" your keywords.

To "hide" keywords, you'll need to edit the "ALT=" portion of the image (IMG) meta tag. It looks like this: <IMG SRC=.... > After the URL of your graphic, put "ALT=keyword1, keyword2, etc..." This is for the major search engine robots that scan your entire page for keyword relevance. Put your most important keywords in your IMG tags, on both of your graphics. But, only a few! You can still get penalized for spamming the search engines if this isn't done correctly.

Also, before you start, be absolutely sure that you check out this free report, "Search Engine Magic," at http://marketing-resources.com/search.doc.

There are a few other sneaky tricks that you can use to get your website to rank at the top of the list! I used those, too. :-)

2. Create new and interesting headlines for your page or business.

Okay. Now that you've created your best meta tags, you want to think of at least three different headlines for your gateway page. For example, let's say your original headline is "Credit Card Shop - Get 2 unsecured credit cards, guaranteed!" Now, you want to think of three more headlines along that same line, that still describe your business effectively.

Your first additional headline could be: "Credit problems got you down? Click here for unsecured credit, GUARANTEED!"

Your second additional title could be: "Don't let a bad credit history stop you short. I can help. GUARANTEED!"

Get the picture?

Just different variations of the same headline, (which are easiest to create), or different ones altogether that focus on a different benefit of your business. But, however you decide to do it, just make sure they're ATTENTION-getters! You're going to need to create headlines that will jump out at the reader from a list of 50 or more!

Now that you've created your three extra headlines, you're ready to move on to step #3.

3. Make at least 15 dynamic URLs.

"Hold it!! What in the world is a URL, and what's so dynamic about it?" Now, now, let me explain. A URL, (Uniform Resource Locator), is simply the web address that takes you to different web sites on the Internet. It's formatted like http://www.yourdomain.com, .net, .org, etc. "Dynamic" simply means the addition of a question mark, and other alphanumeric characters at the end of your main URL. For example, in the URL http://www.mydomainname.com?123, the dynamic portion of the URL is "?123" But, DON'T use any forward slashes (/) after your question mark. This will make your URL invalid, and confuse the search engines into thinking that the "/" is for a new directory.

Now that you know that, you'll need to create at least 15 of these dynamic URLs for your website. When I first read about this strategy, the author suggested using the date as the dynamic extension of your URL. But, for our purpose, I suggest using something as brief as possible. For example, when I did my promotions, I used: http://homebasedheaven.cjb.net/index1.html?1, then ?2, ?3, etc., until I reached about 10 - 15.

"Why do I have to have 15 URLs," you ask? Simple. When search engines index your website, they can ban you for spamming if you submit to them too often. With a lot of the submission services you'll be using, you're sure to submit to a few search engines more than once in a day. You want to do EVERYTHING possible to avoid being banned by the search engines! You'll need them for a large portion of your traffic. So, your dynamic URLs are simply covering all of your bases. :- )

4. Submit your page to automatic submission services.

This is one of the EASIEST steps! There's a large, new listing of free automatic submission services at <http://207.8.171.14/submit.html>.

Those are the EXACT services that I used to boost my traffic over the past week! The list may look daunting, but each submission only takes a few seconds, and about 5 minutes at the most. So, you shouldn't have to spend more than about 45 minutes submitting to the list. Maximum.

To make your submission go even faster, you'll want to get a form-filler software that types pre-established information in for you, like "EasyFill." You can download that at: <http://www.logi-cali.com/>.

For Internet Explorer users, Microsoft has released IE 5.0, which has a feature much like EasyFill. If you fill out a form, the software automatically remembers the last thing you typed in that field. For example, if you type in "Susan Smith" in the "name" field when filling out a form in your browser, the next time you come upon a "name" field on another form, it enters it in for you! Just go to <http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/iebuild/msnie5/en/msn. asp> to download.

IMPORTANT: When you're submitting to each service, make sure you use DIFFERENT URLs for each one! That's why you created them in step three. You don't want to run the risk of spamming the search engines, so remember to change your dynamic extension for each submission.

Also, when you come across links pages that offer to submit your site to hundreds or thousands of pages, this is where you'll want to take advantage! Use each of your 3 or 4 headlines that you created in step 2 in the "Title" field of each form. Since these types of submissions only take about 5 seconds to process, this is the best and fastest way to maximize exposure. Use a different title for each of your three different submissions, along with a new dynamic URL!

5. Hand-submit to other "unpopular" search engines, and Yahoo.

This can actually be a very good form of traffic. Unpopular, smaller search engines tend to be more targeted, and it only takes a few days, (or hours), to get listed. I get a constant trickle of traffic from each of these types search engines every day.

Your goal for this step is to submit to at least one new engine per day. If you submit to at least one a day, every day, pretty soon you'll be getting a substantial flow of traffic from all of them.

Also, you'll want to try submitting your page to Yahoo, especially if you have your own domain name. Most of the search engine traffic comes from this popular directory alone. So, try it! But, make sure you follow ALL of their instructions to the "T." This may be your most important submission.

Well, that's it! If you follow these simple rules, you're almost sure to get a steady increase in your traffic over time, and fast. I increased my traffic by 100 visitors per day, in less than two weeks. And, I'm in the top rankings in 3 major search engines for two of my keywords. You can do it! Though this system may not produce the same results for you as it did for me, you should begin to see an excellent increase in your website traffic.

You'll want to keep going back to <http://207.8.171.14/submit.html> to submit to those free services every day! Your link can scroll off of the free-for- all links pages fast, so you'll need to keep up with it. Just submit every day, continue to update and perfect your meta tags, and you'll have a constant flow of traffic in no time! :- )

To get this article by autoresponder, please email <mailto:IncreaseYourTraffic@sendfree.com>

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6. Next Issue

For a trial period SuperTips Ezine will be published once every two weeks. Our next issue will be on July 21st and will include the article "Win customers by giving away Free information" with a fascinating real example of how this can be done.

If you have any suggestions to improve this newsletter so that we can make it a great resource for all our readers please drop me a line.