Poor Richard 6
#006/24-Apr-98
POOR RICHARD'S WEB SITE NEWS
Geek-Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site
Editor: Peter Kent
Top Floor Publishing
IN THIS ISSUE
- Beginner's Column: Using a URL Forwarding Service
- Password Protecting Directories
- More Thoughts on E-mail Promotions
- Follow-ups to Earlier Editions:
- Programmable Keyboards
- More Award Sites
- Don't You Hate it When That Happens?
- Poor Richard's Web Site in the Press
- Reading Back Issues
- In the Next Issue
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Beginner's Column: Using a URL Forwarding Service
Are you in the following situation? You have a Web site hosted at an Internet service provider. Say AOL, or Earthlink, CompuServe, or whoever. You want to get your own domain name, but you're not ready to pay $20 or $30 or more a month to have your Web site hosted. You know you need to grab the name now, but you don't want to pay too much. What should you do?
You might want to consider a Web redirection service. A redirection service hosts your domain on its server, but it doesn't host your Web site. When a browser tries to reach your domain, the server hosting the domain redirects the browser to your actual Web site. So, for instance, let's say you have the domain acmesewercover.com hosted at a redirection service, but your Web site is at members.aol.com/acmesewercover/. When someone types www.acmesewercover.com into a browser and presses Enter, a message goes to the redirection service, which points the browser across to members.aol.com/acmesewercover/.
The advantage? It's much cheaper than paying for domain hosting. I've seen a redirection service such as this for as little as $50 a year, at ForeverMail:
Another advantage. Some of these redirection services -- probably most, and including ForeverMail -- also redirect e- mail. So you can begin using your new acmesewercover.com domain right away for your e-mail, even though you haven't yet fully launched your acmesewercover.com Web site.
Yahoo! lists a few redirection services, though not many, and currently most of the ones they list don't seem to work with your own domain name; rather, they give you a domain based on a .to (Tonga), .nu (Niue), or .is (Iceland) domain.
Web redirection services: http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Internet_Services/Web_Services/Forwarding/
There are other Web services, though, ones that are not listed in this page. Some of the services that redirect e-mail also redirect Web addresses, so you might also check these Yahoo pages:
http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Internet_Services/Forwarding/
I've said before that I think it's a good idea in most cases to have your own domain name, and this method is one of the lowest-cost ways to do it. However, it's also possible to find Web-hosting services for as little as $9 a month, about $110 a year, so the saving is perhaps around $60 a year -- so before you sign up for a forwarding service see if you can find a low-cost hosting service. You might start by looking at Budgetweb:
And there is one significant problem with using a forwarding service. The search engines will index pages at the final destination site. When you finally move your site to a fully hosted site using your own domain name, those search engine links won't work unless you also maintain the old site.
Password Protecting a Directory
In an earlier newsletter I discussed how to transfer orders from your Web site in an encrypted form. In order to use the simple method I explained, though, you need a password- protected directory on the server. Password protecting a directory is really quite simple, and there are many reasons for doing so. For instance:
- Giving special product discounts to some customers? (To members of particular associations, for example.) Set up a private directory containing discount information.
- If you have a Web site for a club or professional association, you may want much of the site to be open to the public, but you may also want to create some member-only areas.
- If you have a company site, you may want to have a private area with announcements for employees.
- If you publish information, you may want to sell memberships to some areas of your site.
How, then, do you password protect a directory? (Note, by the way, that if you password-protect the directory, then the subdirectories -- the directories inside the protected directory -- are also protected.) There are several ways.
1. FrontPage
If you are using MS FrontPage, you have a password protection feature built into the software (as long as you are using the program to publish your site to a server with the FrontPage server extensions installed -- a "FrontPage enabled" site). You have to create a separate "web" and password-protect that web (it won't let you password protect a single directory within a web, unfortunately).
2. Another Authoring Tool
If you are using another authoring tool, on your own server or a server owned by your company, you may find that there's a password-protection command somewhere. If you are using another authoring tool at a Web-hosting company, you probably won't have a password-protection command available to you inside the authoring tool.
3. Ask Your System Administrator
You may be able to get your hosting company to password protect a directory for you; ask them.
4. Use a Utility
Most Web servers have some kind of utility you can use in order to add password protection. If your system administrator won't do it for you, or wants to charge more than you want to pay, ask what utilities are available.
For instance, on my server there's a program called dbmpasswd. I use Telnet to access my Web site, then type the command dbmpasswd and press Enter. A program runs, and allows me to add account names and passwords. Here's an example of what happens (users is the file that's going to hold the account names and passwords, and usergp is the first account name I'm adding):
dbmpasswd
Must open a password database before operation.
Enter the password database name("exit" to quit): users
Can't open file users. Do you want to create it[y/n]?y
Created the database users.
You may choose:
A)dd a user;
I)nsert encrypted;
D)elete a user;
M)odify a user's password;
L)ist;
P)rint;
Q)uit;
enter a command letter: a
Username: usergp
New password:
Re-type new password:
User usergp has been added to the password database.I also have to create a text file called .htaccess, and place it into the directory I'm protecting. I can use a text editor on my computer, then transfer the file using FTP. Here's what goes in the file:
AuthDBMUserFile /home/account/users
AuthName ByPassword
AuthType Basic
require valid-userThe first line shows where the database of user accounts is held, and it's the only line that I had to customize.
That's it. Now, when I try to access that directory, I have to enter an account name and password. You can try it if you want; I put the .htacess file in a directory called secret, so go to this url:
http://www.poorrichard.com/examples/secret/
To enter, use:
Account name: usergp
Password: asdfghjklThis system won't work on all servers, though. Another common system, which works in a very similar way, is htpasswd. If you'd like instructions on this, visit the following page at the C|NET Web site:
http://www.cnet.com/Content/Builder/Authoring/Stupid/ss01.html
How do you know which system is available on your server? Try typing in the command and see what happens. Or ask your system administrator. Of course neither of these systems may be available, but there's almost certainly some other way to password-protect a directory. Again, ask your system administrator.
By the way, should you provide a single account to a group of people, or an account for each person? In some cases you'll have to give everyone in a group the same account and password. For instance, if you are providing a discount to members of an association, you'll probably want to give the association a single account. On the other hand, if you are providing access to a private area for company employees, you'll want each employee to have his own account name and password; that way when an employee leaves you just remove that account, and the other accounts remain valid.
And that raises a question; if you have to create many accounts, how can you add them all quickly. Well, some systems may provide a way in which you can add a text file to the password system very quickly. For instance, my server has a script called txt2pw, which takes the account names and passwords from a text file, and imports it into the password database. Ask your system administrator what's available.
More Thoughts on E-mail Promotions
If you've been reading this newsletter for a while, you know that I've been experimenting with e-mail advertising; not spam, but using opt-in mailing lists and ads in joke e-mail distributions. I've still got a lot to learn, and plan to talk more about this subject as I discover new techniques and tricks, but I've got a few thoughts on the subject I thought I'd share with you now.
First, I should say that although some of my experiments have failed, I have found a way to use e-mail advertising to bring thousands of people to my site, generate orders, get the name of my product in front of hundreds of thousands of people, and get hundreds of people to sign up for this newsletter ... at a very low cost. I plan to expand my advertising efforts, using what I've learned so far to target more efficiently.
Here, then, are a few of the things I've learned on the way:
- I don't think classified ad e-mails work. You may have seen these, e-mails containing dozens of small ads, 3 to 5 lines long, for instance. The message may be a newsletter with classified ads at the end, or may carry nothing but ads. Why would people read these ads? Some will, but most won't.
- I think that e-mail message ads sent by themselves may not work well. That is, an e-mail message carrying nothing but an ad. People read the subject line, and unless it's a _really_ good subject line, they just delete the message.
- Probably the best way to do this sort of promotion is to put the ad into something that we know will be read, a newsletter or bulletin that people have asked to receive. If the information held in the message is entertaining or interesting, people will open the message and at least part of your ad will be read.
- Highly targeted ads are likely to be a much higher CPM (cost per thousand), and indeed should be a higher CPM. (That is, the cost for every thousand recipients or viewers of the ad. Why CPM? M is the Roman numeral for a thousand.) However, ...
- Advertising rates are all over the place. I've paid a CPM of 42 cents, and I've paid CPM of $150. The more expensive one was a complete failure, while the dirt cheap one was a success -- the cheap one actually sold more books, and attracted more visitors than the expensive one.
I'll let you know more about my advertising campaign as it continues.
Follow-ups to Earlier Issues
I want to quickly follow up on a couple of issues raised by earlier newsletters.
Programmable Keyboards
In Issue 4 I discussed how macros and programmable keyboards can help you work much more efficiently, and get more done while working at your computer -- in particular while wandering around the Web promoting your site or product (see http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/004.htm#work ).
In that article I mentioned that I only knew of one programmable keyboard, but since then readers have sent me information about several others. Just in case you are interested in getting such a keyboard -- it could save you literally hundreds of hours in wasted repetitive tasks -- here's that information.
Maxim keyboard, Kinesis Corporation http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/
MCK-142 Pro, Kbtek America
No Web site at present, but you can use the following phone number or e-mail address and they'll send or fax you information. (No Web site! What are these guys thinking?)
626-855-5050
kbtek@kincyb.com
Avant Stellar keyboard, Creative Vision Technologies, Inc.
This keyboard was recommended by Jerry Pournelle in BYTE.
http://www.cvtinc.com/
Floating Arms Keyboard, Workplace Designs
http://www.wpdesigns.com/
InterFatron-BBc, Ltd. This Web site doesn't seem to have any information about how to buy the keyboard, but I've included an e-mail address you can use. It looks like this company actually does the programming for some of the keyboards mentioned above, so they may only sell to manufacturers.
http://www.ifbbc.com/html/
ifbbc@ifbbc.com
More Award Sites
In the previous issue I discussed how to get awards for your site. I've found a couple more useful sites you can submit to:
Yahoo Internet Life Daily Double Scoop
http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/depts/dblscoop/dsarchive.html
mediaseven@aol.com
NetGuide's Internet Site of the Day!
Each of NetGuide's various subject guides has a Site of the Day. Go into each guide and look for an e-mail link to submit your site. These are the various guide subjects: Computing, Entertainment, Health, Internet, Living, Money, News, Shopping, Sports, Travel, Women.
http://www.netguide.com/
By the way, I've compiled all the award information from the previous issue, along with the information above, in a report I've published here:
http://www.poorrichard.com/freeinfo/special_reports.htm
I may add more useful award sites to this report as I run across them.
Don't You Hate it When That Happens?
In the last edition of the newsletter I included this little gem:
PostMaster Direct is a company that sells many thousands of names, in hundreds of different lists, from lists for ???? to ???.
What I really meant was this:
PostMaster Direct is a company that sells many thousands of names, in hundreds of different lists, from lists for animal lovers to woodworkers and writers.
This sort of mistake is caused by writing between the hours of midnight and two, and although I'll do my best to see it doesn't happen again ... there are no guarantees!
Poor Richard's Web Site in the Press
Reviews of "Poor Richard's Web Site: Geek-Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site" continue to arrive:
- Hilary Lane, writing in the Boulder County Business Report said this: "Recommendation: If you're thinking of setting up a Web site, buy the book. Chock full of useful information, it'll be the best return on investment in Web building you'll ever get."
- Craig C. Bailey, in the Business Digest of Greater Burlington, said that "Kent offers accessible advice on establishing, designing and promoting a Web site, while avoiding a lot of technical jargon ... when a book offers so many ideas and opinions that seem dead-on right, it's hard not to recommend it."
- And Pierre Borque, writing in The Hill Times (Canada's Parliamentary Newspaper) said that "His message is one I can relate to: It's not about how many technological gizmos you can jam onto a single web page, it's about function, purpose and the economical use of time and money."
For more reviews, and many readers' testimonials, visit ...
Poor Richard's Web Site is in many bookstores, and can be ordered by others; it can also be ordered online, through the mail, by fax, or by phone.
See ...
http://www.poorrichard.com/order/
Order direct from the publisher, and you'll get a 100%, 1-Year Guarantee. If the book doesn't help you set up a low-cost yet effective Web site, send it back for a refund!
Reading Back Issues
If you need to refer to back issues of this newsletter, you can find then at the following location:
http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/
In the Next Issue ...
- Why you might not want to add a search function to your Web site.
- Taking the animation out of a GIF animations.
- And more stuff I haven't thought of yet ...
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