Poor Richard 31
#031/23-July-99
POOR RICHARD'S WEB SITE NEWS
Geek-Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site
Editor: Peter Kent
Top Floor Publishing
http://PoorRichard.com/
Over 27,000 Subscribers in More Than 100 Countries!
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/ WIN A PALM PILOT! Recommend this newsletter to a friend
/ or colleague and you'll be entered to win!
/ Register here:
/ http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=141385
------------------------------------------------------------IN THIS ISSUE
- Beginner's Column: Fantastic Color Picker
- Recommend-It Results
- Need Some Consulting Help?
- France Bans .com Domains?
- A Clever Domain-Name Trick
- Watch Out For E-Nic
- Internet Overvaluations -- Here's Proof
- Poor Richard's Web Site and Other Top Floor Books
- Book Reviewers Wanted -- MP3 and the Digital Music Revolution
- Reading Back Issues
**** IF YOU FIND THIS NEWSLETTER USEFUL ... FORWARD IT TO FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES ****
Beginner's Column: Fantastic Color Picker
... in just one moment ...
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Beginner's Column: Fantastic Color Picker
I ran across a great color picker the other day, the 216-Color "Webmaster's Color Laboratory" at the VisiBone site.
This is a really handy little system. If you're trying to pick colors for your Web site -- for page and table-cell backgrounds, and for text colors -- you can use this site to pick colors that work well with Web browsers.
You can pick from 216 colors -- these are what designers often talk about as the "browser-safe" colors, colors that will display well virtually all browsers on computers that can display 256 or more colors. (Why only 216 colors, if these computers display 256 colors? Because different computers display a _different_ set of 256 colors -- the 216 in the browser-safe palette are the 216 that are common to all the systems. If you're interested, there's a good article on this subject here: http://www.netscapeworld.com/common/nw.color.html )
But the really nice thing about this system is that when you pick colors, the Color Laboratory does several things. It ...
* Displays the colors you pick next to each other, so you can see how well they match (up to eight colors at one time). * On each color swatch it places text using all the other colors you've selected, so you can see how well a background color and a text color work together. * For each color it gives you the HTML hex code for that color, so you can enter the color into your Web pages.
It's a great little system, take a look for yourself: http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/
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Recommend-It Results
Did you notice the announcement at the top of this newsletter telling you that you can win a Palm Pilot? All you have to do is use the link to go to a Web page, and use the form at that page to send an e-mail to one or more friends or colleagues. That e-mail recommends this newsletter, of course. The Recommend-It service is a free one -- no charge to Web-site owners and newsletter publishers.
This announcement was in the last issue of the newsletter, too, so I thought you might want to know what sort of result I got from it. So, here's a real-world assessment of the Recommend-It program ...
The last issue of this newsletter went to 26,000 people. In the first week after I transmitted it, 145 people used the form (Recommend-It send a weekly report, showing how many e-mails have been transmitted.)
In the second week, another 17 people used the form. So that's a total of 162, 0.6% of the subscribers. That really isn't too bad, I think.
It took about ten or fifteen minutes to set up the form. You can use the Recommend-It system by placing icons and links at your Web site, or within e-mail newsletters. Visit http://www.recommend-it.com/ for more information.
Oh, and don't forget to recommend this newsletter, and perhaps win a Palm Pilot!
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=141385
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Need Some Consulting Help?
I had a little chat recently with the person in charge of a major toy company's Web site. Well, let me re-phrase that. This gentleman is in charge of marketing at this toy company, which actually has no Web site at present ... he was responsible for finding a company to create the site for them.
When he told me he'd already commissioned a company to create the site, I asked him a simple question. "How are you going to bring people to your site?"
He went quiet for a few moments ... it was quite clear that he hadn't thought about this at all. "What do you mean?," he finally responded. I explained the old story about how a Web site _isn't_ a billboard on the information superhighway (a phrase we don't seem to hear quite so much of these days, but that many people still appear to believe). You have to give people a reason to come to your site.
It really struck me just how little most people understand about the Internet. Many of us, in particular many of my colleagues in the Internet business, are so wrapped up in the online world -- and in many cases have been wrapped up in it for five or ten years or more -- that we forget that the rest of the world _isn't_. Most Americans (perhaps 60% -- 150 million people or so) still do not use the Internet, and most of those who _do_, don't use it much ... they still don't understand it well. In Europe there's a still higher percentage "offline." And most of the rest of the world (with the exception of a few countries such as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand) has hardly touched the Internet.
I've been immersed in the Internet since late in 1993, when I first started writing "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet." (When I began work on that book my local Barnes and Noble bookstore had a single Internet-related title in stock!) I've written more books about the Internet than probably anyone else in the world. I've observed, I've researched, and I've taken my knowledge and applied it, too. I sold $30,000 worth of books across the Internet in 1998, and used the Internet as a great promotional tool, as well, pushing 10,000 buyers into the bookstores. (In fact I first started online marketing, on CompuServe, back in 1998.) As you know, I've also built a large mailing list -- this issue will go to 27,000 people around the world.
I've been thinking about this for a while, and, well, I've decided to do a little consulting. How can I help your company? I've decided to offer the following types of services:
- Phone Consultations
- Brainstorming Sessions -- I'll visit your company, and help your staff think of ways to "position" your company on the Internet and bring people to your site.
- Positioning Reports -- I'll provide you with an extensive report that will give you an idea of where your company stands compared to your competitors, and what you should be doing to promote your site.
- Research and Assessment -- I'll research a particular subject for you, and write a report, white paper, or magazine article.
- Marketing Plans -- I'll build a detailed Internet marketing plan for you.
If I can help you in one of these ways, or any other, email me at consult@topfloor.com. (Please, only serious proposals!)
France Bans .com Domains?
In the last edition I asked about a comment from a reader who had told me that in some countries -- he mentioned France specifically -- the use of the .com domain has been banned.
A number of readers responded, and none of them confirmed this; they all said that he's mistaken.
For instance, see http://www.xandmail.com/ , an e-mail software company based in France, and even France Telecom, the official French Telco company, http://www.pageszoom.com/
A Clever Domain-Name Trick
After a couple of issues talking about the importance of .com domains, it's time for a change. I noticed an interesting little domain-name trick the other day -- the creation of a word by registering the appropriate country domain to be used as the end of the word. The domain name I saw (on a business card) is http://spla.sh/
The .sh top-level domain is the St. Helena domain. The same company also has the http://www.magne.to/ domain -- .to is the code for Tonga.
Where do you find country codes to play with? Try these two places:
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/iso3166-countrycodes
http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/websoft/wwwstat/country-codes.txt
One can imagine all sorts of interesting possibilities: Sco.re (Reunion), Pap.er (Eritrea), Co.ke (Kenya), RollingSton.es (Spain), and so on.
Here's the catch, though. Not all countries will allow you to register a second-level domain (For instance, in the last example .es is the first level, while RollingSton is the second level.) Some may make you register a third level, reserving the second level for themselves -- for instance, in the UK it appears that the second level domains are .co, .org, .ltd, and .plc.
Watch Out For E-Nic
I received a letter from a company called E-Nic the other day, offering to sell me a .cc domain (topfloor.cc). Not quite sure why I'd want a .cc domain, but the letter looked very official, almost like an invoice -- though I must admit it does state that "This is not a bill. This is an invitation." I wonder, though, how many get paid by accounting departments not realizing what they really are.
"Our research shows." the invoice/letter said, "that those companies or private individuals that own domain names with .com, .net and .org are unaware of the availability of their .cc domain to anyone who wants it at www.ccnic.cc." The letter suggests that you "protect yourself," and register your .cc domain "before it's too late."
The .cc domain, by the way, is the Cocos Islands (also known as the Keeling Islands) domain. Registering your .cc domain will only cost you $100. While you're at it, maybe you should register your .cx domain (Christmas Islands), your .ck domain (Cook Islands), the .fo domain (Faroe Islands), and your .hm domain (Heard and McDonald Islands).
The whole tone of the letter annoyed me, it seemed quite misleading. Most readers of this newsletter would probably see through this ploy, but just in case ... I suggest you avoid E-Nic.
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What can you do with MP3? Copy from your CDs to your computer ... create customized playlists (that run for hours or even days) ... play music from your computer through your stereo ... cut your own customized CDs and tapes (include just your favorite tracks) ... promote your music or band ... record MP3s from vinyl, tape, the radio ... and plenty more.
Find out all about MP3 in "MP3 and the Digital Music Revolution." The book includes a disk with WinAmp, MusicMatch, and over ten hours of great MP3 music! Visit http://TopFloor.com/mp3/ for more information!
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Internet Overvaluations -- Here's Proof
What's an Internet company worth? Slap the word "Internet" into a company name or business plan, and all of a sudden it's worth hundreds of millions, billions, even. But for a quick bite of reality, take a look at what happened to PointCast.
PointCast, back in the days of push hype, when industry analysts were saying that push technologies would be the next big thing on the Internet -- way back in 1996/97, I guess it was -- PointCast was right in the forefront, the company that seemed to be leading the whole push movement. The PointCast system puts a news page on your computer screen, and updates it for you constantly. No need to go to a news site to read the latest headlines and stories, they'll be pushed across the Internet to your computer for you.
Of course leading a movement that's doomed to fail won't get you far, but for a while everybody seemed to believe the hype, and PointCast was a very valuable company. At one point, in 1997, Rupert Murdoch offered $450m for the company.
Early in May, PointCast finally sold out. They were bought by IdeaLab, a company founded by Bill Gross, the guy who started the kids' software company "Knowledge Adventure" back in PC pre-history.
So how much is PointCast worth today? C|Net reported that IdeaLab paid $10m, though I've been told it may have been as low as $7m.
Which makes me wonder, was it really worth $450m just two years ago? And what about all those other deals we've seen recently, for hundreds of millions. Are those companies really worth so much? (In many cases the answer's clearly No.)
Poor Richard's Web Site and Other Top Floor Books
Top Floor Publishing now has four books in print:
Poor Richard's Web Site
http://PoorRichard.com/
Poor Richard's Internet Marketing and Promotions
http://PoorRichard.com/promo/
The CDnow Story: Rags to Riches on the Internet
http://TopFloor.com/cdnow/
MP3 and the Digital Music Revolution: Turn Your PC into a CD-Quality Jukebox
http://TopFloor.com/mp3/
Order direct from the publisher, and you'll get a 100%, 1-Year Guarantee. If you feel the book wasn't worth the money, send it back for a refund!
And remember, these books are discounted at the Web site, and you pay just one shipping cost regardless of how many books you buy!
Book Reviewers Wanted -- MP3 and the Digital Music Revolution
Do you review books for newspapers, magazines, newsletters (electronic or paper), Web sites, or other media spots? If so, perhaps you'd like to review Top Floor Publishing's latest book, "MP3 and the Digital Music Revolution: Turn Your PC into a CD-Quality Jukebox." Or perhaps you'd like to review one of the books I mentioned above?
Contact my Marketing Director, Missy Derkacz, at reviews@TopFloor.com. Include your full mailing address, the name of newspaper/magazine/whatever in which the review will appear and the probable date of publication, and the editor's contact information.
Reading Back Issues
If you need to refer to back issues of this newsletter -- and search the archives -- you can find them at the following location:
http://PoorRichard.com/newsltr/
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