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... n the last issue I discussed RealNames, a system by which you can "buy" search-engine keywords: http://poorrichard.com/newsltr/036.htm#begin Several readers wrote to me to tell me about their experiences with the RealNames system. The first reader I heard from thanked me effusively (the subject line was "RealNames - Yeah, baby!!"). Edward Bishop ( http://www.audioamigo.com/ ) told me that he was happy to discover that he was "the first person in my industry niche to take advantage of RealNames." He bought four phrases that, "according to my research at GoTo.com Search Suggestion List and my own web logs, would be conside ...

... ough if you can get them, go for it! I discussed this issue long ago, early in 1998 ... see http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/004.htm#begin ). I'm saying that if you're trying to promote a domain name, it's often easier to get people to remember a .com name than any other. But let's take a look at those dentist and pizza domains -- they're pretty good examples. There is a dentist.com. There's also a dentist.net. Both sites are "under construction." But they're owned by different companies. The first is owned by a company called Dentist.com, in Danbury, CT. The second is owned by the Dentist Network, in B ...

... the U.S. sales tax situation -- how to decide whether or not you have to charge sales tax: http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/026.htm#begin There's a little more to the story that I didn't mention before, the question of whether downloaded software is taxable. If you put software into a box and sell it in a store, you'll pay sales tax on it in most stores. But what if you sell basically the same product -- the software -- but without a box? That is, if you allow customers to download the software from your Web site? Do you have to charge tax? And what about information purchased from a Web site? Perhaps you're selli ...

... The image files are animated gifs (which I discussed in this newsletter almost a year ago: http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/007.htm#begin ). Any reasonable artist, with a few hours research into animated gifs, could create these images very quickly. The sound is a .wav file; again, these are very easy to create with free software tools and a fairly basic computer configuration (sound card and microphone). Has the promotion helped the Web site? That I don't know. I think this would be perfect for a company selling rodent supplies online -- pet mice, hamsters, rats, and ferrets are big business, and I'm sure it would be pos ...

... hink you own the work your Web designer did for you, think again!: Who Owns Your Web Site?: http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/021.htm#begin Who Owns Your Web Site? - Part II: http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/022.htm#owns Registering Your Copyright: http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/022.htm#Register Who's Linking to You? - Part III In recent issues I've explained a couple of methods for tracking down Web pages that are linking to your Web site: Who's Linking to You?: http://PoorRichard.com/newsltr/018.htm#begin Who's Linking to You? - Part II: http://www.poor ...

... acking down Web pages that are linking to your Web site, using the AltaVista search engine: http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/018.htm#begin A couple of people emailed me to say that they had tried doing what I suggested, but the search engine found nothing. What's that mean? It doesn't mean that _nobody_ is linking to you, but unfortunately it does mean that not many people are linking to you. There are a couple more ways to find out who is linking to you. You can try HotBot: http://www.hotbot.com/ Type your URL into the search textbox -- the URL of the page you want to find links to (include the http:// ...

... eived a number of comments about the "Using URLs in Email Messages" article in the last issue ( http://PoorRichard.com/newsltr/019.htm#begin ). Most pointed out that in fact Microsoft Outlook _doesn't_ recognize email addresses that aren't preceded by mailto:, as I'd claimed. Well, I was both wrong and right. It's apparently true that Outlook 98 doesn't -- but Outlook 2000, which I'm using, _does_ recognize email addresses without mailto:. I have a beta copy of Office 2000, so I tested Outlook 2000 ... but I forgot to mention which version I was using. By the way, if you want a copy of Office 2000, you can ge ...

... t having paid my $100 I'd run the course, submit all 16,000 times, and report back (see http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/013.htm#begin for the details). I haven't yet submitted 16,000 times, but I think I've got enough information to update you. It really can push some traffic to a site. But it may not be worth the hassle. I just looked at my logs and found that about 200 people have visited my site over the past few weeks. I still have 13,088 submissions left, so once I've finished with them all I may have brought 1,000 to 1,100 people to my site. At a cost of $100, that's around 10 cents per visitor, which is ...

... he page automatically forward the person to the store, as I described in an earlier issue ( http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/005.htm#begin ). I haven't yet tested to see if this would work properly, though I imagine it probably would. How do you find a reliable affiliates program? Try this great little Web site, AssociatePrograms.com: http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/ Not only will you find hundreds of programs listed, but the owner, Allan Gardyne, discusses the pros and cons of many, and recommends ones that have worked well for him or others. He'll even tell you what he thinks are the ten best affiliate progr ...

... who have registered what I call "keyword" domains, which I discussed in an earlier newsletter: http://PoorRichard.com/newsltr/004.htm#begin In that newsletter I mentioned the site that had registered t-ball.com. They were getting traffic from people who simply typed t-ball into the Location box, just to see where it would take them. Now it will take them to either a different site altogether, or to a search-results page. One might argue that such keyword domains are unfair anyway, but still, what about people who have well-known domain names, used by people who want to reach their site ... people who will now be diverted elsewhere? ...