In this issue:

1) Tip of the Week

2) FEATURE ARTICLE: Seizing the Power of Yahoo! by Bill Platt

3) CLASSIFIEDS

4) FREE Resources

5) POWERQUOTE

6) MANAGEMENT MINUTE: Small Steps To Conquering Big Problems by T.W. Winslow

If you'd like to read previously ran tips and features, go to http://netcheckspayroll.com/newsletter.html

Pro-motion Answers for the "Pro in Motion"

Q. Why do I need a company name when I'm just working from home? (Susan A.)

A. To be considered professional, even home workers need a company name if they are in business for themselves. You do want to be taken seriously, don't you? If so, you'll need to register a business name.

The registration I'm referring to is often called a "DBA" (Doing Business As), a "Registered Alias" or an "Assumed Name Statement" in most States of the USA. I'm sure that agencies are provided for this purpose in countries outside the USA.

Corporations are registered when they are formed. However, a company name needs to be registered even if it's a sole proprietorship, i.e., individually owned and unincorporated. Do you think that working on the Internet is exempt? It isn't!

Actually, I'm not even referring to the legal aspects of owning a business. It's a simple matter of your degree of professionalism. If you are taking money from people to provide a product or service - you are a business!

Without a business name registration, a bank won't give you a business bank account. What? You don't need a business bank account? Are you going to send refunds with your personal checks? Are you the same person who doesn't want customers to know where you're located?

Are you in business, or not? Get your business registered and get a business bank account.

Q. I join affiliate programs in order to be paid commissions on the products I promote. Do I really need a business name? (Bob W.)

A. Well, that depends. Technically, you are a broker for the companies providing the products. You may choose to set up a company for that.

However, if your chosen affiliate program companies take complete care of the customer after the sale, there may be no reason for anyone to contact you. You may simply be an independent contractor - which doesn't necessarily require a company name.

Bear in mind though that the moment you begin publishing an ezine or newsletter to promote those products - if you sell advertising - you have now become a full-fledged business. Get a business name!

Yes, a business bank account will cost a few bucks more than a personal account. But if you can't make that, you're already belly-up.

* To submit questions to "Pro-motion" mailto:Questions@IAPOnline.org

jl scott, ph.d., Author © 2000, All Rights Reserved

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dr. jl scott is the Director of the International Association for Professionalism Online (IAPO) http://www.IAPOnline.org - and also the publisher of MONDAY MEMO! - the ezine dedicated to upgrading Professionalism on the Web. For your FREE subscription: http://www.MondayMemo.org/ezine.htm

Seizing the Power of Yahoo!

by Bill Platt

A recent study of Internet traffic patterns revealed that 43.5% of all search engine referrals are coming from Yahoo.com. That means that Yahoo! can still be a powerful force in your promotion strategy. What if I could show you three ways to harness the power of Yahoo! without spending a dime?

Yahoo! is notoriously slow in adding new submissions to their directory, it can take as much as six months to a year to see your site listed in the Yahoo! search directory. And just because you submit your link to Yahoo!, there is no guarantee that your site will even appear in their directory.

As a result, dozens of companies have sprung up promising that for a fee, they will get you listed on Yahoo! What kind of access do they have, that you and I don't have... likely, they don't have any more the ability than you or I. What they can do however, is use their experience submitting sites to Yahoo! to enhance your likelihood of getting listed on Yahoo!

At one time, Yahoo! itself was offering premium services to those with the cash. For a fee, they were willing to consider your submission within three days guaranteed, rather than the average 6 months. But, even after putting down your hard earned cash, they were only promising to consider your site for inclusion. They were not promising to include your site at all. It appears at this time, Yahoo! has discontinued this premium service.

To make it even tougher for the little guy, the rumor was circulating just last year that Yahoo! was only going to include top level domains in their directory from this point onward. If you were to pick the complete listing of What's New for any one day, you would discover that this isn't exactly accurate. Yahoo! seems to be giving preference to top level domains, but they are not restricting submissions to the top level domain. For example, take a look at Sunday, March 5, 2000: http://dir.yahoo.com/new_additions/20000305/all.html

Run your mouse over each link in the list and look at the bottom of your browser to see the link address. On this date, the vast majority of new additions are top level sites, but a half dozen of the new listings can be found on Geocities and Angelfire, just to name a couple.

To get a grasp of what the editors of Yahoo! are looking for, find the sites served by the Free Webhosting services such as Geocities and Angelfire, and check them out for yourself. What you will discover is that these webmasters understood the motto: "Content is King!"

The following two tips will guide you towards harnessing the true power of Yahoo!, and they both take a lot less work. While your site's content will still play a roll in your marketing effectiveness when using these techniques, you will discover that the requirements of placement are not as stringent.

The first step you need to take is to visit Yahoo.com and search for the keywords that most accurately describe your site. This will give you a listing of categories and sites within the Yahoo! database. What you are doing is looking for the sites that most closely resemble your own site.

The best place to start is a category that lists a number of results for your query, and analyze the category itself. If the category seems to match your own site, then this is where you will begin your work. Use a generic text editor to come up with a description of your site and its content, and a sincere thank you at the end; then save your description, but keep it open and minimized.

Now visit each site listed in the Yahoo! category that you are in. Take a few minutes to look around the site. You are looking for specific information, so be thorough. You need to discover the name of the site, if they have a links page on the site, the name of the webmaster if possible, and an email address for the webmaster. Once you have completed these tasks, then open up an email addressed to the webmaster.

In that email, you want the Subject to say: "From the [name of website] website." Then if at all possible, you want to open the message with "Dear [name of webmaster]." Then write an introductory paragraph that mentions the links page [if there is one], and a brief comment about their website. The purpose here is not to flatter them, but to let them know that you have taken the time to view their site. Also, try very hard to address the email towards the webmasters site and site visitors as opposed to yourself. For each website you visit, and each email you create, the first paragraph of that email needs to be written on the spot... no canned presentation can serve you well at this point.

The general concept of the first paragraph is:

"Hi. I was looking for sites with good information on them when I came across your site. It seems that my site may serve your site visitors as well. Would you kind enough to take a few minutes and browse my site to see if it meets your approval for addition to your links page?"

Remember also, that you are asking someone to do something that they may consider a hassle, so make darn sure you are courteous about it. If you try to tell them to do it, chances are, your email will go to the Trash Can without a second thought.

After the first paragraph is written, then copy and paste your site description from your text editor to the email being constructed. Be sure that you sign off the email with a considerate finish.

The key to this being effective is that the sites you have chosen to approach are those similar to your own. The webmaster of that site is already interested in your subject matter, therefore, he will be more likely to consider your link.

One of my online friends used this technique to propel his traffic from 30 hits a day to 500 hits a day, literally overnight. As a result, his newsletter doubled it's circulation in less than one month.

I spent an afternoon using this technique myself. All in all, I contacted 40 webmasters, and received 12 links. One of those links was a fellow who did not want to spend time maintaining his site any longer, so he just posted a direct link to my site on his main page. I have doubled my own traffic in less than two weeks.

Finally, have you ever noticed that when you search for something on Yahoo!, that if Yahoo! does not find a relevant link, or at the end of the links it did find, that Yahoo! will open up a window showing you Web Matches? Have you ever wondered where you can submit your link to be included in the rollover of a Yahoo! search? What if I told you that the Yahoo! Web Search is powered by the Inktomi Search Engine? And, what if I told you that getting listed on the Inktomi Search Engine is super easy, and you can see your link in as little as three days?!? That would be a powerful tip in itself, wouldn't it?

Well, here is the third and final tip I will offer you for "Seizing the Power of Yahoo!." Canada.com is powered by the Inktomi Search Engine. So, go to Canada.com to submit your URL, and you can conceivably see your link added to Yahoo! in as little as three days!

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Article by Bill Platt: Owner of http://F5Computing.com , The F5 Computer Support Knowledge Base & Portal, and the Editor of "The F5 Computing and Technical Support Newsletter". New & experienced users & computer professionals wait for each bi-weekly issue to get new tips, tricks, links & articles, about their Windows PC. Free Subscription: mailto:1-F5Computing-subscribe@onelist.com

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Small Steps To Conquering Big Problems

by T.W. Winslow

I recently received a letter from a man requesting help in finding a solution to a major problem in his life. His particular problem had developed over several years and now, as with many of us today, he was looking for a quick fix - an immediate remedy for his predicament. Unfortunately, this simply wasn't possible.

Often in our busy lives, we ignore some of our difficulties rather than dealing with them as they arise. The problem with this is many times these issues never get resolved and build to a point where suddenly we feel overwhelmed and our lives seem hopelessly out of control.

Whether these are problems within our relationships, difficulties at work, or things we wish to do with our lives - starting our own business, making a needed career change, etc., when we ignore these issues in our lives, at some point the mounting weight of these problems gets to be too much and our world crashes in on us. When this happens, we feel at a loss to resolve these difficulties as now they appear too large to manage.

If we just focus on the situation as a whole, this can make us feel overwhelmed and unable to deal with the problem. However, by breaking this down into manageable pieces, we can easily conquer these issues, one step at a time. We have to remember that these problems took time, possibly years, to develop, and we can't simply wipe them out in one fell swoop.

Break the problem down, then pick one issue to resolve. Once this is dealt with, cross it off your list and focus in on another issue. As we successfully conquer one aspect of the problem after another, soon we begin to feel in control again, and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. With a little hard work and determination, what once appeared as an insurmountable problem, is soon resolved.

Each of us has the ability to deal with even the largest of life's problems. It's all a matter of approaching these from the proper perspective and breaking them down into manageable pieces.

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

T.W. Winslow operates The Mystic Beagle - a free advice web site dealing in love, life and relationships. Free advice, romance tips, true love stories and more. The Mystic Beagle also publishes a free weekly online newsletter. Visit The Mystic Beagle at http://www.mysticbeagle.com "Free advice and worth every cent!"

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