Golf Newsletter Issue 3
April 1999
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Online Golf Solutions monthly golf Newsletter (from Dan Perry)
http://www.onlinegolfsolutions.com
danperry@onlinegolfsolutions.com Issue 3, Volume 1, April, 1999
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In this issue:
* From Dan's Desk
* Golf Quote of the month
* Interesting fact of the month
* Link of the Month
* Feature Article "The truth about search engines"
* Feature Tip "Working with Windows 98"
* Site Updates
* Interesting News
* Subscribe/Unsubscribe info
* Advertising in this Ezine
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* From Dan's Desk
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Getting excited about the Web Design conference in Atlanta. Only a week
away! I'll have a full report in the next issue. April looks to be a busy
month, with the conference starting things off, a mid-month trip to Indiana
for a client, and the completion of 2 golf course sites by the end of
the month (projected). I'll provide links to them next month.
I'm also starting a three part series on online promotion for golf courses
and related businesses. This month we will cover the basics of setting
a site up to take advantage of the search engines. Next month, a little
more detail on keywords, and some do's and dont's, and finally some other
ways to promote your site online.
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* Golf Quote Of The Month
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'Nice putt, Alliss'
In 1953 at Wentworth, all Britain needed was one point in one of the closing
two holes to win the Ryder Cup. Peter Alliss folded under pressure, missing
a short putt on the last hole, which gave rise to the now infamous line,
Nice Putt Alliss.
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* Interesting fact of the month
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A ball-maker in the 1850's working for 10 hours could only produce 4 or
5 feather balls, causing them to be very expensive. That is why golf basically
became a game for the wealthy.
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* Link of the Month
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http://www.acop.com/
American Consumer Opinion
This is a site that will pay you money for filling out surveys. Sounds
like a big scam, right? Well, actually, this one isn't. I personally use
it, and I have no complaints so far. I even went as far as creating a
seperate Hotmail email account for it, in fear of getting spammed to death.
I've used the service for about 6 months now, and the spam has been minimal.
In fact, I've only been invited to participate in a few surveys. When
you initially join, you fill out an information sheet, and that's used
to decide whether you'd be a good candidate for a survey. If you are,
you then will be asked to fill out a short, survey-specific form, to see
what your feelings are on a specific product, item, service, etc. I've
completed two total surveys, and have been paid $5 and $10 for my time,
with a check sent to my house. I am not affiliated with this company whatsoever,
but if you're like me, and enjoy sharing your opinion, you may want to
check it out.
http://www.win-it-free.com/
I was sent an email from the developer of this web site. It has a contest
where the winner gets $1000 to spend in a pro shop. You include your email,
zip code, and # of rounds played per year. You also include the email
address person who referred you to the contest. If you decide to enter,
the email address that I used to enter is danperry@onlinegolfsolutions.com.
I don't personally know the people running this sweepstakes. For all I
know, it could be spam or a hoax, but I thought my readers would like
to know.
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* Feature Article "The truth about search engines"
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Every client I've had has asked me how they can get their site to rank
higher in the search engines. The truth is, although being listed in search
engines should be a part of your overall marketing scheme, you shouldn't
spend hours on end worrying about it.
I'll give you an example: A friend of mine has an online business, and
he spent weeks (honestly) perfecting his site information, optimizing
it for search engines, submitting and resubmitting until he was blue in
the face. Finally, after a month, he was listed in the top 10 in three
of the major engines. Ahh, time for the traffic to start rolling in, right?
He did get a small surge of traffic for roughly 2 weeks, and then it dwindled
back to where it initially was. He checked his position in the engines
again. To his surprise, he wasn't in the top 10 of any of them. In fact,
he was only in the top 30 on one of them. He has since decided to spend
more of his energy on more traditional marketing, and other forms of online
promotion.
I'm not saying that search engines aren't important, because they are.
About 15% of the traffic to my site is from search engines. Every site
should be designed to take advantage of the engines. It only takes a short
time to set a site up.
There are four main things that should be considered:
1. Purchase your own Domain
One of the most important things an engine looks for are keywords in the
URL (site address). For example, I'm currently working on a site for the
Kings Challenge. When finished, it will be located at www.kingschallenge.com.
I've seen sites that haven't purchased their own domains, and their address
is something like www.geocities.com/Augusta/Fairway/34567/whatever.html.
If someone were to type in Kings Challenge, they have a MUCH higher chance
of finding it if it has its own domain. The URL carries the most weight
with the engines. Be sure and reserve one that includes some of the words
in the name of your course. If it's already been taken, consider using
a dash (-) between the words. Regardless, be sure to reserve one. Currently
(March 99) there are 12,000 names being registered every day, so it should
be the first thing you do; even before choosing a designer. The cost is
$35/year, paid in two year increments. An unbelievable low price
considering the advantages. (We provide this service; just call or email).
2. Create a good Title
The title of your site is the sentence that appears in the upper left
corner of your browser when you visit a page. When the designer hasn't
included a page title, it will read "Untitled Document". A good title
will include a descriptive phrase and good use of keywords. Keywords are
words that are related to your particular site. For example, the title
of the main page of Online Golf Solutions reads "Online Golf Solutions
- Golf Course Web Sites". People searching for online golf, golf solutions,
golf course, or golf web sites all have a chance of finding my site. Be
sure to have a Title on every page of your site, and also change it a
little to convey the information on each individual page. On my Promotion
page, the title reads "Online Golf Solutions (Promotion) - Golf Course
Web Sites". This may show up when someone searches for site promotion.
3. Create a good Keyword List
Within the document, the designer can add a list of keywords that are
related to the site. Since the engines have different rules, there is
a fine line between a good group of keywords and spamming (which will
disqualify your site from the engine). Next month we will be covering
the keyword list in detail, but for now, make sure that your site has
them. Go to the home page of your site (or any site, for that matter).
If you're using Internet Explorer, choose View>Source from your browser
(in Netscape, choose View>Page Source). A new window will open that has
a lot of text and code. This is the HTML (code) that makes up a site.
Near the top, you should see a few tags that read (HTML), (HEAD), (TITLE),
etc. You should see a section that reads:
META Name="keywords"
Content="..................."
This is where your keyword list belongs. You may not even have this META
tag on your site. It's surprising how many designers don't include it. If
you can't see it, call your designer and ask why! You could also sign up
for our free service, where we review the opening page to your site (info
on site, just click FREE Services button on any page).
You should find this bit of code on every page of your site. It only takes
a short time to create, but it can make lots of difference on the popularity
of your site in the engines.
4. Create a good Description
There should also be a tag that resembles the following:
META Name="description" Content="................."
It should be directly before or after the keyword META tag. Again, if it's
not there, contact your designer. This area should include a sentence or
two describing your Web site. Ensure that all of your important keywords
are being used. Here's an example, taken from the main page to my site: "Providing solutions for the golf course community, including web site design,
redesigns, site hosting, and site reviews." Simple, short, and to the point.
In closing, ensure that your site is designed to take advantage of search
engines, but there's no need to obsess. Next month, a closer look at the
Keyword list.
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* Feature Tip "Working with Windows 98"
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There are many ways to customize Windows 98. For this months tips, I'll
include a few of the better ones.
1. Add items to Quick Launch
The quick launch bar is next to the start button, and contains your most
commonly used programs. To add a program, go to Explorer and drag any program
icon to the quick launch bar. To remove an existing icon, right click on
it and choose Delete.
2. Add items to the Start menu
If you catch yourself minimizing a lot of open windows to get to the desktop
(so you can open another program), there's an easier way. You can put your
most frequently used programs on the Start menu, by selecting the program,
and dragging it to the Start button, and releasing.
3. Active Desktop
The Active Desktop is a resource hog, and really bogs down a system. To
disable it, right-click on the desktop, choose Active Desktop, and uncheck
View As Web Page.
Hope these tips help!
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* Site Updates
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Added a Free Services Section as an incentive to try out a few of our services
at no cost or obligation. Be sure to take advantage of both of these great
free offers (one concerning current online promotion, and the other a review
of a sites opening page). For more information on these great free services,
please visit http://www.onlinegolfsolutions.com/free.html
Completed a small redesign. Trying to make the site faster to load, and
easier to read.
Added the scorecard from Valhalla, Kentucky to the site.
http://www.onlinegolfsolutions.com/golf/scorecards.html
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* Interesting News
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Addition of rough, and other changes at Augusta for 1999 Masters
http://www.foxsports.com/js_index.frm?content=/golf/stories/g0310masters1.sml
Receive Free Faxes by Email
http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,10045,00.html
GM Unveils World's Largest Virtual Car Showroom
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,1087,4_9512_Ext,00.html
Security Gap in IE 5.0?
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/iehole990315.html
Windows 98 to be relaunched with new IE
http://www.news.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,25,33959,00.html
Getting Golfers to 'Stick' to Your Site
http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/stop/stop.htm
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*Subscribe/Unsubscribe Info
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To unsubscribe from this Ezine, please visit any page on my site, and type
the email address where this Ezine is being sent into the appropriate box,
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* Advertising in this Ezine
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This Ezine is targeted towards all golfers, web users, and webmasters, but
particularly to head pro's, and superintendents. I will accept advertising
that will be beneficial to my user base only. If you are interested in reaching
this very targeted market, please send email to:
danperry@onlinegolfsolutions.com and place "Advertising Info" in the Subject
Line.
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