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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 let 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 some one
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:
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:
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
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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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http://www.onlinegolfsolutions.com