"Helping Your Business Fly"
Issue 17

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. FLIGHT LINES: Helpful to learn
2. WING TIPS: MS Office 2000 Tips
3. FEATURE ARTICLE: 5 Powerful Ways to Market...
4. ALTER EAGLE: "The New Power Of Advertising"
5. EAGLE'S TALON: CloneSpy v1.3 - An Excellent Utility
6. EYE OF THE EAGLE: A hunter leaves his camp...
7. CONTACT THE FLYER: Send questions, comments and articles

1) ======= Flight Lines =======
[Observations on business and life]

It's always helpful to learn from your mistakes because then your mistakes seem worthwhile.
-- Garry Marshall

One of the hardest things in this world is to admit you are wrong. And nothing is more helpful in resolving a situation than its frank admission.
-- Benjamin Disreali

2) ======= Wing Tips =======
[A variety of business helps and tips]

MS Office 2000

[Note: Before attempting this, or any other Windows "tips", be sure that you have a current backup of all of your important files.]

***
To quickly increase or decrease the size of text in Office 2000 documents, first select the text, and then To increase: CTRL+SHIFT+> To decrease: CTRL+SHIFT+<

***
In Word or Excel, you can quickly save or close all open documents using one step.

While holding down the SHIFT key, click the File menu. Two new options, "Close All" and "Save All" now appear on the file menu. Select the one that you wish to use.

You will be prompted to save changes if closing all files.

3) ======= Feature Article =======

"5 Powerful Ways to Market Using Autoresponders"
By Ralph Moore

1. FREE Reports
Similar to "fax on demand", this is an excellent way to present dynamic content to your website visitors. Place a link on your website, or in an online or offline ad, offering a FREE Report in exchange for the visitor's email address.

You can use autoresponders to introduce potential customers to your business and all of the helpful information that you have to offer. And you can keep the info fresh by simply updating the response file from time to time.

When you use this method, in addition to your company website, a wealth of knowledge can be made available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

2. Tech Support Replies
If you offer tech support by way of email, and you should whenever possible, set up an autoresponder to let your customers know that you have received their important message.

This tells them that your system is working properly, that you care enough about their problem to send an immediate response, and that someone will contact them personally as soon as possible. Then be sure to follow up quickly, with a personal email, fax or phone call.

If you use professional software, such as Postmaster, you can even personalize your messages with the person's name and email address.

3. FREE Online Courses
If you have a large amount of information that will help your customers, offer a FREE Online Course by using a series of timed autoresponse messages.

Such courses can be easily updated and expanded as new or additional information becomes available.

This is a powerful way to stay in touch with your customers, and is the basis for much of the marketing that takes place online.

4. [FAQ] Frequently Asked Questions
Keep track of all of the questions that your customers ask you, and from time to time, offer the questions, with appropriate answers in an "FAQ" file. This can be made available to anyone who enters the email address for that autoresponder.

If you find that your FAQ file is getting too big, you can break it into smaller files, and send an index of those files in the first autoresponse. Then the person can request the individual file that meets their needs, by using the specific email address for that file.

[FAQ] files are a great time-saver for you. By using autoresponders, along with your company website, you can provide a tremendous amount of information to your customers, and visitors. This reduces the amount of time spent answering the same questions time and time again.

5. Form Responses
Set up one or more forms on your website to allow your visitors to request information from you, and use an autoresponder to send an immediate response. You can use a specific response for each form, based on the type of information requested.

Autoresponders are powerful marketing tools. In addition to offering immediate replies to your visitors questions, autoresponders can be used to stay in touch, and build better relationships with potential and existing customers.

The proper use of autoresponders helps to set you apart as a true online professional, and adds an effective weapon to your marketing arsenal, giving you the edge you need to stay ahead of your competition.

About the Author:
Ralph Moore is the editor of the FREE Eagle Flyer Newsletter, which offers "How To Technology and Tips That Can Multiply Your Business Online". To subscribe to the Eagle Flyer and receive a FREE report, visit: http://www.eagleflyer.com

4) ======= Alter Eagle =======
[Products and services that we recommend]

"The New Power Of Advertising"
by Jay Conrad Levinson

A website is an island. Advertising is a bridge to that island. Large and small businesses online are discovering that truth in a hurry -- or else. Advertising is not what it used to be.

The Internet has changed its purpose and its strength. Rather than making advertising in the traditional media weaker, the net has made it stronger. That’s why all guerrillas must be aware of the new power of advertising.

The first thing to know, and this should come as good news, is that advertising no longer has to make the sale.

Not very long ago, advertising’s main goal was to make the sale, though there are many other goals. But that has changed dramatically with the growth of dotcom companies all over the Internet. Today, the goal of much advertising is not to make the sale but to direct people to websites.

That does not diminish the power of advertising. Instead, it increases it. With many, if not most, guerrilla-run companies establishing webturf, advertising’s newest function is to motivate people to visit a website where they can get far more information than can be delivered by standard media advertising.

Advertising has become the first step in a permission marketing campaign. It invites dialogue and interactivity with prospects and customers by directing people to websites, by offering free brochures, by generating the kind of action that leads to permission to receive marketing messages.

Once people grant that permission, which they do at a website or by simply calling to request a brochure -- printed or electronic -- that’s when serious guerrilla marketing attempts to close the sale.

That means the prime obligation of advertising is to motivate an easy-to-take-action. This should come as good news because it places less of an onus on advertising than ever before. Motivating the action of getting person to click to your website is a whole lot simpler than motivating a person to part with his or her hard-earned money and risk spending it the wrong way.

Not only is it easier to motivate action, but that action is becoming even easier as being online is now endemic. Over 100 million people are now online, though America Online’s chief, Steve Case, pegs the number as being closer to 200 million.

It’s not always a whole lot of fun to visit your store or order from your toll-free number, but it is fairly enjoyable to click over to a website and take a gander at what is being offered and how you can benefit.

There is a risk when somebody responds to advertising with an order. There is no risk at all if they check your website. Advertising seems to grease the skids to the sale. It takes far less time to learn about you online than to cruise around a mall or drive to a location further away than their computer.

That means advertising can be short, concise, to the point. It no longer has to curry the favor of prospects with long copy, involved graphics or detailed explanations.

The internet can do that for you, allowing you to save on advertising costs. Advertising your website works in all the media -- from TV to radio, from magazines to newspaper, from direct mail to billboards.

It doesn’t take a lot of time or verbiage to get them to spend a few moments checking how your website can improve their lives.

As all guerrillas know, the name of the game in marketing is creating relationships. It’s tough to accomplish this with an ad. It’s pretty easy with a website, which initiates dialogue by inviting it, by making it as easy as clicking a mouse.

Advertising has always been a method designed to change human behavior by getting people to purchase your product or service. The internet has changed that. Now, advertising merely has to deflect human behavior, to divert curiosity from an ad or commercial to a website.

There is little question that the online fire burns brightly. There is no question that advertising fuels the online flame.

During the telecast of Super Bowl played in l999, I was fairly amazed to see four commercials for dotcom companies. Today, I am even more amazed when I watch a sporting event telecast that does not have a whole gaggle of dotcom commercials.

The big and the small players online are learning from hard experience that they are invisible when they are online. Sure, their site might come up from a search engine or a link from a cooperating company, but the majority of people get their information offline -- and that’s where guerrillas marketing their sites. Offline and regularly.

It’s true that standard media advertising is interruption marketing, interrupting people in their perusing of the newspaper or magazine, in their viewing of a TV show or listening to the radio. Interruption marketing is crucial, however, as the first step in gaining permission from people to receive your marketing materials. And it is equally crucial in luring them to your website.

The top five products that internet users actually prefer to buy online differ from men to women. The top five to men are computer software, computer hardware, pornography, books and music. The top five to women are computer software, greeting cards, music, books and computer hardware. As Adweek magazine says, women are from Hallmark; men are from Bob’s Digital House of Porn.

Many so-called experts believe that the growth of the Internet signals the demise of advertising. This particular expert believes just the opposite. Advertising now can loom as important as ever, as necessary as ever, and more mandatory for a proper marketing mix than at any time in history.

The larger the internet grows, the more important the role of advertising and the greater its power. Advertisers must no longer have to move a person from total apathy to purchase readiness with their advertising. Now, all they have to do is move a person from total apathy to mild curiosity. From that point, moving that person to purchase readiness is the job of the website.

==========================
Jay Conrad Levinson is probably the most respected marketer in the world. He is the inventor of "Guerrilla Marketing" and is responsible for some of the most outrageous marketing campaigns in history -- including the "Marlboro Man" -- the most successful ad campaign in history. In his latest book, "Put Your Internet Marketing on Steroids" Jay reveals how you can use marketing steroids legally to make your business insanely profitable. http://www.roibot.com/r_mos.cgi?R19350_un24001_mos2text

5) ======= Eagle's Talon =======
[Tools to help you "get a grip" on things]

CloneSpy v1.3 [Freeware]
For Windows 9x/ME/NT4.0/2000

If you are like me, you download a LOT of files from the Internet. Your hard drive(s) end up loaded with duplicate files.

You use temporary directories for installing programs, and shared network drives for temporary backups of critical data... until you have a chance to do a proper tape or cd backup.

Do you burn files to a CD and retrieve them later? I know I often do, and it is quite easy to end up with an extra copy of a file or directory... somewhere.

CloneSpy is a file management utility that can help you clean up and organize your hard drive by finding and removing duplicate files.

CloneSpy can find duplicate files that have identical contents regardless of their name, date, time and location.

CloneSpy can also find files that are not identical, but that have the same filename.

If you have different versions of a file and want to find all of them and remove the older versions, CloneSpy will do the job.

With CloneSpy you can process files which

- are duplicates
- have the same file name
- are duplicates and have the same file name
- are zero bytes long

CloneSpy is a well-written utility that can save you some time, help you organize your storage and work areas, and eliminate clutter. I highly recommend that you take a look.

Download: http://www.eagleflyer.com/dload/cspy13.zip

6) ======= Eye of the Eagle =======
[Ideas to help you think creatively]

A hunter leaves his camp and travels one mile due south. Spotting a bear, he follows the animal one mile east, but loses sight of his prey, and decides to return to camp. After traveling another mile, directly north, he is back where he started.

What color was the bear.

(Answer in the next issue of the Flyer)

***
Answer to Last Month's Puzzler...

[Johnny's mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May.

What was the third child's name?]

Johnny! (We DID say it was Johnny's mother)

Do you have questions that you would like to have
answered in a future issue? Would you like to offer
a business or technology tip for our readers?
Click Here To Email Your Tips

Subscription Information:

To Subscribe by email, Click Here

To Un-subscribe, by email, Click Here

=======***=======
Copyright © 2000-2003 Eagle Computers. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole, or
in part, without the express written consent of the
publisher.

Registered with the Library of Congress. ISSN: 1535-8429
=======***=======