Issue 35

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The Eagle Flyer is published every other Thursday and is
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My goal is to offer you timely tips on new technology,
business and marketing, and to teach you techniques that
can help you multiply your business online.

Please share this newsletter with your business associates.
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IN THIS ISSUE:

1. FLIGHT LINES: Choose words that make a difference
2. WING TIPS: Windows 2000 Emergency Repair Disk
3. FEATURE ARTICLE: "10 Crucial Steps To Building Trust Online"
4. ALTER EAGLE: Phrases and Sayings for your ads
5. EAGLE'S TALON: "Master Printer Friendly Page" Script
6. FROM THE BENCH: "Communications with a Smile or a..."
7. EYE OF THE EAGLE: How much does a room really cost?
8. CONTACT THE FLYER: Send questions, comments and articles

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

The difference between the right word and the almost right
word is the difference between lightning and the lightning
bug. --Mark Twain

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of
silver. --Bible, Proverbs 25:11

Whenever you are writing an ad or an email message, be
aware that your words may be found on the Internet for
years to come. Choose your words wisely, to get the full
impact from your work, and to avoid being misunderstood.

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

Windows 2000 Emergency Repair Disk

To create an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) in Windows 2000:

Go to Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools /
Backup. On the Welcome to the "Windows 2000 Backup and
Recovery Tools" page, click Emergency Repair Disk and
follow the instructions to complete the wizard.

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

"10 Crucial Steps To Building Trust Online"
By Ralph Moore (c)2003

If you have read some of my other .rticles, you might have
noticed that I call email, web sites and other forms of
communication "flat" or "faceless".

In the "online world", you don't get to see the smile or
frown, hear the subtle inflections and tonal qualities of
voice, or "pick up on" the body language that often offers
added insight into the meaning of a message.

That's why it is doubly important to establish trust in all
of your online communications. Here are ten ways that I
have found to enhance credibility and increase trust online.

1. If you don't already have a professional presence on the
Internet, get one. If you are going to conduct commerce on
the Internet, you need at least one domain name, a web site
and one or more email addresses for your company or product.

You can get reliable, affordable domain name registration
from the one company that I use and recommend right here:
GoDaddy

And you can get an unbelievable web site hosting package
with unlimited email addresses and autoresponders from the
web host that I use for all of my web sites, and highly
recommend to all of my customers, right here:
Host4Profit

2. Make sure you put an "about.html" or similar page on
your web site, where you let the world know exactly what
it is that you do, and who you are.

Everyone might enjoy a good mystery book, but when it comes
to cunducting business, people like to have some idea as to
with whom they are working.

3. Make sure your contact information can be easily located
on your web site. That should include the name of your
company, your name or the name of a contact person, your
address, email address(es) and telephone number(s).

If you are a professional, you shouldn't be hiding anything.

4. Offer an easy to understand (readable) privacy policy
that can be found from each page of your web site. People
want to know that you are going to protect any information
that they give you.

5. Conduct ALL of your financial transactions in a secure
manner. This means that if you process credit cards online,
you need to use secure technology to do so.

If you need to accept credit card payments online, but do
not have your own merchant account, then you can use one
of the following "third-party" processors:

ClickBank

PayPal

6. "Brand" yourself. No, I don't mean with the "triple J"
brand. Provide your web site visitors with your "USP" or
"Unique Selling Proposition".

This answers the question "W.I.I.F.M." ("What's In It For
Me?") and helps them to stick around long enough for you
to gain their trust.

7. Whenever you write ANYTHING, whether it is an email to
a customer, an advertising piece for your web site or for
any other purpose, be sure to use a spell checker and
a grammar checker.

If possible, have someone else proofread your work for
"readability", as well as for errors. It never hurts to
have a second set of eyes look at your work, before you
embarrass yourself in front of the world.

And yes, I am speaking from experience!

8. Be an "open book". By that, I mean if a contact or a
customer asks a question, ALWAYS answer as honestly as
possible. There is nothing wrong with saying these three
little words. "I don't know!"

And if you choose to say, "I don't know, but I will find
out and let you know", then do just that. Do the needed
research, as quickly as possible and follow up sooner,
rather than later.

9. Communicate effectively. Remember, people who read an
email or look at a computer screen, might misunderstand
what you are trying to say.

If you think that there is any possibility of the meaning
being lost from the message, be sure to ask for feedback
or an acknowledgement.

10. Always think "WIN-WIN"! In all of your business
dealings, whether on or offline, work in such a way that
both you and your customer come out ahead every time.

It may take a little extra effort, but it will be well
worth it in the long run.

When it becomes obvious that you care more for the needs
of your customer, than you do for your own profit, trust
will always be a fruit of your labor.

By paying attention to the details of these 10 crucial
steps, you will build a foundation of trust and multiply
your success.

Ralph Moore, Editor - Eagle Flyer Newsletter - Get No-Cost
Software, Reports, Bonuses! Email or visit:Eagle Flyer
Get The No-Cost Email Training Series Below
"How, When & Where To Post Your Articles" - "Write Here"(TM)
Training Series - writehere@eagleflyer.com

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

Phrases and Sayings for your ads

If you write your own ad copy, speak with your customers
or are just curious about the meaning or origin of certain
words and phrases, this web site offers a wealth of
information.

The Phrase Finder website offers "A list of the meanings
and origins of over a thousand phrases, sayings, quotes
and cliches in English.

A Discussion Forum where you can discuss the meanings and
origins of phrases or sayings with the people who know.
Use the current forum to ask a question or search the
archives of more than 18,000 postings."

The categories include proverbs, quotes, euphemisms, and
a lot more.

For more information visit the website at: Phrases and Sayings

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

Review: "Master Printer Friendly Page" Script

Have you ever wondered if there was an easy way for you
to offer your web site visitors a "printer friendly"
version of a web page?

Well, thanks to another fine script from the folks at the
Willmaster web site, there is!

Below is the link to another no-cost script that can easily
be used to make any web page "printer friendly". When I get
a spare moment, I will be adding a link to each of my
articles on the Eagle Flyer web site.

Here's how it works.

As with any Perl or cgi (common gateway interface) program,
you have to "call" the script by adding a line similar to
the one below, somewhere in the web page that you want to
make "printer friendly".

(a href="http://www.eagleflyer.com/cgi-bin/masterpfp.cgi
?doc=http://www.eagleflyer.com/test/mpfptest.html")Click here
for printer friendly page(/a)

The first part of the link, ending in masterpfp.cgi calls
the script. The ?doc= plus the following link tell the
script the exact location of the page to be printed.

As it stands, the above link will not work.

I deliberately split the line and used "(" and ")" instead
of "<" and ">" so that you would be able to see the whole
thing on your screen. In reality, there should be no "line
breaks" between the .cgi and the ?doc and between the
words "Click here" and "for printer".

In addition to the line that calls the script, you will
need to add a couple more lines somewhere in your web page,
to let the script know exactly what you want to print.

The lines look like the following:

(!-- BEGIN_PRINTER_FRIENDLY_COPY --) to start printing
and (!-- END_PRINTER_FRIENDLY_COPY --) to end, again
using "<" and ">" instead of the "(" and ")" shown here.

If you look at my test page for this script, located at: mfptest
you will see the Eagle Computers logo, followed by nine
lines of text and the link to the "printer friendly" page.

When you click the link, you will see the page to be
printed, displayed in a new browser window.

You will notice that by using two sets of the "begin" and
"end" links, I was able to customize the printed page, so
that the logo and three of the nine lines of text are not
included in the new "printer friendly" page.

By selectively using the begin and end tags, (as many as
you like) you can be very specific about what gets printed.

There is even a feature in the script that allows you to
customize the way that you display the images in the page.

If you try this script, be sure to set the permissions to
755 (read/write/execute, read/execute, read/execute) and
watch that the name of the script is spelled correctly.

Some ftp "clients", like WS_FTP can force the name to be
changed to lower case, and then your script won't work.

As with all of the scripts, both commercial and no-cost,
that you will find at "Willmaster.com", I highly suggest
that you take a look at this great tool.

Grab your copy here: MasterPFP

6) ======= From the Bench =======
[Real-life accounts of hardware, software and more]

"Communications with a Smile or a..."

It never ceases to amaze me how many different forms of
communication have been developed for online use.

Since email messages, chat and online help screens are
often still text-based only, people have come up with some
pretty creative ways to use characters to represent their
emotions and facial expressions.

Every once in a while, I'll get an email with some form of
a "smiley face" in it. While there are literally hundreds
of these, here are just a few of the more common ones that
I have seen over the years.

:-) Basic smiley
:-} Beard
:-( Boo hoo or a frown
:( Sad
:-< Real sad
:) Happy
:-D Laughing
:D Laughter
:Q What did you say?
+:-) Priest
+-:-) Holds religious office

Obviously, you need to "see" these as if you were turning
your head 90 degrees to the left, but many browsers and
email programs convert them into colored images that look
sort of like the real thing.

Here are a few more.

[:-) Wearing a walkman
B-) Wears horn-rimmed glasses
::-) Wears normal glasses
{:-) With hair parted in the middle
(:-) No hair, bald

Here are a few links to more smily resources than you will
probably ever need:

Unofficial smilie dictionary:
Unofficial Smilie Dictionary

English and German smilie list:
English and German

Fingertek web site smiley list:
Fingertek

Jue family's smilie list:
Jue family

So if you want to express your feelings, or add a little
more meaning to your messages, try using a "smilie" now
and then.

7) ======= Eye of the Eagle =======
[Ideas to inspire better communication]

Three guests each pay $20.00 cash for one room at a hotel.
The night manager is informed that the rates have been
lowered to $55.00, and gives $5.00 to the bellboy to
return to the guests. On the way to the room the bellboy
thinks "How do I give $5.00 to three people?" He decides
to pocket $2.00 and return $1.00 to each guest.

Now each of the three guests paid $20 and got back $1.
So they paid $19 each, totalling $57. The bellboy has $2,
totalling $59. Where is the missing $1?

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Answer to Last Issue's Puzzler...

[You have 9 marbles. 8 of them weigh the same amount, while
one of them is heavier. Using a scale only twice, can you
find the heavier marble?]

Divide the marbles into 3 groups of 3. Weigh 2 groups.
You should now know which group is heaviest. Of the
heavy group, weigh two marbles. You should now know
which is the heavy marble.

8) ======= Contact the Flyer =======

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

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Copyright © 2000-2004 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
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