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March, 2002

Being interested in Web marketing and Web metrics, I
keep an eye on CRM as well. Fortunately, I get to stick
to my knitting and let others, like Bob Thompson at
CRM Guru http://www.crmguru.com keep tabs of that
market segment.

With "100,000+ Active Members," CRM Guru's doing pretty
well. Discussion groups, regional reports, a technology
solution center, free webcasts, and a CRM events center
complement a growing archive of articles (including a
couple by yours truly).

They do a good job as far as communities go, and then
they add a noteworthy resource - the Guru panel:

   The CRM Gurus are consultants specializing in
   specific areas of customer relationship management (CRM).
   They're available to help you answer questions that
   aren't covered elsewhere on the CRMGuru.com web site.
   Scroll down to enter your question and direct it to a
   specific Guru, but please first read their specialty
   areas closely. A question posed to the right guru is
   much more likely to result in a valuable response.

Over a dozen specialists on call. Nifty. Oh, and the
CRM.Insight Newsletter ain't bad either.

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February, 2002

I once recommended a Jakob Nielsen seminar. Since I make
a living by public speaking, I am very, *very* careful
about whom I recommend. Here comes another one.

If you are a Fortune 500 company and you need some help
with Web site strategy, I'll be happy to come to your
office and run a workshop: http://www.targeting.com m

If, however, you work for or own one of the millions
and millions of small businesses out there and are near
the West Coast, I can, without hesitation, recommend
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson's Doctor Ebiz Internet Marketing
Seminars:

  Feb 27, San Francisco Area (UC Berkley Extension, San Ramon)
  Mar 1, Los Angeles Area (Occidental College, Eagle Rock)

The good Doctor has never said a thing I disagree with. His
devotion to small business is demonstrated daily at
http://www.wilsonweb.com and I advise you to look into
seeing him in person http://www.wilsonweb.com/seminar

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December, 2001

Speaking of Mark Gibbs, he recently wrote in his
interesting, useful and downright avuncular Network
World Web Applications Newsletter:
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/web/2001/01047669.html

  "One of the longest running and most pernicious
   problems in the world of Web apps is browser
   compatibility. The difficulty of creating cross-
   browser content is enormous and short of running
   Windows, Macintosh, Linux and WebTV platforms with
   all versions of IE, Netscape, AOL, Opera and all
   the other HTML browsers, making sure that your
   content can be seen correctly no matter what the
   user is running is, well, tricky."

Indeed.

Fortunately, Mark was at the rescue with a solution:
  "Browser Photo from NetMechanic, which test your Web
   site using 14 different browsers."
http://www.netmechanic.com/browser-photo

And remember that Mark himself, is a Resource of Note.
http://www.gibbs.com

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November, 2001

I came across the High Tech Marketing Communicators
(HTMARCOM) discussion list server in February of 1994

Moderated by Kim Bayne of wolfBayne Communications, the
subject matter was wide-spread and of high value - a
lively discussion of all things marketing; trade shows,
brochure production, product management issues and a
great deal about how to convince the engineer/founder
of a company that marketing was critical to his success.

In the summer of 1994, the conversation turned to
marketing on the Internet. How to get a server running.
Where to find the shareware and what techniques could
be used to bring in more customers. HTMARCOM was the
progenitor of Glenn Fleishman's Internet Marketing List
and Kim's been keeping a hand in ever since.

I've stayed focused on the Web and Kim has moved into
the next new thing: mobile marketing. Kim's Marketing
Wirelessly Newsletter covers things like Feature:
wireless micropayments, wireless marketing solutions,
tips and tidbits, conferences & Seminars and wireless
news. Joe Bob says, check it out:
http://www.marketingwirelessly.com

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October, 2001

I was reading the most recent edition of WordBizBrief
created by Debbie Weil, which doles out a good bit of
advice on writing good email promotions and I thought
her newsletter would be of interest to all:
http://www.wordbizbrief.com

But then Debbie went and mentioned Marketing Sherpa
about all things Internet marketing related. It's *also*
a great resource and is produced by the tireless Anne
Holland: http://www.marketingsherpa.com

So you end up with two this time.

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September, 2001

The message from Gary Bagin asked,
"Looking for games, tips and guidance to celebrate
National Customer Service Week (Oct. 1-5) at your company?
Log on to http://www.customerserviceweek.com for dozens
of free ideas to plan a successful event."

I immediately wondered why we should need a National
Customer Service Week? Shouldn't we be doing good things
for our customers all the time? Of course. Are we? Of
course not. That's why you should click on over to find
out what kind of stuff you should be doing.

And there's a free copy of "World Wide Web Marketing" to
the best customer service parody of Tom Lehrer's National
Brotherhood Week:
http://wiw.org/~drz/tom.lehrer/the_year.html#brotherhood

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August, 2001

Thanks to Tristan Louis for
a pointer to the following to counter the dreaded Spam:
http://www.suespammers.org

More thanks to Sebastian Flothow
who wrote:

  > Another useful one is http://www.spamcop.net which
  > automates the annoying task of sending spam complaints.

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June, 2001

Thanks to Tristan Louis for
a pointer to the following to counter the previous:
www.suespammers.org

And...

Need to verbally impress the boss? Need to spice up that
brochure? Need to understand just what the rest of those
brochures are going on about?
http://info.astrian.net/jargon

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May, 2001

A tip of the hat to the denizens of the Netscribes list (and
you know who you are) for pointing the way to The Jargon
Dictionary at http://info.astrian.net/jargon/ and especially
for the advice to look up teergrube.

You may find this site useful when the IS/IT department
attempts to drown you in obfuscation.

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March, 2001

Short news blurbs with a sly wink. Oh, the news is real,
but the perspective is ever so slightly tongue in cheek.
That makes Davenetics a great daily read: www.davenetics.com

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February, 2001

Every now and again you trip over a real life version of
onomatopoeia. In this case, it's a wonderful little
explanation of the difference between .gif and Flash, both
pictures and animations. It's rendered, of course, in both
.gif and Flash and well worth the ten minutes for us
marketing types: www.xplane.com/xplanations/flashgif

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November, 2000

This month's resource of note is particularly American given
this Thanksgiving Holiday. It's your family. To paraphrase those
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: Family will get you through times
of no Web access better than Web access will get you through
times of no family.

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October, 2000

What's the dumbest user interface predicament you've ever seen?
Anything as good as you get when you visit the Interface Hall
of Shame brought to you by those helpful folks at Isys
Information Architects? I think my favorite is AutoCAD calling
their users idiots. You'll have to find your own favorite at
www.iarchitect.com/stupid.htm

Isn't it wonderful that we are able to learn from the mistakes
of others?

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September, 2000

This is a first. It's the first time somebody has qualified
for Resource of Note a second time. Plus, it's the first time
I've succumbed to the siren call of affiliate programs. Why?
Jakob Neilsen and crew are going out on the road and I
recommend you attend and pay attention -
www.targeting.com/recommend.html

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August, 2000

If you're interested in customer service and the customer
experience and customer relationship management and all
that jazz, take a look at www.eCustomerServiceWorld.com

Products, jobs, books, speakers, events, research, articles -
it's portal time. If customers are part of your purview, this
site is worth a perusal. Oh - and they have a sense of humor,
too. How else can you explain their Company Ovreview?

   Believing in the efuture, a highly neurotic team of customer
   service fanatics was ... formed to evolve the company into
   cyberspace as eCustomerServiceWorld.com. Chief Customer
   Champion is Phil Dourado, who edited Customer Service
   Management magazine for 3 years, including launching and
   editing the US version of the magazine before moving into
   cyberspace (we haven't seen him since, but he's virtually
   'out there' somewhere).

And then there's the Mission Statement...

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June, 2000

www.PDAGames.com
To understand why, you'll have to read While I Was Out, below.

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WHILE I WAS OUT
---------------
This year's Internet World conference in Berlin was bigger,
better, and more glitzy than ever. Big Business in Germany has
finally discovered the Web.

There were two-story booths, slinky models in place of trained
sales people (why? WHY?), and strange 'happenings' in the aisles.
I was halted in my progress toward my presentation hall by eight
strapping, smiling, young show stoppers in white coveralls. They
accosted a woman in a business suit, hoisted her over their
shoulders and essentially used her as a human baton. To the beat
of good old Deutsche technomusik, they whirled her this way,
lifted her that way, threw her straight up into the air and
gently set her on her feet a split second before she hit the
ground. (Yes, it turned out she was one of the performers.)

I stood and listened for four minutes, refreshed by the lack
of liability lawyers on hand and trying to figure out what the
display had to do with DSL services. I finally turned to my native
friends and asked what I was missing. "It's all about teamwork!"
they exclaimed. Yes, I knew that, but what did it have to do
with their services? "Oh nothing - but it made you stand and
watch, didn't it?" Bad branding seems to know no borders.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about... I wanted to offer
up a cautionary tale for those glued to this Web business that
I learned in Roundup, Montana. (North out of Billings just
past the fourth or fifth deer crossing the road.) I was up that
way to participate in a weekend gathering of Schipperkes
www.bullmtn.com/oleoranch/sry2k.htm and had spent
the previous five days driving through Yellowstone and marveling
at the Beartooth Highway (highly recommended).

During this cowboy-country gathering of dog lovers, I told my
wife that I had overheard our host talking about working for
Cisco. We shook our heads once again at how pervasive the Web really is.

When it was time to say our good-byes, we invited Warren and
Sandy to visit us in California the next time they got out
to Cisco headquarters. Warren looked puzzled and drawled that
he made it to their main office in Houston a few times a year
but they'd be mighty pleased to see us if they ever made it out
to Santa Barbara.

On our way to the airport the next morning I slapped myself
on the forehead realizing that Warren must work for Sysco "North America's Leading Marketer of Quality Assured Foodservice Products."
Ooops.

The moral of the story - when you see a Web site lurking behind
every door, you need a longer vacation.

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May, 2000

E-Metrics: Business Metrics For The New Economy

How do you spell Web site success? Matt Cutler from Net
Genesis and I surveyed 20 Web managers from top Web sites
(like Charles Schwab, Barns & Noble, iVillage, Microsoft,
Red Herring, well... you get the idea) and asked them. In
a nut shell, those surveys revealed that people know full
well that they have the data. What they don't have is the
time or the people to glean the real gold out of them, thar
log files.

So Matt and I proposed a double handful of formulas to
calculate how well things are going on your site. The
intention is to start the conversation going and see if we
can come up with some standards to use across all sites.

Even if I do say so myself, this white paper is worth a look.
I'm especially happy with the drawing of The Customer Life
Cycle Funnel It's free and available for download at
www.netgen.com/emetrics.

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April, 2000

This month we have a runner-up.

If you've ever been in sales, you'll enjoy www.salesautopsy.com

      You've heard tons of successful sales stories. Sales
      managers beat 'em into you, salesreps brag about 'em,
      books glorify 'em.
  
      This site is NOT a journal of successful sales adventures.
      It is the opposite. Here you will read about disaster -
      what goes wrong when you sell. Here you will discover
      the best of the worst of these experiences.

This almost went into the Silly Sighting of the Moment, but
I used to be in sales - this is a resource. Oh by the way,
they sell sales consulting.

The first-place Resource of Note for April is the newly
revamped NetB2B site and especially their Web Price Index.
Oh, yeah, they have lots of Web marketing news, weather,
business and sports, but the Price Index is the best thing
in the world when somebody asks me, "How much does it cost
to build a Web site?"

After I hit them with, "How long is a piece of string?" I
send them to www.netb2b.com/webPriceIndex to find out for
themselves.

The Web Price Index benchmarks how much marketers can expect to pay for Web services by asking site development firms.

      The participating developers are sent the descriptions of
      services, and return the prices they would charge their
      clients to develop the projects. The results are then
      aggregated into the median, high, and low prices.

Nifty.

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February, 2000

I've been catching the eMarketer newsletter for months now
and continue to be surprised by the amount of information
out there that is useful and interesting. Fortunately,
Sam Alfstad's efforts bring a lot of that interesting
www stuff together in one place.

The eMarketer newsletter sends weekly roundups of tasty morsels
from E-Commerce Times, ClickZ Insider  Reports, International
eNews, and a healthy portion of their own insights from primary
research.

Worth looking into.
emarketer.com

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December, 1999

This month's resource comes from an avid reader of Full Sterne
Ahead who will have to remain nameless. After all, his father
may be a subscriber!

In response to my plea about not sending me big attachments,
he pointed to click2send.com waxing rhapsodic about
ease of use.

I'm sure there's others, but it's one of the first I've found
> so far. Big simple buttons - "deposit a file" or "pick up
> a file."
>
> And I just confirmed, it passed the "dumb dad" test!  He says
> that he was able to upload the pictures fine.  It offers you
> the option to send a message directly from the site.  Very
> nice.  He even got confirmation messages when the attachments
> were picked up.  Cool!

Joe Bob says: check it out, and tell your dad!

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November, 1999

This month offers up a tip of the expressly designed, perfectly
sized hat in the color of my choice.

"Your source for news, information and analysis
on all aspects of web personalization." Personalization.com
at (all together now) www.personalization.com was the
brain child of Chris Locke of ancient MecklerWeb fame and more
recent RageBoy/Cluetrain infamy. Chris convinced NetPerceptions, purveyors of fine collaborative filtering tools, to pony up a bundle for something he calls "open source marketing."

The point is to bring all those interested in Web site profiling
and such together on the same Web site for a pow-wow. Buyers
and sellers can mingle with evangelists and nay-sayers to
contemplate the valuable services or privacy invasions promulgated on behalf of e-commerce.

Always the instigator, Chris opens the marketing bazaar to all
and lets the music begin. He doesn't, however, allow product
reviews. It just wouldn't ring true.

Joe Bob says: check it out.

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October, 1999

I was going to quote from Edupage on SpamCop:

>   TRACKING ANONYMOUS SPAM
>   If you hate getting all those "Make Money Fast At
>   Home!!!" messages from people who use hard-to-trace
>   or false return addresses, you might want to use
>   the services of www.spamcop.net, a Web site that
>   allows you to take action against unsolicited junk
>   e-mail messages sent out in bulk quantities. Spam Cop
>   is able to dissect the header information on such
>   messages, identify where they've come from, and send
>   a message of complaint to the network administer of
>   the Internet service provider the Spammer is using.  
>   (New York Times Circuits Section 24 Jun 99)
   www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/circuits/articles/24spam.html

But then I realized EduPage was such an excellent resource.
Edupage is a daily news service that clips the technical
headlines from all sorts of publications. "The primary purpose
of Edupage is to provide our subscribers with a glimpse of news
related to information technology, and whenever possible, to
IT news as it relates to higher education.

I've subscribed for years. You should too, at:
www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ed_policy.html

And, as long as we're doubling up the Resource of Note,
let's go all the way and triple up it! Kent Davis
was kind enough to pass along a
helpful hint:

>   Another useful link for you to check out and pass
>   on to readers is www.dynamicdrive.com  Lots
>   of DHTML codes there to produce interesting
>   effects, some of which are even more practical
>   than annoying. [-;
>
Thanks Kent.

Joe Bob says: check 'em out.

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July, 1999

Everything you ever wanted to know about Files when they're
Not Found can be found at www.plinko.net/404/.
And face it, a 404 page like this:
www.targeting.com/bogus.html
can't hold a candle to a 404 like this:
www.ibm.com/bogus.html

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June, 1999

I'm a marketing guy. Can you tell? But I can't do marketing
on the Web well without knowing something about the technology.
So when I get asked a tech question, I reply, "I'm a marketing
guy."

Then I hightail it over to www.wdvl.com to find the answer
so I don't look like such a Bozo the next time.

   The Original Encyclopedia of Web Technology, The WDVL
   (Web Developer's Virtual Library) is for webmasters,
   web designers, and Internet developers, and it's unbiased,
   vendor-neutral and standards-oriented. It's a well-organised
   (sic) goldmine (sic) of articles, tutorials, demos, and links to
   great resources about creating and promoting web pages and
   sites with HTML, Meta tags, XML, cascading style sheets,
   graphics tools, background images, icons, multimedia, GIF
   animation, Java applets, JavaScript, CGI Perl software, VRML,   DHTML, etc.

In other words, it's my cheat sheet. It's the place I fall back
on to insure that I can continue to sound like I know what I'm
talking about.

Joe Bob says: check it out.
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May, 1999

This is the sixth edition of Full Sterne Ahead, and the obvious
Resources of Note are no longer springing fully formed from
my forehead. These days I ponder and ponder... and then slap
myself in the forehead when I remember a site that deserves
more than a passing click.

Such was the case while I wandered through the show floor at
Internet World and ran smack into the good Reverend Ralph Wilson.

If you work at a large company with a large budget for
consulting, drop me a line. If, on the other hand, you're
like the rest of us -- trying to do the most with the least
and being forced to create an e-commerce site with a frozen
orange juice can, a length of kite string and a solar-powered
business calculator, then you need to know about Ralph. Yes, he
is an ordained minister. Better yet, he offers heavenly advice
to small business people and the site developers who love them.

The Web Marketing Info Center (www.wilsonweb.com) provides
links to a couple of thousand articles and resources on marketing
a business on the Web, and on promoting a site.

Web Marketing Today is a free e-mail and web newsletter that
comes out twice each month and reaches 63,000 subscribers. (OK, so color me green.) It's the grand-old-man of how-to marketing newsletters on the Web, started back in 1995.

The E-Commerce Research Room is to e-commerce what the Marketing Info Center is to marketing and site promotion, with over 2,000 articles and resources about selling stuff online.
Business models in various retail and B2B sectors, reviews
of store building programs, reviews of merchant credit card
accounts, reviews of SSL security, information on credit card
transactions, hints on site designs to increase sales and completed
orders, and, as they say -- more. While some sections of this area
are free, most are reserved for paid subscribers to Web Commerce Today: Web Commerce
Today is Ralph's pay-for-it e-mail newsletter,
published twice a month, which focuses on how-to subjects for
merchants and developers for $49.95 a year.

Joe Bob says: check it out.

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March, 1999

Deborah Kania, Cliff Allen and and Beth Yaeckel wrote a
book called One-To-One Web Marketing:
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0471251666/targetmarketingA


But they didn't stop there. They created a literary
legacy at www.1to1Web.com as an adjunct to the
book. Not only does it offer lots of what you'd expect
from a book promotion Web site, it offers more to those
who actually buy the book.

Go sign up for the free monthly online newsletter. Read
the articles about one-to-one marketing, web interactivity,
e-mail, Web site personalization, Web community, Web
presentation and conferencing, online advertising and
promotion, Web site tracking and analysis, Web-to-database
integration, and online privacy. All for free.

But, if you buy the book by clicking on the link I've so
graciously given you above, it'll put tuppence in my
pocket and give you access to the case studies from the
book.

But there's something that makes this site worth your
attention: a database of one-to-one goodies.

Search by type of application or type of technology for
articles, books, Web sites, products and services focused
on doing business one-to-one. This database all by itself
makes this site a real resource of note.

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January, 1999

This month's Web site resource belongs to Jason Catlett
and is located at www.junkbusters.com.

Jason decided some time ago that he didn't like Spam. I mean,
*really* didn't like it. When he offered to debate Sanford
Wallace at Internet World for the second time, Spamford
would only appear via telephone.

But Junkbusters is not a rail against spam so much as it
is a compendium of information about and pointers to all
current legislation about e-mail and privacy on the Web.

If nothing else, go to this site and read Jason's Senate
testimony about Internet privacy and the phone call with his
mother at www.junkbusters.com It's well worth
a click.

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December, 1998

Christopher Locke is not for the faint of heart. He is a
consultant by trade and in that capacity can help you sculpt
a corporate identity that properly translates your high-tech
offerings into meaningful benefits to potential buyers. More
important - he can translate your offerings into a story that
serious periodicals will want to talk about in print. But that's
just how he earns a living.

The reason Chris is this month's Resource of Note is his rare
combination of insight, foresight and an uncanny ability to
insult just about anybody and everybody with his prose.

Under the nom-de-plume RageBoy, Chris offers up his perspective on the Internet and the Web in frequent e-mail missives. I recommend reading RageBoy's writings to those who are not offended by strong language, the occasional fictionalized screed, or a constant barrage of insistence that you don't overlook the obvious, the important, and that which is just beyond the perception of mere mortals.

Understand that Christopher Locke is the man who founded the world's fist Internet portal - in 1994. It was called MecklerWeb and had more business savvy built into its business plan than Yahoo, Infoseek and NetCenter combined. It was simply too far ahead of its time. The proof was its motto: "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control!" Alas, it was just too much for investment types to fathom way back then.

Before the Web, Chris was knee-deep in the artificial intelligence
industry. All of which tells you he's been thinking about the
application of high to serious commerce for a long time. What he
has is a very special spin on it.

Think of Chris as counterpoint. Read him, as I do, for the
habitual laugh at your own expense, and to keep alive your own
personal sense of outrage at those who do not get it. His newsletter is Entropy Gradient Reversals. Subscribe at:
            www.rageboy.com/sub-up.html

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November, 1998

I come across a lot of just plain good stuff online.
Here's another one you should know about: Nua

You can call them Nua.com, you can call them Nua.net,
you can even call them Nua.ie. But once you've seen what
they've got, you'll be calling them often.

Nua is an Irish Web company that came up with a way to
get people to their Web site over and over: they publish
Web growth statistics. Wait! Don't hit the delete key
just yet. This site publishes *lots* of Web statistics.

They keep their eyes on the numbers other folks produce and
put them all in one place. My favorite is the 'How Many
Online?' page that shows a global total, then lets you
drill down by region and, where available, by country.

Somebody asks you how many are online in Estonia? Now you
know where to look.

They also offer up blurbs about and links to current Web
population pronouncements. You know -- those headlines that
state, "Flight Attendants Buy More Shoes Than Routers Online."
Fun stuff. And well worth a bookmark.

Oh -- and let's not forget their newsletter. They describe
it thusly:

   Whether you are striving for competitive advantage or
   struggling just to stay in the game, The Clickonomist
   is in tune with your needs and challenges. Learn how
   to understand the Internet and transform your business
   out of the industrial past and into the digital future.

Maybe a bit heavy-handed, but you just have to read any
article entitled "The Art Of The Relationship" that starts out:

   The Times newspaper in London wrote some years back;
   'The incessant witless repetition of advertisers' moron-
   fodder has become so much a part of life that, if we are
   not careful, we forget to be insulted by it.'

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October, 1998

I come across a lot of just plane good stuff online.
Here's another one you should know about: The ClickZ
publishing empire.

ClickZ Today, Microscope, SearchZ, Who's Marketing Online,
and Zcommerce.

But wait, Jim, there are *five* Web sites here!
That's right, there are five Web sites that make up
the ClickZ Network that Ann n' Andy are melding into a
prize property.

These are all sites that prove that sufficiently interesting
advertising is the same as content. These sites are by advertisers
and marketers for advertisers and marketers. As a result, the
ads you find there are extremely well targeted.

ClickZ Today (www.clickz.com) offers up a daily dose
of commentary by people in the trenches along with interviews
of those in the know about creating, buying, and selling
online advertising. It's a quick read and well worth a bookmark,
an e-mail subscription, or both.

Microscope (this site gone, but http://www.adriatic.com is a pretty good alternative) is published once a week
letting three Web media buyers shred (or sometimes even praise)
current banner ad campaigns. And yes, there is a "Comments
from our Readers" section so you can offer up your own thumbs
up or down.

SearchZ (www.clickz.com) is nothing less than *the*
portal for Web for marketing, advertising and e-commerce
types. You should plan on taking an hour to get to know
what this site has to offer, so you'll know where to look
next time you need something in a hurry. It actually only
takes a few minutes to get a handle on what's there, but
it only takes two or three clicks to find something you
need *today*. That's what the rest of the hour is for.

Who's Marketing Online (since purchased by ClickZ) publishes an
article by an industry insider on a different topic depending
on the day of the week. Monday: media selling, Tuesday: media
buying, Wednesday: international, Thursday: tools of the trade,
Friday: direct marketing. If you're area of interest doesn't
cover the topic of the day, check out the archives.

ZCommerce (www.zcommerce.net) is more interested in
the sales end of the online experience. What, after all, does
it take to get somebody to give you their money? If your job
depends on increasing the revenues on your site, this is
a good place to have your morning coffee.

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