SWeCS NEWSLETTER - 16 May 2005
Our newsletter is a little late today. The Bunbury tornado passed by within 50 metres of our office so, although we were much more fortunate than many other homes and businesses, we were offline for the whole day. Apologies if you tried to call, our lines were down all day.
In this issue...
- Paid Surveys - The Verdict
- This Fortnight's Question
- Website Hosting Special Until 31 May 2005
- Yahoo Minimum Bid Increase
- Resources For Small Business
PAID SURVEYS - THE VERDICT
Ever see those ads or emails that promise you $100 per hour
to sit at home and answer surveys on your computer? Sound too good
to be true don't they? That's because they are too good to be true.
If you haven't seen these ads, they get to sign up to a service, usually with a fee of around US$30. For that price you get added to their database and are informed of the "thousands" of surveys out there where you are actually paid to complete them. They usually promise to give you enough surveys to be able to earn a full time income.
One of the main culprits is Paidsurveysonline.com.
Rather than us reprint the findings of many people on the Internet, we're going to give you a link to a discussion at Google Answers which outlines what normally happens when you sign up for these programs.
Google Answers is a service run by Google where you can ask a question - about anything - and Google, with all it's information and resources at it's fingertips, will find the answer. There is a small fee, but the information they dig up is often very interesting.
Anyway, the discussion about Paid Surveys, and why you should stay away from them, is at http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=448432.
THIS FORTNIGHT'S QUESTION
This fortnight's question comes Brian:
"When I try to print out your newsletter, it doesn't fit on the page. How can I fix this?"
Our newsletter is designed to be read via email and on the Internet, not in hard copy, but if you'd like to print it out, what we suggest you do is:
- Highlight the text in the main body of the newsletter - from "SWeCS Newsletter 16 May 2005" right down to "Subscribe or Unsubscribe Here".
- Click on File, then Print
- You should have a choice of selecting Print Selection. This should print out the text only, without the ads on the left hand side, which should then fit easily onto a page.
Got a question? Send it to us at admin@southwestecommerce.com and we'll do our best to answer it, as well as publish one every
fortnight for everyone to see.
WEBSITE HOSTING SPECIAL UNTIL 31 MAY 2005
We are currently offering a special for new signups to our website
hosting service, but only until 31 May 2005.
If you sign up before 31 May 2005 we will waive our normal setup fee, plus you get your first month free.
This also applies to people transferring their website hosting to us from another hosting provider (NOTE: uploading a copy of your website to our servers is your responsibility, or we can do it for a small fee).
To find out more about our hosting service, visit www.southwestecommerce.net.au.
YAHOO MINIMUM BID INCREASE
Yahoo Australia (formerly Overture Australia) have recently increased
the minimum bid prices for some of the more popular keywords.
Most keywords still have a minimum bid of $0.10 per click, but now many of the more popular keywords have a minimum bid of $0.50 or even $1.00 per click.
If you are currently bidding on a term that has gone up, your bid will be "grandfathered". This means that, for example, if you are currently bidding $0.25 for a keyword that now has a minimum bid of $0.50, your bid will stay at $0.25 so long as you don't adjust it. However, if you adjust your bid, the new amount will need to be at least $0.50.
RESOURCES FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Browse through the SWeCS Ecommerce Library, full of FREE information about getting more out of the Internet. Sections include Web Site Development, Web Site Promotion & Internet Marketing, Online Commerce, Computer & Technical Issues, and Miscellaneous.
The SWeCS Newsletter archives provides a wealth of FREE information on small business and the Internet. Browse through the main topics or search for your particular query.
Start up another income stream, by earning commissions for each referral who signs up for one of our services.
Do you know of a resource that should be added
here? Email us and let us know. There is only one
condition - it must be free.
OTHER EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
Here's some other email newsletters you might
like:
www.dunsboroughbayvillageresort.com/news/newsindex.htm
www.west-oz.com/newsletter/newsletter.asp
http://derekstockley.com/newsletters/news-index.html
This newsletter is produced by South West eCommerce
Strategies - © 2005
PO Box 2340, Bunbury, WA 6230
Ph: (08) 9721 1326
Fax: (08) 9721 1352
Email: admin@southwestecommerce.com
Web Site: www.southwestecommerce.com
