1. First Things

- Warped CD

I feel like a broken record, or as my child might say, 'warped CD'. We are headed for recession and I don't like it. You don't need to hear it again about how it started. The fact is, it's here.

If you can't see it, listen to the news. People are getting laid off. Companies are going bankrupt. Now surfers are feeling the crunch. Are freebies on the internet a thing of the past? I hope not, but I feel we are seeing the tip of the ice burg.

http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?77605:14288996

The New Edge

Advertising on the internet slowed last year, and the end result could be seen on the Super Bowl. Online advertising is a victim of the big flush.

When times get rough, company's try to find ways to save money (lay-offs), but sometimes try to find ways to continue making it. The latter is always good news.

Are you using banner ads or pop up banners? (I use banner ads) How well are they working? I have been keeping my brain active at night trying to find the new edge. Keep your eyes open. New stuff is coming.

http://www.foxmarketwire.com/012901/webadvertising.sml

==========[Your ADS]=========== Dee's Helpful Info. Newsletter a weekly publication for
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This publication is currently FREE and when you
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2. Feature

What Is Guerrilla Marketing
© 2001 John Botscharow

What is guerrilla marketing and how is it different from other types of marketing?

To answer that let's first define what a guerrilla is. The best answer I've found comes from Guy Kawasaki (http://www.garage.com), former "evangelist" for Apple Computers. In his book How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Guy defines "guerrilla companies" as "small, non-mainstream companies...[who] survive by hitting and running. They are offence-minded because they have nothing to defend. Decision-making is in the trenches, and they succeed because of their
perseverance."

Let's look at this definition in details. Guerrillas are small, non-mainstream companies. The only way for a small company to survive in the marketplace is by guerrilla tactics, hitting and running. Most of us could not survive in the ring against companies like Microsoft or Yahoo if we took them on head to head. we would be crushed. But the advantage of being a guerrilla is you hit and run. A constant running battle.

But why would we want to attack such a large opponent like Microsoft or Yahoo or just about every Internet Service Provider as I have done with e-Crucible
(http://freedom-is-not-free.org)?

Because one of the defining characteristics of guerrilla marketers is that we make mountains out of molehills. Kawasaki advises any guerrilla marketer to pick an opponent that you can make
into a cause. But it has to be a cause you can believe in and fight for sincerely. One you can evangelize for.

In my case I made a mountain out of a molehill by taking a small, insignificant event - my ISP shutting me down for a few spam complaints that were the result of an honest mistake made by a
couple of guys who were new to Internet marketing - and made it a cause - the unfair treatment of people accused of spamming. ISPs do not investigate spam complaints as a rule. They figure where there's smoke there's fire. You are guilty without any chance of proving yourself innocent. But that's a whole different soap box and we'll save that for another day. And before you all think this was a callous and calculating move on my part, you are wrong. I did this because I truly believe in the cause, but it also
makes marketing sense. My mountain is the ISP industry in the United States. Even if the mountain falls on me, I still come out a winner because I attacked the mountain.

That's what Guy Kawasaki did when he was chief evangelist for Apple's MacIntosh. At that point, the only viable PC operating system was MS DOS. When Apple came out with the Mac, they introduced the first icon-based, user-friendly interface operating system. They were a little upstart that took on Microsoft, who was already the computer giant it is today.

Believe it or not, it was that little upstart and the guerrilla marketing campaign that turned Mac users into evangelists for Mac, that forced Bill Gates to develop the Windows operating system. And even though Mac "lost" the battle with Microsoft (the Mac has not replaced the Windows PC), there are still a lot of devoted mac users who would "rather fight than switch." My best friend back in Chicago is one of them. He has been a devoted Mac user for years and is constantly trying to convert me (and with my experiences with Windows 98, I'm giving it
serious thought).

I honestly believe that the way that Microsoft "crushed" the Mac was the start of MS's decline in the eyes of the American public. We tend to root for the underdog. Microsoft came across as a
big bully! The chickens are now coming home to roost.

The reason that things turned out that way in the battle between Microsoft and Apple was because Microsoft was the entrenched industry standard. They had a product (MS DOS) and a reputation to defend. Apple was a nobody. They had a few earlier computer models that were on the market, which, by their own admission, were not very good and had made no great inroads into the market. They had nothing to defend. They could afford to lose!

To be a guerrilla you have to be able to afford to lose!!! But if you are going to lose, make sure you lose to somebody so much bigger than you that you win!


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John Botscharow is co-publisher and editor of the
Web Street Journal. He is also one of the partners in
3 R Marketing. Visit them at
http://www.3r-marketing.com
and subscribe to one
or more of their marketing newsletters.
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==========[Your ADS]===========
To learn more on FREE promotion go to
http://www.buildyourbiznow.com
for more ways to promote your business for FREE!

3. Ad Submission Details

==========[Your ADS]===========
Joe's Netplace offers unique, high quality gift
items at bargain prices, available to you no
matter where you live! Go to:
http://www.yourplaceforshopping.com

4. Web Tools

Reciprocal Link Madness!
Dale Sexton

Reciprocal links are the latest trend in getting higher ranking in the search engines. It is not hard, but very time consuming. The first thing I did when trying to do this reciprocal linking, was do and engine search.

Did you know that there are over 40,000 pages just on one engine search? Well, if I do 109 reciprocal link pages a day, I can have my link on all of those pages on that search engine within the year.

I decided to do just 5 a day. I found a page that has a list of several reciprocal link sites to start with.
http://btimart.com/links/reciprocallinks.htm

Making the process a little more painless, these sites will help others find your reciprocal links page.
http://www.reciprocallink.com/
http://www.swap-resources.com/

And how do you verify your link stays on those pages?
http://www.link-spy.com/

Have patience and good luck..

WordWeb
Dale Sexton

Sometimes when creating ads I get brain lag and lose the words I want to use. I really hope it's not just me. And just in case it's not, I decided to feature this handy... uh.. useful tool.

It's a dictionary and thesaurus, it finds synonyms, and links to MS Word. I find it a must when I need new words in my advertisements. The free version works great, but the upgrade is very inexpensive, only 18 bucks... eh-hem, dollars.

http://www.x-word.com/thesaurus/

==========[Your ADS]===========
Earn $800 A Day Giving Away The #1 Free Homewoker Kit
http://homeworkerkit.safeshopper.com/10/cat10.htm?352

5. Magazine Options

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