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Sausage Sizzler - Making your site sell |
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| Editorial October 2, 2002 |
G'Day Sizzlers!
We have a some additions and omissions from this weeks issue.
On the omissions side we have Bram's Designed for Browsing. Bram has been busy caring for his son who has pneumonia. Please keep Evan, his son, in your thoughts.
On the addition side with have a series from
Corey Rudl. Corey is the owner of four highly successful online businesses that attract more than 1.8 million visitors per month and generate
over $6.6 million in sales each year. He is also the author of the #1 best-selling Internet Marketing course online. Be sure to check out his site that's jam packed with the exact information you need to start, build, and grow your very own profitable Internet business.
Let me know what you think of this new addition to the newsletter.
Also added is our first reader contributed SuperTool review. George Silberstern is the lucky first! I really like the idea of us all sharing our favorite programs. So feel free to send in your reviews and suggestions. Hopefully we all find a little gem every issue!
Finally, I want you all to know that I will be occasionally awarding Sizzler Forum members with one of our new T-Shirts. I will be awarding them for posts that stand out or create a lot of conversation in the forums. There is one catch though, I will only be awarding them to people who have filled out the majority of their profile information. This includes your homepage, birthday, biography, location, interests and occupation. So if you were to take Sausage's own Jennifer Shawas an example she would not be eligible as she hasn't filled out her biography! Aren't I a hard marker?
Keep on sizzling!
Nathan Allan
Sausage Sizzler Editor
editor@sausage.com
Choosing the right Router: Setting up a local development environment
Today I'll be covering the third area of focus for setting up a local development environment, choosing a router.
Before I take this step forward, let's take one step backward. The only 'need' in a local development network is a LAN, or Local Area Network. That means one does not 'need' to have an Internet connection to have a local development environment.
If you do desire to give access to your development machine to the outside world, you must have some kind of always-on connection. I don't think ISDN is all that common any more, although I do know it still exists. More common now, at least for home-based and small-business development networks, are either DSL or Cable connections. If you're not familiar with these services, check with your local telephone or cable company for offerings.
Any high-speed connection will suffice. In my area, DSL is the less costly and more easily attainable option. When you get DSL from your provider, most often you get a modem and a network card. What you do not get is any kind of protection for your PC. While software firewalls can and mostly do work, they can also be a major pain. Any router, be it for cable or DSL, comes with a terrific standard feature. It's called NAT or Network Address Translation. That means that the single IP address you get from your ISP can be shared (up to 255 times) on your LAN. You may think 'what the hell would I need 255 PCs on my development network for?' Well, NAT actually causes a useful side effect. To any computer external to your LAN, your LAN does not exist. In fact, it shows only one IP address and that IP address typically doesn't even show as a PC.
Why, you ask, am I rambling on? Trust me, it IS relevant. Using my LAN as an example, there are 3 PCs on it. This PC, the one I'm using to write with, another Windows machine that is a file / print server, and my development machine.
With the router sharing my connection for me, and also assigning IP addresses via its on-board DHCP server, my LAN is essentially plug and play. If my Windows PCs had active ports (they don't but if they did), because they are behind the router, they will never be detected. What IS detected is PORT 80 on the development machine, because that's how I set up my router.
With my router I can allow HTTP, FTP, SSH, and many other protocols, to access my LAN. I'll get into the type of router I use momentarily, and why.
Ok, let's get to that router J. I've actually used two different brands. Initially I used what BellSouth had available, a Cayman 3220H. It's a modem/router combo. It's also VERY expensive and has bonuses and limitations. The limitations are what made me return the router for a refund and buy a Linksys 4-port router. Why Linksys? Read down further to find out why.
By this point, you may be wondering, how does one publish or make available ones' IP address, especially a dynamic one?
Well, there are a few steps. Depending on the Registrar you used, it can be very easy. I use Register.com mainly because I'm very familiar with their processes and the DNS controls they offer are quite flexible.
My development server is now serving four (4) sub-domains. Each sub-domain is controlled by Register.com. By controlled I mean that I set something such as http://devel.todobebe.com to point to my dynamic IP. How'd I do that? Well, I registered (for free) with one of many services that track your IP address.
The tracking service that I use is DynDns (www.dyndns.org). From their site they offer a variety of software applications that you can set to update their database with your IP. I'll detail the service and the software next week, but for now, at least you'll understand that your dynamic IP address is being published to a database that is then being translated to a dynamic domain name.
If you go to http://devel-todobebe.dyndns.org you will arrive at the same place as http://devel.todobebe.com. This is because in my Register.com account, I have set up devel.todobebe.com to point to the dyndns URL.
Now, with all of this mushy-mush in your head, I'll explain why the Linksys is a great router.
First, it's around US$79.00, which is very inexpensive. It offers logging, security, and many other features. What I find to be MOST valuable is that I can surf to my own sub-domain. What am I talking about? When I had my Cayman router, if I wanted to surf to my development server, I needed to type in its IP address. Sure, I could hand out as many sub-domains as I like and have people outside my LAN see the whatever I set up, but for me it's a huge bonus to be able to have as many sub-domains as I like, each with a fully-functional URL. Before, with my Cayman, I was limited to surfing only one IP. Now, with my Linksys, I can surf however many subs I set up.
The benefit of this is that I can work on a variety of projects and when I'm in need of external input, or, when I want a client to see progress, I just give them a URL to visit. The speed at which the development site can be viewed will not be as fast as if it were on a T1. The main purpose, however, is not to facilitate THEIR needs. The main purpose is to give you a 10MB or faster connection to your machine, allowing you to get more work done is the same amount of time.
Check back next week when I get into more detail about making your IP address available to the outside world.
http://www.sizzlerforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=916
Editors Note: I have seen the Linksys router for as low as US$49. Try pricegrabber.com to find this deal.
Discuss your experiences with Bram
PuTTY Beta 0.53 - 95 98 ME NT 2000 XP - FREE
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. It is written and maintained primarily by Simon Tatham. This is an indispensable tool when maintaining files remotely without having to send them back and forth when changes are required. The Telnet client is just part of a group of related
applications. The whole suite consists of:
- PuTTY (the Telnet and SSH client itself)
- PSCP (an SCP client, i.e. command-line secure file copy)
- PSFTP (an SFTP client, i.e. general file transfer sessions much like FTP)
- PuTTYtel (a Telnet-only client)
- Plink (a command-line interface to the PuTTY back ends)
- Pageant (an SSH authentication agent for PuTTY, PSCP and Plink)
- PuTTYgen (an RSA key generation utility).
Did I point out that it is FREE?
Review by George Silberstern (A Sizzler Subscriber like you!)
His site is
http://grafs.net/
Editors Note: George will be receiving a small token of our appreciation via snail mail. You can get one too if you write something for inclusion in the Sizzler and we decide to publish it!
Spend 20 Minutes Rewriting Your Web Copy and TRIPLE Your Sales!
One of the most important things you can do to ensure the success of your online enterprise is to create high-impact sales copy for your products and services. I can't stress this enough. And the "Absolute #1 Rule-To-Live-By" when writing copy for your web site is:
Emphasize Benefits, not Features.
Here's a great example:
An online real estate agent advertising
"real-time mortgage calculations"
is advertising a feature of her site; however, if she writes,
"Avoid wasting time haggling at the bank with my real-time mortgage calculator,"
then she's advertising a benefit. The difference is pretty dramatic, isn't it?
I've literally seen web sites
increase sales by over 300% overnight
simply by rewriting their copy to emphasize benefits instead of features. It's a detail that's often overlooked, does NOT take much time to implement, and that can have an almost instant effect on your bottom line.
For more tips go to:
http://www.marketingtips.com/
Tip by Corey Rudl
Matt's Script Archive
http://www.scriptarchive.com/
I think almost everyone who has been on the Web for any length of time and is developing Web sites has at some time been to Matt's Script Archive. It has been active since 1995, providing the basic scripts that everyone likes to have on their web site.
Most of the scripts are written in Perl and include everything from firmmail, web boards, random text generators and counters. If you want the basics this is where you will find it!
Review by Nathan
The Quest for the Universal Font
Have you ever wondered how other people are seeing your page? Are you assuming they have the same fonts on their machines as you do on yours?
This brief but interesting discussion covers what one of our resident experts, Herbert Peters, thinks is a somewhat universal font.
To find out what it is go to:
http://www.sizzlerforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=855
Review by Bram
To read the Sizzler Forums you do not need to be a member.
However to take full advantage of this resource it will only take
you a few seconds to sign up!
- Go to: http://www.sizzlerforums.com
- Read the information and click on the REGISTER button
- Fill out the form
- You will receive an email that you simply reply to
- Hey presto! Your a fully fledged Sizzler Forums member!
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