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Contents: 1. Site and Internet News Please forward this newsletter on to those who you feel may be interested in the subjects discussed. Unsubscribe details at the end of the newsletter. TAMING THE BEAST CONSULTANCY SERVICES-Need a web site developed? http://www.tamingthebeast.net/admin/about.htm Site and Internet NewsWelcome to all the new subscribers of our ezine! I hope you find this publication to be useful and I look forward to your feedback so we can continue improving it. Our full article this week is pretty long, so we won't bore you with too many other bits in this issue ;0) New Affiliate ProgramFor our regular readers, you're probably aware of Taming the Beast.net's new partnership with the quality web site hosting company, ThinkHost. As part of that new partnership arrangement, we are proud to announce our new role as ThinkHost's web hosting affiliate program's managers. http://www.tamingthebeast.net/misc/ web-hosting-affiliate.htm If you are interested in becoming involved in this free affiliate program, be assured that we'll give you the highest quality of support possible. We've been affiliate marketers for some time now and understand the special needs that affiliates have. After all, in supporting you with solid marketing advice and resources, we are also ensuring the success of the program. We look forward to working with you! http://www.tamingthebeast.net/misc/ web-hosting-affiliate.htm Create 3d banners and headings on TTBThanks to the team from Xara, you can now develop great 3d banners and headings on Taming the Beast.net! Just select the font and style, then type in your text - it's as easy as that! Give our online banner creation generator a try: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/tools/ 3d-banner-generator.htm 2. Article Summary - Outsourcing web development projectsYou don't have to let contracts pass you by. Outsourcing web development contracts can open up new markets for small businesses engaged in web design! **PARTNER SPOTLIGHT***NOT ALL WEB HOSTS ARE CREATED EQUAL To learn more about ThinkHost: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/ admin/reghost.htm 3. Full Article - Online/Offline Marketing with PDFOne of the challenges in effective Internet marketing is the fact that prospective clients aren't online and visiting web sites 18 hours a day - also, not everyone is part of the Internet surfing community - I know, it was a shock to me as well ;0) Three letters - PDF. PDF in online marketingWe've been using PDF for online and offline marketing for some time now, and it has been very successful. It doesn't have to cost a fortune to buy a PDF creator. You can learn more about very economical alternatives to products such as Adobe Acrobat on the following page: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/tools/ pdf-software.htm The PDF document format is a very powerful tool when used correctly. In a site we recently developed we placed a small blurb under directly under the company banner area stating "In a hurry? Click here for free Infosheet!" This statement linked to a page with the titles and descriptions of all the PDF documents available that summarized the various service areas and products of the company. PDF in offline marketingThe benefits of this online marketing strategy translate directly into offline benefits as well. Clients who download the documents for viewing later on may also print them out. These documents are sometimes left laying around or presented at meetings. This attracts the attention of those who may not have been exposed to the product or service previously! The PDF documents might also be reproduced and distributed, creating a viral marketing effect. Offline marketing doesn't come much cheaper than this! For the small outlay of an effective PDF creation software package, some development time and perhaps the extra bandwidth for distributing the marketing package online, your products and services can reach many more people than just having your online representation. The cost of offline distribution is zero, as your prospective clients pay for the printing and photocopying! PDF documents can incorporate images, sound and hyperlinks. The hyperlink feature allows clients to easily access other resources on your web site. PDF document protectionMany online businesses are still using Word documents for this kind of marketing. This isn't a very good idea, mainly for security reasons. A Word document, even with a read only password attached can still be altered and saved under another file name. Competitors may use your own marketing against you by misrepresenting the product. The other issue is plagiarism. Marketing materials in Word format are easy to copy - your hours of sweating over the creation of perfect ad copy can very easily benefit a competitor through theft. The PDF format supports a full range of options for security. Most PDF converter software package makes use of these features by offering options such as password, edit, copy and print protection. Creating PDF documents is easyThe creation of PDF documents is a very simple process, but this will depend on the kind of PDF converter software you are using. In most cases, if you are using Word to create the document, the PDF conversion software usually has a Word plug-in. You simply create your document, select the "Convert to PDF" or similar function from the Word menu and you're done! Search engine compatibilityThe other great thing about PDF is that an increasing number of search engines can now "spider" (read) the PDF format, giving you more bites at the search engine traffic apple! PDF usage tips- PDF can blow out in file size, making it inconvenient for people to download. Try breaking down your service areas into individual documents. Be careful of the size of diagrams, photos and other images within the source document. Using the resizing function within packages such as Microsoft Word doesn't alter the image file size one bit; it only makes it appear smaller on the page. If you have an image that's very large, resize it using a graphics package first and if you have the knowledge, ensure that you use the compression features available within most graphics packages. A decreased PDF file size not only saves you from irritating potential clients, but also saves you web site bandwidth usage. Which PDF converter or creation software to use?There are a number of alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for creating and converting documents to PDF. While Adobe's product is the industry leader and of very high quality, the price can be out of the range of many small businesses. For some alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, please view the following page: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/tools/ pdf-software.htm Alternatives to PDF documentsIn some scenarios, the information sheets you are providing may be the product itself for which you wish to charge a fee. In these situations, ebook creation software may be more suitable. Ebooks tend to be stand-alone software, not requiring a plug-in reader. http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/ ebookcreation.htm View our article index for further learning resources Michael Bloch That's all for this Taming the Beast update! We are very open to feedback, so please don't hesitate in contacting us.
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