Background:::
We host 3 business websites and are in the process of building an intranet for SOP’s. The website’s server (Wintows IIS 2003) is off-premise and resides at the owner home. The Intranet is at the office location.

I have several web based forms (currently .asp) on our websites and plan on developing a test that will be used on our intranet that will consist of multiple choice and essay questions for department specific procedures for new and existing employees.

Problem::
My strength is in design. Coding gives me a migraine! I have several correspondence & appointment forms on our web site. Each time the mail service is moved, the web forms cease working. I have went from CGI | Cold Fusion | PHP & ASP. I have Adobe Acrobat Designer 8 and would love to implement an Adobe Acrobat web form, but haven’t been able to master the code. although have been told it can be done. I haven’t found much help from Adobe.com or Lynda.com on how to execute these forms for the web. Flash Forms are a piece of cake. . . . on a Linux-based operating system {:-(. . . . but that is not an option here. I have stayed away from VB because I use a MAC and “Access” is not available for MAC users. So see, I’m in a spin cycle!

What I need:::
Is a solution to all my forms needs! There are various program packages available and I am asking for recommendations, pro’s, cons, etc. Please, I am not interested in any fly-by-night sortware or a sales pitch. I need a proven fix-all solution that won’t blow-up the next time someone here isn’t happy with a various service and decides to pull the plug without warning.

###

Jay’s Answer: The basic choices you have are ASP or PHP forms.

Here’s a tutorial on using ASP forms (using Dreamweaver)

Or, a tutorial using PHP

Use a form generator (for basic forms): By tele-pro.co.uk or Free Form Maker

Or using PHP

You don’t have to be a technical wizard to do this, it’s pretty straight-forward. It sounds like the problem you’re having isn’t with the forms, but with the data that’s sent when the submit button is pushed. No matter what software solution you use for forms, you still have to solve that technical headache. One way to solve this is to put your forms completely off your site, and use something like Survey Monkey to create a (survey) form, and compile the information. It all depends upon what you’re needs are.

We are a small website that is progressed to just over 1 million hits per month and we would like to start to place ads on our website. Please advise what we should be charging per ad.

###

Jay’s Answer: Congratulations on the milestone. There’s no simple formula, however. The better targeted your unique visitors are, the more value they are to the advertisers. If you also have captured their contact information, they’re worth even more (since you can push ads to them).

Ad pricing is influenced by a number of other factors: size, placement, PPC or per impression, how much you want that advertiser on your site (does it enhance/detract/neutral to your credibility), and the reaction of your visitors to the ad.

As a small (<$ 1M) crawler, loader, truck’s diesel engine spare parts company now we want to sell our stocks to international market. Our parts are genuine but they are for out of date models (about 20 or 30 years old) and company newer made an international sales. We have basic website and very small budget to marketing. My questions are:

1. Do I need an open eBay website or may i continue to classic sales with phone, fax, mail or email?
2. How can i reach my potential customers? Who they could be? In which countries I must target my marketing energy?
3. Which marketing tool that I could use within (monthly <$500 with 2 workers) budget?

###

Jay’s Answer: Given your budget, a website would be a good investment. But first, are people looking (i.e., doing searches) for spare parts online? You can do this research yourself or hire an SEO person to find out. Your website should target these keywords.

Are there website directories for spare parts distributors? If so, get listed there.

You don’t need an eBay store if you have a website, nor do you (yet) need to target a country.

What you do want to do is determine the cost and rules for shipping your parts internationally. How long will it take? What are customs regulations? How will you handle returns?

I am developing a web portal. It’s name is www.amikhabo.com. It is a restaurant and food related portal. This site name “amikhabo”, it is a Bengali word. It means is “I will eat”. Still the site is under construction.

My vision is – my site amikhabo.com is a fully restaurant and food related portal in Bangladesh. If anybody visits this site then he will get complete restaurant and food related any information of Bangladesh.
So I need some new idea so that I can popular my site.

###

Jay’s Answer: What is your business goal for the site – to get traffic and sell advertising? Or to sell for placement of the food-related information on your site?

Consider uploading the information about the restaurants (etc.) you’re doing for free (initially) – contact restaurants to get copies of their menus, and upload them to your site. Make sure you add necessary keywords and address information, tie-ing in to an online map (Yahoo or Google, for example). Also – allow people to comment on the restaurants, rate them, take pictures of them, etc. Make it a social site (like http://www.yelp.com/)

Once you get sufficient traffic, you’ll be eligible to add for-pay ads.

My site is now #2 and sometimes #1 in Google. (www.toddlertoddler.com) So things are good. Right now I have been mainly using Google ads for income on the site. I just recently added a directory and hope to make money with that. But I want to take it to the next level and get big company paid advertisers/sponsors on the site.

My current newsletter list has 1100 subscribers and I get about 300 new subscribers each month. I’ll probably bring in over 20,000 visitors to the site this month. So I believe that visitors like the site.

So what steps do I need to take to get “big business” ads and sponsors? Does it just involve emailing a bunch of contacts at these places? Do I need an ad management program? What do these big companies want to see in order for them to want to advertise on my site? Any help? or direction?

###

Jay’s Answer: I’d first suggest creating placeholders for the ads. That will inform everyone that you’re be accepting ads, and getting people used to the placement of them on your site.

Sponsors care about your verified unique traffic, time on site, bounce rate, average sale, demographics, etc. But you’re not selling anything, nor (according to your privacy notice) will you share their email or other signup info, all you can provide are traffic stats.

The easiest way is to sign up with a banner advertising network. Here’s a list of some networks.
http://www.webreference.com/promotion/banners/networks.html

I am running an executive search firm majoring into middle & senior level recruitments. I am keen on starting an e- newsletter for my TG ie the HR managers & HR directors of various companies. I would appreciate if you can spare some time in helping me out with the following:

1) Name of the e-newsletters ——– something catchy and relevant
2) What should form the contents??
3) Sample / template if any

###

Jay’s Answer:

• e-newsletters you send to people on your list, and it arrives in their email inbox.
• blogs you publish from your desktop, and people find it by searching online and/or subscribing (via RSS) to your "blog feed".

Blogging software is free, and if you already have a website, you could integrate it into your site. Alternatively, you can simply get started (free) using the software on a blogging site (wordpress, for example) – in only 5 min, but the domain name of the blog would be different from your website’s (and is less ideal).

Blogging is easy, once you get the blog setup. Same process as writing a newsletter. In fact, you can do both. Create your blog entry, and then email a link to it for everyone in your email list with a teaser.

The key questions: name, content, etc. are based on who you’re trying to attract, what problem you solve, and how you’re unique. Given the market you’re in, you need to create a professional product to make sure your brand speaks trust & quality.