* The Internet Marketing Reporter *

Letter from the Editor: Have You Bought Into The Right Dream?

Dear Reader:

Have you ever been to or seen a magic show? A magician's goal is to distract you long enough so you think what he does is magic. It's called illusion. It's all about perception. The same thing is true in our lives. We see things a certain way because we have been distracted long enough to believe them. We think that is the way it is supposed to be, when in actuality, we're caught up in illusion.

Sadly, most of us have bought into the belief that we must go to school to get an education, graduate, get a good job with a solid company, and work hard for the next 40 years to be successful. Sadly, the end result is that 96 percent of the people in the US reach retirement age dead, or dead broke! Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result each time. Something wrong with the "American Dream." Could it be broken or on the wrong track?.

Take a look at many of the foreign families that immigrate to the US. They do so without the ability to speak English. Then, in about 5 to 7 years they are running some sort of successful business - without going to school. They focused on starting a business they could run and operate all by themselves. They seem to find the "American Dream" while most Americans remain disillusioned in a dream world.

What is the difference between these two groups of people?

Why is it that the immigrant seems to succeed while the majority of Americans born in this country struggle?

The answer boils down to beliefs engrained through years of teaching. Most Americans base their dream on a dependent, welfare society where a company or the government will take care of them. They also mismanage paycheck earnings and have little left over to make a difference in their lives.

Where do you find yourself today? Are you stuck in the 96 percentile like most of your neighbors? Or, do you have a plan?

To Your Success,

Stephan Bourget, IMR Editor
Success Team Builders
http://home.bourget-marketing-international.com

Article 1: I Know I Can, I Know I can!

Article 2: Use 404 Pages to Your Advantage

By Lauri Harpf

"Not found

The requested URL /file.html was not found on this server.

Apache/1.3.14 Server at www.yourdomain.com Port 80"

Does that look familiar? If you've ever accidentally tried 
to access a page that doesn't exist, possibly by following 
an outdated link or by misspelling the name of the page, 
you've probably seen something like the above appear on 
your screen. You might have attempted to correct the error 
by checking the URL for mistakes, but it is even more 
likely that you just clicked "Back" and returned where you 
came from, never visiting the site again.

For a surfer, encountering a "404 page" is a nuisance. For 
a webmaster, they can be far more problematic, causing a 
reduction in traffic which in turn means losing a part of 
the precious advertising revenues or sales the site's life 
depends on. You can minimize the amount of 404 errors by 
periodically checking your pages for broken links, but it 
is impossible to get completely rid of them. So, what can 
you do?


The solution - Custom 404 pages
===============================

The best way to avoid losing visitors to 404's is to 
replace the standard and unfriendly error message with a 
custom page. Fortunately the task is relatively simple and 
can be performed by anyone who owns a site that has its own 
domain name.

As different server softwares handle things in their own 
ways, there is no single method of creating a custom error 
page that works with every system. The following instructions 
can be applied by those who have sites hosted under Apache, 
which is a very widely used program. If you don't know what 
software your host is running, contact them and ask.

To start the process, use an FTP program such as CuteFTP to 
connect to your server. Search for a file named ".htaccess". 
Should you find it, download the file to your home computer 
for editing. If the file is not there, don't worry, you'll 
just have to create it yourself.

Grab a normal text editor and open the file, or if you don't 
have it, open up a blank file. Type the following into the 
first line of the file:

ErrorDocument 404 http://www.yourdomain.com/404page.html

After you're done, save the file as plain text and make 
sure that it is named ".htaccess", without quotes of course. 
The hard part is now over, all that is left is to create 
the custom 404 page (404page.html) that loads when a 404 
error occurs.


What should my 404 page look like?
==================================

Of course, you can put anything you want into it, but if 
your purpose is to encourage your visitors to click further 
into your site instead of leaving, the page should obey 
some basic principles.

1. Don't give users a reason to panic. Including a large 
heading that screams "ERROR" is likely to make the visitor 
feel that he/she has done something wrong or that your site 
is not working properly. A better approach is to first 
greet them with a warm welcome and then explain that the 
URL they were looking for could not be found, but should 
they browse around your site, they will surely find the 
information they need.

2. Make the page to look and feel similar to the rest of 
the pages on your site. Include your site's menu on the 404 
page to give visitors a fast and easy way to continue 
exploring instead of clicking away. A well-designed 404 
page with plenty of links is far more attractive than one 
that has just black text on a white background and a link 
to your homepage.

3. If you have the skills, consider adding a search feature 
on the page that allows people to search your site for 
matches. Often your navigation menu will provide a clue on 
how the user might reach the information he/she would like 
to see, but if it doesn't there is a great risk of losing 
the visit. Placing a search utility on the page increases 
the likelihood of the user finding the desired page and 
thus remaining on your site.

After both the .htaccess file and the HTML page are ready, 
FTP to your server, upload the pages and enjoy your new 
custom 404 error page!

---
Lauri Harpf runs the A Promotion Guide website, where he 
offers free information about search engines, directories 
and other promotion methods. His site can be found at 
http://www.apromotionguide.com/ 

Article 3: How to Evaluate an Affiliate Program