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Trina 1049 784 Nucla	Contact Me... If You Can! 8/18/2007 9:49:46 AM
	Bad Links Trina L.C. Sonnenberg You know, this is a subject that really has been simmering on the back burner of my mind for quite some time. However, within the past couple of days, it has boiled over. Now, I know, as a webmaster, that it can sometimes be a challenge to review web sites and check for bad links, especially if you have a resources type of site with a million links in it. Nevertheless, the one link that should never be bad is your contact link. Whether it be a mailto: link, or a URL to a contact form, the link should be kept current and functional. Otherwise, what is the point in having it there at all? You see... I have recently been attempting to contact site owners, to discuss the promotion of my new book. I have spent quite a bit of time, writing to these site owners, using the contact links on their sites, and have had at least 30% of them bounce due to 'user account unknown'. Talk about frustrating! I wonder if these people realize what a negative impact this could be, probably is, having on them? They could have awesome amounts of traffic targeted to their sites, but how many new customers, clients, or associates will actually be generated if they [webmasters] cannot be contacted be these people? This also erases a multitude of opportunities for repeat visitors and referrals. Being that I was attempting to contact some government sponsored organizations, I noticed that it is not just the business sector that has this problem. Infact, 50% of the .gov mailto: links bounced. Can you believe it! I don't return to web sites where the contact links don't work. I leave them feeling like I've wasted my time. If they don't have the time to make sure the link works, why would they have the time to respond to me? It is a little ironic, but it seems to happen to me quite a bit... I have tried to report broken links on a site, just to get to an error page when I click the contact link, or report a broken link link. Here's a tip for you webmasters/site owners: NEVER USE AN AOL mailto:link on your site. Do not use AOL for business purposes. If you do, you may be losing a great many contacts. Set up an email box on your domain and use it for contact. That way, you are incontrol of what gets filtered. Web site link maintenance is really very important. At least, it should be. Copyright © 2007 The Trii-Zine Ezine www.ezines1.com About the Author: Trina L.C. Sonnenberg Publisher - The Trii-Zine Ezine - Your Trusted Source for Internet Business and Marketing Information. Serving online professionals since 2001. ISSN# 1555-2276 http://www.ezines1.com/triizine http://www.ads-on-q.com/intro Keywords: webmasters, contact link, broken links, bad links
	Trina L.C. Sonnenberg Freelance Commercial Writer TLC Promotions & The Trii-Zine Ezine ISSN 1555-2276 http://www.tlcpromotions.net http://trii-zine.com http://FAA.tlcpromotions.net
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The Cardioman 2908 1080 Houston	Re: Contact Me... If You Can! 8/18/2007 2:26:11 PM
	Trina, I can understand your frustration in trying to contact webmasters. However there is a little word called Flam that you may consider. Flam is where you go to a persons web site and use their contact link or whatever to sell them a product or service. Many webmasters look on this like we do spam, and the vast majority will block you. When you are able to contact them try asking for their permission to send them some information. James Kinney http://www.4X4group.com/moneypartners
	James Kinney The Cardioman Cardio Cocktail www.drinkcardiococktail.com/30724 Joint Cocktail:www.formor.com/30724 Check My Home Page http://www.viradyne.com/moneypartners
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Trina 1049 784 Nucla	Re: Contact Me... If You Can! 8/18/2007 8:03:22 PM
	I understand what you are trying to say, but I don't understand what that has to do with contact links that go to nowhere. If you're going to have a contact link, it should work. Like I said, I'm a webmaster myself, I own several web sites; I maintain them myself, and my contact links all work. I understand the value of being accessable, in other words, customer service. Furthermore, I was proposing a joint venture that would've been mutually benficial. But that doesn't even matter, because the mailbox didn't even exist, so they don't even know they missed anything. It's like sending the post office a change of address, when you move. Or, how about going to your favorite golf shop, only to find a sign that says: WE'VED MOVED, but we're not going to tell you where. Trina and... why would I be blocked by the government?
	Trina L.C. Sonnenberg Freelance Commercial Writer TLC Promotions & The Trii-Zine Ezine ISSN 1555-2276 http://www.tlcpromotions.net http://trii-zine.com http://FAA.tlcpromotions.net
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