Newsletter Archive

The Internet 800 Directory - http://www.inter800.com
The Internet 800 Directory Newsletter
This issue is for Friday, March 04, 2005
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Table of Contents
01. Bogus Leads
02. Men Are From Mars?
03. Tip Of The Week
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*01 Bogus Leads

For any business venture, getting good leads can be the difference
between economic failure and profitability. Ask any salesperson: there
are no better leads to work than someone that is searching for your
product or service. Many companies buy leads from websites that collect
requests for information about products and services. These types of
leads are supposed to be golden, and should be, IF the person requested
the information.

Last month I started getting calls about refinancing my home, but they
were calling me at work. These calls were coming from different
companies, sometimes three or four per day. About the third day I asked
one of the callers why he was calling me at work and he informed me,
that was the number I requested him to call. After a few minutes of
conversation I discover that he had bought my name and information as a
lead from a website. The website had presented me as someone requesting
quotes to refinance my home. There were several problems with the
information that been provided.  The information did however match the
Whois database for one of the domains I administer. This company had
paid $13 for my information! Over the next couple of weeks, I got over
thirty calls from different mortgage brokers, each one paying $13 or
more for bad information. Each time I asked for the name of the company
that sold them my name (I wanted to stop them from giving out this
information), several told me they would have someone call me back with
the seller's name. To date, none have.

There are a couple of ways this website could have gotten this bad
information. Maybe someone filled out a form as a joke, to cause me
problems, or the website used public data to increase the number of
leads they have to sell. If they sold each lead thirty times, they are
worth about $400 each. This is a very powerful reason not to check the
leads or to make them up. Either way, the companies that bought my
information were cheated. Just think how much better these companies
would have done if they got an enhanced listing with us.

Caveat Emptor-Let the buyer beware


Chuck Arning chuck@inter800.com
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*02 Men Are From Mars?

I jut stumbled upon drawings on some of my palette papers that my wife
and I did about 8 years ago. It took me awhile to understand what it
even was. It certainly does not look like sketches, even for an obscure
painting, just more like gibberish doodling. But the closer I looked,
the more I remembered.

Here was the scenario. Take about a couple of bottles of wine, put on a
low CD of your favorite music and start to talk to each other. Talk
about anything. Why you were attracted, why you still are, why you
aren't, why you hate his guts or your job. If you still love each other
after 4 or 5 of these conversations, then I highly recommend that you
stay married.

If you achieve stage 5 and decide you will still live together, but the
Scrabble, or the football TV, or the idiotic reality shows are getting
old, then try this: Get out a paper pad, like a legal pad, but the
biggest you've got, and turn up the stereo to your favorite music. Have
one person start by closing his or her eyes and start drawing on the
paper lines that they feel while listening to the music (this will also
work sober, by the way, if both of you are sitting an a crossed leg Yoga
position and can be summoned). Then it's the next person's turn. No
looking until both parties are finished.

Try it - then compare the drawings and then tell me men are from Mars.

Steven Jackson - saj@inter800.com
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Once every second someone searches the Internet 800 Directory looking
for someone to supply them with goods or services.

Will they find you or your competition?

Call 800-299-1879!
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Tip of the Week

Google has a feature wherein you can type a regular telephone number
(555-555-5555) into the search bar and you will be given the name and
address that goes with the number. It also has a link to provide you
with a map to this location. This is something we all should know about.

Some of you might have safety or privacy concerns about someone typing
in your phone number and getting your address with a map to your
location. To stop Google from revealing your information, just click on
the telephone icon or the "Phonebook" results from your phone number and
fill out the form.

If you have any tips or shortcuts that you think the readers of this
Newsletter will find useful, send them to chuck@inter800.com
 

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