Welcome to a new month and a new newsletter. This month we look at how to attract people to your website by giving away free stuff. Also if your social calendar is looking a bit empty, our Websites of Interest section has a few websites dedicated to major events happening over the winter season in New Zealand. Hope you enjoy our newsletter and remember to stay warm.

In this issue:

* How to attract people to your website
* Facts of Interest
* Websites of Interest
* Enrich your Vocabulary
* Quote of the month

How to attract people to your website

No matter what your website is about you can generate traffic by giving away something. Everyone knows that people love something for free no matter what it is. Offering something for free creates interest in your website and people are more likely to return and tell others, thus increasing the number of people which enter your website. Generally the giveaway should be related to your product or service. This can be anything, such as;

The ideal giveaway costs you little and helps your customer lots. Once you've put in the time creating a great giveaway all you have to do let everyone know about it. This could be achieved by highlighting it on your home page or by sending off a personlised mail out.
What are the benefits?

• The chance to show off your expertise.
• Good will. Even customers who know that your generosity springs from an ulterior motive will still build up positive emotional associations with your company.
• Re-enforce your brand. Make sure the freebie carries your branding and mentions your unique selling proposition.
• An opening. It's a bit like buying them a drink. It could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
• An email giveaway is a great way to collect the email addresses of customers who are interested in what you sell, the ideal candidates for your email marketing campaigns. Remember to ask if they are interested before you send them more emails.

Souce: Nick Butler, Avatar Web Promotions Ltd

Facts of Interest (supplied by www.netsurfquiz.com)

* Did you know Yahoo stands for, “Yet another Hierarchical Officious Oracle “. Weird hey?

* George W. Bush's childhood house in Texas was up for sale in the Real Estate section on eBay.

* The very first e-mail address was tomlinson@bbn-tenexa.

Want to know what’s happening this winter? Here a few websites where you can find out about some major events to be held in New Zealand this winter.

* The Queenstown Winter Festival happening in July 12-21. There will be a Mardi Gra, ice sculpting, a birdman competition and lots more!

* The Monteith’s Wild Food Challenge. In its fifth year, pairs the local brew with the wild produce in restaurants around the country. This year’s challenge kick’s off in the capital in May, but will becoming to Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga and Dunedin during June and July.\

* The New Zealand Film Festival is back for another year. The festival starts in Auckland on 12 July and finishes on 18 August in Christchurch.

Here are some interesting new words to add to your vocabulary. All these words came about with the advent of the Internet; test how many you already know.

* Spam is a slang name for unsolicited commercial email

* SMS stands for Short Message Service.

*Blog (aka weB LOG) is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.

“If God had really intended men to fly, he'd make it easier to get to the airport.”

George Winters

Remember if you have any queries or would like assistance - please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Have a great month!

The Strobe Net team.