This online newsletter is designed to help you maximize the
advantages of your MindSpring Biz account. It is solely owned and operated by MindSpring Enterprises as a benefit to its customers.
This newsletter is sent monthly via email. Back issues of this newsletter are archived at business.mindspring.com/news/newsletter.html.
If you have any Comments, Suggestions, or Submissions, please contact biznews@mindspring.net.
In this edition:
- Biz News: What's New with MindSpring Biz
- Plan Changes
- Note for Former Netcom Customers
- About the Earthlink/MindSpring Merger
- Fast Access: What's new with DSL
- Tool Tip: CGI Scripts
- Nexchange Affiliate Program
- Web site success story
- Start a newsletter with OneList
- Web Site contest
What's New with MindSpring Biz
If you have been with MindSpring for a while, then you should have
noticed several changes recently regarding our new pricing plans.
The pricing plans, which were announced in June, make it easier for
you to take advantage of all of the services that MindSpring has to
offer for your business.
Our most popular change has been the new EnhancedWeb + plan, which
provides 50MB of server space, 5 GB of monthly traffic, plus a
MindSpring Unlimited access plan for a combined price of only
$59.95/month!
To view all of the current MindSpring Biz pricing plans, please visit
business.mindspring.com/hosting/.
Note for Former Netcom Customers
If you are a former Netcom customer and you wish to move to a MindSpring
Biz Web hosting plan, you can now call Customer Service to migrate to any
standard MindSpring Web hosting plans. When you call 888-638-2669, and
select option 3 for service, a MindSpring Biz consultant will walk you
through the migration process and help you test your Web site to make sure
your transition to the MindSpring platform runs smoothly.
About the Earthlink/MindSpring Merger
As you may know, Earthlink and MindSpring announced plans to merge our
companies to become the clear #2 Internet access provider in the US.
EarthLink is similar to MindSpring in many ways. They are a highly regarded
Internet service provider of about our size and with similar values,
including a solid commitment to customer service. A recent JD Power and
Associates study ranked MindSpring and EarthLink numbers one and two,
respectively, in overall customer satisfaction among the largest national
Internet Service Providers. Some other very large companies finished a
bit further down the list. :)
This will be a great benefit for all of our customers (business and residential) once the merger finalizes. Our product development resources will be greatly increased. Our access to broadband network resources will be greatly increased. Never fear, you will not have to do anything new as a result of this merger. None of our products are changing, and our service will remain the same.
For more information on the Earthlink/MindSpring merger, please visit the
following
links:
Press Release: www.mindspring.net/aboutms/press-releases/1999/0923.html
Press Conference:
media.internetbroadcast.com/medialink/19990923/alliance/
Fast Access: Business DSL Update
MindSpring is currently working on rolling out both the residential
and business versions of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology.
SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology which provides
high speed "always on" Internet access designed for the needs of small
to medium sized businesses.
Unlike other forms of DSL service, SDSL is symmetric, which means you get
the same amount of bandwidth to and from the Internet. SDSL provides speeds
up to 12 times faster than an ISDN line and up to 50 times that of an analog
modem connection at the fraction of a price of traditional Dedicated access
services. MindSpring Biz will offer line speeds from 128 kbps to 1.1 Mbps at
different price points to best meet your needs.
For more information about MindSpring Biz SDSL, including our planned
markets
and roll-out dates, please visit our SDSL information and waiting list page
at: business.mindspring.com/sdsl_form.html
Using CGI Scripts with your Web Hosting account
One common question that we receive in technical support is this:
"I have created this script - and it works on my other site and I
uploaded it to my MindSpring site and it stopped working. Does your
system support customer CGI scripts?"
The answer: MindSpring supports cgi-scripts. In order to make sure
that your scripts are set up correctly, check that you always upload
your scripts as ASCII and not binary. This is the most common problem
for why scripts do not work once uploaded.
When uploading your custom CGI scripts double check you are uploading
them as ASCII, not binary, and that you have changed the permissions to
755 once they are in your CGI-BIN directory.
For more tips on installing custom cgi-scripts, visit the MindSpring
Web Help desk at
help.mindspring.com/webhelp/web_programming/perl_cgi/
Nexchange Affiliate Program
Mindspring is launching an exciting new alliance with Nexchange
Corporation. Nexchange offers an affiliate program that's different from
anything we've ever seen, so we want to offer it to you. With Nexchange,
you can earn revenue from your site and keep your visitors right where they
belong - on YOUR website. To find out more about Nexchange and this unique
e-commerce feature, visit mindspring.nexchange.com/.
Web Site Success Story
Fitness Café (www.fitnesscafe.com), an online health and fitness store, officially opened to the public on August 27, 1999. FitnessCafe.com, designed by MindSpring Biz Web Design and in association with Amazon.com, will carry one of the largest selections of dietary health and fitness supplements on the web and will provide a unique shopping experience for its customers.
Fitness Cafe exceeded their opening projections in every category, visits and customers. By utilizing several online marketing tools for their site launch, they received over 13,000 visits and 500 new customers over a 72 hour period after opening. "We expect our order to continue to increase after our very successful opening" said Hoffmann.
Start an online newsletter with ONEList
At MindSpring we understand how important it is to encourage your customers to keep coming back to your Web site. To help you accomplish this, we are pleased to announce ONEList as a service for creating and adding newsletters to your site. For details on how to easily create a newsletter through ONEList, visit: www.onelist.com/partner/
Web Site Contest
We want to hear about how your business is doing on the Web. Do you have a
success story to share? If so, please submit it to us online at:
business.mindspring.com/story/. All submitted stories will be reviewed; some will be chosen as feature sites on the MindSpring Web site. Through the end of 1999, we will choose one MindSpring Biz site each month to be featured on the MindSpring home page as a "Link of the Day". Don't miss this opportunity to show off your site to thousands of potential customers!
Final Note
If you have any suggestions for future editions of the MindSpring
Business newsletter, please submit them to us at
biznews@mindspring.net. If you would like additional information
on MindSpring's other products and services, please contact us at
websales@mindspring.net or visit business.mindspring.com.
Thank you!
The MindSpring Team
