newsletter_0805.html newsletter

Welcome, Guest

	Greetings ! May is the month for Mother's Day. Check out these communities to connect with mothers the world round.

Ring Invites
Did you know that the most effective way to grow your WebRing Community is to actively recruit new members? In the latter half of April, we witnessed two such managers who did just that and successfully built their communities from one to many members in less than a week. Check out their communities:

For those of you who have used this feature in the past, you will like to know that we have revised the system to allow you to send more than one invitation at a time. In addition, you can now earn large amounts of activity points for each person who joins WebRing from your invitation.

Why would you want to earn activity points? Coming in June, we will reveal a way for you to redeem those points for cool merchandise and services.

In addition to WR merchandise/prizes, you can earn up to $3.60 as a WebRing 1.0 member for each invitee who joins. WebRing 2.0 members earn up to $14.40 for each new signup.

How to Invite Others
1. Search for quality sites that are relevant to the topic of your WebRing Community. Then, try to find the site owner's email address and name. Remember that to build the highest quality community, you'll want to search for sites that will add valuable content or products that your visitors will find relevant and helpful. Large communities that merely focus on quantity of sites don't generally generate higher traffic than those that focus on quality.

2. Invite the site owners using the Invite Others function found in the Extra Features column of your management menu. If you are a member, you'll find it in your member management menu that appears right below the community's title bar.

3. Send the invitation. Once the Ring Invitation page opens, you should fill in all the fields before sending your invitation. We highly recommended that you suggest the URL, site title and description, as this increases the chances that the invitee will join your community. It's also a great idea to personalize your invitation email.

How to Track Invitations
Coming in May, we will introduce the all-new My Account page, part of which will include an invitation tracking report. The report will allow you to easily monitor who received your email, who visited your ring and who joined. Also, we will show you who didn't respond to your invitation so you can resend your invitation email with a single click.

Speaking of the My Account page revisions, we invite you to provide some feedback on our blog. To do so, click here.

Personalize Your Greeting

Did you know you can personalize the greeting that appears at the top of every WebRing page? Instead of displaying "Welcome, userID," you can change it to any name you want. Doing so is as easy as 1-2-3!

1. Open your My Account page from the menu at the top of every WebRing page.

2. Click the Account Settings tab to open your account settings page.

3. Scroll down to the Optional Fields section to find the "Greeting" field. Then write your name, nickname or whatever you would like to see appear after the word "Welcome."

After you click the "I agree. Change my info" button at the bottom of the page, you should see your greeting change. If not, simply refresh your browser.

Your Voice

Ever since we launched the new WebRing newsletter, we've used this space to promote a charitable organization. We typically look for some official "Awareness" drive of the month and try to choose organizations that strive to make the world a better place.

Each month, we receive some criticism for our selection, but last month's promotion of the ASPCA resulted in the loss of at least one longtime member. He felt outcast by our selection, because the ASPCA has tried repeatedly to outlaw his way of life as a fur trapper.

Disagreement abounds, as is reflected in current events. WebRing is no different, and we want all our members to know that it is not our intention to convert anyone. Our top priority is to provide you the space to create communities that reflect your voice, your philosophy and your lifestyle.

So it is with this in mind that we would like to dedicate this month's "WebRing Supports" to you, to the diversity your voice brings to WebRing! Thanks for keeping the World Wide Web a place of wonder and variety.

Note: We will post all future charitable organizations in our blog, so you can let us know what you think about the organization we selected. You can also use that space to suggest other causes to promote.

WebRing Communities that will help you breathe easy.-

May abounds with lung-happy awareness drives. From Asthma to Physical Fitness to Clean Air, these WebRing Communities will help you breathe a little easier.

Asthma International Ring

For individuals who have asthma and have a site of their own and for sites related to asthma in any way.

Indoor Air Quality

Providing information about Indoor Air Quality, organizations that are involved in dealing with Air Quality Issues, and resolution of resulting problems.

Stop Smoking Ring

Created to provide many sites and links for potential quitters in support of their quest to free themselves from smoking.

Physical Training & Fitness

For the combined advancement of physical fitness and related health matters.

Running Sites

Take a lap around the web with The Running Ring -- a collection of running and track & field-related sites throughout the world!

The folks over at Lilith eZine started an experiment a couple months ago. They wanted to see if by increasing their WebRing advertising dollars by a mere $6 a month they would notice an increase in traffic. You can check the results on their blog.

To summarize their findings, though, they witnessed a 26 percent increase in search engine traffic after bumping up their ad dollars. In response to their first month, they said, "We believe we've found the smartest way to advertise."

If you haven't had the chance to read The Lilith eZine's Blog yet, we highly recommend you check it out. You may not agree with all their points of view, but their provocative pieces on everything from art to politics is sure to get you thinking.