Hi FullName,

This is your message for news and opportunities from ProgrammingMSAccess.com during February 2005. I hope you find its content actionable and helpful. First, we remind you about prizes for the first two new or renewing Database Developers Group (DDG) members. We do not expect these prizes to be available long after this message. So if you want them, act now! Next, you learn about our consulting and technical support program from DDG members. Then, we highlight two DDG member benefits. We wrap up with an announcement about a presentation by our webmaster. If you like the VB.NET, ADO.NET, or SQL Server content at the site, you will definitely want to attend this presentation. Here’s some more sweet news: there’s no fee to attend.

Thanks, in advance, for taking a quick look at the message’s headings and reading the text for those headings that catch your interest. In addition, we invite you to visit our site again soon. Recall that ProgrammingMSAccess.com features content of interest to those using Access, SQL Server, VB.NET, ADO.NET, VBA, ADO, and Office apps. If you especially like any of our content, we especially enjoy reading praise reports about our code samples, book excerpts, presentation slide decks, working samples, and other content. You can reply to this message or sign our Guest Book to let us know what you find most valuable at the site.

ProgrammingMSAccess.com Guest Book:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/mygb.htm

DDG Members Get Prizes for Joining or Renewing

We try to feature each month one or two prizes for new or renewing Database Developers Group (DDG) members. The DDG is an association of database developers who are also friends of the ProgrammingMSAccess.com. There are many benefits for membership, including these prizes.

The first two members to join or renew a DDG membership during February can win one of two great prizes. The first member to join or renew has their choice of either prize, and the second member to join or renew gets the other prize. No matter which prize you get, you’ll be a winner many times over by what the prize can do for you.

One prize is a copy of DemoCharge 2004 from YesSoftware. DemoCharge is a great application that takes screen recordings and lets you play them back in a browser. DemoCharge generates the screen recording as an animated .gif file. If you ever wanted to show someone how to do something on a computer, this application is what you need. I wrote a review of the product and created a sample screen recording. In my opinion, it is both easy to use and powerful.

Another prize is an annual subscription to Smart Access. This is one of the great Pinnacle Publishing newsletters. I remember reading Smart Access when I first started working with Access many years ago. Later, I started writing articles for the publication. In the past year, I wrote about 10-11 articles for Smart Access. Each monthly issue is filled with 20 pages of content that can turn you into a hero, and nearly all the articles have downloads that make it easy for you to try the techniques discussed and demonstrated in an article.

Database Developers Group:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/databasedevelopersgroup/

Description of DemoCharge 2004 prize:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/Contests/DemoCharge_PrizesNewFeb.htm

ProgrammingMSAccess.com review of DemoCharge 2004:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/ProductReviews/DemoCharge2004Review.htm

Description of Smart Access Annual subscription prize:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/Contests/DemoCharge_PrizesNewFeb.htm

How to join the DDG:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/DatabaseDevelopersGroup/HowDoIJoin.htm

DDG Members Get Consulting and Technical Support Referrals

The DDG referral program is of interest to two audiences. Site visitors regularly message me to ask for help. If I know the answer to a question off the top of my head, I am glad to answer. Usually this is not the case (you folks come up with some pretty advanced or specialized questions). In addition, my activities as an author, trainer, developer, and webmaster do not leave me time to serve as a consultant. For this reason, I formed the DDG. Many DDG members are professional developers. Some have taken my training seminars, and others have bought my books and DVDs.

It is my practice to refer requests for consulting or technical support to DDG members. We currently have DDG members from coast to coast in the US and in two other countries. When a site visitor indicates that they want help, and they are willing to pay for professional support, we pass the request along to DDG members. Visitors are then contacted by any DDG members with the expertise and time to help them. Visitors can select the DDG member that they feel is most suitable to address their needs.

This program is a win-win opportunity. Site visitors have easy, fast access to a talented pool of dedicated database professionals. DDG members get free leads for consulting and technical support opportunities. In the past eight months, we distributed eight leads to DDG members. If you have a consulting or technical support requirement, click the Technical Support link at our site.

If you are a prospective DDG member, you may be wonder whether this program is right for you. I offer you two ways of helping. First, we have a collection of bios for representative DDG members. If you are like any of these members, chances are being a DDG member is right for you too. Second, I provide a short excerpt from Henry Jenkins, one of our DDG members. The excerpt summarizes his experience with our referral program.

I have good response from DDG referrals. Out of 4 prospects, 2 became paying customers. One customer needed help designing a database that included a one-to-many relationship between some tables. For the 2nd customer, I designed a complete search engine for type of skill, city, state, and zip.

Technical Support page at ProgrammingMSAccess.com:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/TechnicalSupport/

Collection of DDG member bios:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/DatabaseDevelopersGroup/DDGMemberProfileAnthology.htm

Other DDG Member Benefits

Prizes and referrals are only two of the benefits that you become eligible for when you join the DDG. One other special benefit gives you access to the proprietary DDG library of white papers, book chapters and excerpts, presentation slides, and code samples. Another special benefit gives you a rebate for any of our upcoming seminars. We have held seminar presentation series for each of the past four years, and we are in the beginning stages of planning one or two seminar presentation series for 2005. Our site includes an overview about of all DDG member benefits with links for drilling down and learning about each one.

The DDG library has been gradually growing since the inception of the DDG. We currently have over 45 downloads in the library for DDG members (review the full list of download titles from the link below). If you like the content at the ProgrammingMSAccess.com site, you are going to love the content in the DDG library. Each month we add new content as well. While all content at ProgrammingMSAccess.com is freely available to any site visitor, access to the DDG library is restricted to DDG members.

Our seminars offer you many benefits found no where else. First, all seminar content is developed and prepared by the webmaster. Second, the seminars can be offered in hotel venues or on the web. Third, our webcast format is unique. We provide all attendees with an 800# for two-way communication with the instructor and we restrict attendance to a small group so that you can feel comfortable asking questions about issues that matter to you. The seminars include slides and live demos as well as code reviews. In addition, you get all slides and code samples before the seminar begins. We usually offer other benefits as well. For DDG members, we provide a five percent rebate for seminar fees directly to the member.

Titles and format of content in the DDG library:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/DatabaseDevelopersGroup/PaperSampleListing.htm

Information about our last seminar presentation series:

http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/Seminar2004/

Upcoming Presentation by the Webmaster

If you are in Louisville during February 18 or 19, we invite you to attend the MSDN Code Camp. The code camp is a multi-day event, which features presentations in Louisville and Lexington Kentucky. I will be delivering on February 18 and 19 a demo-packed presentation on programming SQL Server stored procedures and user-defined functions with ADO.NET and VB.NET. In addition, I’ll be giving away one copy of my most recently authored DVD on T-SQL programming at each presentation. The overall theme of the code camp event is to increase overall awareness of Microsoft development technologies, and many other developers will showcasing some of there favorite tips and tricks. A link below gives additional about the event and how to register for it. Attendance is free (heck, the sponsors even throw in a free lunch), but you have to register to attend.

MSDN Code Camp site:

http://www.kydotnet.org/codecamp/

I hope that you found this message a good read. Please take a moment to share this message with your favorite newsgroups as well as your friends and colleagues. Consider forwarding this message to several of your colleagues right now. One of your friends is almost surely going to thank you for passing along the good news about our DDG prizes, other DDG member benefits, or the webmaster’s free presentation in Louisville. Feel free to excerpt the message as you see fit for your favorite newsgroups. If you no longer wish to receive messages from ProgrammingMSAccess.com, just reply with Remove in Subject field.

Rick