How E-Mail Newsletters Can Help Your Website Grow
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Thursday, November 30, 2006 |
These days, it seems you have to do more than just launch a website to attract potential readers, customers, and devotees. As technology progresses and allows the Internet to become more interactive, website owners strive to keep up with the times. Browse your favorite websites today, and you will definitely notice the changes since you first visited them a few years ago.
You may find now a favorite website offers an RSS feed, so you can subscribe to certain articles or news. Some sites might release a regular podcast of information. A music group, for example, can now provide entire songs for listening enjoyment rather than ten-second clips. Message boards, chat rooms, and social networking options allow for more interactivity with site visitors. Yet for a site that does not require so many bells and whistles there is still a way to keep in touch and remain effective in marketing. A well-designed, opt-in e-mail newsletter is just the ticket for the small business, book author, or consultant who seeks to expand reach.
If you enjoy writing, then creating a monthly or twice-monthly newsletter to send to regular visitors will provide you with a strong creative outlet for your skills. More than that, it enhances a personal voice that may not always be detected on your website. There are many advantages to offering visitors to opt-in to regular e-mail correspondence:
E-Mail Newsletters Are Fun! Like writing a lively letter to your grandmother, or addressing a multitude of admirers, the e-mail newsletter allows you to create an endearing persona for the purpose of marketing your books, music, or products. Fill your newsletter with personal anecdotes about your business or writing, brief histories of how you came up with your best ideas, or inspirational vignettes for your readers to live by.
If your website sells cookies, share a recipe. If you are a novelist, talk about a recent book signing or write about another author you admire. If you are a consultant, talk about what motivates you to help others. Taking the time to write one newsletter a month of quality content can work wonders for your site's traffic.
E-Mail Newsletters Are Inexpensive! Unlike hard copy newsletters, which can become costly with production and postage expenses, the e-mail newsletter takes only the time to write, edit, and distribute. Whether you wish to create one in text or using an HTML template, you can find a suitable text editor like Notepad or HTML editor freeware to create your masterpiece. Distribution is a snap, too, when you utilize a third party site specializing in such communications. Yahoo Groups, for example, allows users to set newsletter options, so you can collect e-mails and send your newsletters out with one click of the mouse. If you are looking for something more professional to suit a business, a quick Internet search will lead you to helpful freeware or shareware designed to handle bulk mailings. The simple act of setting up a script on your website (and tutorials for this sort of thing are available online) to allow visitors to opt into an e-mail newsletter can be a boon for your Web enterprise.
E-Mail Newsletters sell! The personal touch and genial quality of a newsletter can enhance your products, books, and services. Let the content you create for site visitors draw them into the finer, unique attributes of what you have to offer. A consultant may wish to include stories of how his/her expertise led to great success for clients, while a book author can share fan mail from readers about how his/her book was an inspiration. What is so special about your book, your music, your products that people have to have them? Flesh out the finer points for copy that not only entertains, but sells, too.
In addition to your own items, offering a newsletter increases your opportunity to earn income in other ways. If you are familiar with Internet affiliate programs, you will know that many companies that affiliate offer creative and affiliate links designed especially for e-mail marketing.
Let's say you write a monthly newsletter about your mystery novels. By joining affiliate programs of national bookstore chains, you can advertise your book for sale through these outlets and provide readers with the affiliated URLs. As readers buy your books after clicking through these links, you get the royalty AND the affiliate fee associated with the link. But it doesn't have to stop there. Say your mystery novels are centered around a particular theme, perhaps your sleuth is a pastry chef. You can join affiliated programs associated with products your sleuth might use. Mix up the links with some compelling content and your simple newsletter is a potential moneymaker!
Yet, it doesn't happen overnight. To win readers, you have to dedicate yourself to writing the content and enticing first-time subscribers to become regular customers. More importantly, have fun with the newsletter. Make readers feel at home with your style, and they will want to keep coming to see what more you have to say. |
posted by editor @ 11:28 AM   |
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Do It Yourself Email Marketing Techniques
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Wednesday, November 29, 2006 |
#1. Do-It-Yourself Message Templates
Whether you publish your own newsletter or want to follow up with your past customers, you need a professional design for your messages - especially if you're going to send your messages in HTML format.
The easiest way to find a design is downloading newsletter templates from the Internet. You can find many templates that you can use for free.
Even if you want your messages to have a unique design, you can get inspired from these free templates to come up with a better design idea.
Here's a link for you to download many free newsletter templates in HTML, plain text, and PDF.
#2. Do-It-Yourself Promotional Emails
The most important part of your email marketing campaign, is the promotional messages you send to your list. If they are compelling, you will make the sale. Otherwise, you won't.
To discover how to write killer email copy, you should learn from successful, money-making emails. You can simply read them to discover their secrets, and use the formula for writing your own messages. After all, if they're making other people rich, they will make you money too.
#3. Do-It-Yourself Follow Up System
Customer follow up is the most effective email marketing strategy, because selling to your past customers is much easier and more cost-effective than gaining new customers.
You can create a follow up system and then put it on autopilot. The only thing you need is an autoresponder service to automatically send your messages day after day and month after month.
Here's a free article on how to create a powerful customer follow up system.
To your success! |
| posted by editor @ 9:19 AM |
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Top 5 Tips for Effective
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Tuesday, November 28, 2006 |
Over the past few years, research has continued to prove the benefits of e-mail marketing for business: low costs, high conversion rates and detailed tracking are all notable features. But e-mail marketing is becoming much more than just a tool for spammers and e-businesses. Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy on the differences between spam and permission-based emails, and more and more of them are accepting permission-based e-mail marketing as a positive replacement for direct mail.
The best news is that the majority of people who receive permission-based e-mails open, on average, 78% of them.
Jupiter Research reports effective email marketing campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and 18 times the profits of broadcast mailings. But crafting an effective business email is both an art and a science. Here is a list of factors, potential problems and effective solutions to keep in mind:
1. Spam! Spam! Spam! I don't need any Viagra!
The average consumer receives more than 300 emails a week, 62% of which are spam. No wonder there's such hostility towards the industry. But spam filters, bulk folders and "report spam" features are helping consumers become more at ease about the perils of spam. While 89% of users cited spam as a major concern in 2003, that number dropped to 85% in 2004, proportionally to an increase in the use of spam-fighting tools.
So as a permission-based business email marketer, what can you do? One tip is to remind your subscribers to add you to their "safe senders" list. The second, and most important, tactic is to make sure your email marketing service provider has a good relationship with ISPs. This will ensure that your email marketing campaigns go into your subscribers' inboxes, not their junk mail folders. When choosing an email marketing software, make sure the company has strict anti-spam policies and complies with the guidelines of Can-Spam.
2. Images and formatting: Why do my emails look broken?
Broken email campaigns are an increasing concern among email marketers, especially since several companies and web-based email providers now block graphics as a measure to combat spam. In fact, according to ClickZ, 40% of email marketing messages delivered to inboxes are "broken."
This was actually something that came up during Eliteweb.cc's beta-testing phases, as we had a client in the Canadian Government whose recipients were mostly using highly secure email programs. The solution we came up has now become one of our key competitive advantages.
What Eliteweb.cc does is it publishes every single email marketing campaign sent to a secure location on the web (a location only original recipients of the email can access, thanks to encrypted technology that automatically authenticates the user). The technology also ensures you can track your users' behaviors, even if they are reading your email campaign at the secure web location.
3. Personalization and relevant content: In a business e-mail, one size does not fit all.
In a recent study by DoubleClick, email users were 72% more likely to respond to a business e-mail if its content was based on the interests they had specified. That number points out the absolute importance of allowing users to choose their own interest groups and have control over which business e-mails they receive. The most popular interest categories, according to the study, are coupons and household goods.
But you're coupon is no good unless the user opens the email. Users in the study said the most compelling reason for them to open a business email is the name in the "from" field. So it's a good idea to make sure your company name is clearly stated there. Another major factor is the "subject" line. Users cite discount offers and interesting news as the most compelling subject lines, followed by new product announcements and free shipping offers.
4. Click-through and conversion: Show me the money!
So the user has opened your email and read the content. Great. But where's the sale? There's good news here. For one, consumers are increasingly likely to make purchases as a direct result of a business email campaign. One-third of users in the DoubleClick study had purchased something by clicking a link on an email. Another 42% clicked on an email link for more information, then purchased the product at a later time. Second, online couponing is booming: 73% of consumers have redeemed an online coupon for an online purchase, and 59% have redeemed an online coupon offline.
In terms of industries, the top performers are travel, hardware/software, electronics, apparel, food, home furnishings, gifts/flowers and sporting goods. All companies sending business emails in those categories said between 71% and 80% of recipients have purchased their products because of an email campaign.
There's no need to fret if your company doesn't fit in to one of those industries. The overall landscape for email marketing conversions is looking brighter every day. The average click-to-purchase rate has increased nearly 30% since 2004 and the average orders-per-email-delivered rate has increased more than 18% since last year.
5. Stats tracking: Who are my real consumers?
E-mail marketing is an increasingly popular tool in effective CRM, and it's about time more businesses recognize that. First off, if your provider's email services for business do not include detailed, real-time tracking, you're getting a raw deal. Real-time tracking is now an industry standard, and it's highly valuable, as it allows you to see the exact moment a user opens your campaign, clicks on your link and makes that purchase. Studying your users can help you improve your communications efforts, so each campaign performs better than the last (several email service providers also let you compare the performance of your campaigns).
But many marketers are still in the dark. According to a recent WebTrends research, only 5% of marketers are very confident in the measurement of their online marketing efforts, while 26% admit they're "flying blind." WebTrends says the low confidence comes from a lack of knowledge when it comes to measurement, which means there's still a lot of work to be done.
In email marketing, a blind shot won't take you very far. But if you aim properly by following these essential rules of play, you should soon be reaping the same major results as so many online and offline businesses. |
| posted by editor @ 9:20 AM |
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Combing the Power of Google Adsense and Email Marketing
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Monday, November 27, 2006 |
In the past year, Google Adsense has become the “It” way to make money on the Internet.
But even if you already use Google Adsense on your site, you are probably leaving money on the table. Let me explain why…
Most people create a site, slap some content and then wait for people to click on their ads.
But once people click on an ad, they are gone….probably forever!
One method that smart Internet marketers use to maximize their Google Adsense is to harness the power of their email list. By getting people to subscribe to their list, website owners can continue to make money from their readers.
By utilizing the power of their email list, website owners can dramatically increase their Adsense income.
Here is how you can do the same. In the following article, there is a step-by-step list of how you can harness the power of your list to create a steady stream of Adsense revenue.
The first step is to create a topic that is in high demand. A good topic would be something that people have an interest in, or information that can help your readers personally or financially.
Your next action would be to create content for your site. The idea is to write or use information that would provide value to the reader. All your articles should help improve their life in some manner. You can create content for your site in a large numbers of ways. This can include:
Your own web articles
Guides, product evaluations, and “How To’s”
Blogs and RSS Feeds
Public domain works
Private label rights
Hiring a freelancer to write your content
Obviously creating content for your site is an ongoing process, so once you’ve created at least 10 pages of quality information for your readers, you should create your web pages and optimize them for Google Adsense.
As you are designing your pages for Adsense, you should keep one thing in mind- Your primary goal is to get people to click on your Adsense ads.
So don’t give your readers too many options. As a result, it is important to keep your web page simple. To do this, you should include do the following:
Place the article on the web page
Ad all three Adsense blocks in prominent places
Make sure that the ad blocks look like standard text, with the no borders and blue links
If you have to have other links on this page, include them at the bottom where there is a less chance of being clicked on
After designing your web pages, you need to create an autoresponder sequence for your email list. The primary focus for each email is to get people to click on your Google Adsense pages. So it is important to create and intriguing title. Then in the email, write a little bit about the importance of the article and tell your subscribers how they can learn more by clicking over to the site.
Once you’ve created your sequence of bringing readers to your Adsense pages, you should start promoting your lists. You can do this by articles, PPC, ebooks, viral marketing and SEO. The more people usually means more money, so you have to continuously work at marketing your website.
Once you have finished creating your Adsense and email system, you should go back and continue to add more content and market your site. By having a large selection of information and more readers, you’ll discover that your Google Adsense income will grow exponentially. |
| posted by editor @ 1:43 PM |
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Opt-In Email and eZine Advertising still more effective than RSS, Blogs, and PPC!
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Sunday, November 26, 2006 |
| When you factor in all the costs related to promoting via an Opt-In Email or Ezine campaign you are still getting the best return on your advertising dollar investment than using RSS, Blogs or PPC. The measurable results are significantly faster than RSS and Blogs and less expensive than using Pay Per Click marketing. Without a doubt, Email and Newsletter advertising campaigns are still two of the best tools available to promote your product or service |
| posted by editor @ 1:44 PM |
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ush Email
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Saturday, November 25, 2006 |
| What's the new thing in handheld devices? Push email. The idea is to get email to people's cell phones and other devices so that they can access it no matter where they are. What is the market potential of this new technology and who are the players that will make it happen? |
| posted by editor @ 1:45 PM |
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How to Use Mail Merge in Outlook to Send Personalized Publisher Newsletters to a Distribution List
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Friday, November 24, 2006 |
Step-by-step instructions on how to send professional looking, personalized email newsletters using Microsoft Publisher 2003 and Microsoft Outlook 2003 so you don’t need to purchase expensive email software packages.
If you create an email newsletter in Microsoft Publisher, you have probably run into the same problem that I did – distributing the newsletter after creating it. Publisher allows you to send the file as an email message (File -> Send Email) but surprisingly doesn’t allow you to send it to a distribution list.
This is fine if you only want to send it to a few people, or if you don’t have to worry about making everyone’s email visible to everyone else in the group. But what if you send a business newsletter to clients? Or if you want to personalize each message (for example, putting each persons name in the salutation as opposed to a generic one)?
Previously, the only options that I saw were to send it to every person individually (can become extremely time consuming) or send it to the distribution list as a BCC (Blind Carbon Copy). BCC’s are bad for two reasons – one, they tend to be automatically filtered out as spam, and two, they don’t allow for personalization.
Most people will tell you that if you are in this situation it is time to upgrade to professional email software. I personally like doing my newsletter design in Publisher and would prefer to continue to use Publisher. I also like using Outlook distribution lists. I have a script that sends me the list of people that are signed up to my newsletter each month in a format that simply copies and pastes into a working Outlook distribution list.
So I created a work-around which I successfully tested for the first time yesterday, with the December issue of the SportsLizard.com Newsletter.
Step 1: Create your Newsletter in Publisher
I use the term ‘newsletter’ but any Publisher file can be sent via email, so whatever your application you can put this strategy to work for you.
Step 2: Create your Distribution List in Microsoft Outlook
If you aren’t familiar with Distribution Lists, there is a tutorial at http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=417511&seqNum=3
Step 3: Send your Newsletter to Yourself
In Publisher, go to (File -> Send Email -> Send This Page as Message) and email it to your email account in Microsoft Outlook.
Step 4: “Forward” the Newsletter to the Distribution List using a Mail Merge
At this point, you have received your newsletter at your email account in Outlook and you no longer need Publisher. Essentially, the rest of the process is just forwarding your newsletter to your Distribution List using a Mail Merge, something you can’t do when sending via Publisher. This consists of several steps:
1. Save your Distribution List in Rich Text Format by opening the List and choosing File -> Save As.
2. Open the list, delete any headings, and replace them with headings for the fields in your distribution list, separating each heading with a tab. For example, if your distribution list contains first name, last name, and email address, you would want to list those headings in the order they appear, separating them with a tab.
3. Click Forward on the email that you sent yourself and delete the lines of text that show the recipient that it is a forwarded email.
4. Click in the body of the message, and choose Tools -> Letters and Mailings -> Mail Merge.
5. Choose E-mail Messages and hit Next
6. Choose Use the current document and hit Next
7. Click Browse and select your Distribution List. Your list should appear, click OK and then click Next.
8. Use the More Items menu to insert any personalized messages. For example, you could greet each recipient personally by inserting their name at the top of the email. Click Next when complete.
9. Edit your recipient list if you like. Otherwise, click Next to complete the merge.
That’s it! Now you can now send your Publisher email as a Mail Merge! |
| posted by editor @ 1:45 PM |
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Smart Tips for Putting Your Sales on Autopilot
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Wednesday, November 22, 2006 |
If you are not automating certain redundant aspects of your online business, you are not leveraging your time efficiently and you are earning way below your potential. Find out how you can change that and see the demand for your offer soar through the roof.
One of the most important features the Internet offers is interactivity, and the sequential autoresponder has become the most effective tool for the Web marketer to exploit this dynamic. When used correctly, this tool can be transformed into your obedient, reliabe, productive workhorse and sales representative.
You can have as many autoresponders as you require. They are not difficult to set up and each can be programmed to automate several important tasks, freeing up more time for you to develop new ideas and expand your business.
An autoresponder is essentially an e-mail program that responds automatically to any incoming message to a particular e-mail address.
It can be set up to:
announce special offers
distribute multi-part e-courses
broadcast personalized messages
promote products, services and articles
deliver newsletters, e-zines and e-books
persuade prospects to take action
provide additional information
follow-up with customers
do much more
Once started, each of the above assignments can help you generate income 24 hours a day -- automatically, economically and consistently. So, if you chose to take an extended vacation and enjoy life's pleasures frolicking on a Caribbean beach, you could do so without suffering any loss of revenue.
The autoresponder is a wonderful e-mail tool and here are some specific ways it could benefit your business.
1. Test and Track Specific Ad Campaigns
Place a small classified advertisement in an online publication and include an e-mail address for readers to request more information. That e-mail address takes them to your autoresponder which has been previously set up with the additional information.
The request triggers an immediate and automatic e-mail response to the reader. It's quick and efficient.
By setting up different autoresponder addresses with the same information, you can use the count of incoming e-mails for each address to track the effectiveness of things like:
your headlines
your ad copy
the publication's pulling power
any other data that may be important to you
2. Offer a Preview of your E-book or Software Product
Studies have shown that you substantially reduce buying resistance if you allow prospects to get a sneak peek at what you have to offer. It gives them an opportunity to evaluate your product and determine if it suits their purpose, before plunking down money and possibly finding out otherwise.
At the same time, your willingness to have your product scrutinized says you are confident it will deliver on your claims.
This strategy gives you access to the prospect's e-mail address, where you can send instructions for previewing your product. Subsequent follow-ups can be sent at appropriate intervals encouraging the prospect to make a purchase, subscribe to your newsletter, or whatever the case may be.
3. Thank You, Follow-up and Upsell
When someone orders your product, your autoresponder can routinely send a personalized message confirming the transaction and thanking them for the purchase. Three days later a follow-up e-mail can be sent to see how they're doing with the product, and offering to answer questions or address any problems.
This show of support is very reassuring, helps to build trust, and lays the foundation for developing a positive business relationship.
Four days after that, you can send off a second follow-up message recommending other products the purchaser might find useful. This tactic is effective. It leads to additional sales and is completely automated.
4. Distribute a Mini-Course via E-mail
It is widely known that repeated contacts with a potential customer are necessary before a sale is made. Five to seven contacts is the range that seems to deliver the greatest success. You can capitalize on this by offering a mulit-part course, tutorial or chapters from your latest e-book.
Program your autoresponder to release a new chapter or lesson every two or three days. Make sure that each message includes a reference to your product or service, with links where appropriate, along with an invitation to buy your stuff.
This approach keeps your business fresh in the reader's mind. The frequency and quality of the information helps her become familiar and comfortable with you. Trust is developed. Your stock goes up and the reader is more inclined to do business with you eventually.
There are many other creative ways in which this powerful technology is being used everyday to connect with thousands of potential customers. The beauty of the autoresponder is that it can be programmed for a particular function then left alone to carry out its instructions.
With a little effort you can come up with your own innovative ways to automate your business and create new marketing opportunities, improve customer service, establish your brand and boost profits, all without increasing your workload. |
| posted by editor @ 1:46 PM |
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Top 10 Reasons to Use an Email to Phone Service
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006 |
Email to phone services can be most helpful for anyone without a computer of Internet access...and that can be anybody at one time or another.
One of the latest services that is growing steadily is "email to phone", whereby you can receive email messages by voice over the phone, or send voice messages as emails from any phone – cell phone, satellite phone or a regular land line.
When I first heard of this, I wondered, "Why would I want to listen to my email instead of reading it?" But I soon learned that there are a great many people who can stay in much better touch receiving email messages by phone. Here is a list of the top ten reasons I have complied to use an email to phone service:
Email to phone for busy people on the run
1. You can pick up a message any time, any where, even if you had not planned to. Have you ever had that eerie feeling there was an urgent email waiting for you? Now you can relieve your curiosity, deal with the email and feel 100% assured that landing the sand trap was not a result of email anxiety.
2. Receiving emails by phone is ideal for a busy person on the run. Between the meetings and the restaurant and the cab, a busy person does not always have the time to sit down in front of a computer. But he always has time for his cell phone (You might have noticed this in restaurants, theatre shows, etc.)
3. International travelers have a great use for email to phone services, as they cannot always foretell the availability of a computer or an Internet connection, nor how much time they might have between flights, meetings, etc. This way, they can keep monitoring all their urgent messages wherever they end up, and delayed flights will no longer mean delayed business.
Email to phone for constant access
4. There are some places where you just can't plug into your computer (or would not want to). On a boat, for instance. With email to phone messaging, you can receive email while you relax on a boat, far from an Internet connection. And yes, it IS relaxing to know you don't have to fret about a missed email that could bring down the company or cost you your job.
5. On a hunting or fishing trip, you might often find yourself with no Internet connection. And you certainly won't have a computer with you (I hope!). But you might have cell phone access. And if one of your hunting buddies does drag along his PC from home, you can tell him to get an email to phone service instead.
6. Check in at the cottage, without lugging a computer around. Need I say more. It is indeed relaxing to know you don't have to fret about a missed email that cost you your job. It is NOT relaxing to have to open your eyes to look at a computer monitor.
7. There are also many countries where Internet access is not reliable, even in parts of well-traveled countries. Who needs Internet for emails, when you can receive them by phone?
8. Indeed, even in your own country, there might be areas you frequent that are outside of the digital coverage area, where SMS and text messaging are unavailable, such as driving through deserts or mountains. Even with analog coverage or a regular phone line, you can keep monitoring your email.
Special monitoring email by phone
9. Some people need instant alerts, and have to be in touch even while in the lunch room or traveling between meetings. IT support people, who subscribe to a website monitoring service are a perfect example. If a company's website goes down, the CEO won't be pleased if 45 minutes later the IT manager says, "Sorry, I was out to lunch."
10. Some people have the misfortune of having to communicate with high-tech show-offs like me who use email to communicate. For these unfortunate people who might otherwise be forced to adapt to 21st century technology, email to phone messaging rides to the rescue. "Hah! Now I can listen to email messages on my cell phone. And they thought they could force me to adopt modern technology. Hah! I sure fooled them!"
There you have it – my top ten reasons to use email to phone services. Amazing how new ideas can turn even a stone-aged telephone into a technological leap forward. Imagine what they'll do with boulders next. |
| posted by editor @ 1:47 PM |
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It's In The List! That's Where It Is!
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Monday, November 20, 2006 |
Have you noticed the marketing frenzy? Have you felt the growing pains? Everyone who has an online business seems to be getting in the marketing fray, making it a busy and verycompetitive field. If you’re one of them, you’re probably on a whirlwind ride. Marketers are looking high and low for the most profitable ways to spend their hard earned moneyto keep their online business in the red.
And don’t forget the time involved in every venture taken. You know the route of the FFA and free advertising and subscription services. It doesn't take much money out of pocket to use these, but if you figure in your time, the cost is huge. Yes, it can be a way to pick up a few subscribers and visitors and buyers here and there, but do you want to settle for a few when the payoff doesn’t match your efforts? How long can your business survive at such a slow pace?
I’ve been there and am still working on it. It’s an ongoing learning experience. New products and services pop up all the time to distract you from what you really need to be doing.
And what should you be doing? It’s the one thing that hasn’t changed from the get go of the online business. TheList! The money is in the list, either your list or someone else’s. and eventually it should be your list.
So how do you build your list? How do you get to 100 subscribers? How do you go from there to 1000 subscribers?It’s mind boggling.
But I’m going to give away some secrets and I’m handing over the key to help you build your list. This is bigger than Bush Beans recipe, and I’m talking.
First of all it’s FREE. Did you hear that – FREE. No gimmicks, no crossed fingers.
Go to the link below and get your Special Report. “How I Got 1,124 Subscribers In One Week – From Scratch.” You’ll be impressed. I guarantee it. The report revealsa strategy for building your list Very Quickly!
http://alwaysads.com/x.php?adminid=1773&tid=6367
This is a Shareware Article. Feel free to use it in your ezine or on your website if you leave it fully intact, and if you contact me to tell me where and when you are using it. |
| posted by editor @ 1:48 PM |
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The Cybermagic fo Whitelists
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Sunday, November 19, 2006 |
Before we start getting deep into the meat of this article it's important to explain some standard terminology to make sure the rest of this article makes sense.
An IP address is a number which identifies your location on the Internet.
A blacklist is a list of IP addresses which your antispam software uses to block incoming spam.
A whitelist is the exact opposite of a blacklist.
A whitelist is a predefined list of IP addresses that are allowed to send email to and receive email from each other. Blacklists exclude known and suspected spammers. Whitelists can be used to exclude everyone except known IP addresses.
Think of it like this. A whitelist is a like having a phonebook which is owned by a small group of people who only wish to speak directly to each other. They don't want just anybody ringing them. Not only that but the entire group need to approve new phone numbers before they appear in this exclusive phonebook.
To send email to a whitelist you must be approved by the owner of the whitelist. This is a lot like the double optin systems used by legimiate ezines and mailing list owners. Whitelists are the nightclub bouncers of the virtual world - if you ain't on the list you ain't getting in. Simple but very effective.
A real world example of a whitelist would be if two companies wanted to exchange email only with each other. These companies could implement a whitelist that contained the IP address for just the two email servers that want to send email to each other. That would mean that any email coming from an IP address not on the whitelist would be returned to sender. For companies they can ensure that employees are only dealing with work related email and not chatting with their friends.
The benefits of whitelists are many but proper management of the whitelists is equally important. Misuse of whitelists will only lead to more headaches for everyone involved with missing email, irate customers and IT departments doing overtime just being the tip of the iceberg. |
| posted by editor @ 1:49 PM |
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Using an e-signature to guarantee a boost in your web traffic!
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Saturday, November 18, 2006 |
Using an e-signature is one of the easiest, most effective ways to bring targeted visitors to your site. Many webmasters waste this great opportunity to advertise their site, and bring potential customers to their site.
An e-signature is really your personal internet signature which you leave at the end of every piece of writing on the internet whether it is an email, article or forum post. Check out my e-signature below:
The aim of your e-signature should be to try and get people clicking on the link back to your site. Make sure you put your link in the signature where it is clearly visible. I suggest putting your link on a separate line from other text to make it easy for a viewer to know where to click.
Make sure you inform the reader where they’re clicking to. Include a small description of no more than 20 – 30 words that informs the reader where they’re clicking to and also sells the benefit of your site. Make it very clear how the viewer will benefit from your site if they click on your link.
Always include your contact information in your e-signature. People always want to know where to go if they have a problem or want more information. If they have to look around for your email, then they will be unimpressed and may pass on bad word about your site’s service to others. On the other hand, if they can contact you easily and you can reply quickly with a polite, helpful email, then they will very likely pass on good words to their friends. Including your contact information also invites people to ask questions or find out additional information. This gives you a possible new prospect, a new email address, and valuable information about an outsider’s views on your site which you could add to your FAQ page if it is a question, or a testimonial page if it is a positive comment. Leaving your contact information on articles you have written is extremely important. This will give publishers who might want to include you article in their ezine a chance to contact you. Publishers will not include your article if they can not contact you first.
Try to make your e-signature stand out. Although e-signatures are the one of the most neglected ways of advertising, there are plenty of other people who are using them to boost their web traffic. I’ve found that the “=” sign is an effective way of making e-signatures stand out. If you are sending emails regularly with an e-signature then try to change the border of your e-signature now and again. If people see a difference in your e-signature it will rouse their curiosity and make them click on the link.
An alternative way of making your e-signature stand out is to use ‘P.S’ like you would in a written letter. People are naturally curious and are always going to read that last little bit of an email or article, just to find out what else the writer has to tell them. I find that this tactic is particularly useful when writing an informative email to subscribers about updates on my site.
Overall, I suggest experimenting with your e-signature until you have it just right. Ask your friends whether they think it is effective and whether it stands out sufficiently. Just keep on trying new e-signatures out until you get the highest response rates.
For 100s of free ebooks and software about making and developing your internet site –
Go to – http://www.info-ebooks.co.uk
Email me – will@info-ebooks.co.uk
Please feel free to use this article in your ezine or on your site so long as the content remains unchanged and the author’s by-lines are included. |
| posted by editor @ 1:49 PM |
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Securing the Medical Office with Taceo
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Friday, November 17, 2006 |
OVERVIEW
Operating a medical practice is assiduous work requiring great attention to detail on a variety of fronts. Patient privacy has always Been an important concept in the medical profession. New laws are taking this notion a step further, making it mandatory for medical facilities to protect individuallyidentifiable health information. Government regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability andAccountability Act (HIPAA) and others stipulate the how your digital records containing sensitive patient information should be kept secure, but caring for your patient’s privacy is just good business.
One of the most time and labor consuming tasks in maintaining an electronic medical record is importing non-digital patient information such as radiology reports, hospital dictation andconsultation/referral letters is an extremely time and labor consuming task in maintaining an electronic medical record. This is unfortunate because most of this information is already in digital format at the sender's location but printed to paper for transit. Transmitting digital information securely, however, can be problematic at best. Simply emailing a document to an intended recipientwould potentially violate a patient's privacy since the mail could be intercepted in transit or read byunauthorized persons on the destination email server before it is downloaded. Also, it would beimpossible to tell whether or not the document was tampered with or was sent by someone electronically pretending to be someone else. For example, to promote office efficiency, medicaloffices that want to allow physicians to provide electronic mail as a means to transmit information are forced to have an “email disclaimer” that can not guarantee the privacy of information contained in an email. The information may be confidential and subject to protection under the law, but the fact remains that no real protection is provided as a preventative for security breach of your information.
Whether you are a healthcare provider, payer or pharmaceutical company you have electronic information that must be protected. Essential Taceo virtually eliminates the costs associated with safeguarding Protected Health Information (PHI). With Taceo you are now free to email medical advice to your patients, send prescription requests to the smallest of pharmacies and safely deliver patient records to referral doctors.
HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT (HIPAA)
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 was designed to create a new national standard for protecting the privacy of patient’s health information. HIPAA also focused on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Healthcare system, by encouraging thedevelopment and adoption of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) between healthcare providers, payers and pharmaceutical organizations. HIPAA also stipulates the strict requirement for organizations to establish safeguards to protect the integrity and confidentiality of an individual’sProtected Health Information (PHI).HIPAA applies to individual healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare insurance providers.The law also pertains to organizations that deal with the electronic PHI of customers, employers and patients. Civil and criminal penalties can result from noncompliance and security violations.
PENALTIES FOR HIPAA VIOLATIONS
HIPAA calls for civil and criminal penalties for security and privacy breaches. General failure to comply is $100 per penalty; violations of an identical requirement may not exceed $25,000 per year. For example: it would be considered a violation to email claim or file with identifiable patient information that is not encrypted. Even though one requirement may not exceed $25,000, HIPAA has more than 15 named security standards, which if repeatedly violated could quickly grow to more than $375,000. More severe criminal penalties also apply to more flagrant HIPAA violations. Wrongful disclosure of PHI can result in a $50,000 penalty and up to one year in prison. Offense with intent to sell of misusepatients protected health information is punishable with a maximum $250,000 fine and/or 10 years Imprisonment.
TACEO: HELPING TO NAVIGATE THE HIPAA MINEFIELD - COMMON HIPAA SCENARIOS AND TACEO
Medical office wishes to refer and identifiable PHI to another healthcare provider.
A primary care physician examines an individual and determines that he would like to send the patient to another provider for further diagnosis or treatment. The physician then asks his/her assistant to assemble and email the patient’s history and physical (H&P), imaging reports, labs, progress notes, etc. to the off-site healthcare provider for review. Unfortunately, the physician and his assistant are in now violation of HIPAA regulations.
Unprotected email is like sending a post-card through cyber-space. While transiting it is routed through multiple servers, an email containing patient PHI can be easily read by people other than the designated recipient (the off-site provider). Furthermore, the patient’s records, because of an accidental keystroke, could be unintentionally misdirected to an unknown party, thereby increasing the severity of the security breach. The physician’s assistant could have used Taceo to protect the email and attachments. With the quick click of a button the worker could have prohibited the patient records from being printed, forwarded and edited. The outgoing documents would be encrypted and un-accessible to anyone besides the intended recipient healthcare provider. (Even if the receiving healthcare provider is notfully set-up to work with electronic patient healthcare information, they can still securely view patientrecords without violating patient confidentiality.)
On-line Pharmaceutical Provider
A pharmaceutical provider fills prescriptions via on-line ordering, but cannot meet HIPAA securetransmission requirements for emailing regarding prescriptions and medications, order confirmation, and other information to their patients. The organization could resort to analog methods such as calling each individual customer or sending information to the customers via standard post, however these methods are very inefficient and cost prohibitive. To meet HIPAA regulations the on-line prescription provider must shoulder the burden of hiring and training a number of new employees atgreat cost. What is the on-line pharmacy to do?
With Taceo, the pharmaceutical provider can securely send prescription information, orderconfirmations and more to their clientele. The confidentiality and integrity of emails containingprotected health information (PHI) is enforced and maintained even after delivery. Nearly any customer with a PC1 can easily download the free version of Taceo, enabling them receive and reply protected email.
Taceo’s usage permissions interface provides the company with an effective way to assign flexible rights management controls based on the profile of the client. Emails Containing prescriptioninformation can be set to expire when no longer valid.
Healthcare giver wishes to provide individual patients medical advice via email
To provide added value, a healthcare provider wishes to establish an easy and affordable way to give their patients medical advice over the web. The provider must have the ability to send and receive protected medical advice from work or home and cannot afford the installation, maintenance and expensive licensing fees associated with available server-based solutions. Furthermore, the caregiver’s patients are largely non-technical and will not bother with cumbersome key exchange, s/mime and other requirements commonly associated with widely available encryption technologies.
Additionally, encryption software does not protect content after it has been delivered. Once opened, the patient’s identifiable medical information is totally exposed; email can be accidentally forwarded, laptops and PCs can be lost or sold with PHI remaining on the hard-drive, patient info could be leaked via virus, spy-ware or Trojan worm. Unauthorized individuals gain access and doctor-patient confidentiality is breached. The caregiver must be able to ensure that received documents remain encrypted and can be deleted from the patient’s computer after a given time. How can the healthcare provider utilize the power of email to give medical advice while keeping sensitive patient data secure?
Taceo helps healthcare professionals meet HIPAA requirements for the secure storage, transmission and delivery of identifiable patient information. Taceo makes the sending and receiving of secured email and documents quick and easy. From the desktop or MS Outlook®, providers can encrypt and apply usage permissions to control and prevent actions as forwarding, cut/copy/paste, printing and disabling the Print Screen key. Email and documents can also be set to “expire” and will become unreadable at a given time and date.
Taceo is by no means a comprehensiven overall HIPAA security solution, however if used properly can help your business to inexpensively meet most of the critical rules.
TACEO FEATURES AND BENEFITS
• Protect EPHI from theft, misdirection and unauthorized distribution.• Allows primary care providers and specialists to instantly and securely share patient records with little cost.• Enables patients to easily access and securely reply to protected emails containing medical advice, prescription information and more from their home or work computers.• Gives off-site providers an easy method to access and reply to secure email sent across disparate computing environments• Affordable security beyond the office firewall. Taceo can ensure the proper use and protection of EPHI no matter where it travels or where it is stored.• Helps ensure authenticity of EPHI with digital signatures.• Improve productivity by using the web to instantly & securely share sensitive data.• Taceo offers an affordable way to securely store sensitive information on site.• Prevent unauthorized access to your documents.• Prevent unauthorized distribution (no forwarding)• Prevent document editing (no cut, copy, paste)• Set expiration time/date on email & documents.• Ensures confidentiality and privacy.• Securely and permanently delete files to Department of Defense standards (DOD 5220.22-M).• Patients can download Taceo for free.• Meet regulatory compliance requirements for privacy - HIPAA, PIPEDA, 21 CFR Part 11, Sarbanes-Oxley
REDUCING YOUR VULNERABILIIES
No security software in the world is 100% unbreakable, even the most advanced digital encryption techniques can be broken or circumvented by some person or organization with enough motivation,time and money. Taceo does not totally negate the risk of information leakage, for example a malicious individual could take a digital photo of the screen or re-type the content into another document and distribute it. However, Taceo considerably reduces the risk that sensitive data can be disseminated to unauthorized individuals or groups. Taceo Safeguards remain with the data no matter where it travels or where it is stored. Even if a CD or USB thumb-drive containing protected data isstolen, the information contained therein will remain encrypted and cannot be opened by unauthorized recipients.
THE ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL MIGRATION
Although it is often difficult to make the initial switch to using digital patient records, the cost savings can be profound, especially when amortized over a number of years. Benefits include better accuracy in health records, less time spent transcribing patient notes, filling prescriptions and receiving quicker payment from insurance companies. For the most part many healthcare practitioners have been slow to adopt digital medical records, as of April 2005 only 16.4% of doctors in the United States had made the switch. Reasons most often cited for the slow adoption has been the costs in time and money. Fear of complicated regulations also slow the transition; once records are in the digital realm HIPAA standards must be strictly adhered.
Although the task appears daunting, individual and smaller medical practices can cost-effectively make the digital transition with largely low cost, off-the-shelf components.
Taceo, from Essential Security Software should be an integral part of any digital migration plan. Taceo can help your office secure the storage and transmission of PHI. Because Taceo can be used on almost any PC, it can beused to “bridge the gap” with offices of other healthcare providers that have not yet made the switch to digital records. Whether digital or analog, all organizations that deal with patient medical information are subject to HIPAA ordinances.
SUMMARY
Any healthcare provider or organization that works with patient healthcare data is at risk for losing control of this information. Unprotected electronic files containing sensitive data can easily be accessed, altered, stolen and re-distributed to unauthorized parties. Electronic protected healthinformation (EPHI) is subject to stringent HIPAA regulations; penalties for violation of HIPAA rules can result in stiff fines and jail time. Loss of EPHI can place healthcare organizations at great financialand legal risk.
Taceo, from Essential Security Software can help small to mid-size healthcare providers mitigate these risks. Taceo can also help organizations meet HIPAA requirements for the secure transmission, access and integrity of EPHI. Taceo is effective, affordable and easy-to-use software that enables healthcare providers to securely store, transmit and receive sensitive data. Taceo can encrypt and help control access to almost any file. Protected email and documents are safeguarded against unauthorized forwarding, editing, coping, and printing or screen capture.Taceo opens up a new realm of possibilities never available before with such ease and affordability.Healthcare providers can securely email medical information to their patients. Pharmacies can use Taceo to send prescription order information to doctors and customers alike.
Caregivers can quickly and securely collaborate with off-site specialists thereby ensuring patients receive good treatment and much more.
System Requirements
Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003 or newer
Microsoft .Net framework installed (if you don’t have this Taceo will install it for you)
Internet access.
15 MB of available hard-drive space |
| posted by editor @ 1:50 PM |
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Electronic Signature Solutions - Custom or 3rd Party
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Thursday, November 16, 2006 |
Many businesses, in an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, are turning to electronic signatures. Keeping files electronic from creation through distribution and signature and into networked storage helps to eliminate expenses in almost every aspect of the business. Deciding how to implement an electronic signature solution into the business can be a daunting task.
Many businesses, in an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, are turning to electronic signatures. Keeping files electronic from creation through distribution and signature and into networked storage helps to eliminate expenses in almost every aspect of the business. Deciding how to implement an electronic signature solution into the business can be a daunting task.
Limitations of Custom “In House” DevelopmentLarge companies are sometimes in a position to create their own “In-House” customized proprietary solutions. While these systems may solve the immediate business need, they have limitations. VeriSign, one of the largest PKI solution providers, admits in their paper "ROI for PKI" that - “PKI systems are particularly expensive to maintain.”
One-off solutions are more expensive because only one company is supporting the cost of development, implementation and continued support. This produces both short and long-term expenses that many companies do not originally take into account. Even if cost is a non-issue, developing a solution to one company’s business problem can create a lack of functionality and expandability.
Problems with “Out of House” 3rd Party ServicesThe number one issue with most third party service providers is lack of freedom as control and power is often taken away from their users by restricting the type of file that can be used or how the information is presented. A business wants the freedom of getting a signature on any file type without having to convert it to MS Word or Adobe PDF. Users also want the freedom of usability – knowing that their customers can use any operating system and any internet browser. Most services do not have this flexibility.
Users often feel they have lost their freedom when they must pay expensive setup fees. Or they may not be willing to invest in a service that they may find does not suit their needs.
A New Approach to Electronic SignaturesUnlike previous electronic signature services, PrivaSign gives users the flexibility to use any file type and to have complete control of the creation and presentation of the file. Anyone can use PrivaSign with no setup fees or cancellation charges, users simply pay for the files they have signed. The PrivaSign solution is a smart decision for either large companies or single users wishing to save time and money.
PrivaSign’s patented technology allows for fast digital signature capturing on virtually any document and from any web browser. This flexibility will allow businesses to keep implementation costs at a minimum and increase the likelihood that signatories will be able to use the system. |
| posted by editor @ 1:51 PM |
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Designing Your Signature Life, Part 2
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Wednesday, November 15, 2006 |
Are you writing your signature on the world each day? Learn how to create a life plan that will reflect your own personal style and that allows you put your own unique stamp on everything you touch.
The Parts and Pieces:
In the second and final part of this series about designing your signature life, we’ll talk about how Entertaining and Homemaking, Travel and Adventure, and Personal Image and Style play key roles in creating a life you truly love. We’ll also address the larger goals of attaining balance, leaving a legacy, and actively creating a life plan.
As we discussed in Part 1, designing your signature life is not just about your home interiors but is instead about every aspect of your life. Designing a signature life will enable you to get what you want by making a plan, establishing goals and creating a map to get there. By demonstrating flexibility and patience in each step you’ll be able to maximize your potential and the opportunities we each have. It’s about creating a life as unique as your own signature!Entertaining and HomemakingToo often people want to entertain, but are afraid. They are waiting for the house to be decorated, for that next promotion, for the kids to be grown up and gone. Entertaining is not about waiting! It is not about the perfect décor, your status at work, whether the kids are home or not; instead it is about sharing time and experiences with friends and family. If they are truly coming only to see your latest drapery or hear about your raise, consider getting new friends!Entertaining is a chance to invite others to share in a bit of your life, a bit of your home, and a bit of you. It doesn’t have to be grand, expensive or involve a caterer, although that can be fun too! Think about having a potluck with a handful of friends. Or maybe a leftover surprise dinner where everyone brings leftovers or cooks up something from things they have had for awhile in the pantry. Better yet, have everyone chip in $5 and order a pizza. It can be that easy.
Entertaining can also be about hiring the experts. Get a caterer, develop a menu, hire a party planner, and let them take care of the details! It isn’t about the scale of the party, but about bringing people together and mixing it up. I throw parties for every reason or no reason at all. Few of my friends are comfortable doing this. Yes, it can be a lot of work if you let it. The choice is yours.
Travel and AdventureWhere do you want to go?? Many of us want to travel, but we don’t seem to go anywhere because we don’t plan it. We are very routine oriented and can’t seem to break loose for that spontaneous road trip or weekend with the girls. Planned or unplanned, it won’t happen if you don’t just do it. Taking a trip used to require loads of time, a travel agent, and tons of money. Now it requires a few clicks of a mouse with no agent in the middle, and you can do it for pennies. Of course, if you can do it all out and want to, I say go for it. But don’t miss an opportunity to experience another country, city, state, neighborhood, or culture. Don’t wait until you physically incapable of moving around freely, with all the resources, but with hindered ability. None of us knows how long we will remain able bodied, so appreciate your good health while you can and take every opportunity to explore your world.
Travel is about exploration, adventure, trying new and different things that are sometimes exciting and sometimes scary. It is about tasting unfamiliar foods, smelling new smells, experiencing other customs, seeing different living environments, appreciating alternative architecture, touching novel textures, and hearing unique sounds. It is about taking a bite of life! It is about living bigger.
Often travel really makes us value home that much more. And sometimes we really need that extra dose of perspective to appreciate what had become ordinary to us but is really quite special. It can also make us realize how big the world really is and put our lives and our own challenges in a new light.
Personal Image and StyleRenowned costume designer to the stars, Edith Head, once said, “You can have anything you want in life, if you dress for it.” This may well be true. The key is in making a personal statement and showing a sense of unique style. I always get a grin out of those that try to tell me to wear scarves. It won’t ever happen. It is not my style. It was my Mother’s and sister’s style and they did it with panache and grace. But not me. It would be comparable to making a man wear a bowtie that didn’t fit his own sense of style. Finding and defining your own sense of style is very important. It is tantamount to creating your personal image signature. I have a business associate who always wears a hat. It makes a big statement about her and gives her a unique importance. She also stands out from the crowd and wants to. Some gentlemen wear suspenders or a pocket handkerchief with same panache and are remembered for that.
Clothing and image are inextricably tied together. What we wear, like it or not, makes a statement loud and clear about who we are and what we are about. Are you flashy? Sexy? Elegant? Professional? All buttoned up? Bohemian? Tailored? Frumpy? Old Fashioned? Dated? Fresh? Do you have savoir faire? Do you vogue? Are you saying what you want and mean to say based on your wardrobe and personal presentation? Is it a consistent message or are you all over the board?Fashion and image also relate to your interiors. Typically when you have truly defined yourself at this moment in time, you are consistent in your appeal. Your interiors will suit you as your wardrobe suits you. You will appear as a cohesive whole and not a series of confused fragments. Working on one aspect leads to subconscious work on the other aspect, and there is professional expertise available at all levels for all aspects.
The Goals and Benefits:
Getting BalanceOften we think of balance as something that will eventually just happen or we will magically find it. The truth is that it is up to each of us to create it. What represents balance to one person may not to another. It is an individual definition but typically means that our life is flowing smoothly, our goals are on track, we feel on purpose and secure, and we are making time for our priorities.
When out of balance we feel stressed, burned out, overloaded, and stretched too thin. It happens a lot but few realize that it is really a matter of evaluating priorities and delegating those that don’t mean as much. Yes, we can do it all, but we don’t have to and it isn’t healthy to. Achieving a healthy balance is about looking forward to each day, knowing that we can tackle the responsibilities at hand, that we have rewards to celebrate, and that we are truly living by our own design and not anyone else’s.
A Life of LegacyWhen we are living a life of our own design, when we are writing our signature on the world each and every day, we are making connections to a legacy. We are forming alliances and relationships with many that will feel a lasting impact. Very rarely do we get a chance to know how much we have influenced another’s path, but instead have to trust that each encounter is never coincidence but intentional and with reason. We have a great deal to learn and a great deal to teach while in this life. It is by crafting our legacy and our significance with purpose and passion that we will make the greatest difference.
A Life PlanCreating a life plan is not an exercise we will do once and forget, but instead it is about learning the tools and skills needed to continually shape and redefine our goals, priorities and passions. As we grow and change, our priorities will shift. What was important in our twenties seems silly in our thirties, and different still in our forties and fifties. We cannot predict, but only be open and flexible to opportunities, directions, and experiences, always keeping in mind our personal core values and seeking a fit with those values in all we do.
Creating a signature life is about learning the interior of you and finding the happiest way to share and express that with the world. It is about feeling fulfilled and secure in all you are and do, despite the frequent hiccups in everyday living, and occasional disasters and thunderstorms of tragedy that invade every life. Find your signature, design your life. LIVE. |
| posted by editor @ 1:53 PM |
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Designing Your Signature Life, Part 1
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Tuesday, November 14, 2006 |
Are you writing your signature on the world each day? Learn how to create a life plan that will reflect your own personal style and that allows you put your unique stamp on everything you touch.
The Parts and Pieces:
In Part 1 of this 2 part series about designing your signature life, we’ll talk about how Interiors, Career Choices, Relationships, and Entertaining and Homemaking can all be wonderful opportunities for you to express your unique style.
Designing your signature life is not just about your home interiors but is instead about every aspect of your life. It is about truly designing your LIFE! Designing a signature life will enable you to get what you want by making a plan, establishing goals and creating a map to get there. By demonstrating flexibility and patience in each step you’ll be able to maximize your potential and the opportunities we each have. It’s about creating a life as unique as your own signature!InteriorsDesigning your home interiors is a process of self discovery. Each decision leads you closer to defining yourself, where you are right now and where you are headed. The elements you bring into your home represent the experiences you have had and those you still want to enjoy. The artwork you include is inspiration for everyday. The way you arrange furnishings indicates whether you are ready to invite others in or prefer to maintain a more solo existence. Your signature style at home can be read much like your signature on a piece of paper. Someone who doesn’t know you can learn a lot by looking around at the choices you have included. Those that do know you and pay attention will learn more and know how to contribute to your life at this point.
Your office interiors reflect your success and future visions as well as providing an environment that fosters productivity and accomplishment. An office is a significant statement about your career choice. Incorporating awards, recognition and evidence of your achievements reinforces your abilities and gives notice of your credibility. An inviting, comfortable space is something you can look forward to working in.
Interior design and decorating makes a fundamental impact on the individuals living in, working in and visiting a space. The impact is positive or negative based on the effectiveness of the design and sensitivity to its users. Design is a personal statement and needs to be a fair representation of the occupant.
Career ChoicesDesigning your career path can be complicated and involve several moves, shifts in talents and experience, and even additional education. It is about finding your purpose and your passion and merging them into a rewarding path. It is about being willing to explore a variety of interests and pursuits and expand your horizons beyond the site lines. It is about limitless thinking. It is about creating a life, not just a job. A career is also just a part of what we do and who we are. It does not define us or limit us, but instead allows us to give to others and make a positive impact on those around us.
Many people feel trapped by their work. They may be unhappy and complain relentlessly, but they are unwilling to make a change. Notice they are not unable, just unwilling. I am not suggesting that anyone randomly and irresponsibly quit their job; few of us can afford that. But we are all capable of making change, setting new goals, looking toward new horizons. Creating your signature life is all about the willingness to do this, and about knowing who to ask for guidance and direction.
Often a career or business coach is an invaluable investment when making a career transition or move up the ladder. Networking with other professionals and business associates is another important means of exploring new opportunities and paths. Being discreet but determined in your quest is often the real key. Don’t allow naysayers to discourage you. They are simply frustrated that they themselves are afraid to make a change.
RelationshipsThere is a wonderful old adage that says we are each the sum total of those we surround ourselves with. Are you really surrounding yourself with people that are positive, successful, excited about life, and making a difference? Or instead do you find yourself bogged down by those who are complaining, whining, and absorbed in victim thinking? It is a choice of who you attract and allow in your life. It is not an accident.
When you exhibit an upbeat attitude, optimism, and a generous spirit, typically you will attract the same types of people into your life. This isn’t to say we don’t all have gray days and down moments, but it is to say we have a choice in how we process the events in our lives and whether we consider something a failure or merely a lesson learned, however painful.
In the same way we often settle for less than we dream of in our work lives, we may also settle for less in relationships. We stop trying. We tell ourselves that what we have is better than having nothing at all. The result is often unhappiness and unhealthiness on both sides. Relationships require continual care and feeding regardless of whether they are with family, friends, romantic partners, coworkers, or acquaintances. When they are neglected they will wither. This applies even to our relationship with ourselves and our own spirituality. It is important for us to consistently feed ourselves kind words, good self-talk, and a faith beyond our own abilities. When we forget to do this, we find our well running dry, and our faith may falter. By keeping ourselves strong and our beliefs whole and active, we are there for ourselves and for others.
In Part 2 of this series we’ll look at the remaining areas of your life that call for your signature style and also address the bigger issues of balance, your influence on the rest of the world and creating a life plan that is continuously adjusting to your age and circumstances. Creating your signature life is about fulfilling your potential, being bold enough to leave your mark on the world, and feeling fulfilled and secure despite the often volatile nature of everyday life. Find your signature. Design your life. LIVE. |
| posted by editor @ 1:54 PM |
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How Spammers Fool Whitelists - And How to Stop Them
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Monday, November 13, 2006 |
Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. Learn what sorts of solutions are out there, how the spammers fool them, and what you can do about it.
Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The old ways of blocking the bad guys just don’t work anymore.
Examining spam and spam-blocking technology can illuminate how this evolution is taking place and what can be done to combat spam and reclaim e-mail as the efficient, effective communication tool it was intended to be.
One method used to combat spam is whitelisting. Whitelists are databases of trusted email sources. The list may contain specific email addresses, IP addresses or trusted domains. Emails received from a whitelisted source are allowed to pass through the system to the user’s email box. The list is built when users and email administrators manually add trusted sources to the whitelist. Once built, the catch-rate for spam can be close to 100%, however, whitelists produce an inordinate number of false positives.
It is virtually impossible to produce an exhaustive list of all possible legitimate email senders because legitimate email can come from any number of sources. To get around this difficulty, some organizations have instituted a challenge-response methodology. When an unknown sender sends an email to a user’s account, the system automatically sends a challenge back to the sender. Some challenge-response systems require the sender to read and decipher an image containing letters and numbers. The image is designed to be unreadable by a machine, but easily recognizable by a human. Spammers would not spend the time required to go through a large number of challenge-response emails, so they drop the address and move on to those users who don’t use such a system.
Whitelists are only partially successful and impractical for many users. For example, problems can arise when users register for online newsletters, order products online or register for online services. If the user does not remember to add the new email source to their whitelist, or if the domain or IP address is entered incorrectly, the communication will fail. Additionally, whitelists impose barriers to legitimate email communication and are viewed by some as just plain rude.
Whitelists are not widely used by email users and administrators as a primary tool to fight spam because of the high number of false positives, and the difficulties in creating a comprehensive list of email sources. Because whitelists are not widely used, spammers typically do not develop countermeasures. As with other spam fighting techniques, whitelists are most effective when used in conjunction with other anti-spam tools.
The Solution
When used individually, each anti-spam technique has been systematically overcome by spammers. Grandiose plans to rid the world of spam, such as charging a penny for each e-mail received or forcing servers to solve mathematical problems before delivering e-mail, have been proposed with few results. These schemes are not realistic and would require a large percentage of the population to adopt the same anti-spam method in order to be effective. You can learn more about the fight against spam by visiting our website at www.ciphertrust.com and downloading our whitepapers. |
| posted by editor @ 1:54 PM |
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Key Steps For A Successful Email Marketing Campaign
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Sunday, November 12, 2006 |
Words that tell them they will save money, save time, improve their lives in some way, lose weight, etc.
4. Summarize the benefits in the first paragraph
Motivate your customers to continue reading once they have opened your email.
5. Test your email on a small percentage of your opt-in list
Test the headline, your offer, the price to measure the response, tweak where necessary and then roll out the best version to all on your list.
6. Make it Easy to Read
Keep your emails short and to the point, using lots of white space
Avoid technical jargon
Rarely use capital letters
Manually enter the end of each line, no more than 65 characters, to ensure older email programs can display your message properly formatted.
7. Give them a choice of Text emails or HTML
Plain Text emails are perhaps the safest to send out these days, but you lose the special formatting choices of adding bullets, bold, italics, etc you can use with HTML. Many internet users now turn off HTML as worms and viruses have been reported as being attached to HTML code, (as well as attachments) without the user’s knowledge.
Giving your customers the choice lets them decide whether they want to risk infection or not.
8. Be sure your email is easy to reply to
If you want your readers to reply, respond or visit your website, be sure to include either an email address or website link to make it simple for them to take action, direct from the email.
9. Develop a Killer Signature File
Your electronic signature (sig file) can be a great way to generate new business, to attach to the bottom of your email and public forum postings, and offers you free advertising. A three to six line footer with your name, email address, website URL, slogan, USP, newsletter, free guide, etc, etc, is all you need. |
| posted by editor @ 1:56 PM |
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Email Marketing: A Simple, Free And Overlooked Way To Market Your Business
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Saturday, November 11, 2006 |
1. Keep it *plain*.
There is such a variety of email programs and capabilities out there -- Outlook, Eudora, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, gmail, etc. – that you should use plain text in your email signature to insure that everyone can read it.
In addition to my text address, I use a border to separate the email address from the body of the email. You can use basic symbols which separate your signature without distracting from it. In my case, I use a line of dashes to separate the body of my email from my email signature.
2. Make it automatic.
Most email programs today will allow you to set up a default email signature which will automatically append the end of every email you send. In Outlook, you can even set up a variety of signatures depending on which email account you are using and you can alter the address based on whether you are initiating and email versus replying to one.
Setting up an automatic email signature will save you a lot of typing in addition to insuring that your signature remains consistent.
3. Make it complete.
I highly recommend that you include either your email address or your URL (assuming you have a website) in your email signature. You want to make it easy for people to find you.
Someone receiving your email for the first time may not wish to pick up the phone and call you – they may want to learn a bit about you first. When possible, include your email address in such a way that it's clickable no matter the email account that opens it. You do this by writing mailto:yourname@yourdomainname. Having the "mailto" at the beginning of your email address makes it a "clickable" link.
Some discussion groups don't allow you to include your email address in your email signature. But if you have a website, you can direct readers there by including your URL as a clickable link. You do this by typing http://www.yourURL. Adding the "http://" to the beginning of your URL makes it a clickable link for your readers – even in a plain text email.
4. Keep it short.
Keep your signature to no more than 5 lines – more than that and your signature becomes overwhelming and will turn off readers.
Many online discussion groups/forums will limit the number of lines that your signature can be so be sure to check out the guidelines before you post. As a result, I use three variations of my signature: one for online discussion groups, one for existing clients and one for everyone else.
5. Give ‘em a reason and a gift.
Do you want subscribers for your ezine? Do you want people to visit your website? What is the "call to action" of your email signature?
You want to give your email readers a reason to go to your website or sign up for your ezine or pick up the phone and call you by including an invitation in your email signature. You could offer them a F*REE special report, an e-course or a F*REE teleseminar – all for the "price" of heeding your signature's call to action.
Your email signature block is a small, yet very valuable piece of marketing real estate. You want to give as much thought to constructing it as you do the rest of your marketing materials.
By: Sandra P. Martini |
| posted by editor @ 1:57 PM |
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Email Marketing - How To Write Your Own 5-7 Day Mini E-course On Any Subject
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Friday, November 10, 2006 |
It was once in style to claim that mailing lists no longer worked. The opposite seems to be true now: on every forum, marketers and business owners proclaim the power of using an opt-in form and a newsletter to make sales from follow-ups. I personally suggest this method, as it has been proven time and time again to produce higher conversion rates than attempts at direct sales.
With that being said, it is important to determine the best way in which you can create such a mini e-course to use for your given products. I personally suggest one of two ways.
Regardless of which you pick, you will want to start with a market research phase. Your goal here is to determine what it is exactly that potential readers would be looking for in an e-course. If you already have a site that receives traffic on this given topic or niche, you will want to setup a poll or send out surveys to your customer base. If not, you will have to conduct keyword research to determine what people are looking for most.
Once you have selected 5-7 topics for your e-course (depending on the length you want your course to be), you will then want to determine if you should create the course yourself. Now, if you're unfamiliar with the topic and do not feel comfortable with the quality of your own writing, you will want to hire a ghostwriter to complete the e-course for you. You can do this by soliciting a skilled professional on http://www.elance.com or http://www.guru.com. Clearly describe what you want in the course and which sources you would like them to use for reference information. This will help you to determine whether or not they are borrowing material directly from sources; it will also ensure that you get exactly what you are looking for.
Now, if you want to create your own e-course, you can simply research the information on the given topic, break it up into 5-7 articles; and then write those articles yourself. Once you have completed those steps, all you will have left to do is load the course into your autoresponder, setup an opt-in form, and then begin driving traffic to it.
When creating the course, there are a number of important things to keep in mind. Perhaps most important of all, you will want to determine how you are going to monetize your e-course and whether or not that method will be effective.
I personally suggest that you choose from one of these forms of monetization: 1) put the actual course on your site, send out links to it in emails, and put Adsense ads in and around the course; 2) sell advertising space in the course; 3) scatter affiliate links throughout the course in appropriate places; or 3) sell nothing throughout the entire course; at the end of the course, attempt to upsell the reader with some special offer.
Regardless of how much experience you have writing or working with autoresponders, you can create an e-course on any subject; and, in doing so, you can drastically increase your conversion rates.
By: Aurelius Tjin - |
| posted by editor @ 1:58 PM |
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Email Marketing Software - Is It Hurting Your Business?
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Thursday, November 09, 2006 |
Ten years ago I started my first online business venture out of the basement office of my home. I put together a Web site selling scrapbook products on my wife’s suggestion that scrapbooking was emerging as a hot niche in the crafting industry.
Keeping up with the day to day chores of running my own business challenged me to manage my time wisely. Preparing my email newsletter each month consumed many hours of my time. I wrote the sales copy and made sure all the links in the newsletter worked correctly. Cleaning my mailing list of email addresses I dreaded the most.
I wanted to make sure that all unsubscribe requests got properly removed from my list. The software maintaining my list had no reliable way of accomplishing this task so I did it all manually. I broadcast my newsletter to my squeaky clean list but how much time did it take me to keep it that way? Answer: Way too much time.
Penny wise and pound foolish means being cautious with small amounts of money but careless with large amounts. What large amounts of money was I being foolish with? My time. Time is money and being cautious with my money by purchasing inexpensive email marketing software (penny wise) resulted in using way too much time (pound foolish) because the software woefully lacked features I needed.
Building trust and relationships is what email marketing is all about. A big part of that trust is built upon how well I managed my subscription lists. When someone on my list asks for removal, I want to respond accordingly. Not complying with these requests puts my business reputation at risk. But there are additional concerns.
Domain registrars are taking spam complaints more seriously and many openly provide complaint forms on their Web sites. Too many complaints reported to my domain registrar could give them reason to disable my domain. I didn’t want to have my thriving online business suddenly brought to a standstill because my domain got shut down.
Also, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 dictates that email sent to the requestor's email address must stop within 10 business days. Each violation of CAN-SPAM provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Ouch!
After several software trials, I found that Mailloop 7 from Internet Marketing Center met my needs of processing subscribe and unsubscribe requests automatically through a list of filters and rules. Now I maintain as many lists as I need to keep up with the demands of my business. But most important, I will never again worry about marketing to anyone who unsubscribes from my list as the software automatically maintains a “Master Unsubscribe List” to make sure of that.
Another part of my online marketing strategy is using an autoresponder to cut down on the daily chore of answering frequently asked questions. Though I’ve provided the answers in a convenient FAQ, I still get email inquiries on a daily basis.
Autoresponders use my customers' desire for instant gratification to my advantage. A single autoresponder frees me from the tedious task of responding to each and every request–such as manually sending out purchase confirmations–giving me time to focus on more profitable areas of my business. But that's not all.
Unlimited sequential autoresponders enables me to send a personal response instantly; and then a personalized follow-up message a few days later; and then a friendly reminder a week later; and on and on! Using this method of communicating with my customers greatly increases my sales.
Cheap alternatives for email marketing abound on the Web but the question remains: "Are you being penny wise and pound foolish?" Think of a carpenter who frames houses for a living. Is he using a hand saw or a power saw? Is he using a hammer or a nail gun? If the carpenter doesn't take advantage of the tools of his trade that will boost his productivity, he will soon find himself looking for a new career.
If you are still using inferior software to help you maintain your subscriber lists, it's likely that you're wasting lots of precious time trying to maintain a competitive edge in your field. Find a robust software solution that is well worth the money invested in its cost. Compare it with other email marketing solutions in its class. Ask if it has spam checking, statistical reporting and my favorite, unlimited autoresponders. If you do your homework and invest in good software, you will save hours and hours of time that could be better used in more important matters of your business–and you won’t be accused of being penny wise and pound foolish.
By: Geoff Charles |
| posted by editor @ 1:58 PM |
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E-MAIL A FOLLOW-THROUGH
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Wednesday, November 08, 2006 |
An e-mail follow-through to your listener greatly increases the chance of a return call. I encourage you to turn on the return receipt requested feature in your e-mail software. Knowing that the listener opened your e-mail is very valuable when making the next telephone call.
The subject line should reference the voice mail and have a date stamp: "Follow-through on Tuesday's voice mail." |
| posted by Wayne Mansfield @ 2:03 PM |
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Which Email Service Is The Best Gmail, Hotmail Or Yahoo?
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Tuesday, November 07, 2006 |
This is a tough question and its hard not to be biased because I have accounts with all three of them, and each of them have there very own benifits.
First off Gmail is by invitation only, it provides a better user interface, more file storage, and larger attachment files then Hotmail or Yahoo does. In this manner if you are looking for a proffessional and powerful email service then Gmail is the way to go.
Second is Hotmail, hotmail is free but there user interface is not that friendly, they have kept the same old look since the beginning, you cannot send very large file attachments, I find that you get much more spam with hotmail, however if you use MSN messenger for personal use then hotmail should be your choice of a email service because you dont need to use your email address for anything else, keep it as a dummy address, empty out the spam every once and awhile, and use it to talk to people you dont know personally this way you dont wreck a good email address.
And last but not least is Yahoo, well I put Yahoo in the middle of the two (Gmail Being The Best), Yahoo does have a friendly user interface, and they allow for a moderate file attachment size, there POP access is super easy to set up, and they offer more things then plain old hotmail. Yahoo is an excellent personaly account for anyone who does not usually do a lot of things online.
So it really depends on what you need the E-Mail account for. If you need it for MSN and some chat sites then go with a dummy Hotmail account to prevent spamming your good accounts. If you need it for a basic everyday personal use where you wont be requiring a large amount of traffic then go with Yahoo. But by far if you need your email to handle the traffic, offer a good user interface, get the proffessional look, and be able to send larger files (The more interactive online user) then Gmail is the email of choice for you.
By: minidak03 |
| posted by editor @ 1:59 PM |
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Email Marketing Software - Is It Hurting Your Business?
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Monday, November 06, 2006 |
Ten years ago I started my first online business venture out of the basement office of my home. I put together a Web site selling scrapbook products on my wife’s suggestion that scrapbooking was emerging as a hot niche in the crafting industry.
Keeping up with the day to day chores of running my own business challenged me to manage my time wisely. Preparing my email newsletter each month consumed many hours of my time. I wrote the sales copy and made sure all the links in the newsletter worked correctly. Cleaning my mailing list of email addresses I dreaded the most.
I wanted to make sure that all unsubscribe requests got properly removed from my list. The software maintaining my list had no reliable way of accomplishing this task so I did it all manually. I broadcast my newsletter to my squeaky clean list but how much time did it take me to keep it that way? Answer: Way too much time.
Penny wise and pound foolish means being cautious with small amounts of money but careless with large amounts. What large amounts of money was I being foolish with? My time. Time is money and being cautious with my money by purchasing inexpensive email marketing software (penny wise) resulted in using way too much time (pound foolish) because the software woefully lacked features I needed.
Building trust and relationships is what email marketing is all about. A big part of that trust is built upon how well I managed my subscription lists. When someone on my list asks for removal, I want to respond accordingly. Not complying with these requests puts my business reputation at risk. But there are additional concerns.
Domain registrars are taking spam complaints more seriously and many openly provide complaint forms on their Web sites. Too many complaints reported to my domain registrar could give them reason to disable my domain. I didn’t want to have my thriving online business suddenly brought to a standstill because my domain got shut down.
Also, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 dictates that email sent to the requestor's email address must stop within 10 business days. Each violation of CAN-SPAM provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Ouch!
After several software trials, I found that Mailloop 7 from Internet Marketing Center met my needs of processing subscribe and unsubscribe requests automatically through a list of filters and rules. Now I maintain as many lists as I need to keep up with the demands of my business. But most important, I will never again worry about marketing to anyone who unsubscribes from my list as the software automatically maintains a “Master Unsubscribe List” to make sure of that.
Another part of my online marketing strategy is using an autoresponder to cut down on the daily chore of answering frequently asked questions. Though I’ve provided the answers in a convenient FAQ, I still get email inquiries on a daily basis.
Autoresponders use my customers' desire for instant gratification to my advantage. A single autoresponder frees me from the tedious task of responding to each and every request–such as manually sending out purchase confirmations–giving me time to focus on more profitable areas of my business. But that's not all.
Unlimited sequential autoresponders enables me to send a personal response instantly; and then a personalized follow-up message a few days later; and then a friendly reminder a week later; and on and on! Using this method of communicating with my customers greatly increases my sales.
Cheap alternatives for email marketing abound on the Web but the question remains: "Are you being penny wise and pound foolish?" Think of a carpenter who frames houses for a living. Is he using a hand saw or a power saw? Is he using a hammer or a nail gun? If the carpenter doesn't take advantage of the tools of his trade that will boost his productivity, he will soon find himself looking for a new career.
If you are still using inferior software to help you maintain your subscriber lists, it's likely that you're wasting lots of precious time trying to maintain a competitive edge in your field. Find a robust software solution that is well worth the money invested in its cost. Compare it with other email marketing solutions in its class. Ask if it has spam checking, statistical reporting and my favorite, unlimited autoresponders. If you do your homework and invest in good software, you will save hours and hours of time that could be better used in more important matters of your business–and you won’t be accused of being penny wise and pound foolish.
By: Geoff Charles |
| posted by editor @ 2:00 PM |
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Which Email Service Is The Best Gmail, Hotmail Or Yahoo?
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Sunday, November 05, 2006 |
This is a tough question and its hard not to be biased because I have accounts with all three of them, and each of them have there very own benifits.
First off Gmail is by invitation only, it provides a better user interface, more file storage, and larger attachment files then Hotmail or Yahoo does. In this manner if you are looking for a proffessional and powerful email service then Gmail is the way to go.
Second is Hotmail, hotmail is free but there user interface is not that friendly, they have kept the same old look since the beginning, you cannot send very large file attachments, I find that you get much more spam with hotmail, however if you use MSN messenger for personal use then hotmail should be your choice of a email service because you dont need to use your email address for anything else, keep it as a dummy address, empty out the spam every once and awhile, and use it to talk to people you dont know personally this way you dont wreck a good email address.
And last but not least is Yahoo, well I put Yahoo in the middle of the two (Gmail Being The Best), Yahoo does have a friendly user interface, and they allow for a moderate file attachment size, there POP access is super easy to set up, and they offer more things then plain old hotmail. Yahoo is an excellent personaly account for anyone who does not usually do a lot of things online.
So it really depends on what you need the E-Mail account for. If you need it for MSN and some chat sites then go with a dummy Hotmail account to prevent spamming your good accounts. If you need it for a basic everyday personal use where you wont be requiring a large amount of traffic then go with Yahoo. But by far if you need your email to handle the traffic, offer a good user interface, get the proffessional look, and be able to send larger files (The more interactive online user) then Gmail is the email of choice for you.
By: minidak03 |
| posted by editor @ 2:01 PM |
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How To Get Gmail Without Spamming
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Saturday, November 04, 2006 |
How to get a G mail account without a spam block
Gmail is currently by invitation only, So how do you get a gmail account without spamming thousands of people? It's simple send me an e-mail at minidak03@gmail.com and put "Helium Article" in the subject line, I currently have 50 invitations left on this account, or you can send me the same subject line to plzhelpmeplz@gmail.com this account of mine also has 50 invitations, and I'll freely help you out in getting your gmail account set up.
So why do I want to give you a Gmail account? Well in return maybe you can view my website and tell me what you think, you dont have to but it would be great for some comments and suggestions.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to list my website in the article but you can find the address by clicking on my name near the top of this article and reading my about me section!
By: minidak03 |
| posted by editor @ 2:01 PM |
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6 Tips To Significantly Improve Your E-mail Response
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Friday, November 03, 2006 |
Are your e-mail response rates dismal? Unfortunately that’s the nature of the online environment today. Recent statistics show that over 50% of the tens of billions of e-mails sent daily are spam, and the top Internet Service Providers are blocking almost 25% of permission-based e-mails. These are staggering numbers for business owners relying on e-mail as a marketing tool.
Is there anything you can do to keep this from happening to your e-mail campaigns? Absolutely. You can significantly improve your deliverability, open rates and number of responses by addressing three key issues:
• getting past the spam filters
• attracting your reader’s attention with a value-focused subject line
• offering an e-mail that is short and succinct
Here are 6 key tips to help you accomplish these challenges.
1. Get permission
Permission-based e-mails don’t guarantee deliverability, as the statistics above confirm, but your success rate will certainly be higher than without permission. Also, once you have established a relationship with someone, ask them to put you in their address book. This is the single most important thing you can do to increase deliverability.
2. Focus on your Subject Line
This is critical to get your message opened. You have only a few seconds to get the reader’s attention before you’re clicked into the garbage pile.
• Focus on Value. Give the reader a compelling reason to open your message before deleting it and going to the next one. You will sabotage your efforts if you only use generic information. For instance, if you’re sending a monthly newsletter with valuable home maintenance tips, don’t use “March Newsletter” as your subject line (I receive numerous newsletters just like that). That won’t entice anyone to open it. However, if your subject line reads “6 home maintenance tips that add value”, you’ll get a much higher open rate.
• Front-load your message. Some recipients don’t see the entire subject line due to shortened screens. Make sure your most valuable part is not cut off.
• Pay attention to the spam triggers. All CAPS, excessive punctuation, repeated phrases and specific words/phrases trigger the spam filters. (Note. The trigger words and phrases are continually changing. To keep up-to-date, I recommend a newsletter that offers advice and guidance on e-mail marketing and other online issues. Subscriptions are available for free at www.wilsonweb.com.)
3. Tighten up the body of your message
Avoid long blocks of copy by limiting paragraphs to no more than three or four sentences. Most people scan e-mails quickly because they’re forced to deal with so many. Use numbers and bullets to make it easy for the reader to focus (if you’re technologically challenged like me and don’t know how to use html code, you can simply type in the numerical digits or copy and paste a “bullet” symbol from a word document).
4. What’s on the screen?
Do not put large graphics or a giant masthead on top of your e-mail. You’re wasting valuable space. And include your most valuable content first, since the latter part of your message probably won’t be viewed without scrolling. Send yourself a test and discover what you see in your preview pane.
5. Select appropriate font colors
Avoid colors like yellow, fuchsia, aqua and other colors that are hard on the eyes and score higher on the spam filters.
6. List Maintenance
Keep your lists up-to-date. Delete undeliverable addresses and “bounces” before mailing again since not doing so can negatively impact future deliverability. You can make your job easier by including easy-to-follow unsubscribe instructions with every single message you send.
100% e-mail open rates are probably not realistic given the current online environment. But you certainly can improve yours by following the above guidelines.
By: Larry Baltz |
| posted by editor @ 2:01 PM |
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The 4 Ways To Get Your Subscribers To Trust You
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Wednesday, November 01, 2006 |
While the rest of the world has put up more barriers to keep their e-mail accounts safe from spam, there are also those that subscribe to mails that promotes their products, services and their site. This is mainly because these subscribers wants to know more about what‘s being offered and how it can be beneficial to them. Subscribers want to be kept posted on what they are interested in and what’s new in the market or field they have chosen.
Businesses would be so lucky to have these kinds of customers; the basic element needed to get these types of people is trust. When your customers trust you they will reward you with their loyalty. Many internet users have gone to great lengths in protecting their email accounts from spam mail (and who can blame them?). Nowadays many free-mail internet providers and internet service providers or screen your mails, offer spam protection or both
With an opt-in mail list, the mails you send containing your promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogs and marketing media will go through. Your intended recipient will be able to read and view what you have sent making it a successful transfer of information. To be able to be allowed to do so, you will need permission from your recipient, to get this permission; you need to be able to get their trust. With the great lack of disregard for privacy in the internet, getting the trust of an internet user you don’t personally know is a big achievement.
To build a good opt-in list you need people to trust you. The bigger the scope of your opt-in list the more traffic you get and that spells more profits. So how do you go about it?
1. Getting the trust of your customers shouldn’t be so hard especially if you do have a legitimate business. Getting your customers trust should be based upon your expertise. People rely on other people who know what they are talking about. Get all the knowledge and information about your business and make sure its something you have an like. It will become obvious to your subscribers if you have no interest in what you’re telling them.
2. Show your subscribers that you know what you are talking about. Provide them with helpful hints and guidelines that pertain to what you are selling. You don’t have to be a big corporation to make use of an opt-in list. If your customers see you as someone who knows what he is doing and saying, they will trust you quickly.
3. Be true to your customers, if you want to hype up your products and services, provide guarantees. The more satisfied customers you get, the bigger probability there is that they will recommend you. Generally, people will trust someone they know, when that someone recommends you then you’re on your way. People will go to your site , check out your offer for themselves and be given a chance to experience what your other customers have experienced. Make sure to be consistent in the service you provide.
4. Provide them a way out. Show them that you are not there to trap them. Keep a clean list that would enable them to unsubscribe anytime they want. It doesn’t hurt to elaborate your web form with information on how to unsubscribe from the list. Guarantee them that they can let go of the service when ever they want to. Many people are suspicious that they may be stuck for life and would have to abandon their email accounts when they get pestered with spam.
Above all, when you get the trust of your customers DON’T lose it. If you do anything with their email addresses like sell them or give them out, you will lose many members of your list as well as potential members. When your customers trust you, they will recommend you to someone they know. No matter how hi tech this world gets, word of mouth is still probably the best way to build your credibility and earn trust.
By: Daryl |
| posted by editor @ 2:02 PM |
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