Marketing Via Messageboards & Email Discussion Li

Marketing Via Messageboards & Email Discussion Lists An Alternative View

by: Sean Burns

One of the most suggested means of getting traffic to a site in the early stages is to get involved in messageboard and email discussions on your topic of choice. The idea is that you can show your expertise and therefore get traffic to your site via your signature file (most discussion lists allow you to include your signature file with your post a few lines with your name, site address and maybe a very brief description). Whilst this is a valid tip, I don’t believe that the real reason for why you should do this has been investigated far enough previously.

Firstly, if you post an ad for your site on a discussion list, your are spamming and will create a bit of a fiasco. This does not make good business sense. So, the way to do it is to look for people asking questions and answer them. The issue here is your reasons for doing this. If your reason is purely to drive traffic to your site, you probably won’t be terribly successful and, sometimes, people will work out what you are up to. Therefore, your goal should be to be seen as an expert in your field, not to get traffic to your site.

Even if you don’t include a signature with your posts, you can still make a name for yourself and, in the long term, this will prove to be a far more profitable approach. I have visited many discussion lists in my time and it is easy to see the people that have gained respect. From a business point of view, they are the ones who will benefit from this approach, not the people who post simple answers to try to get an immediate effect.

Your goal must always be to achieve success in your online venture and your personal credibility will play a major role in this. So, when looking at marketing on messageboards and in Email discussion lists, establishing your credentials as an expert in your field must be your number one priority, not short term traffic generation methods.

About The Author

Sean Burns is the author of the WebmastersReference.com Newsletter http://www.webmastersreference.com/newsletter. More than five years of experience in site design, marketing, income generation, search engine optimisation and more is passed on to subscribers hype free. Sign up today to get real information of real value to webmasters.

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 06, 2003

by Sean Burns

Your Book Not in Book Stores? Don’t Worry

Your Book Not in Book Stores? Don’t Worry

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

Trying to figure out how to get your self published books into book stores? Don’t worry about it because you can get more book sales easier and with less effort elsewhere. Some useful tips for you and your book from Mark Victor Hansen, who has sold more than 100 million books so far.

Sure, we all want to look on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and see our books there. Itกs thrilling. But itกs really not necessary. I see so many authors waste their time and money paying distributors and driving from store to store, delivering books when they should be selling directly to the public. The Internet makes it possible.

In fact, there are many good reasons NOT to be in bookstores:

You don’t have to pay a distributor, who will take a cut of your profits.

You don’t have to worry about shipping and returns.

You don’t have to fight for shelf space.

In most cases, selling direct to the public, or through bulk sales to institutions, is a much better way to turn your book into a revenue stream. With the Internet, tradeshows and other events, and seminars, you have multiple ways to sell direct, pocket 100% of the profits, and save yourself the hassle of trying to get into Borders.

I also recommend selling on Amazon.com. They do take a substantial chunk of your sales price, but itกs a wonderful way to generate buzz about your book. Otherwise, unless you can truly benefit from the prestige of being on the bookshelves, leave the bookstores to John Grisham and Stephen King.

Pursue bulk sales.

Ninety percent of new authors are only focused with getting people into bookstores to buy their book. And itกs great if you can do that, but I give them all the same advice: do not overlook bulk sales. They can turn your book from a moneyloser into a profit center in a few months. Bulk sales are a gold mine.

What do I mean by bulk sales? I mean selling your books in large quantities to an organization, which could mean anything from a corporation to a school district to a nonprofit group to a church. Youกll have to give the organization a price break for buying in bulk, but youกll get dozens, hundreds or even thousands of your books into peopleกs hands, which dramatically increases your wordofmouth and viral marketing.

Promoting bulk sales is a pretty straightforward deal. Simply look at your book and ask yourself what companies, organizations or affinity groups would be interested in the book for their employees or members. If youกve written a book on corporate team building, make a list of corporations where you have personal contacts. If your book is about exercise for seniors, try contacting AARP. And so on. Marketing bulk sales is usually about personal contact, either by letter or direct mail.

When you’re going after bulk sales, try to get to the กgatekeepers,ก the people who can make the decisions for a large organization. It makes much more sense to talk to 20 people who have the potential between them to order 10,000 books than to sell them one at a time. Even if you only get orders from three of those gatekeepers, youกll sell a few thousand books.

Be sure to offer a good bulk rate discount for your bulk buyers. The more books they buy, the bigger the price break. If they buy over 1,000, give them 50% off. Youกll still make money and youกll start winning readers.

Always build your mailing and email lists.

There are two kinds of lists: physical mailing address lists and email lists, and you should always be building both. They are your promotional lifelines to your potential readers and customers, and everything you do to market your book should have some component that gathers contact information of prospective buyers.

The best way to build your list is quite simple: get people to come to your Website, offer them something of value, and require them to give you (at a minimum) their name and email address to get it. The kinds of things you can offer:

Downloadable excerpts from your book.

A subscription to your enewsletter.

An advance discount on your book.

An audio CD or other ancillary product.

Be creative. Is there something that pushes your target audienceกs buttons? Offer it to them. This kind of กoptinก list, where people consent to receiving future information from you, is the gold standard of marketing.

Some other reputable ways you can build your list:

Take names or business cards at a tradeshow or conference.

Membership lists from organizations of which you are a member

Get respected colleagues to email their lists asking their contacts to go to your site to find something of value to them.

But always, always be building your list. And make sure that your database software is solid, proven, regularly maintained, and backed up weekly.

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

Are you interested in the one seminar that has created more BestSelling authors than any other seminar? A seminar put on by the guy who has sold more books than every other book in the history of the world except the bible? Then get yourself to the Mega Book Marketing Seminar and train yourself to be a megasuccessful author and become a sought after speaker. Make the difference with your book that you want to make. To Register and for more information go to http://www.bazuji.com/book

This article was posted on March 18

by Dr. Jamie Fettig

Email and Newsgroup Etiquette

Email and Newsgroup Etiquette

by: Sharon Housley

Email Etiquette

In order to effeciently communicate on the Internet it is critical to understand the unwritten rules of email communication. Please use these tips as a guideline to online email communication.

1.) Unless you are using encryption, Internet Email is not secure.

2.) Do not use all capitals in email exchanges, it is considered SHOUTING and is considered rude.

3.) Keep in mind that the Internet is international, words and humor can be perceived differently by different cultures.

4.) When replying to messages be aware of กcc:ก field. Recipients listed in the กcc:ก field will receive a copy of the post. (The กbcc:ก field sends messages blind, meaning recipients don’t know that someone else has received a copy of the email or been carbon copied)

5.) Use emoticons 🙂 or to indicate expression.

6.) When forwarding email be sure not to create a loop in the system. In addition, be sure not to setup autoresponders to reply to every email, or endless loops will be created.

7.) There can be costs associated with Internet connectivity and downloading emails. Do not send attachments that take a long time to download, without the recipients consent.

8.) Include in the กsubjectก line a heading that relates to the message body.

9.) Use 46 lines for your signature line, this is an opportunity to highlight your business or company information, but don’t be ostentatious..

Mailing Lists & Newsgroup Etiquette

In order to participate in news groups, you must have an understanding of newsgroup etiquette.

1.) Be familiar with lists/newsgroups prior to posting, read posting.

2.) Keep in mind that newsgroups and mailing lists are frequently archived and that posts will be preserved.

3.) If you are replying to a message be sure to include the text of the original message which you are replying to. Use ก>ก indicators if your mail program does not do this for you.

4.) Don’t get involved in flame wars (or material which is personal and unproductive).

5.) Keep in mind that the Internet is international, words and humor can be perceived differently by different cultures.

6.) Use 46 lines for your signature line, this is an opportunity to highlight your business or company information, but don’t be ostentatious..

7.) When responding to a post, keep the subject line the same, so that it will appear in the same thread.

8.) Cross posting to multiple lists is often prohibited. Read posting guidelines.

9.) Expect delays in moderated forums, each posting must be approved.

10.) Anonymous posts are unaccepted in many newsgroups.

11.) Be aware that some people use aliases when posting to Usenet groups to avoid SPAM (unsolicited email). Also keep in mind that anything goes on unmoderated Usenet.

12.) Most lists don’t allow for binary attachments.

Resources

Library of Emoticons http://www.instantmessagingsoftware.com/instantmessagingemoticons.htm

Library of Email Acronyms http://www.emailsoftware.org/emailacronyms.htm

Email Client Software http://www.messagingsoftware.net/emailclientsoftware.htm

About The Author

Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and http://www.smallbusinesssoftware.net

This article was posted on April 05, 2004

by Sharon Housley

There Is Hidden a กSuccessful Formulaก In Everythi

There Is Hidden a กSuccessful Formulaก In Everything

by: Karl Smith

Although many say that things change on the net, still what worked before keeps working.

Let me give you an example: If you have a PC and you do not know how to use it, you need to learn how. You go and learn the tactics and you will successfully switch on the PC.

I mean you need to know how to use the advertising techniques. You have to see what works best for you? Which do you prefer? Start pages or safe lists. Itกs better to use the tool you prefer. This will make it more fun and you are likely to use it better.

There is a proven formula to market with safe lists. However 99% do not use it… Yet it has worked for those who use it. You need to know that there are millions of people using safe lists. Do you know that millions mean more than something?

If you follow a proven, easytofollow tactic you will succeed with safe list. Using less effort and getting better results. You can be successful in everything, but you must know the right formula. You will realize that the right formula is also the easiest and fastest…

Try analyzing a program you use. You will find that there is something better you can do. There is a great formula you are not using.

Many people use start pages, yet 50% doesn’t know that there exists a simple formula. You need to use กsplash, eye capturing pagesก and not sales pages in start pages. It is very common to see sales pages in start pages, which means that the owner did not figure out that there is a better formula to market with start pages.

Try figuring out what formulas you can use to make your advertising techniques successfully work.

About The Author

Karl Smith

Email: [email protected]

Get the กInsider Secrets To Market Successfuly With Safelistsก.

CLICK this link: mailto:[email protected]

(Leave Body and Subject of email empty.)

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 02

by Karl Smith

Not Knowing This Explosive Email Secret Can Kill Y

Not Knowing This Explosive Email Secret Can Kill Your Mailing List

by: Reginald Turner

How are you doing today? I hope you are having a very prosperous day. If you own an ezine or mailing list, you know how important it is to get subscribers, especially if you want to tell them about your products and services, or you just want to inform people in your mailing list about information that could help them. It could be very frustrating if it seems like your mailing list is not responding, right?

Let me ask you a couple of questions? Did you ever send out offers about your products and services to your mailing lists and it seems like your mailing list is not responding to it? Did you ever think that people in your mailing list wasn’t responding to your promotions because of your advertising? Last, but not least, did you ever try to rework your advertisements and the results you got from your mailing lists remained the same? Well I have some good news for you.

The products and services you offer, or the way you advertise could possibly have nothing to do with why it seems like people in your mailing is not responding. The reason it may not seem like people in your mailing list are not responding to your promotions could be because of the following reasons: spam filters, your blacklisted without even knowing it, or you are not whitelisted.

Most of the people who are either in your mailing lists or subscribe to your mailing lists will probably belong to the following major ISP’s: AOL, NetZero, Yahoo!, AT&T, Msn/Hotmail, Mail.com, Earthlink, and Comcast. The majority of these major ISP’s use high tech spam filters, blacklists and look to see if you are whitelisted.

If you are into email marketing, but not familiar with terms such as spam filters, blacklists, and whitelisting, you might be asking yourself, what do they mean? how could they hurt me? For your benefit, I will be more than happy to explain to you what they mean and how they could hurt you, especially if you own a mailing list.

First, lets talk about what blacklisting is. Blacklisting is a list of spammer IP addresses that the majority of the major ISP’s keep. If your email server IP address is found on their blacklists, it could stop your message from being delivered and that could hurt you if you’re trying to promote your products and services to your mailing lists. The scary thing about blacklists is you don’t even know if you are on them or not.

Second, lets talk about spam filters. Spam filters is a piece of software that the majority of the major ISP’s use to determine which emails are spam and aren’t spam. Lets say you deliver an email to somebody in your mailing lists that has an email account with Netzero. Before that email even gets to their inbox, it has to pass through their spam filter. If there are any words in your email that causes their spam filter to trigger, it will consider your email as spam and block your email from getting through. The scary thing about this is there is know way of telling what words will trigger the spam filters when you are writing your emails. This another factor that could hurt you, especially if you own a mailing list.

Last, but not least, lets talk about whitelisting. Whitelisting is a process of telling people in your mailing list to add your ezine to their “safe” or permitted email senders lists. Although this process could be very beneficial, it could also be very extensive and time consuming, especially if you have a huge mailing list. However, not being whitelisted could also hurt if you own a mailing list.

If you are like me and have a mailing list, you don’t want to have to deal with spam filters, blacklists, or the process of getting whitelisted. For more information on how to beat these mailing list killers so that your message gets to your mailing lists, please visit: http://www.adalyzer.com/727/email_info. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article and I hope it benefits you to the fullest.

About The Author

My name is Reginald Turner and my purpose in writing articles is not only to help internet marketers become more efficient and smarter when it comes to marketing over the internet, but to teach them how to quickly find out what type of marketing works and how to make more money over the internet in less time while exploding traffic to their website. If you would like more info about website marketing techniques, you could just visit: http://www.adalyzer.com/727/traffic_attack.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 13

by Reginald Turner

EMarketing Using Only Free Resources

EMarketing Using Only Free Resources

by: Candy Brauer

Iกll be the first to admit it; Iกm a cheap skate. Iกm not as bad as many I meet, but if thereกs a legal, ethical way to get it for cheaper or free, Iกm there. I love Walmart. I get all of my clothes there. I love buying used cars no car payments. I bought a nice house in the country for only $55,000 dollars no house payments.

When it comes to marketing over the internet, I love FREE. But there are some free marketing techniques out there that leave more to be desired. In this article, Iกm going to show you some of the best ways Iกve found over the years on marketing your product or service over the internet for free, with no spamming, and doing it ethically.

There are five techniques that Iกd like to show you. They are:

Message board signatures

Hit surfing

Safe lists

Ezines

Search engines

MESSAGE BOARD SIGNATURES

Go to a search engine, such as http://www.google.com , and do a search for message boards. Youกll want to search for message boards that are generally business related, and/or directly related to your service or product.

Then, make a list of the URLs to at least a couple dozen message boards, and read over the board rules for each board. At least once a week, post relavent responses and/or new threads on each of these message boards, and at the bottom of your posts, leave a signature. You’re signature could either be your name, followed by your email address or webpage, or it could be a one line ad, followed by your url or email.

HIT SURFING

This is a free emarketing method that many people believe are a waste of time, however I do not. But I have a system. 😉 Hereกs how to do it:

First, sign up for a free account with each of the following URLs:

http://trafficg.com/index.php?member=genuineprofit

http://www.hitpulse.com/jsp/index.jsp?ref=genuineprofit

http://www.webmasterquest.com/join.php?ref=genuineprofit

http://www.hitharvester.com/referral.asp?ref=genuineprofit

http://www.nomorehits.com/cgibin/start.cgi?referrer=prayzgod

http://www.clicksilo.com/referrals/info.asp?Agent=genuineprofit

http://www.iloveclicks.com/signup.asp?referrer=25244

http://www.webmastertools4u.com/cgibin/c4hjoin.cgi?ref=gprof

Then, open up 8 separate browser windows on your computer (Ctrl + N).

Go to the first window, wait until the 30 seconds have counted down, then click the next link. While that oneกs counting down, click the next link on the next window when itกs ready, then move on to your third browser window, etc. When you see a webpage that interests you, by all means, stop and take a look at it, thatกs why people have their pages on these programs, and itกs why you have your program there.

I usually only spend about 15 minutes a day doing this. However I met someone over the internet who suggests spending 60 minutes a day doing it. I tried it, and you know what? I didn’t get any more sign ups on my webpage from doing it for 60 minutes than I do when I do it for 15.

Sure, most of the other hit surfers will not even glance at your page. But some will, and those are the people you’re trying to reach. Give hit surfing a try, and see how it works out for your page.

SAFE LISTS

Safe lists are email clubs on the internet, where evey subscriber has opted in to receive emails from other members of that group. You can email thousands upon thousands of people each week, or maybe even each day, spam free, via safe lists. Just go to http://www.google.com , and do a search for กemail safe listก and youกll find lots of safe lists that you can utilize.

EZINES

EZine stands for กelectronic magazineก. And you know what? There are thousands upon thousands of ezines out there. Just do a search on http://www.google.com for กbusiness ezineก, and youกll find lots of results. Look over the ezine sites, and when you find one youกd like to advertise in, submit your ad.

SEARCH ENGINES

There are lots of ways to get good rankings on search engines. Unfortunatly, many of those ways are via cheating hiding code to get higher rankings, various gateway pages with different meta tags, etc. However, those who are ethical and truthful will find that theyกll get better rankings, if they follow the wonderful advice at http://www.selfpromotion.com . The advice is free, easy to follow, and really works. Give it a whirl.

CONCLUSION

Give the above suggestions a try. Track all your advertising efforts, and find out what works for your page, and what doesn’t. Then put more focus on whatกs working, and less to no focus on whatกs not.

About The Author

Candy Brauer is a happily married housewife, mother of 3. She works from home for a medical benefits provider, and gives a large percentage of her work from home income to charity. You can view her webpage at http://www.genuineprofit.com, or call her at 2063383108.

This article was posted on January 23, 2004

by Candy Brauer

My Emails Are Not Being Delivered. Black Lists and

My Emails Are Not Being Delivered. Black Lists and White Lists Explained.

by: Karen Fegarty

Over 40% of all emails within your marketing campaign are not being delivered. You may not even be aware of this, as many ISPs will not send back a bounce message. In fact if you are sending messages to AOL customers, AOL is now blocking over 80% of the messages that come into their servers.

One of the main reasons that this is occurring is that your IP or Domain may be Black Listed. All major ISPกs and many corporate email systems now check against Black Lists and will refuse to deliver any emails that come from an IP that is Black Listed.

But what exactly is a Black List?

DNS black lists are lists of domains and IPกs that are known to originate Spam. Many antispam software programs used by corporations and ISPกs use these lists to control Spam by refusing any email that originates from one of these domains or IPs.

Unfortunately there are many instances of false positives as there are few checks and often little objectivity when listing a particular IP. In order for a black list to know that a domain is sending Spam, the offence must be reported . It may take only one report via a web form for you to be listed.

You may be listed maliciously through one complaint of a client, or that of a competitor. Many Black Lists, as well, will list not only the IP that is suspected as spamming, but will list any IPs in that range of addresses. If someone using the same Internet provider as you is accused of spamming and is placed on a Black List, you may be listed as well.

DNS blacklists are usually maintained by antispam organizations or by individuals.

What are some of the most popular Black Lists that ISPs are using?

Some of these include:

MAPS http://www.mailabuse.com/

Spam Cop http://www.spamcop.net/

SpamHaus http://www.spamhaus.org/

SPEWS.org http://www.spews.org/

ORDB.org Open Relay Database http://www.ordb.org/

How do I know if I am on a Black List?

Unfortunately, you really can’t be 100% sure if you have been black listed. You may be on someoneกs black list and not even know it. There are, however, ways to check most of the lists.

One way is to check your server log when sending your campaigns. You will often see an email bounce notice indicating that the message has bounced because you are on a particular black list.

Many of the major black lists also allow you to enter your IP into a form on their site. These checks will tell you whether you appear, or not, on their list.

A useful tool, is the Black List Monitor. http://www.blacklistmonitor.com It automatically checks your IP against most of the major Black Lists and tells you which ones you are listed on. It also gives you help in getting removed. All your IPs are constantly monitored for any changes, listings, or delistings.

But what is a White List and how can this help?

Many corporations and ISPs will create a white list. This is a list of trusted IP addresses that they feel confident will not send spam to their customers. If your IP is listed on a particular white list then your email messages will be delivered to the destination email address. It is important for reputable marketers to work with the major ISPกs such as AOL to ensure that you are on their white list. For most, it can be a lengthy process, but well worth your efforts.

Other thirdparty email certification programs now exist. Bonded sender www.bondedsender.com is one such agency. By joining Bonded Sender, senders improve deliverability rates and differentiate their brand. Senders go through a formal application process, adhere to email standards and post a bond against potential complaints. Major ISPs such as MSN/Hotmail now check against Bond Senderกs white list and allow these email to pass.

Knowing if you are on a black list, getting removed if you are and getting established on white lists is critical if you are email marketing. The more messages delivered equals more sales!

About The Author

Author Karen Fegarty is with MailWorkZ the creator of Black List Monitor advanced service that continuously checks all the major blacklists for you, and then some. Don’t be treated unfairly! Keep a handle on who may have you blacklisted. Get a free trial and find out more at http://www.blacklistmonitor.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 11, 2004

by Karen Fegarty

Signatures The Long and Short of It

Signatures The Long and Short of It

by: Doug Davis

What is the accepted standard for signatures? Who sets these standards? The signatures in question are those blurbs that we include after the body of our main message content in our emails for the purpose of identification and contacts.

Iกm really not referring to signatures in the respect that Usenet Newsgroups see them. It is pretty much agreed by established netiquette that Usenet signatures should be limited to five lines or less. They should, or may, contain:

Your name: Doug Davis

Your email: [email protected]

Your company: Northern Research

What you do: Publisher

Your URL: http://www.couchpotatomarketing.com/ezine

You can shave a line or two from the above by combining your name and email address plus your company with what you do:

Doug Davis [email protected]

Northern Research, Publisher

http://www.couchpotatomarketing.com/ezine

Getting away from Usenet and, some lists, into the real nittygritty of internet marketing, signatures have become a way of sticking that extra ad in there. For better or worse we seem to be stuck with this practice, so don’t expect it to go away soon.

How wide should your signature be?

Text terminals usually had and have a width of 80 characters; this means they can display just as many characters in one row. This is the practical reason why the ultimate text width of email messages and sigs should be no more than 80 characters.

But this doesn’t work very well in practice. We reply, we forward, we quote, and each time we do we add those little angle brackets to the lines of text in our messages, ">>>>." So we end up having short lines and long lines staggered throughout the text. This looks very unprofessional, even if you’re just sending to friends. Thatกs why all the recommendations for different line lengths. Some will not set their character length to anything greater than 72; some 74, others 76, etc.

In publishing ezines and newsletters online, however, the standard seems to be 65 characters. This is what most submission guidelines that I have read, recommend. My ezine wraps with hard carriage returns at 65 characters. Almost all of the article submissions I receive are wrapped at 65 characters. If they’re not, then I have to reformat them to fit my layout. I don’t like reformatting itกs a time wasting task I could do without.

Naturally, sigs in my ezine, and many others, can’t be longer than 65 characters either.

How many lines?

It depends, I suppose, on where you are posting or sending your emails. Discussion lists should be about the same as Usenet, in my opinion. On the other hand if you are posting to optin mailing lists for the purpose of advertising your business offerings, there are no rules. Itกs whatever you can get by with really. Who cares whether you have 20 lines of text and a 4line sig? How about 4 lines of text and a 20line sig?

I have exactly 128 separate sigs in my MS Outlook 2000 sig file. Some of these are actually 12 line, or more, ads; itกs just easier to paste them into the email that way.

Remember the aim of your signature is to be read. If you have a humongous sig it not only won’t be read, it will possibly provoke anger an emotion you don’t need in your prospective customers.

Signature Dashes

The "signature dashes" actually is a line which is used as the first line of a signature. This is described in the "sonofrfc1036": If a poster or posting agent does append a signature to an article, the signature SHOULD be preceded with a delimiter line containing (only) two hyphens (ASCII 45) followed by one blank (ASCII 32).

The sigdashes act as a separator which allows easy recognition of signatures. This line consists of two dashes and a trailing space, ie " " (note the space) and thus can be recognized in a data stream as the character sequence "(newline)(dash)(dash)(space)(newline)". Some programs recognize a signature by the (sigdashes).

Let me make this perfectly clear: There are no additional characters before, after or in between. This means no whitespace before the dashes, no additional dashes, one space at the end, followed only by an newline which ends the line. Thatกs it!

Synopsis:

If you are posting to newsgroups or discussion lists keep your sig as short as possible; try not to go over four lines. Personal messages probably should be the same; why would you need all that sig space when you have the entire body of the message?

When Iกm posting ads to optin lists I usually don’t include a sig at all. I want the ad to be the focus, not the sig.

About The Author

Doug Davis is the publisher of "Couch Potato Marketing Ezine", a veritable treasure trove of internet marketing information, plus a section highlighting the freebies available to help you increase your bottomline. We Have Bonuses: http://kabino.com/cpme

This article was posted on January 20, 2002

by Doug Davis

Email Marketing How Best To Manage and Distribut

Email Marketing How Best To Manage and Distribute Your Messages

by: Karen Fegarty

This holiday season 15 percent of consumers in the US plan to buy online, spending an average of $585. That’s 9 percent more revenue for online merchants in comparison to last year’s results.

A recent report estimates that Canadians will spend half a billion dollars online for gifts this holiday season. Even by conservative estimates the total number predicted is double the $282 million predicted for Christmas, 1999.

Whatever way you look at it doing business over the net is growing at incredible rates and email marketing is becoming a ‘given’ element of many marketing campaigns. It should come as no surprise that tools to help us manage our email lists and distribution are becoming increasingly important.

The challenge in incorporating email marketing into a campaign is determining what type of email service best suits your business needs, today and in the longterm.

There are two main choices when establishing and maintaining email marketing programs: A desktop email marketing application or an email campaign submission service.

Let me describe the two options in greater detail

Email Marketing Application Tools such as these allow you to create, manage and distribute your own customized email campaigns. Cost is usually a onetime software purchase. This approach is best suited to those companies with a fairly well defined target market and corresponding email distribution list. This approach can also be used if your target audience is growing and/or change. The software applications available allow the user to build, maintain and change their own email distribution lists, create rich messages and distribute your campaigns.

I would recommend this type of product to those businesses with a preidentified target audience and an ability to access a distribution list to reach this audience. With a desktop application your original investment provides you with the flexibility to manage and define your own email distribution lists this is the type of service for you if you’re interested in owning and maintaining your own list and using this list as part of the intellectual property of your business.

Campaign Submission Service When you use this type of service you are contracting a thirdparty to provide you with the interface to your customers and/or target audience. The agent will distribute your message to one or several optin email lists that have been provided based upon some stated interest on the part of the recipients. These are lists of people who have registered for certain websites, ezines or newsletters or have asked to receive information via email and have stated their interested in certain subjects.

The agent or submission service will work with you to determine the list that best matches your product, service or announcement working together you will use preexisting lists to create a target email audience for your company’s use. The submission service will receive your message and distribute to one or more of the email lists the quality control element in place is that you are sending relevant information to recipients that have already stated an interest in a related subject matter and most likely the message will not be viewed as SPAM. Cost usually runs on an 8 to 30 cent per email sent charge.

The submission service allows you to work with experts in the field of gathering email distribution lists based on subject(s) interest and the application of this technology in receiving information. Each time you want to distribute a message you rely on these service providers for their advice, lists and expertise in distributing your information. If you’re new to the email marketing forum and your business does not yet have a substantial email distribution list this service may be able to fill the gap and get you into the game.

A couple of items to keep in mind the overall cost of your email marketing efforts, campaign tracking reports and the future role of email marketing in your overall direct marketing plans.

There are plenty of choices in the marketplace educate yourself and make the best decision for your organization.

About The Author

Karen Fegarty is with MailWorkZ. MailWorkZ has been instrumental in developing new email technology. MailWorkZกs award winning email marketing tool, is key to reaching your customers in a highly efficient, personalized manner. Reach Karen at [email protected]

This article was posted on January 20, 2002

by Karen Fegarty

Spam: How To Fight It

Spam: How To Fight It

by: Max Maglias

Spam. How to fight it.

Internet is flooded today with undesirable advertising letters also known as spam. Both for an ordinary user connecting to Internet via dialup and for various companies paying for the dedicated line or using DSL spam equals wasted megabytes of information. The megabytes, which are paid for. And time, wasted on viewing advertising offers of unnecessary things or services.

Currently there are a lot of ways to guard your email box against unceasing attacks of ขViagraข, tourist reservations, commercial seminars and the best ขwindows and doorsข in the world, which can be bought cheaply and simply. One of the cures could be changing the email account. But this is by no means a panacea: in a while the new box will be displaying nonsense newsletters from all over the world. You can of course use the serverinbuilt filters or paid resources which try to minimize the spam flow, letting through just the letters from ขauthorized addressersข. But the server filters block just a small part of proposals to ขenlargeข or ขrelaxข. And the powerful ขauthorizationข protection is, first, expensive (plus a monthly fee), and second, is very inconvenient for people on the contactlist (they have to undergo a lengthy ขauthorizationข procedure).

Ideal filter

To clean the mail account from spam a universal antiadvertising shield is needed which will save the money otherwise wasted on downloading weighty letters traffic and the time otherwise lost on viewing and deleting them. Such a shield is the programs which remotely check the mail in the user box without uploading them and block unwanted letters immediately at the server. Such programs are many. They differ in interface and functionality, but have one thing in common: obligatory check of email at the server. Without this feature there would be no sense in the blockers at all. To upload messages and check them locally is not a big deal. The applications differ in their settings, spam filtering ways, speed of work and different features enabling maximum efficiency. The most widespread way of blocking spam is by letter headings and continuously updated list of ขillegitimateข addresses, which are known as harmful advertisements distributors.

What should an ideal spam blocking application be like? First, it should cope with its primary duties flawlessly. Second, it should have a nice interface, be simple to tune and work autonomously. Third, it shouldn’t prevent normal functioning of other programs, mail clients in particular. Let’s look into the interior side of a spamblocking application and decipher the underlying basics.

Spamblocking principles

Usually the application downloads message headers which undergo ขpartial enquiryข. Depending on the functionality of a certain ขtoolข, filtering is conducted by fields (header, sender, addressee etc.), black and white lists of electronic addresses in the database and a wider list of recognized spam generating servers. For checking lists are used, either created by developers or edited by users. Undoubtedly, the more thorough the homemade spamblocking provisions, the better, but ideal work cannot be achieved without proper tuning of blocking and filtering rules. Of course a user setting the most rigid rules risks losing with the blocked spam useful and harmless letters. But in any case, it’s a private decision.

Apart from preinstalled blocking rules, user can make his/her own corrections, such as widening the ขdangerous serverข lists, editing black and white lists and creating his/her own lists conforming to certain rules (for instance, taking into account letter size plus filtering from ขthat particular leftmost Korean server list). On installing the application and adjusting its settings (or you can leave everything as it is) and initial workability check, one can make a final decision concerning fitness of the filter for further use. It remains to decide which application to select.

SoftInform Spam Blocker

New spamblocking application by SoftInform company Spam Blocker – enables maximum efficiency by guarding the user computer (his/her mail box to be more specific) from spam flows, saving money and time on viewing useless messages and paying for the ขmail advertisementsข traffic. As a universal spam blocking tool Spam Blocker possesses indefeasible advantages compared to analogical applications. High quality (blocking 85 to 100% of spam), simple, exquisite and friendly interface, flexibility of settings make SoftInform newly released application the best in its class.

Are you not tired of endless spam? Have you lost track of newly registered (ขcleanข) accounts? Dozens of letters daily burn you and your company megabytes of far from free traffic? All you need to do is to install Spam Blocker, in such a way ridding your computer from persistent and useless email advertising.

About The Author

Max Maglias

[Phone] 2197964

[Email] [email protected]

[Website] http://spamblocker.adscleaner.com

This article was posted on August 17

by Max Maglias

The Power Is In The Pipes: How To Get Maximum Leve

The Power Is In The Pipes: How To Get Maximum Leverage From Your Website

by: Michael Southon

What is the most important part of your online business? Many people would say: กmy websiteก. And that’s understandable – it’s the most visible part of an internet business.

But the real power in your online business is email. It’s the ability to reach your database of contacts at the click of a button. The efficiency of your email pipeline will determine how much money your business makes.

Your website is just a way of building your mailing list by collecting the email addresses of your visitors.

In fact, we’re not talking about one list, but several. Here are the lists that I maintain – they’re all people who at one time or another have visited my websites:

people who have bought my products

people who have signed up to receive my articles

people who have joined my affiliate program

people who have signed up for my email course

people who have joined my newsletter

So why are these lists so important?

Because most of your visitors won’t buy on the first contact. Statistics show that most people will need to see your message 7 times before they make a purchase. So if you’re not collecting the email addresses of your visitors, you are losing out on a lot of sales.

But there is one list in particular that is like gold. Itกs your list of previous customers. These people are predisposed to buying from you. In fact, some businesses make 80% of their sales from previous customers.

All well and good but what do I do with these lists?

Here are some ideas:

announce your latest product to your customer list

announce your latest product to your affiliates list

send your latest article to your articles list

announce your latest product in your newsletter

publish your latest article in your newsletter

announce ‘relatedก products to your customer list

send your latest article to your affiliates list so they can use it to promote your products

For each list that you manage you will need (1) an autoresponder account or an autoresponder script and (2) a way of capturing your visitorกs email address.

(1) Autoresponder Accounts

An autoresponder account gives you the ability to manage a list without installing software itกs all done on a remote website. Most autoresponder accounts will give you:

an email address for subscribing

an HTML form for subscribing

seven or more followup messages

a confirmation email to you every time someone joins

the ability to broadcast messages to your list

the ability to personalize your messages

database of your prospects

online stats

Here are some sites that offer autoresponder accounts:

http://www.aweber.com/

http://www.getresponse.com/

http://www.responders.com/

http://www.proautoresponder.com/

http://www.www.roibot.com/

http://www.infogeneratorpro.com/

http://www.replypro.net/

http://www.autoresponder.co.uk/

Now, autoresponder accounts cost between $17 and $20 per month. And with most autoresponder services you can only manage one list per account. So if you are managing 5 lists, that quickly adds up to a hefty monthly bill.

But there are a few services that allow you to manage multiple lists with one account. Here are some of them:

http://www.rapidreply.net/

http://www.ezmailpro.com/

http://www.autorespondit.com/

http://www.1automationwiz.com/

http://www.royalresponder.com/

(2) Capturing Email Addresses

The most popular way to get new subscribers to your list is a กsubscribe formก that pops up when your website loads. I get 25 to 30 new subscribers a day using this technique. The HTML code for the subscribe form usually comes with your autoresponder account.

Another way to invite visitors to join your list is an กalert boxก. An alert box is a small gray dialogue box that pops up when someone visits your website. It usually says something like: กPlease subscribe to my Newsletter. 5 Free eBooks when you joinก. Itกs impossible to ignore an alert box you have to either close it or click OK to continue.

Alert boxes have two advantages over subscribe forms. Firstly, thereกs no form to fill in, so itกs much easier for people to join your list. People who have switched from a subscribe form to an alert box report 3 to 5 times as many subscribers.

Secondly, alert boxes capture only ‘realก email addresses the email address from the visitorกs client browser. You end up with very few Hotmail and Yahoo addresses, which means youกll have a much more responsive list. For more information about alert boxes, visit: http://www.optinlightning.com/

So to sum up, use your website to build several optin mailing lists and youกll have a private audience of people you can market to over and over again itกs the key to running a successful online business.

About The Author

Michael Southon Copyright 2003

Why Do Some People Get All The Traffic?

Receive the 5 Day Ezine Writer Mini Course and Learn how to create your own Free Traffic Machine: http://www.ezinewriter.com/

This article was posted on June 20, 2003

by Michael Southon

10 Tips For Getting More Traffic From Your Article

10 Tips For Getting More Traffic From Your Articles

by: Michael Southon

Hereกs a depressing fact if you sell anything on the web: the #1 reason people go online is not to buy things but to find free information.

But thatกs great news if you write free articles. It means you have a technique you can plug in and use whenever you need more traffic.

Writing articles is still one of the quickest and easiest ways of bringing targeted traffic to your website. Articles will bring you traffic from three sources:

Newsletters very few ezine publishers write their own content. They need free articles from people like you.

Websites webmasters want contentrich websites. They also need your articles.

Search Engines the URL in your resource box increases your link popularity, resulting in higher search engine rankings for your website

Here are some tips for getting more traffic from your articles:

Start your article with a sentence that grabs your readerกs attention. People are bombarded with information on the Internet theyกll decide whether to read your article in the first sentence. If it intrigues them, if it startles them, if it excites them, if it engages them, if it challenges them, theyกll keep reading.

Submit your articles to the article announcement lists. Here are the lists I submit to:

http://www.ezinewriter.com/articlelists.html

Submit your articles to the online article banks. Here are the top 10 article banks:

http://www.ezinewriter.com/top10.html

Create a กNew Articlesก list for people who want to receive your latest articles. Put a signup form on your website and invite your visitors to join. When you submit articles to the article announcement lists, include the email address for joining your กNew Articlesก list.

Don’t put a date in your article copyright articles you wrote 2 years ago may still be relevant but if the copyright says 2001, publishers will assume the information is outofdate.

Create a zip file containing all your previous articles as text files include the download link on your website, in your sig file, in your autoresponders, and in your Ezine กWelcome Messageก.

Check your articles with SpamAssassin by sending your article to this address with ‘tESTก in the subject field: mailto:[email protected] Then include a note that says ‘this article was checked by SpamAssassin and is spamsafeก.

Write your Resource Box in the third person and not in the form an ad Ezine Publishers may like your article but object to your Resource Box.

When you submit your articles to the article lists, include URLs for your article and your photo:

http://www.ezinewriter.com/article62.html

http://www.ezinewriter.com/photoms.jpg

Likewise, include your articleกs autoresponder address:

[email protected]

Well, thatกs it all the info you need to get more traffic from your articles!

About The Author

Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this simple technique to build a successful online business. Free Mini Course: [email protected]

Website: http://www.ezinewriter.com/

This article was posted on July 04, 2003

by Michael Southon