Create A Flash Presentation For Free With Open Off

Create A Flash Presentation For Free With Open Office

by: Steve Howson

The intentions of this short tutorial are not to teach you how to use Open Office, but rather to show you a quick and dirty way to create presentations and tutorials that can be exported as a Macromedai Flash file.
What is Open Office? It is a free, open source, cross platform office suite that has a lot of the same features as popular commercial suites.
Being that itกs cross platform means it can be compiled for just about anything, Windows, Linux / Unix, Mac, etc..
Using Open Office Presentation
Basically, if youกve ever used Microsoft Powerpoint, youกve pretty much used Presentation. Itกs a slide show (or presentation) creator that lets you create any style slide show you want.
You can have text, graphics, charts, etc… or any combination
It does not take much to figure out Presentation. You can add text or picture boxes, add designs, add tables and pretty much anything you can think of.
After you have created the presentation, hereกs where you convert it to Flash:
You simply go in to the กfileก menu and select กExportก.
A กsave asก dialog box will come up where you can choose the file name, location and the format you want.
From the pull down box you will see the กMacromedia Flash (SWF)ก option, thatกs the one you want.
Select the format, pick your location, name the file and press the Save button.
Thatกs it.. you now have a Macromedia Flash version of your presentation that you can include on your website.
Why whould you want this?
Macromedia Flash is pretty much a standard for multimedia on the web, as a result there is a plugin for almost every browser and most people already have this plugin.
This gives you the chance to put Flash content on your site without having to play for the Macromedia Suite.

About The Author

Steve Howson is the Webmaster for SG Network Technologies web hosting company.

http://www.sgnettech.com

This article was posted on May 31, 2004

by Steve Howson

Deja Googled

Deja Googled

by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

http://groups.google.com/

http://groups.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce.html

The Internet may have started as the fervent brainchild of DARPA, the US defence agency but it quickly evolved into a network of computers at the service of a community. Academics around the world used it to communicate, compare results, compute, interact and flame each other. The ethos of the community as contentcreator, source of information, fount of emotional sustenance, peer group, and social substitute is well embedded in the very fabric of the Net. Millions of members in free, advertising or subscription financed, megasites such as Geocities, AOL, Yahoo and Tripod generate more bits and bytes than the rest of the Internet combined. This traffic emanates from discussion groups, announcement (mailing) lists, newsgroups, and content sites (such as Suite101 and Webseed). Even the occasional visitor can find priceless gems of knowledge and opinion in the mound of trash and frivolity that these parts of the web have become.

The emergence of search engines and directories which cater only to this (sizeable) market segment was to be expected. By far the most comprehensive (and, thus, less discriminating) was Deja. It spidered and took in the exploding newsgroups (Usenet) scene with its tens of thousands of daily messages. When it was taken over by Google, its archives contained more than 500 million messages, crossindexed every which way and pertaining to every possible (and many impossible) a topic.

Google is by far the most popular search engine yet, having surpassed the more veteran Northern Lights, Fast, and Alta Vista. Its mind defying database (more than 1.3 billion web pages), its caching technology (making it, in effect, one of the biggest libraries on earth) and its site ranking (by popularity and linksover) have rendered it unbeatable. Yet, its efforts to integrate the treasure trove that is Deja and adapt it to the Google search interface have hitherto been spectacularly unsuccessful (though it finally made it two and a half months after the purchase). So much so, that it gave birth to a protest movement.

Bickering and bad tempered flaming (often bordering on the deranged, the racial, or the stalking) are the more repulsive aspects of the Usenet groups. But at the heart of the debate this time is no ordinary sadistic venting. The issue is: who owns content generated by the public at large on computers funded by tax dollars? Can a commercial enterprise own and monopolize the fruits of the collective effort of millions of individuals from all over the world? Or should such intellectual property remain in the public domain, perhaps maintained by public institutions (such as the Library of Congress)? Should open source movements gain access to Dejaกs source code in order to launch Deja II? And who owns the copyright to all these messages (theoretically, the authors)? Google, as Deja before it, is offering compilations of this content, the copyright to which it does not and cannot own. The very legal concept of intellectual property is at the crux of this virtual conflict.

Google was, thus, compelled to offer free access to the CONTENT of the Deja archives to alternative (nonGoogle) archiving systems. But it remains mum on the search programming code and the user interface. Already one such open source group (called Dela News) is coalescing, although it is not clear who will bear the costs of the gigantic storage and processing such a project would require. Dela wants to have a physical copy of the archive deposited in trust with a dot org.

This raises a host of no less fascinating subjects. The Deja Usenet search technology, programming code, and systems are inextricable and almost indistinguishable from the Usenet archive itself. Without these elements structural as well as dynamic there will be no archive and no way to extract meaningful information from the chaotic bedlam that is the Usenet environment. In this case, the information lies in the ordering and classification of raw data and not in the content itself. This is why the open source proponents demand that Google share both content and the tools to access it. Googleกs hasty and improvised unplugging of Deja in February only served to aggravate the diehard fans of erstwhile Deja.

The Usenet is not only the refuge of pedophiles and neoNazis. It includes thousands of academically rigorous and research inclined discussion groups which morph with intellectual trends and fashionable subjects. More than twenty years of wisdom and erudition are buried in servers all over the world. Scholars often visit Usenet in their pursuit of complementary knowledge or expert advice. The Usenet is also the documentation of Western intellectual history in the last three decades. In it invaluable. Googleกs decision to abandon the internal links between Deja messages means the disintegration of the hyperlinked fabric of this resource unless Google comes up with an alternative (and expensive) solution.

Google is offering a better, faster, more multilayered and multifaceted access to the entire archive. But its brush with the more abrasive side of the open source movement brought to the surface long suppressed issues. This may be the single most important contribution of this otherwise not so opportune transaction.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of กMalignant Self Love Narcissism Revisitedก and กAfter the Rain How the West Lost the Eastก. He is a columnist in กCentral Europe Reviewก, United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

This article was posted on February 2, 2002

by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

Band Promotion Book Your Garage Band Some Shows

Band Promotion Book Your Garage Band Some Shows or Gigs

by: Dennis Damp Jr

So you have you press kit and demo CD and want to know what to do next. Why not try an open mic night at a local club. Most clubs advertise these open mic nights in your local music papers or entertainment magazines. Open mic nights will give your band experience on stage, and the club will most likely have a built in audience to perform for. Most of the time all you have to do is show up with your instruments. The PA system and drums are usually supplied. Call ahead just to make sure this is the case. Many of these events are hosted by local established bands and produce great networking opportunities. Make contacts with the bands playing the open mic night, and leave a press kit for the club owner. Maybe the hosting band likes your music and needs an opening act in the future. Sometimes people in the audience may be interested in your band, so have some business cards ready with all your contact information.

The reality of starting out as a band is that your most likely not going to get paid at first. Your not in it at first for the money anyway right, your there because you want to get your music heard. Offer to be an opening act for a band you know or met at an open mic night. Email some bands in your area and see if they accept opening acts. Offer to open for free to get some much needed exposure. Many established bands love opening acts because they don’t have to pay them much, and they won’t have to play as long so this makes their job easier.

Promote your band any time you get an opportunity. Hand out business cards at open mic nights, and send fliers to clubs that you will be performing at in the future. Call or email clubs or venues that handle your genre of music. Once you get some shows, contact your local music newspapers with your band’s name, venue name, phone number, show time, and any other information you feel necessary. Many entertainment newspapers offer this service free of charge. Solicit your press kit to local venues. Start visiting local clubs in person with your band mates and talk with the booker or entertainment director. Leave a copy of your press kit and get them to listen to your demo while your there if possible. Call a day or two after your visit, and be persistent. You may have to call a few times, because it can be difficult to get a hold of the band booker. Most work late hours at their venue.

Now that your have emailed or called your local newspapers with any show dates to be published in their entertainment section. Contact any music newspapers or magazines in your area to see if they would write an article on your band or visit one of your shows. If your successful in getting an article or review of your band, make sure to have the article writer include your website address and booking information in the piece. There are many opportunities to promote your band, so don’t miss a chance to have your contact information added to a newspaper article or review of your band.

Send your demo CD and press kit to any local battle of the bands competitions or song writing contests. Battle of the bands locate up and coming talent for their shows. They need acts so this can be a great opportunity for your band. Battle of the bands gives the opportunity to network with local promoters, other established bands, and to be heard by an audience searching for new talent. Many times these events are promoted through radio, newspaper ads, and internet marketing. The winner of the battle of the bands typically receives some nice perks like studio time, equipment, or free advertising. I know a band in my area who won a competition and actually got a chance to play live on the radio. Next thing you know they were playing some of the best venues in the area. Check out these events whenever possible.

Approach town fairs, county festivals, or city concert venues to get gigs and exposure for your band. Most of these types of shows are performed for free by bands, but there is an opportunity to play for a built in audience. Do some research on the internet and see what local agencies or websites book bands for these types of events.

Now that your band promotion is off to a great start it’s time to get your band on the internet, and possibly look for a band manager, booking agent, or sound technician. See part III of our article Get your band out of the garage and into a gig at http://www.mediawebsource.com/press.htm. For more information on press kit and demo tips, band resources, and band promotion visit the Media Web Source website at http://www.mediawebsource.com. This site is a valuable resource for start up and established bands everywhere.

About The Author

Dennis Damp Jr.

Author and Website creator for www.mediawebsource.com. Articles and website are comprised of resources for bands and songwriters.

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 01

by Dennis Damp Jr

Open Source and PostCapitalistic Society

Open Source and PostCapitalistic Society

by: Daniel Orsolic

Capitalism as the social structure was founded in order to support further evolution and development of human race, to support the innovation which was oppressed by the former system. It was brought up by the two industrial revolutions. The technology was obviously the main to blame for the outcoming capitalistic society. The new capitalism was more liberalistic promoting free trade and pushing globalization in order to support further development and growth of technology.

But, it seems like the technology has been pushed so far and so high that the now old capitalism formed to support it starts to act as itกs oppressor. The world of software technology is the obvious example of it. The first signs of these events can be recognized far back into 70s and 80s when the software technologyกs started to emerge.

Now, the capitalism oppresses the further technology growth by oppressing the development of software. How? By making it proprietary, creating monopolyกs. To capitalism, everything is property, including software. And that is where the problem is. The software cannot be considered as property, it is more like an information. It is simply too easy to copy it without ANY effort and that is what led to it becoming a commodity which is a reason more why it just cannot be proprietary. If it is considered proprietary and created and used in such manner, we are getting monopolies created, patents issued and other restrictions that do no good to the further development of software technology, but to oppress it.

Look at the capitalistic giant, Microsoft! Imagine that there were no free software movement and open source. Microsoft would be the ultimate monopolist, the whole world would be their empire. In such case, there would be no real progress and innovation because there is no force to drive it.

THAT is the very proof of capitalism being simply too old and incompetent to handle the new technology of today properly, in the information age run by computers and software.

The open source and free software movement are already taking steps further, outgrowing the limitations of the old and incompetent capitalistic system in order to create what may be called a postcapitalism, true liberalistic, society where the technology will be freely developed at the rates the open source software gets developed today.

More to this, open source and free software movement being the major sign is not the only sign of the sickness of capitalism and itกs fall.

Simply look at the way things are going at this point in history regarding the major events. When there was a war in Iraq, masses of global and organized people, ordinary people like you and me, used internet to start the organized real time and worldwide demonstrations against the war in Iraq. The same happens with any other major event. There is a global network of people united in their fight for freedom and peace. It shows how the technology of today gives the power to the ordinary people instead of power being in hands of a few big shots. And those people, masses, globally networked masses, ask for one thing: FREEDOM!

Their (our) ขenemiesข are therefore everyone that anyhow tryกs to restrict the freedom and impose the control over them.

The entityกs that fall into that category include:

the greatest corporations such as Microsoft and oil companies (imposing monopolies and restrictions in order to control as much as possible)

political entities such as USA and European Union (imposing wars such as the one in Iraq, pushing restrictions of freedoms to use and develop technology through software patents etc.)

And when we say ขenemyข, we don’t mean that the corporations, companies and governments as the organizations should be terminated in order for us to have the freedom we deserve nor we in any case mean to fight them with violence acting like terrorists. We should simply raise our voices using the internet and technology in order to change the way these entities function today so that they are no longer the oppressors of freedom, but itกs supporters.

These global networked movements, such as open source and free software movement are actually forming a third industrial revolution which may crush capitalism as a social structure and finally bring the power to the majority and support the unrestricted growth of technology.

I am on the right side, are you?

About The Author

Daniel Orsolic Graduate of the school for electronic engineering and the great open source/free software movement enthusiast, the founder of libervis.com the open source community node.

Copyright: Daniel Orsolic

Article published under GNU Free Documentation Licence (GNU FDL)

This article was posted on August 16, 2004

by Daniel Orsolic

Open the Door to More Business with Your Ideas

Open the Door to More Business with Your Ideas

by: Charlie Cook

Visualize your business as a building. Whether you are an architect, lawyer, coach, graphic designer or accountant, to bring in more clients, you need to make it easy for them to enter. The more doors you create and open the more prospects will come in and become clients. Too many small businesses inadvertently put up walls instead of opening doors to new business.

People buy products and services from firms they know and trust. If you are trying to attract new business by advertising, cold calling and direct mail you may be creating barriers to communication instead of opening doors.

Networking and referrals are a couple of doors that let new business in based on familiarity and trust. The problem with these two approaches is that they are limited to the people you’ve met or worked with.

If you want to increase the number of people interested in your business you need to find a way to open many more doors. One of the most effective and low cost ways to do this is to position yourself as an expert and demonstrate your expertise through an article or series of articles. Chances are youกve got dozens of ideas that would be helpful to prospects. Each time you put one of these ideas in writing and share it, you open a door to more business.

Articles help you attract people who are interested in your services, establish your firm as experts, and, if you give them at least one idea they can use in each article, builds trust. A handful of articles can attract hundreds of people interested in your services each week. If you have a web site, incoming links from your article placement are the best way to boost your ranking when people search for you site using Google, Yahoo, or AOL, bringing you even more prospects.

Of course your article needs to be well written and effectively targeted and distributed to motivate prospects to action. Use the following steps to build more doors to let business in:

1. Target Your Market and Their Needs

Focus your article on the primary concerns and specific needs of your market. To generate ideas for articles, jot down your observations and reactions after every client meeting or conversation. Cull your list of ideas and start with the ones that will be of the most help to prospects. If you can’t come up with any ideas at all, use a survey to ask questions that will generate more information for articles.

2. Write Compelling Copy

No matter how helpful your ideas are, if you don’t have a headline that grabs your readersก attention, they won’t read it. Next, your lead sentence needs to capture their interest so theyกll read the rest of your article and let you demonstrate the value you provide. Generally, youกll spend 50% of your time crafting your article title, then another 25% on your lead sentence, and the rest of the time writing the body of the article.

Find someone to read your writing. Even great writing can profit from editing. And don’t count on the กspell checkก on your computer to find all the errors.

3. Distribute Your Article Everywhere Your Prospects Read

Sending out a copy to your existing clients is a good idea but to attract prospects you need to get as many of them as possible to read your article. If your market is business executives, placement in Forbes, Fortune or Harvard Business Review would be ideal, but isn’t realistic for most authors.

Send your article to the hundreds of ezines, newsletters, and newspapers that are looking for fresh content they can use to meet publishing deadlines and attract more readers. Online placement has the advantage that with a link included at the end of your article readers can easily be connected to your web site.

4. Motivate Readers to Take the Next Step

Motivate your prospects to take the next step to learn more about your business. At the end of your article, offer something they will want for free, and tell them how to get it. For example, a short report or tutorial that provides inside advice or research will entice them to contact you.

Most small businesses mistakenly lock out many prospects with their marketing. Instead you can turn your ideas into articles and open doors to new business. Once youกve written and published a handful of articles you can use the same content to become a featured speaker, demonstrate your expertise in person, and open even more doors to attract prospects and convert them to clients.

2003 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

About The Author

The author, Marketing Coach, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals and small business owners who are struggling to attract more clients. He can be contacted at In Mind Marketing via [email protected] or visit www.charliecook.net to get a copy of the free marketing guide, ก7 Steps to Get More Clients and Grow Your Businessก.

This article was posted on September 10, 2003

by Charlie Cook

HackAttack

HackAttack

by: Robert J Farey

P C. owners are constantly at risk from attacks by hackers.

Spy ware, viruses, trogan horses, and all sorts of other malevolent programs are all trying to take control of your computer.

What can we do about it?

How can we be sure that we are properly protected against them?

A hacker will generally not be interested in doing damage to your PC. His main interest is in gaining control of your computer so that he can use it to send out hundreds of thousands of emails in your name with the intention of crashing your mail server.

This can get you into very serious trouble with the server. This is something that you do not want. How are you going to prove that you were not to blame?

How do the hackers do it?

What tools do they use?

A port scanner.

What is a port scanner?

A port scanner can locate PCs that are on line and check for an open port.

A hacker using a program such as ‘Super Scan’ can find an open port to gain entrance to your computer. Once in, he can use your computer as if it were his own. The only difference is that to all intents and purposes it is you that is causing all of the trouble.

The main port that the hacker is interested in is port 80. This is the one that you use to log on to the internet.

I am not going to confuse you with all the various programs that are designed to show you what ports are open at any particular time. What you need to know is how to protect your computer against these attacks.

There are a number of programs designed to show you what is going on inside your PC. I will give you a short list of some that are recommended by some of the program makers.

The one that I would not be without is: www.testmyfirewall.com As its name implies it will test your firewall for flaws and scan for open ports and any other security problems you may have.

You do have a firewall, don’t you?

Another one is: www.pestscan.com This will scan for any nasties that are already on the computer.

Lastly, I use: http://www.security.symantec.com This will run a security check of all my systems.

Don’t put of what you should be doing today. Make sure that your protection is doing its job. Check that you have the latest version of whatever protection you are using. An out of date system is worse than useless. It gives a false sense of security and suddenly you find yourself in serious trouble with your ISP.

It is your responsibility to ensure that your computer will not cause problems for someone else. There are so many free systems out there that you have no excuse for not using one or more of them.

Be safe. Be happy. Be responsible.

All the best. …Bob…

W/c 495

About The Author

Robert earns his crust by targeting the thousands of newcomers to internet trading. He aims to cut their learning curve to enable them to start earning money from the word go.

He learned the hard way. You can learn the easy way.

Checkout his website. Itกs not posh. Itกs not perfect, but it is effective. http://www.learnandearnnow.co.uk/

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 21, 2004

by Robert J Farey

Data Recovery

Data Recovery

by: Barry Stein

Every person who uses a personal computer will eventually face the challenge of data recovery. Computer hardware and software can be temperamental from time to time. Hard drives and other mechanical components of personal computers and servers do not last forever, and when they fail recovering your data can be difficult, time consuming and costly.

If you are working diligently away on a document or spreadsheet in Microsoft Office and the power goes out, you may still be able to recover the documents you were working on when the lights come back on. This type of data recovery is relatively easy and straightforward. Software manufacturers recognize that power outages are inevitable and unpredictable and most office applications incorporate what is known as autosave features. At set intervals, the documents you have open are saved to a cached file. They remain in that cached state and should be accessible once your power is restored. Simply opening Microsoft Word or Excel will usually bring these documents back. For instance, when you open Word after a power failure or a software error, you will be presented with a document followed by the word recovered in parentheses. This is the document you were working on at the most recent autosave point. You may still lose a couple minutes worth of work this way, but it sure beats having to go back and retype the entire document.

If the recovered document does not appear automatically, search your hard drive for files ending with tmp. Look for one created close to the time of the power failure or software error and open it. This is most likely the document you had open at the time. If this method of data recovery does not work, you may need to follow the steps listed below.

Of course not all data recovery is so easy and so straightforward. If you delete a file accidentally, it is a simple matter to recover it from the recycle bin. Once you empty the recycle bin, however, things become more difficult. The deleted file still resides on your computer somewhere, but the pointer that tells the program where to find the file is now gone. There are various software tools available that promise to help recover deleted files, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Some of the major players are Norton, McAfee and Computer Associates. There are a great many smaller vendors as well.

Even if all these products fail to recover your data, you may not be completely out of luck. Data recovery services specialize in recovering data from failed and corrupt hard drives. These data recovery services have tools and equipment not available to the general public.

Government and law enforcement forensic teams will often make use of these advanced data recovery techniques to investigate cases of computer crime. Businesses also will turn to a professional data recovery service to recover mission critical data from damaged hard drives.

It is important to choose a reputable firm any time you need to have data recovery services performed. The firm you choose should be able to provide references from previous clients. You should make sure to follow up with the references they provide.

The cost for the data recovery service will vary according to the type of equipment and the difficulty of the job. You should get several estimates to make sure you are paying a fair price for the service you receive.

About The Author

Barry Stein is the owner of aWebBiz.com where he offers cuttingedge tips on all aspects of business. To find more advice, tools and resources to help you succeed in your business, visit: http://www.aWebBiz.com.

Barryกs Internet Marketing Blog: http://aWebBiz.com/blog

This article was posted on February 21

by Barry Stein

Enhance Your Digital Photos Using Photoshop CS

Enhance Your Digital Photos Using Photoshop CS

by: Brad Bagherian

As more and more people are buying digital cameras and uploading their photos onto their PCs, people are starting to experiment with what things they can do to their photos to enhance them, cut out unwanted people from their photos, or take the people in their photos and place them on a different background. The enhancements you can carry out on your photos are endless. In this article I will give you a few tips on how to get the most out of Photoshop to take your photos to the next level.

If you don’t own a digital camera, do not worry. You can still use the following tips by scanning in your photos. Here the one thing to remember is to make sure that your dpi (dots per inch) is 300dpi for best results.

1. Lightening up dark photos

Open the photo you want to edit and select ‘Image’ from the main toolbar, then select ‘Adjustments’ followed by ‘Brightness/Contrast’. You can adjust these two settings until you are happy with the brightness of the photo.

2. Adding more colour to your photos

Some of your photos may seem dull, or maybe the opposite whereby it too much colour or redness. This can be adjusted by clicking on ‘Image’ from the main toolbar, then select ‘Adjustments’, followed by ‘Match Colour’. On this window you can increase and decrease the ‘Colour Intensity’ setting as required.

3. Removing the background from a photo

With this tool, you can cut around any object, background or person you would like to remove from the photo. From the ‘Tools’ panel on the screen select ‘Pen Tool’. With this tool, start on one side of the object you want to remove and click around the outline of it.

This is a delicate process, and the more accurate you are with the outline, the better your final image will be. Make sure you zoom into the image as this will increase your accuracy. Don’t be afraid to zoom in further than you think is necessary as this will only improve the quality of the final outcome.

The closer your clicks are, the more accurate the pen will draw around your outline. To draw around curves of your object, while holding the Ctrl key click on the line (between two clicks) which you can then adjust until you are happy with it. Once you have completely drawn around the whole object and you are back where you started, make sure your ends are joined together. Now right click on the image you just outlined and select ขMake selectionข, change the feather radius to 0 and click on OK.

4. Optimising your photos for the web.

Many people now want to send their photos through email or put them up on their own personal website where friends and family can view them. Images which have a size of more than 2MB take a long time to download especially with slow connections. Photoshop has an image optimise that reduces the file size considerably without losing any quality of the image which is noticeable to the eye. Open your image in Photoshop and choose ‘File’ from the main menu, then select ‘Save for Web’. A new window will open with some basic presets, select the file size you would like and save the document.

About The Author

Brad Bagherian is the founder and MD of elaborations Ltd (www.elaborations.co.uk). elaborations is a London based Design Company specialising in website design and development, graphic design and Internet marketing.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 23, 2004

by Brad Bagherian

Why Don’t My Subscribers Listen to Me?

Why Don’t My Subscribers Listen to Me?

by: Alice Seba

I received a very good question from a subscriber and I wanted to share it with you:

กI have almost 500 people sigend up to receive my newsletter but each time I send it 89 open it and 1 =3 click onto the website. Now what do I do?ก

Honestly, there could a lot of factors involved in the low open rate. If 8 or 9 actually open it and then you get 13 click…thatกs pretty good. But the problem here, seems to be with getting people to open the darned email.

Hereกs a couple things to think about:

1. How much of your email is getting through? Could your email or the service you’re using be blacklisted by certain ISPs? I would check and see if you can see how many of your emails are actually going through.

2. How about a compelling subject line? Test out different subject lines to see what grabs your subscribers interest. If you’re still writing:

กMyDomain.com Newsletter Issue 1 Vol 14ก

Then cut it out!:) Thatกs not going to get people to open it. Try to give them a quick glimpse of whatกs inside and make it interesting. Youกll probably find certain things grab your subscriberกs attention than others.

3. What are the contents of your newsletter like? Is there a reason for people to open it if they don’t have their wallet ready to buy something? I know that many people who sell products only place information about product specials, etc….but if your subscriber is not in a buying mood, they may not open your email.

Go the extra mile and provide them with VALUE in your newsletter. Give them special tips and advice related to your product that will help them solve problems.

For example, if you sell corporate gift baskets give tips on developing client relationships or anything related to the goal of corporate gift giving.

4. If you reach a broad audience, customize your mailing lists. I happen to know the lady who submitted this question does sell gift baskets…but she sells all kinds of gift baskets. What kind of value can you deliver to your customers / prospects if some of them:

buy new baby gift baskets

buy corporate gifts

buy Valentineกs gifts

Itกs tough. Iกd look to Amazon as the ultimate model to emulate they customize information for you based on your interests. They know what you looked at when you visited their website and they also keep track of what you buy. Then they deliver relevant products and content to you.You can apply the same plan to your mailing lists.

You can give optin subscribers tell you what topics they are interested in or if you are putting your customers on your follow up list make sure that follow up list is related to what they bought.

Keep working at it and learning what your subscribers WANT and deliver it to them. Don’t give up…just get better. Also, do yourself a favor to help you in this process. Sign up for Alexandria K. Brownกs (The Ezine Queen) Free Report:

ก3 Simple Secrets to Publishing an Ezine That Makes You Moneyก

===> http://www.aliceseba.com/ezinequeen.html

About The Author

Alice Seba is a fulltime online business owner that thrives on helping others say goodbye to their JOBs forever. Sign up for her กInternet Marketing Prescriptionsก to cure what ails your online business:

http://www.AliceSeba.com

This article was posted on March 21

by Alice Seba

Email Marketing Tips

Email Marketing Tips

by: David Chew

I am going to talk about how to improve your emails open rate. Everyday, count how many emails you receive and did you open all of them? I guess your answer is กNOก. We are all become more selective, we choose what we want to read based on the sender and the email title.

So, your challenge is to get your email recipient to open your email. Your job does not stops there by sending your email to your recipient inbox. If your emails do not get opened, all your efforts in preparing and sending the emails become wasted.

Here are some tips where you can apply immediately to improve the likelihood that your emails will be opened by your recipients.

(1) Make your title compelling

The email title is the most important part of your email because it determines whether your emails get opened or not. So, put some efforts to come up a good title. The title is your headlines.

(2) Your กFromก line must be recognizable with either:

your name

your web site name

your ezine name

Do not use email address that carries no identity. I normally delete all these no identify emails. For example, [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]

(3) If possible, use personalization

Use your recipient name in the headline. This creates attention and provoke relationship between you and your recipients. For example:

David, your weekly marketing thoughts and tips newsletter.

Kevin, discover how we can help you to build a residue income at home

(4) Do not write a hype subject line

I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning of my Internet carrier even though it is true and not hype. This is true when the claims are too far from facts. Ask yourself, do you open emails with following headings:

Earn $5000 in one month, Risk Free

You can become millionaire by following our system

Earn up to $80000 without selling

Without further thinking, I just press the กDeleteก key.

(5) Make your first paragraph attractive

Once your recipients open your email, the next thing they will see is your first paragraph. Make it compelling, motivating and make them want to continue reading.

These are strategies you may use immediately to increase the response rate.

About The Author

David Chew is a professional marketer and He is the editor of QuickRetirement Newsletter. Valuable weekly featured articles and tips that you can practice to properly manage your life style, to get you out of debt faster and help you create a long lasting passive income. Our Ultimate objective is to help you Retire Quickly. Subscribe at http://www.quickretirement.com

This article was posted on March 02, 2004

by David Chew

More on Vector Graphics

More on Vector Graphics

by: Nash Ville

According to the blog entitled ขVector Graphicsข which was posted by Neil last December 2, 2004 at www.eightlines.com, the author mentioned that he just found this program called InkScape which appears to be an open source vector drawing program.

Inkscape is a program for viewing, creating and editing 2D vector drawings. It is an open source Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) editor with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, Visio and other drawing programs. Its supported SVG features include text, paths, layers, ellipses, gradients, grouping, rectangles, transforms, basic shapes, node editing, bitmap images, alpha blending, svgtopng export, freehand curves, and many more. And, as an added bonus, both vector and bitmap objects can have alpha transparency and can be arbitrarily transformed. Graphics can also be printed and exported to png bitmaps.

ขVectorก drawing in InkScape means that when you create a shape like a rectangle, it retains its identity. You can easily go back and resize it, change its color, or move it around without disturbing the rest of the drawing. One of Inkscapeกs distinguishing features is that it stores its drawings in a webfriendly XML format – the SVG format – which is a standard that is gaining support worldwide, in proprietary and public software alike. The open source community is now adopting this format for everything from desktop icons and company logos to web page animation and artistic illustration.

The main motivation of Inkscape is to provide the open source community with a fully XML, SVG and CSS2 compliant SVG drawing tool. Its additional planned works include conversion of the codebase from C/Gtk to C++/Gtkmm, emphasizing a lightweight core with powerful features added through an extension mechanism, and establishment of a friendly, open, communityoriented development processes. In addition, this application runs on Unix (including Linux), Windows and Mac OS X; however, the primary development platform is Linux.

With the introduction of Inkscape, the world of vector graphics will definitely continue to become more interesting and compelling. Finally, I would like to commend the developers of InkScape. And, I am looking forward for greater things to happen to this software application. More Power and kudos!

About The Author

Nash Ville

Well, I must say that I am not a born writer. I didn’t acquire this gift hereditarily either. However, I’m an adventure book lover and used to read everything that I come across in the Internet that sounds interesting. I think, I only developed it through constant practice and exposure to numerous writing stuff. I was chosen to compete in press conferences that showcased my needsowelldeveloped writing skills. I became part of our school publication staff. I started as a news writer and photojournalist of the school paper. Soon, I was appointed editorinchief. It was during this time when I realized that I needed to be more efficient in writing because duty called for it. I should say that this event in my life opened me wholly to the wonderful world of writing.

With all these, I can’t say that I have mastered writing because of these writing experiences. I believe that this craft is also a continuous learning process. I’ve been working hard to become amore efficient and competent in writing, most especially now that I’m working as a content writer for this company. I’m doing articles for printing companies, medical sites, legal sites, and many more.

Additional Information about the articles can be found at http://www.catalogprintingexperts.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 09

by Nash Ville

DoubleClickกs Q3 2004 Report Shows Bulk Email Mark

DoubleClickกs Q3 2004 Report Shows Bulk Email Marketing Eficiency Increase

by: Iulia Pascanu

Internet marketing company DoubleClick published its final report over the bulk email marketing evolution this year. The figures show yearoveryear increase in delivery rates (cleaner emailing lists), and a decrease in open rates and clickthrough rates. The variations are light, proving a steady and maturing environment.

DoubleClickกs metrics

The data analyzed were based on more than 2 billion messages sent by hundreds DARTmail customers, measuring bouncebacks, open rates, clickthroughs and conversions (open to sales, or click to sales ratio). The results were reported for 2004 and compared to 2003.

DoubleClick used unweighted averages for all analyzed categories. This helps eliminating the influence that large email marketers could have over category averages, as the report states.

The email marketing categories considered in the study were:

Business Products & Services

Consumer Products

Consumer Services

Financial Services

Travel

Retail&Catalog

Publisher Business

Publisher Consumer

Email marketing performances

The bounce rates show a slight decline overall, and a more consistent decline in the Travel category, down 54.5% from 14.3% to 6.5%.

Business Publishers was the only category that increased open rates, however slightly, from 38.2 to 38.3. For other categories, open rates declined. The open ratesก decline in most categories is possibly owed to SPAM increase and reveals peopleกs reticence to open messages they are not highly interested in.

Click through rates increased in only two categories, Consumer Publisher and Travel.

More interestingly, emailproductivity has shown better figures in number of orders per email sent: 0.28% in 2004; but the average revenue per email sent declined 26.9 percent. The average email order throughout 2004 was $89, in a yearoveryear declining trend.

Conclusion

About the overall productivity of bulk email marketing the report concludes: กemail marketing is a maturing and relatively stable marketing tool. Improvements in list hygiene and address collection processes seem to have improved bounce rates, but flagging response rates suggest subscriber files are beginning to mature.ก

About The Author

Iulia Pascanu writes for http://www.emailmarketingsoftware.org/ where you can find more information about Email Marketing Software.

Please feel free to use this article in your Newsletter or on your website. If you use this article, please include the resource box and send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: mailto:[email protected]

This article was posted on January 21

by Iulia Pascanu