Pertinent Reviews

Email marketing is not spam. Beginning marketers often confuse the two, because spam deservedly has a bad reputation. Make no mistake, a good mailing list and effective communication via email can make all the difference in your success as an internet marketer. By now, you’ve probable heard “It’s all in the list” about a million times. It not hype; it’s absolutely true. What better pool of prospects is there than the people who have already purchased from you? Think about it. They already know you and trust you.

So, get over any problem you have with email marketing. It works. It’s legal. If done right, your customers will thank you for it. If you are a beginning marketer, you may be considering purchasing or renting an email distribution list. If so, forget about it. You have no way of knowing the quality of the list, if it’s a true double opt-in list, or whether or not it is current. Building your own list may be slower, and even frustrating at times, but the rewards are well worth it.

The best way to create your own list is to contact current customers. If you have no list, the best way to get started is with an opt-in page. Often called squeeze pages, they usually offer some kind of reward, a free report or ebook, in exchange for your future customer’s email address. That way, you know they have a genuine interest in your product because your giveaway is directly related to your product. Remember, most people on the net are looking for information. When you provide information of value, you gain trust.

There are a number of excellent services to handle your email list, among them Chimpmail, a newer service that will let you get started with your first 500 opt-ins for free, Aweber, probably the most popular service, and Constant Contact, another popular provider. Look them over thoroughly, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Once you’ve begun to build your list, make sure that you provide them with timely information related to your product. The rule of thumb in the industry is that you need to contact a prospect at least seven times to turn her into a customer. Always end each of your letters with a direct call to action to visit your product site. Provide useful links to pertinent information for your prospects, and soon you will have a responsive list that will provide you with a solid income from customers who know and trust you to provide quality products and useful information.

Spammers ruin things for everyone. Nothing is more annoying than receiving another Nigerian business opportunity or Lose 200 Pounds in 20 Minutes email. Email is a cheap and effective way to sell your products, so we can expect no end to spam anytime soon. Unfortunately, the CAN-Spam laws designed to protect consumers from spammers often handcuff legitimate marketers. For your email campaign to be effective, you need to differentiate yourself from the spam crowd and deliver items of genuine interest to your audience.

When you start your email campaign, take the time to define exactly what you want to do with your campaign. What are your goals? Are you going to introduce a new product? Are you simply staying in touch with your customer base? In order to communicate with your list, you should share your goal with them. There’s never any need to be coy or deceptive.

There’s no sense wasting your time, and your prospects time, without a clear call to action in your email. Your prospect’s time is as important as yours. Let them know what you are doing, and what you need them to do. Be simple and direct.

The cold call is fast becoming a thing of the past in sales, and it’s downright annoying to the prospect online. The polite name for online cold calling is spam. Make sure your list is interested in what you have to say. It saves your time and theirs. Never send an email without the recipients direct permission.

Get organized as to when you should send your email. Common sense dictates that sending an email at 3 AM in your prospect’s time zone is inappropriate. Most successful online marketers send their emails at midday after the prospect’s morning rush and before the end of the workday when your prospect is thinking of home.

The dependability of your autoresponder system is important. Stick with reputable suppliers like Aweber.  Remember that you get what you pay for. Cut-rate services are not always a bargain. Check the reputation of your supplier with people you trust. Sometimes paying a little more can get you a lot more and save headaches down the line.

Don’t get cute with the from line or the title of your email. Be up front. Tell them who you are and make the title of your email a benefit of your product. If they see a benefit from your product, they will open your email. If they do not need the benefit you supply, they’re not customers anyway. Tricking people into opening your email undermines trust and angers customers.

Lastly, give the people on your list the opportunity to opt out with every email you send them. Getting rid of people who do not want to hear from you will absolutely not affect your sales. In fact, it will streamline your list and make it even more responsive.

Clicktale is a unique product that allows website owners to view the behavior of visitors via video.  The company claims to be the next generation in web analytics and they may very well be.

One of the problems with a new industry like online marketing is the substantial lack of reliable data for analysis.  How many visitors does it take to reliably quantify clickthrough to a shopping cart?  How effective is your call to action?

The truth is that no one really knows.

Clicktale takes some of the mystery out of marketing.  It records mouse clicks and movement in real time; an invaluable tool for web designers and marketers looking to optimize response to web pages.

Find out more here…

Created by William J. Strunk Jr., an eccentric professor of English at Cornell University, to help his students with their composition courses, The Elements of Style is a concise guide to clear writing. It is a small book, pithily written to keep the writer from common pitfalls in usage, spelling, style. and punctuation.

Professor Strunk originally self-published the book for the use of his students. It did not gain popularity until a former student of Strunk’s, E. B. White, a humorist who wrote for the New Yorker and author of the children’s books Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web, published an article fondly recalling the “little book” from his student days at Cornell.

White, an apt stylist himself, revised the book for modern usage at the urging of his New Yorker editors.

The result is often referred to simply as Strunk and White and has become a staple in high schools and universities throughout the US. The book has been maligned by some grammarians, who have little else to do, but the book has endured for good reason.

It is simple, accessible, and useful.

Read more….

There’s something special about crystal.

Each year, Daniel Swarovski Home Accessories releases a new Christmas star ornament. They’ve outdone themselves this year.

The photo at the left does not do it justice.  It is a work of design and light worthy of the Swarovski tradition.

Since 1976,. when Daniel Swarovski introduced the fabled Silver Crystal Mouse to celebrate the Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, Swarovski’s company has led the way in the manufacture of fine crystal.

The company has now passed into the hands of the 4th and 5th generation of the crystal artist’s  family who continue the tradition of fine craftsmanship.

Details here…