Welcome to the third edition of email marketing tips on June 25, 2008.

Today I present a total of 11 blog articles. Let's jump right away to the submitted posts. The categories include: legal, general tips, and strategy.

legal

I found Fred's Blog article myself on the Web (in my Google reader) for you.

→ Fred Black presents Behind Bars: Could the New FTC CAN-SPAM Rules Land You In JAIL? posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog.

John's comment: Great: ‘CAN-SPAM for dummies’

general tips

→ terry dean presents What If Its Not Working? posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

John's comment: Giving up is not an option! You always can improve results.

→ Kathleen Gage presents Internet Marketing - What's stopping your success? posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions, saying, “Success for an online business requires a solid foundation. Your foundation needs to include specific systems. One system is that which will build a responsive opt-in subscriber list. Without a solid list you will face insurmountable obstacles to your success. Learn reasons why many people don’t build a list and what can be done about it.”

John's comment: Advice from experience… You need a list.

→ Patrick Schwerdtfeger presents The Power of Email Marketing posted at Tactical Execution, saying, “A review of autoresponders and how people are using them to build their business and other passive income streams.”

John's comment: I always told you… get their email address. It's an asset.

strategy

→ Ian Lurie presents Double E-mail Open Rates With This Simple Test posted at Conversation Marketing: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon, saying, “Test your subject lines, double our open rate. It's that simple.”

John's comment: Hands on tips. It's about testing.

→ John W. Furst presents Email Feedback Loops And Some Internet History posted at E-Biz Booster Blog, saying, “Create a feedback loop and make sure you can rely on Email for even very important things.”


That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of email marketing tips using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our email marketing tips blog carnival index page.

Now continue with the fourth edition of this email marketing blog carnival.

Contact me, if you want to host an edition on your internet marketing related blog.

Yours
John W. Furst

Technorati tags: email marketing tips, blog carnival

In 1994 about 14 years ago I started to use the Internet at the University campus. Very quickly Email became one of the most important tools for me and it is still today. However, with the upcoming of spammers and anti-spam measures Email has lost some of it's reliability.

I mean, are you sure you receive all important email messages, or are you sure all your messages you send are received?

I'll show you in a minute what I do to make sure Email works reliably for me, even for most important communication needs. Before that, let me tell you, how it all began for me (scroll down, if you are in a hurry).


How It All Began

Do you remember those times, when the “World Wide Web” and it's HTTP protocol were fairly new. I remember using the following services and protocols to find and research information on the Net. (This was not exactly fun and easy like it is today.)

• Gopher
• Archie
• FTP
• Email

You will have noticed that I shifted focus towards email marketing, hence, the “Email Marketing Tips Blog Carnival”. However, email is a means of communication. Transactions like sales or sign-ups are done on Web pages.

There is a certain type of Web sites that is a perfect compliment for email marketing: Mini Sites.

I have just gone through Michael Rasmussen's

“Mini Site Profits Exposed” Video Series:
How To Create A Mini Site That Runs On Autopilot And Makes You Money While You Sleep!

Here's what I think

1. You can learn a lot from Michael's marketing!
   • He applies almost any one-time offer, down-sell, and up-sell offer in this one promotion.
   • Audio & Video (screen cam) are used very professionally almost on any page.
2. He doesn't stop there,… He even recruits affiliates at the same call. It's amazing.
3. …

Just in case you want to learn about the potential of Mini Sites. Michael Rasmussen's offer is the most complete offer to start with right now.

Mini Site Profits Exposed: Video Series
(affiliate link)

Yes, I admit it. That's an affiliate link up there. Why not?

I recognize the value in that offer. At a minimum you learn about effective online marketing. If you are really serious, you will take Michael up on one of his onetime offers, and get a huge value for a small one time payment. That's fair, isn't it.

A couple of days ago I have received an email from some gmail.com address saying,

“You own the domain SOMEDOMAIN.BIZ^(*) and we thought you might be interested in purchasing SOMEDOMAIN.COM, which we own. We offer it to you for US$ 195.00. ...”

(*) I obviously changed the real domain name into a fake one.

Why would I want to buy SOMEDOMAIN.COM?

A short list of reasons:

My blogging friend Matt Harzewski literally woke me up with his post about Net Neutrality. I actually picked the video I show you here from his selection. “Thanks Matt for being on alert with those things!”

Where is the threat?

Would you like your ISP to do the following things to you.

• Throttle the speed for Web sites they don't like.
  
  
• Blocking certain protocols, like streaming video, and only offer their own paid content.
  
  
• Charging Web site owners extra to get access to you at a decent speed.
  
  
• etc., …

I should call this post “Email Marketing Tips - Edition 2 continued”, but that title wouldn't tell much. Indeed a strange thing happened.

When going through the submissions for the latest edition of my Email Marketing Tips Blog Carnival, I though Terry Dean's article about “Cutting Through The Internet Marketing Noise” is fabulous. I emailed Terry right away, thanked him and let him know that it will be in the Carnival.

Then I prepared the Carnival and posted it.

Later in the evening I met with a business friend for a drink and we talked about many different things. At some point I mentioned the Carnival and recommended that he should read Terry's post.

Anyway, he emailed me this morning and asked, “Where's the post you were talking about yesterday?”

Ups!

I simply overlooked it. Shame on me. I'll correct the mistake in the next couple of minutes, but if you don't want to wait. Here is Terry Dean's excellent Blog article.

Cutting Through the Internet Marketing Noise
by Terry Dean

Enjoy.

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: Sorry, Terry.

Welcome to the second edition of email marketing tips on June 11, 2008.

I guess it is a good sign that I have received about twice the number of submission for this edition. Nevertheless I will stick with my personal

“call for quality!”

Here are the 8 Blog articles for this edition

(I picked 6 out of 34, wrote 1 by myself, and smuggled another 1 in, which I found myself on the Web. It don't receive spammy submissions, only many off-topic ones, but I don't mind so much. My motto is: If you are not sure whether it fits submit it anyway.)

Thanks to the authors.



Strategy

→ Terry Dean presents Cutting Through the Internet Marketing Noise posted at Internet Business Coaching by Terry Dean.

John's comment: You can learn from Terry's thoughts about massive email campaigns, his personal reactions, and his advice to coaching clients. Keep that in mind and don't forget you have to follow some sort of strategy in order to succeed with your business. A proven strategy works best. If you don't believe me, believe Terry.



General Tips

→ Manuel Viloria presents Is Listbuilding Just A Dream? posted at Get More Traffic at Manuel Viloria.com, saying, “There are so many groups offering email listbuilding solutions. Here's how to evaluate such services.”

John's comment: 'The money is in the list. Yes, but not every paid list building system works.


→ John W. Furst presents List Building - Tons Of Cash From Email Marketing… posted at E-Biz Booster Blog, saying, “Are you making tons of money from your email list? No, then check against those bullets. You might be on the wrong track.”

John's comment: Tell me what you think. Go there and leave a comment.


→ Jose DeJesus MD presents How to Send Emails that get Delivered and Read posted at Physician Entrepreneur.

John's comment: 7 solid tips


→ Raymond presents Nigerian 419 Scams and Spam Emails Are Funny But They Make Me Paranoid posted at Money Blue Book.

John's comment: Everything you ever need to know about email scams from overseas.



Tools and Services

→ Michel Fortin presents This Plugin Increases Membership Conversions posted at The Michel Fortin Blog.

John's comment: Excellent review and recommendation for a membership software. For instance, it protects download pages and files, offers backend sales and automation, and it even comes with a built-in autoresponder.

Update: Mr. Fortin has deleted that particular blog post, but his blog is always worth a visit for expert info on copywriting, business building, wordpress tricks, and more.



That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of email marketing tips using our carnival submission form.

Continue with the third edition.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Contact me, if you want to host an edition on your internet marketing related blog.

Yours
John W. Furst

Update: Sorry Terry (Dean) for the mess up with Cutting Through The Internet Marketing Noise

Technorati tags: email marketing tips, blog carnival

You have heard it before, “The money is in the list”. But not all lists are made equally. Some email lists make their owners millionaires, others don’t do anything. Why is that?

I keep the answers short, through some bullets at you, don’t spell out every little detail, but give you…

…Something To Think About

• You need to sell something!
  
  You get paid, when someone from your list buys something. Hopefully your own products and services or at least something you get a high commission for.
  
  
• People buy when they want or need something.
  
  You better sell respectively recommend something that is already high in demand. Do your market research first!
  
  
• Is your subscriber list targeted for the kind of offers you make?
  
  Sometimes you can get surprisingly high response rates, when you make off-topic offers, but you still need to serve the desire of those people and give them what they want. But in general it works better, when you mainly serve a narrowly targeted market.
  
  
• Is your list responsive? You need to keep your list responsive!
  
  New subscribers are usually more responsive than older ones, but you hold the key for keeping them responsive. Build a relationship with them and don’t promote every crap that’s out there. Offer them help and advice for free, and products they really can benefit from.
  
  People, who discuss, “Why you should not buy anything over the Internet”, might never purchase in your online store, but they might come into your brick and mortar outlet to get the latest offer you promoted to your local email list of customers. See, email can work for off line businesses as well.
  
  
• You need to renew and grow your list on a daily basis!
  
  The more people you have on your list, the more will buy from you, therefore add new members to your list every day. It’s natural that some people will become less responsive and some will dare to unsubscribe. You need to compensate for those, too.
  
  The key factor is not size, but quality! A list that better matches your offer (preferably high value offers), will make you more money than a very big list that you have abused a lot in the past.
  
  
• Great copywriting works!
  
  Kind of a no brainer! The better the copy of your campaigns, the better the results.
  
  
• … Add your bullet for us! Leave a comment below.

This was short and sweet as I have promised.

Yours
John W. Furst

Just a quick post, but I thought I should share those wonderful resources with you. So far I did not get any complaints that I wrote some Web site development related posts lately. Okay, here is another one.

Graphic Designer David Airey wrote a post about resources for anything that has to do with colors.

• Colour palettes and combinations
• Colour theory
• Colour tools

→ Colour tools, palettes, schemes and theory

I did not count them, but for sure there are more than 50 different links, each with a short description.

Wow, thanks David!

Now, there is quick release, if you have the “color block”... Check it out and bookmark it with your favorite social bookmarking tools.

Yours
John W. Furst

The number of freely available templates or themes is a critical ingredient for the success of any Blog software.

I have advertised Serendipity Blog software (s9y) and Garvin Hicking’s new book on Serendipity in my previous post. Today, when I answered a comment on my Blog, I actually got into thinking about the importance of templates, and decided to write this post about themes and templates.

• S9y offers a great deal of flexibility and customization without the need to tweak the template code directly. The configuration and Plugin management via the Admin interface is straight forward and very flexible.
  
  
• The use of the Smarty Templating Engine separates design and application code.

However, one main advantage of Wordpress...

Did you notice that I did not write about Web site development related — more technical issues — lately? For a simple reason:

“The technical stuff on this Blog simply works!”
Long live Serendipity “s9y” Weblog software

That’s exactly how it should be, unless you are a developer, who deals with LAMP (*) issues on a daily basis. Since I am not a developer (anymore) my focus has shifted towards marketing and business related topics with occasional sidekicks to personal development.


Why do I want to tell you about Blog software today?

The reason is simple, the core developer Garvin Hicking released his new book on Serendipity only a couple of days ago.

“Congratulations,
Garvin!”

Why should you buy this book?

Let me give you a couple of reasons (in arbitrary order).

• Because it’s the ultimate
  
  “How to successfully cheat on Wordpress and get away with it guide”.
  
  
• It feels good to have a hard copy in hand.
• Only 5 hard copies are available for free. Sorry, purchasing is the only way to ensure you get a hard copy.
• To improve your German skills.
• To show appreciation for Garvin’s and the teams’ efforts. Yeah, they are real people.
• Besides all the s9y issues on the surface, you might also get lessons of a great programming style and software design (if you are interested in that).

What’s in the book?

Lots of stuff — 750 pages — covering all technical aspects of working with Serendipity. No matter, if you are a s9y beginner or already an advanced professional user or developer. This book nails the facts. Actually you can check it out in more detail yourself, one chapter and the complete table of content (toc) is available online in German language. The toc itself has 18 pages! Okay, what's in the book in a nutshell.