5 Tips for Email Marketing Success

Here are the 5 tips that e-mail marketing guru David Atlas suggests for your success:

1) Use CertifiedEmail provided by Yahoo and AOL.

"ROIs in the 300 percent range and up are common because consumers trust the email."

2) Use a dedicated IP

"Having a dedicated IP lets you establish a sending reputation."

3) Use the same "From" Address

4) Tell Your Customers What to Expect.

"State your mailing policies up front. Let consumers know you are using CertifiedEmail, if you plan to. Run an education campaign telling them "here's how to confirm a legitimate email: Look for the blue ribbon envelope icon.""

5) Survey Your Customers.

And here is a sixth one from me:

6) Never ever allow a spelling error in your e-mail, especially in your SUBJECT line. That pretty much destroys all your credibility as a marketer before the user can even read the body of your message.

Headlines - One Hit, One Miss

Best headlines provide a link between the verb and the subject of the sentence. Try to come up with verbs that also define the subject in some important way.

In Object Oriented Programming (OOP) jargon, the "method" should be an "attribute" of the "object" itself.

For example, here is a great headline from Wall Street Journal (June 25, 2007):

"Gazprom Pipeline Plan May Fuel Worry."

"Fuel" is what flows from a pipeline and it also has a double meaning of "exacerbating."

But here is a miss from the same issue:

"Milk-Price Rise Expected to Steepen in July."

"Steepen" is not a verb intrinsically related to milk. But milk, when overheated, boils over in a froth.

So what about:

"Milk-Price Rise Expected to Froth Over in July"?

That would have been perfect in my judgment.

UBUNTU's "Virtual Desktops" End Multi-Window Clutter

Remember how you have a single desktop on a Windows machine and that everything runs there?

Do you also remember how annoying it can get when you have 2, 3 or 4 programs open at the same time, with many windows overlapping and hiding one another? Navigation can become quite a problem when you are multitasking on Windows.

Not so with UBUNTU Linux, thanks to the Workspaces you can create and individually name.

Each Workspace is a Virtual Desktop that displays only those application windows and/or documents that you place there.

You can have up to 36 such virtual desktops, arranged in up to 16 rows. You can click and switch to anyone of them without the clutter of a typical Windows desktop.

To configure your workspaces:

1) Right-click on a workspace square displayed on the bottom-right of your UBUNTU desktop.

2) Select Preferences to display the Workspace Switcher Preferences screen:



3) Select the number of workspaces you need and the number of rows to display them.

4) If you need to name them individually, double click on each desktop placeholder displayed in the list and type in a title. Click the "show workspace names" checkbox to display these titles inside the workspace button instead of a miniature representation of the desktop.

5) Click Close.

Now you can, for example, save all your writings on a workspace named "Writing" and keep all your images on another workspace named "Images."

When you click one, you will see only those items that were assigned to that workspace (virtual desktop) and nothing else. This way you will avoid clutter for good.

Two Useful Tips:

1) When you press CTRL and roll the middle wheel of your mouse, you automatically scroll from one Workspace to another.

2) When you have your Internet browser open in UBUNTU, right click and select "Move to Another Workspace" option. Then select the workspace in which you want your browser to display. This way all your web pages will display only in that special workspace and leave the other workspaces uncluttered.

Consumer Alert - JAJAH Charges Even When the Call is NOT Connected!

I love JAJAH (www.jajah.com) Internet phone service. You do not need to download anything and when you call, your physical phone rings which you pick up and start to talk.

JAJAH is very cheap, has great voice quality and also has many other useful features.

Top two I like:

1) You can have your one one-click-call phone book so that you do not need to enter the frequently-called numbers from scratch every time.

2) You can also save the shortcut of any call on your desk top, or send it to your cell phone so that you can initiate the call by just clicking the icon! Smart.

However, lately I have discovered a nasty feature:

You call someone. The phone rings and nobody picks it up. Or, your call cannot be connected for one reason or another.

Well, JAJAH still charges your account for it! The amount is not that much. Just nine cents. But still -- WHY?

I have written to JAJAH about this obvious software malfunction and haven't heard from them yet.

If you are using JAJAH, I'd also recommend you to do the same and get in touch with the company. If they hear from enough number of people perhaps they would correct it.

And if you are not yet a JAJAH member but consider becoming one, do so while being aware of this serious billing issue.