Using Internet Direct Mail To Increase Your Company’s Profits

by: Julia Hyde

“I want to sell my company’s products on the Web, but how do I get potential clients to visit my site,” a client asked recently. The answer is a strategy that has proven extremely effective for many different businesses…Internet Direct Mail.

One of the most common mistakes many businesses make is putting up a website and then sitting around biting their nails waiting for people to come. This approach isn’t going to work. If you want people to visit your site, you’ve got to make it happen. And sending an e-mail invitation is one of the best ways to build website traffic and boost your company’s profits.

Of course, sending an e-mail to a random group of people asking them to “please come and visit our site,” isn’t going to work very well either. You need to get your e-mail to the right people and then give those people a reason to visit, or they won’t bother. The most effective way to achieve a high response to an e-mail marketing campaign is to follow these guidelines:

Identify Your Customers. Many companies make the mistake of creating an impressive e-mail marketing campaign and only think about exactly to whom they’re going to send it to at the last minute. Yet, choosing the right customers accounts for approximately 40 percent of the success of any marketing strategy.

Get your message into the right hands by using a mailing list. You can begin with your own in-house list—made up of people who have bought or shown an interest in buying from you in the past, and have specifically requested to receive information. Once you’ve compiled your list the success of your campaign will then depend on how you format your email.

The From Line. Think carefully about how people will react to the e-mail address that will appear in the from line. This address acts as a filtering devise for recipients and many will instantly delete your email if they don’t recognize the person who sent it, or feel that it isn’t legitimate.

The Subject Line. Avoid using the word free or save in the subject line. Many Internet users have spam filter software, which they set to instantly delete any message with these words included. Use short statements that tease the reader similar to those used in traditional printed direct mail.

The Headline. Begin your message with a powerful headline or lead sentence and identify the benefit to recipients right up front.

Offer Incentives. To boost your e-mail’s response rate present a free offer that can only be accepted if the prospect visits your site. Other options include offering the recipient $10 off or a 20% discount, free information such as newsletters and articles, or free shipping. If you can’t think of a free offer (you can) still stress the benefits of your site: money saving ideas, tips or news, links to useful resources etc. Don’t make these offers exclusive to the reader. Instead encourage them to forward the email to friends and colleagues. Try something like this: “Give this special offer to your friends by forwarding them this e-mail now. They’ll be glad you did!”

The Hook. State your offer in the first paragraph and provide an immediate response mechanism. Clicking on a link connected to a web page appeals to Internet users with short attention spans. Another option that works well is to encourage the recipient to pick up the phone and dial a toll-free number. Some companies are now building an online response form into their e-mail messages. These encourage the recipient to fill in their name, address, company, e-mail, phone number and any other information in the blank field and then hit a send button.

The Body. Keep the body text short and conversational. Short paragraphs and wide margins make your email easier to read. At the close of the e-mail provide another link and repeat your offer again.

Include a Call to Action. Make sure your email tells your reader about the benefits of your product or service and gives him enough information to make a decision. Then tell him clearly and simply what you want him to do: visit your web site, sign up for a newsletter, renew a subscription. Finally, get him to act NOW! Because if he doesn’t click on your link right away, he probably never will.

Opt in, Opt Out. The two rules of email marketing are to always mail only to opt-in lists (a database of e-mail addresses that have been willingly submitted as a request to receive information). And to make sure you provide a mechanism for recipients to opt-out. The former is easy—only e-mail to genuine opt-in lists. For the latter include a paragraph at the end of your email that tells the recipient how to opt-out. Never send an e-mail without including an opt-out option. In addition new Can-Spam legislation requires that a physical postal address be included in your mailing. Follow these simple rules because you do not, I repeat, do not want to be labeled a spammer.

HTML versus Plain Text. Deciding whether to use plain text or HTML primarily depends on what you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling clothing or CDs, the graphic format of HTML allows recipients to see pictures of the product and tend to be more captivating. If in doubt offer two lists: one in plain text and the other in HTML. That way you can let your subscribers decide.

What Response Can You Expect. A recent survey of advertisers conducted by the Direct Marketing Association found that e-mail marketing was the strongest (compared to several other forms of advertising) in customer retention, and generated the most online traffic. In addition, research suggests that email marketing typically delivers twice the response rate of paper direct mail at about half the cost.

About The Author

Julia Hyde is an advertising copywriter and consultant specializing in search engine marketing and copywriting, direct mail and other marketing materials businesses need to increase sales. For more information on how Julia can help boost your company’s profits, email her now at info@juliahyde.com. Or visit her website at http://www.juliahyde.com/
info@juliahyde.com

Winning the War On Spam

by: Michael Southon

For years I didn't worry much about spam.

But lately it's got out of control. Over half of my email is now spam, and it was growing by the week - until I took action.

This article shows you some strategies for winning the war on spam.

How Do They Get Your Address?

In the old days, spammers got their addresses mainly from Newsgroups - if you didn't post to Newsgroups, you were reasonably safe. But they're now using a much more efficient method to build their lists - email harvesters.

Email harvesters are robots that roam the Internet collecting email addresses from web pages. Examples are EmailSiphon, Cherry Picker, Web Weasel, Web Bandit and Email Wolf, to name just a few.

How can you protect yourself from email harvesters?

By 'munging' (mung = 'mash until no good') or cloaking your email address.

There are many ways of munging your address - the easiest technique is to use HTML code for the punctuation in your email address (instead of symbols).

For the colon after mailto use : and for the @ symbol use @ and for the period use . . With this method, your email address would become:

mailto:yourname@yourdomain.com

but it will display as:

mailto:yourname@yourdomain.com

Your email address will appear exactly as it did before, and it will still be 'clickable', but email harvesters will ignore it and move on.

There are also JavaScript's that you can insert into your web page that will make your email address visible to humans but invisible to harvesting programs. Here's one that works very well: http://pointlessprocess.com/JavaScripts/anti-spam.htm

How To Fight Spam

The most important thing is never, ever, reply to spam.

Most spam contains an innocent-looking 'remove me' email address. Do not use it. Here's why:

Spammers typically buy a CD containing a million or so email addresses, but they have no idea how many of those addresses are active. So before beginning their marketing campaign in earnest, they send out a 'test message' to the entire list.

The test message contains an email address for removing yourself. When you reply to that address, it confirms to the spammer that your address is active and therefore worth spamming.

Worse still, the spammer may be distilling from that CD a list of confirmed active addresses that he will then sell to another spammer.

The key to dealing with spam is to report it to a 3rd party: (1) the affiliate program that the spammer is advertising, (2) the spammer's web host, or (3) the ISP the spammer used to connect to the Internet.

When you report spam to a 3rd party, remember to be polite - they didn't send the spam and they're probably just as anti-spam as you are.

1. Reporting to Affiliate Programs

   Many spammers are affiliates advertising someone else's products or services. So look for a website address that contains an affiliate link, something like this: www.affiliateprogramdomain/841526

   Then just send an email to the affiliate program (abuse@affiliateprogramdomain.com), informing them that you are receiving spam from one of their affiliates.

   Most affiliate programs have zero tolerance for spamming and will remove an affiliate spammer without warning.

   Now, affiliate spammers don't want you to see their affiliate link, so many of them send their email as HTML. All you see in the message are the words 'Click Here and Order Now'.

   But in your browser just click on 'View Source Code' and search for the letters 'http'. That will take you to the spammer's affiliate link.

2. Reporting to Web Hosts

   If the spam doesn't contain an affiliate link, it's likely that it is coming from the owner of the domain name. In that case you'll have to report it to the spammer's web host or their ISP.

   To make a report to the spammer's web host just go to Whois, the directory of registered domain names: http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois

   Type in the spammer's domain (the website address that appears in the spam) together with the extension (.com, org, .net etc).

   The host for that domain will usually be listed as the Technical Contact in the Whois record and there will be an email address for contacting them.

3. Reporting to ISPs

   To report a spammer to his Internet Service Provider, you'll have to look at the spam's 'extended headers'.

   Extended headers show the servers that the message passed through in order to get to you. The instructions for viewing extended headers will vary depending on what email client you are using.

   • In Pegasus Mail, open the offending message and then right-click and choose 'Show raw message data'.

   • In Eudora Light, click on 'Tools' in the top menu bar, and then 'Options', and then select the checkbox option that says 'Show all headers (even the ugly ones)' and click OK.

   • In Outlook Express, open the offending message, select 'Properties' from the File menu and then click the 'Details' tab.

   Reading and understanding extended headers is quite a detailed subject. Here's an excellent free tutorial on how to decipher extended headers: http://www.doughnut.demon.co.uk/SpamTracking101.html

As an alternative to these reporting techniques, you could use a web-based spam reporting service such as SpamCop (www.spamcop.net). SpamCop deciphers the spam's message headers and traces the mail back to its source.

Wishing you every success in the fight against spam!

© 2002 by Michael Southon

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 get massive free publicity and dramatically increase traffic and sales. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezine-writer.com/

JV and Grow Rich

by: Rod Beckwith

To illustrate the concept of arranging simple joint ventures that can lead to exciting new business opportunites, I am including a short story and correspondence that led me down a grand path to a very successful deal that involves one of the most successful personal and financial achievement books ever written, not to mention partnering with a living legend.

To start things off, in early July of 2002 I read "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill for the first time in my 36 years of existance on this spinning orb of madness. I have read many personal achievement books, but this one was different, I mean WAY different.

I had always heard this was a must read, but I thought since it was old (1st Printing 1937) that it was also out of date and not applicable to the world as it is today. How wrong I was. After reading the first few chapters, things started to become crystal clear, things that had been at best, hazy and out of focus only days earlier -- All of a sudden, I started to see how things were supposed to be done, how life should be lived and at long last, how continued success could be captured.

This all may sound very melodramatic, but I swear that it is true.

I had thought for many years about getting into the publishing business, but had never seriously considered it due to the fact there was so much risk involved due to all of the hard costs involved with standard publishing.

I had read about how some people on the Internet were making a lot of money publishing eBooks. At the time, I didn't feel I had the time to write my own, so I thought that "Think and Grow Rich" would be an excellent choice as it was very popular since it was written and it hadn't been converted into eBook form as far as I could tell. I could spread the word about a book that helped change my life for the better and get paid for it! Doesn't get much better than that.

I looked at the publisher's name (Fawcett Books) in my copy of the paper-back version that I had. I recall inquiring about getting the rights to another book a year or so previous, so I knew better than go the large publishers. They always want some rediculuos of money to license their books, even if they are not doing well or out of print. Around $4,000.00 or so in upfront royalties.

I knew that I have to go another route, so I searched on Amazon for another publisher and noticed a familiar name. A name that I had actually sent checks to in my younger years. A name that was synonymous with big-time mail order publishing. Someone who had sold millions of books, but decided to stay independent because he love the business. His name is Melvin Powers of the famed Wilshire Book Company.

I sent an email on 7-25-02 to Melvin Powers who is the owner of Wilshire Book Company. By 8-2-02, Melvin responded by asking me to "come" to his office 1:00pm. His misunderstood me and I called him around 1:00pm. By 2:00pm, we had a verbal agreement on what the simple terms of the deal were for exclusive rights to his library of titles. By 8-3-02 the 1st and 2nd drafts of the (1) page agreement between us was complete.

Poof! I was instantly in the highly respected publishing business with one of the top names in the industry. Wow, how cool is that?

What did we talk about for the hour we were on the phone you ask? I had a short list of questions that he answered masterfully. We discussed many things, but the bottom line of all of this is..."Dont be afraid to ask for what you want" You may just be surprised at what you can accomplish.

I simply asked Melvin if he was interested in working with me and he said "YES". Anyone could have approached Melvin (many have), but I did it in a relaxed and enthusiastic way that Melvin could read over the phone I suppose. We launched the book on 9-20-02 and have been doing quite well with it and are in the process of converting his other books.

That's pretting much it. Remember, all you have to do is ASK. The worst that someone can say is no. Shrug it off and go to the next person. It's really not personal.

Here are the 2 email correspondences Melvin and I had, before we talked on the phone.

============================================

Message #1

Subject: Your publishing business?
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 18:12:52 -0700
From: Rod Beckwith
Organization: MrJV.com
To: Melvin Powers

Dear Melvin,

We have corresonded in the past & your advice was very sound. I really like your Mail Order Millionaire program...I just wish I had picked up "Think & Grow Rich" when I first listened to your program over a year ago. I just read it about 2 weeks ago & have been hopping ever since. --OMG you have the "Laws of Success" by Napoleon Hill. I was wondering what happened to this, nobody ever talks about it.

I am interested in discussing converting some of your books into ebooks as I think they could get a second birth on the net. I just hate waiting for something in the mail anymore that could just as easily be delivered on the net. Is there any way we could talk about setup some kind of pilot program to test this theory.

Let me know if you are interested.

Sincerely,

Rod

--

Rod Beckwith
rod@mrjv.com
http://www.mrjv.com/
http://www.diveinn.net/

Message #2

Subject: Re: Your publishing business?
Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 10:45:14 -0700
From: Melvin Powers
To: Rod Beckwith >

Dear Rod,

I'll in my office today after one o'clock. Call me first before coming in.

I'll be pleased to see you.

Melvin

------------------------------

Copyright 2004 Rod Beckwith
Rod Beckwith
JV Expert, Publisher and Inventor
http://www.secretsofthejvmasters.com/

About The Author

Rod is a well known and respected Joint Venture Expert, Inventor & Publisher. Rod can be contacted via email. I like to help put people together to do whatever ethical type of business that they would like to transact. See http://www.mrjv.com/

Keeping Your Email Box Organized & Ready for Business

by: Stone Evans

Learning how to get the most organization from your email software is very likely the most important skill you can learn to conduct a successful online home business.

There are three primary email applications on the market that folks use to manage their incoming POP3 email. Those three are:

• Microsoft Outlook Express
• Eudora
• Netscape Mail

In order to get the most from your email software, there are three key processes that you should learn. These processes are concerned with data organization, saving time and email database management.

SET UP EMAIL FOLDERS

Organization is key to any emails that you intend to save. Having 2000 emails in one folder is a sure-fire road map to confusion and lost communications and information.

You are the best judge as to how to organize your email into topics that provide an easy method of retrieval of the information when you need it most.

Fortunately, the primary email browsers make it easy to organize your information. By allowing you to create folders within your email software, you can file specific emails into folders dedicated to the topic of the email.

To create new folders:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: 1. Click File - Folders - New --- alternatively, you may also right click an item in the Folder window --- and then type in the name of your new folder. Highlight the folder above where you would like your new folder to be placed, and then click OK.

EUDORA: Click on Mailbox - New --- or right click on Eudora in the folders window and then click on New. When the window opens, type in the name of your new mailbox and click OK. If you want to create a folder to place other mailboxes into, click the checkbox before clicking OK.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click File - New Folder. Then from the drop-down menu, select the folder that you wish to be the folder directly above your new folder, before clicking OK.

FILTERING EMAIL

Email filters are a tool to help you save time and frustration. Have you ever lost an incoming email under the deluge of email coming into your mailbox? With filters, you can direct the important email or not-so-important email into certain pre-ordained folders.

As part of the war against spam, most ISP's use filters every day in an attempt to keep the spam out of your mailbox. In fact, I even use filters to sort my incoming mail trying to catch the spam my ISP missed.

Don’t be fooled into thinking you need some special software to filter your email. Setting up filters is actually quite easy.

To setup email filters:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Click on Tools - Message Rules - Mail. A wizard will open to help you create your new email filters. Just follow the instructions provided to direct mail based on certain criteria into certain folders.

EUDORA: Click on Special - Make Filter. Once again, just follow the instructions in the Filter wizard.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click on Edit - Mail Filters. Then click on New in the wizard. Once you click on New, you will be taken to a new wizard window. Follow the instructions here, then when you are done, click on OK. This will return you to the first window where you will set up the sorting order of your filter.

CLEANING AND COMPRESSING YOUR MAIL DATA

This is an important part of your email management. When you no longer need an email, it should be deleted. When you first delete an email, your software will send the email to the Trash Bin. Your email is not actually deleted until you first empty your trash bin.

Emptying your trash bin compresses the mailboxes from where the email was originally filed. This is absolutely paramount to the protection of your email data. If you go too long between compressing your email data, then your email data could become corrupted and you might need assistance in recovering your email data.

Even after you have emptied your trash, Compressing Folders is a recommended step to prevent other data corruption. Once you understand that an email does not actually move from one folder to another until the folder is compressed, then you can better appreciate this advice.

As an example, when Email A comes into your main Inbox, the data connected to Email A appears in two files. One file contains the header and body of the email. The other file contains only the email header information.

When an email is moved from one folder to the other, only the header information is actually moved. The body information will not be deleted from the original folder until which time the original folder is compressed.

This explains the purpose of emptying the trash AND compressing folders. If the email was simply moved from the Inbox to another folder, then emptying the trash is not enough. The original placement of the email is not actually removed from the file that contains the body information until the message has been designated for compression.

To empty your trash:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Click on Edit - Empty 'Deleted Items' Folder. To compress the remaining folders, click on Tools - Options, then click on the tab for Maintenance. Then click the button that says, "Clean Up Now". Once the compression is completed, click OK.

EUDORA: Click Special - Empty Trash. To compress the remaining items that need compression, then click on Special - Compact Mailboxes.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click on File - Empty Trash Folder. To compress the mailboxes, click on File - Compress Folders.

I cannot stress enough how important it is that you utilize the tools for emptying the trash and compressing the mail folders. Protecting your email data on a regular basis is good practice for avoiding disaster in your mailbox.

So many of us rely upon our email software to keep our online business running smoothly. Once you master the tools provided in your email software, your online business will run smoothly also.

Let me share one important lesson I l've learned about computer software. One should never be afraid to try new things. Learning how to get the most out of your software relies upon your willingness to dig in and learn how to use it.

Once you learn how to use your software to its full potential, then your life will be greatly simplified and your effectiveness will be dramatically improved.

About The Author

Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource Directory where you can find everything you'll ever need to start, run and grow a home based business at: http://www.home-business.com/
articles@home-business.com

Spam and Scams Go Hand in Hand

by: Denise Hall

We all know there's been alot of chaos lately about new anti-Spam laws and honest business owners like you and me don't want to have our businesses and ezines shut down due to false complaints. Yet we also know that true Spammers and Scammers will continue to get away with their crap.

Here's a prime example of *both* Spam and a scam that I received in my inbox a few days ago. I've interjected my own comments in brackets throughout.

"Subject: REPLY URGENT

Dear SIR,

[Since when did I become "SIR?" The last I knew, I was a female. So if you'd like to propose a joint venture with me, I'd appreciate at least being called "Ma'am."]

Thanking you so much for taking your time to read my request mail and your timely response too.

[You're welcome. I needed a good laugh.]

To be candid, we do not know ourselves before this business that has to do with Trust linking us up. We are strangers to each other. But I purposely wrote you in faith to sincerely know if you have the desire and the capability to do this business with me. I got your contact through the Internet with the hope that you have the qualities desirable in such business.

[I know *myself*, but maybe he doesn't know *himself*. Oops, I forgot he's foreign, so that explains the misuse of certain words that could possibly cause me to misunderstand this whole business proposal. I'll take that into account to be sure I understand all the details. After all, he did write me "in faith to sincerely" find out if I'm a gullible idiot.]

We are civil servants and not business men, so we have no particular investment in mind, hence we are equally requesting you to assist us in this regard as soon as the money is claimed by you on our behalf.

[Yep, he does think I have "Idiot" written on my forehead if I really think someone would hand me money for no reason that I have to claim for someone else. I wonder what the penalty is for money-laundering in this country? I don't think I want to find out.]

This business I am asking you into are in two phases:

1. I want you to stand as the beneficiary to this deposited funds after the legal changes have been made to your names as the true beneficiary of this funds and you will be officially informed by the security company about these changes. This means that you will clear/claim this funds on my behalf. In my proposal to you I made it clear why I want you to claim this fund for us.

[Well, which is it? Am I the beneficiary, meaning the money is *mine* or do I have to hand it over to this guy since I'm claiming it on his behalf? I don't think he made it very clear why *I* have to claim this fund for him. I'm beginning to feel like a scapegoat for something.]

2. When you claim this funds, we will invest our own share of the funds under your total control or advice. I believe you still recall my reason of soliciting for a foreign partner like you to handle this on our behalf. Your rewards for investing this funds for us will be spelt out as we progress through an agreement.

[Oh, now I get it. I have total control, but the money isn't mine. However, I do get to tell this guy how to invest it. I think I'll sell him shares of stock in my company. :) But since he's foreign, I get the feeling he won't have to do jail time with me when I get busted for whatever it is he's proposing. That's OK. I'll get rich from selling him the shares of stock.]

However, I want to let you know that I will be very happy to work with you as far as you promise to be honest and reliable with me over this business. Before we proceed I will first of all want you to clarify and affirm to the following points below:

(1) THAT YOU ARE AN HONEST PERSON

(2) THAT YOU WILL NOT CHEAT ME OUT OF THIS PROJECT.

(3) THAT YOU WILL BE WILLING TO WORK WITH ME AS A PARTNER IN THIS REGARD.

(4) THAT YOU WILL BE WILLING TO MAKE YOUR SELF AVAILABLE FOR A FACE TO FACE MEETING WITH ME.

(5) THAT YOU WILL BE TOTALLY COMMITTED TO ENSURE AN ABSOLUTE SUCCESS OF THIS PROJECT.

(6) THAT YOU WILL BE WILLING TO KEEP EVERYTHING RELATING TO THIS BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL.

[Of course, I agree to all of his conditions. That's the type of person I am - honest, hard-working and full of integrity. Anyone who knows me, knows that. I'm definitely the gal for this job!]

As soon as I get your confirmations on the above points mentioned, I will move to the security company for the necessary changes to your names as the true beneficiary to this deposited funds, after which you will be contacted by the security company for an official appointment as regards the claims of this funds. On my own part, I am assuring you that this project is 100% hitch free as regards the processes and the procedures involve, because I have done my home work very very well. With your genuine commitment, this project is deemed to be successfully completed within a couple of days.

[I still don't know what's in it for me. Do I get a cut of this trust fund, or what? Oh, well, it doesn't matter. He's notifying the security company to put the funds in *my* name. But why is he specifically telling me it's "hitch-free?" Why wouldn't it be? He must be a great guy to offer me this deal, right? And he *did* do his homework if he picked *me* for this project.]

Also the following information is required from you:

1.YOUR NAMES AS THEY APPEAR IN YOUR VALUABLE DOCUMENTS eg, INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT OR DRIVING LICENSE, TO ENABLE THE PREPARATION OF THE DOCUMENTS COVERING THIS FUND TO BEAR YOUR NAMES SO AS TO ENABLE YOU TO CLEAR/CLAIM THE FUND AS THE TRUE BENEFICIARY.

[No problem! I'll send the information immediately. I don't mind someone stealing my identity so I can have this wonderful business opportunity. How come he didn't ask for my social security and bank account numbers, too? Doesn't the security company need those to do their paperwork properly?]

2.YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION (TEL AND FAX)TO ENABLE ME AND THE SECURITY COMPANY ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH YOU .

Please respond urgently as I do not wish to contact another person until you confirm that you are no longer interested.

[I better jump on this while I have the chance! I wouldn't want to miss out on having everything I own stolen and my credit ruined. If I pass it up, he'll ask someone else.]

PLEASE CALL ME TODAY ANY TIME AS SOON AS YOU GET THIS MAIL, WITH THIS MY PRIVATE TELEPHONE NUMBER 0031-64111xxxx

[I'll call him after I spend all the money I make selling him stock in my company. I'm sure he'd help me out with another business opportunity when I'm broke, don't you think?]

Yours sincerely,

MR. ROBERT ....."

[That's odd. This isn't the name in the "from" field of the e-mail I received. Who the heck is really offering me this terrific opportunity? I want to thank the right person.]

Where the heck are those e-mail police when you need them? This is true Spam and an obvious scam, but no one stopped it from getting to my inbox.

Maybe someone should forward stuff like this to AOL, Yahoo, Habeas and other companies who are quick to shut down the honest business owners, but don't seem to go after the real Spammers and Scammers.

Spam and Scams seem to go hand in hand on the Internet. *This* e-mail is the type that those companies need to get rid of. So where are they when the real Spam and Scams surface? Probably enjoying donuts and coffee at the local donut shop.

About The Author

Denise Hall is the owner of Home Business on a Budget which specializes in tools and resources for your home business needs. Visit http://www.home-business-on-budget.com/ today. Subscribe to Home Business on a Budget Newsletter for weekly articles, tips, information and resources. To Subscribe mailto:hbb_newsletter@a1ebiz.com

If you would like to receive her new articles when they are written, please mailto:denise_hall@freeautobot.com

This article may be reprinted in its entirety with this resource box included.
dmh0226@voyager.net

“Improve Your Email’s Deliverability“

by: Karen Fegarty

With SPAM accounting for over 50% of the email that is delivered to our inboxes many corporations and ISPs have implemented solutions to deal with this growing problem. SPAM filters, IP blocking, domain blocking, and legislation are in place, but often messages that are, in fact, wanted by the recipients, are filtered and not delivered. What do legitimate marketers need to do to ensure that their clients receive their messages? We have collected a number of rules that, if you employ, can greatly increase the number of emails that are delivered and opened by your customers or prospective customers.

1. When delivering to AOL email addresses you need to make sure your SMTP service's domain can be verified using a reverse DNS lookup. Check with your Webmaster or Host Provider. For more information on this topic check out:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/info/revdns.htm and
http://ezine-tips.com/articles/resources/20010817.shtml

2. America Online (AOL) has recently released the newest version of its product, AOL 9.0. To protect it's users from receiving SPAM, AOL has put some measures in place that will affect how your message is received by your AOL subscribers. All graphics will be blocked from being displayed in HTML emails; as well links will be deactivated for any new message sent to an AOL 9.0 inbox. When an email is received in AOL 9.0, users will have to click a link at the top of each message (Show Images & Enable Links) to view any graphics within your email. If this action is not taken, images and links will not be displayed or enabled.

This is the default setting for AOL 9.0; however, the email recipient does have the ability to add the sender's From Address into their address book, which AOL classifies as People I Know. Once this has been done, all emails received from this address in the future will automatically have images and links showing correctly.

Your recipients must add you to their address book as a sender they recognize and approve. You should add a line to the top of your email, which states something like this... "Attention AOL 9.0 users - please add fromaddress@company.com to your address book so that you can see our entire message". For more information on this issue visit: http://library.marketingsherpa.com/barrier.cfm?CID=2455 MS 2003 will also filter the images. For more information visit: http://ktdcommunications.com/communications/katydid_023.htm

3. Be aware of the current and proposed SPAM laws. Check out http://www.spamlaws.com/ for current legislation.

4. Ensure that each message contains an unsubscribe statement that links to a valid URL or a valid Mailto: link. However do not use the words "to unsubscribe" as these are now getting filtered. Use something like "to leave".

5. Do not include .exe or attachments in your message.

6. Do not purchase lists.

7. Do not rent lists that are not double-opt-in.

8. Don't sell or rent out your own lists.

9. Always remove any unsubscribes immediately

10. Always remove any undeliverables immediately.

11. Remind people of their relationship with you. Tell them in the message the email address that they used when they subscribed.

12. Communicate with your recipients on a regular basis, but don't communicate with recipients too often. An email that is welcomed on a monthly basis may become unwelcome when sent more frequently.

13. Include a correct reply email address and telephone contact information in each email.

14. Avoid sending long text articles.

15. Do not send HTML messages without Text alternatives.

16. Avoid sending messages with a large number of hotlinks.

17. Do not use BCC distribution methods with over 10 names per email. Use a product like Broadc@st, which creates an individual message for each email.

18. If you are sending a newsletter place the word "newsletter" and a date including month in the subject line. This reduces your SPAM score.

19. Watch your email lists, heavy B2C distribution to @aol.com, @hotmail.com. @msn.com etc may be flagged.

20. Avoid using words or phases that trigger spam filters. For more information on this visit: http://www.doctorebiz.com/06/021106b.htm and http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm

21. Check out the common tests that filters like Outlook and SpamAssassin use to filter your emails and try to avoid the common issues. For information on these tests visit http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/preview.aspx?AssetID=HA010450051033&CTT=98 and http://eu.spamassassin.org/tests.html

22. Routinely check http://www.spamcop.net/ to see if you have been blacklisted unfairly. Send an email to have this rectified. To check their list enter: http://spamcop.net/bl.shtml?111.111.111.11 (where 111.111.111.11 is the IP address of your sending SMTP.)

23. Use services such as Assurance's Message Checker to pre-check your messages for common filtering flags and Assurance's Black-list Alert to keep on top of where you may be blacklisted.

24. Sending your delivery in small batches of 500 or less might avoid filtration.

25. For additional information and a practical guide on avoiding SPAM filters check out Marketing Sherpa’s “How-to Kit: Get Your Permission Email Past Filters” http://www.sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/p.cfm/2094?1044.

About The Author

Karen Fegarty is a professional marketer working with both MailWorkZ and ezTrackZ. Check out the ezTrackZ ad tracker product at http://www.eztrackz.com/. and MailWorkZ’s flagship email marketing tool., Broadc@st at http://www.mailworkz.com/

Are You Making These Email Mistakes?

by: Henry Gold

Every day, I receive at least 300 emails. I will usually sort them out by checking and deleting every subject line that looks like junk mail.

After sorting through the emails, I am finally able to sit down and reply to those I have received from my customers, friends, and family.

J-unk email usually starts out with:

"Ma^ke $10,000 in 48 hours"

"E-arn $5,000 in 3 days"

"S(uper) su.per V-ia..."

60% of the emails that I receive are coming from spammers... and sometimes it is very difficult for me to distinguish between emails from my clients and those from spammers.

Worse still, I sometimes delete email from people who would like to Joint-Venture with me, as I am unable to recognize where the email has come from.

This creates a lot of frustration for people who would like to approach me personally. Many friends of mine are experiencing the same situation.

If your email starts with the subject line:

"Read this", "Believe Me", "Debt Con-solidation",

"Joint-Venture Proposal", "Urgent Messages", etc.

Guess what?

I wont even read it, as I personally believe that it has come from someone who would like to send me a virus, or who would like to s-pam me with "unsolicited email".

Worse, as a "Block" button starts to become available, I may easily block your address so that I no longer receive emails from you.

=> Here is the reason behind the story above...

This is NOT a story that I have made up by myself. This is what most Internet Marketers do all the time.

People have a habit of opening emails that they receive from their friends, family, clients, and 'warm strangers'.

They tend to filter out every email that looks like a spamming message, so why on earth would you want your emails deleted by those marketers who may work with you in the future.

=> Henry, What should I do to create a legitimate email?

Here are sure ways to get your email read:

1. Put the recipients name in the subject line.

I usually receive emails with subject line like this:

"Joint-Venture Proposal"

"Let's work together"

Most of the emails with these two subject lines above, will definitely go into the spam inbox, because I didn't recognize who you are, and what your intention is. I am concerned that you may be trying to spread a virus into my computer.

=> What should I do, Henry?

Put my first name on it...

"Henry, please review my JV Proposal..."

"Henry, let's work together..."

These are the messages that I will definitely take a look at, as I feel that you know me personally.

Even though I can't recall who you are, I assume that I must have met you in the past.... or maybe I have some problem with my memory. :-)

2. Include your name in the "From" field.

I notice that some webmasters still use the word "Webmaster" in the "From" field. This makes it very difficult for me to distinguish between you and other webmasters, who email me all the time.

I may or may not open your email. At present I have at least 50 people in my mailbox who use "Webmaster" in the "from" field.

I may forget who you are, which makes it awkward if I need to contact you.

If you are one of many people who have sent me your Joint-Venture proposal, I may have already forgotten who you are.

Please put your "Full Name" in the "From" field.

3. Tell me how you found me

As I mentioned in "1" above, I may have a problem with my memory! That being so, you need to refresh my mind as to how you found me, before I click my mouse to delete your email.

For example:

"Hi Henry, this is Michael Wong, the guy you chatted with in JV Seminar.

Or

"Hi Henry, this is Michael Wong, I found your website from the search term "Free Internet Marketing" on MSN.com

It's as simple as that if you want to make me listen to you further.

4. Tell me who you are and what your intention is

As soon as you tell me where you found me, you simply tell me who you are.... so you keep me alert all the time.

Remember though, you only have 10 seconds to convince me who you are or I will most likely delete your email.

So.... Here is the example:

I am a webmaster of www.domainwithheld.com, an internet clothing company. I would like to find out if we can work together.

Or

I am a subscriber of your "E-GoldNetter" Marketing Newsletter. I would like to find out if we can work together.

This way, I will respect you, and will definitely reply to you with the next click....

5. Don't use bold or color when sending email.

The last things that I dislike about email messages are those sent in colors or font that really annoy my eyes.

Many marketers are working in front of their computer for 10 - 12 hours a day. Sometimes, it is very difficult to distinguish between red and green and if you use bold or even big fonts when sending a letter to marketers, they will feel that this letter is not sincere and will delete it.

Worse still, regardless of how great your writing skill is, they will quickly conclude that it is as an amateur email message.

It means that even though your letter will not go to a spam folder, it will be put in the trash folder.

Be sure you use just a regular font, with a nice neat format when writing email messages, especially when you're sending this letter to marketers who are receiving upwards of 50 - 100 emails per day.

Closing Note: I understand that this may all sound a little harsh, however, my intention, in this article, is to inform you how all well-known marketers sort their email every day.

Copyright 2004 Henry Gold

About The Author

Henry is recognized as one of the most successful Work-At-Home expert. Visit: http://www.freebiesgroup.com/ for free articles on Internet Marketing, Free E-book, software, animation, and more. Too busy to visit? Subscribe to his Free weekly E-goldnetter Marketing: mailto:internetgoldenkey-15470@autocontactor.com