Savvy eBiz Tips – Subscribe and Win Prizes and Discounts

If you write your own content for your newsletters, be sure you maximize each article. When your newsletter is sent out via email it doesn’t get indexed by the search engine spiders, unless you put it up as a page on your website or blog, or submit it for distribution on the web through article directories.

Each time you write an article for your targeted readers, you are using plenty of the keywords that people use to search on Google or other directories for what you have to offer.

Make sure your article and those keywords are available and working for you so people can find you on the web. Every article you write can be used at least 3 ways:

1. Submit it to article directories on the web, so it joins the searchable database and people can find your article, along with your URL linking back to your website. It will also be picked up and used by people looking for content in their newsletters and websites. These sites will link back to your website, and you will get credit for incoming links, and a higher page ranking.
2. Publish it on your own website or blog, so each article has its own page, and gets indexed by search engines. When people find your website, you want to have plenty of well-written articles to show that you are a credible expert.
3. Publish the article in your own newsletters. While this doesn’t contribute to search engine ranking in this way, it ensures that the people who have subscribed and who are potential clients continue to hear from you. You are building up credibility and trust with potential customers.

For many more tips and strategies on marketing with articles, see www.drivetrafficwitharticles.com
For more tips on writing better ezines, send a blank email and subscribe to Newsletter Nuggets.

• The Backroom at Dehanna.com
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Welcome Milana…

Let’s hear a round of applause for the new kid in the neighborhood! Milana Leshinsky just joined the blogosphere over at www.milana.com. Read her great musings and rantings. They are a refreshing bit of honesty and humor.

I’m still looking for coach bloggers and other independent professionals with worthy blogs. Denise Wakeman and I have a short little email interview we’d like to get completed by as many worthy bloggers as possible. Here are a few people who have responded:

http://www.ggci.com/blog/ Barry Zweibel GottaGettaBlog
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/TerriLevine Terri Levine
http://theseductionofthemind.typepad.com/  Bea Fields
http://www.thinkinghomebusiness.com Des Walsh
http://smallbusinessbranding.typepad.com/ Michael D. Pollack
http://www2.cicada.com/internetbizwhiz/ Andrea Lee
http://advanced-approach.blogs.com/knee_deep/ Michele Corey
http://www.sunnythoughts.com Sunny Hills

Please press the comment button below to nominate yours, or any other colleagues with worthy blogs; we’d like to get some interesting interviews for our upcoming ebook on blogs. Thanks!

Patsi

The End of Email Marketing and Ezines?

Marketing experts are looking a ways around the spam filters that block legitimate ezines and newsletters.

Listen to what this person says:

"Email marketing is dead," declares Chris Pirillo, a frequently quoted online marketing and blogging consultant and one of the keynote speakers at the Blog Business Summit in Seattle.

To read more, go to IMediaConnections.

In the meantime, because you will continue to broadcast your ezines and newsletters, remember these two points:

1. Savvy professionals have to up the quality of their email messages, ezines and newsletters. People don’t want to be bothered with promotional  content and it can back fire.  Instead of building credibility and trust, you will destroy your reputation quickly when you ask them to buy without giving them something of value on a consistent basis.

Give your readers worthy content, information, and value. They will buy from you only if they like you.

2. Be careful how you recruite names into your subscriber database. Be sure they know they have signed up and subscribed to your newsletter. Most services require a double opt-in message, that is, they have to reply to a confirmation message that they actually want the newsletter before being added to the list. Unfortunately, many people don’t pay attention to their email requests and never confirm. But this is the only way of have a squeeky-clean list.

It goes without saying, never rent or buy a list as you will get spam complaints. And that can cause you problems with ISP providers, not to mention your reputation.

I recently had a subscriber who wanted to send out his first newsletter to a list he had accumulated over a period of time. He wanted his message to read, "If you don’t want to be included on my subscription list, please click the opt-out message."

I said no, he would have to send out an invitation first for people to opt-in. An opt-out invitation is not compliant with CanSpam or email marketing etiquette, in my opinion. Of course, you may not agree. Some will find this an astute way to go around the lack of confirmation response problem.

What do you think about this? Is this a clever idea, or not?

My other question to this client was, "Do you have a prior relationship with all the people on this list? Do they know you?" I am willing to accept a list of subscribers who have already received information or newsletters from a client, I would consider these people already confirmed.

Alas, some knew him, other "knew of him." So in my book, this list requires an invitation to subscribe.

Of course, I’m willing to entertain other opinions…

Because it is so hard to get people to confirm, you may think of ways to go around the double opt-in option. I know not everybody uses this system.

It seems the only people that the CanSpam laws affect are the legitimate publishers of ezines who don’t want to be considered spammers. The spammers are not concerned at all and continue to proliferate.

I’d be interested in knowing what other professionals are doing to deal with the email blocking problems. Please click on the comment button below and share.

Patsi

P.S. I know this is one reason I am using blogs to communicate with people instead of blasting them with email messages. I feel like I am intruding into their inboxes…!