WiseStamp Email Apps enable users to transform their emails into a powerful self expression and promotional tool.

For users – Email Apps enable you to easily customize your email signatures with your personal social profiles and allows you to add to each outgoing email dynamic content such as your latest eBay item, recent blog post, your latest tweet or a cause to promote. The recipients of your email will see the updated content of the Email App and will be able to also interact with it directly from the email (e.g. retweet or follow in the Twitter App or buy in the eBay App).

For partners – WiseStamp Email Apps Platform enables social services, brands and publishers to distribute their content via Email Apps in one of the biggest online markets – email.

Email Apps enable publishers to enjoy an effective distribution channel as well as the ability to constantly engage users with their own brand and content beyond the boundaries of their websites. Email Apps are a powerful engagement and user retention tool.

• WiseStamp reached over 1 million installs on August, 2010.
• WiseStamp is in the Firefox top 50 popular add-ons list & is an official Mozilla recommended add-on.
• WiseStamp won a Mashable Open Web Award in the category of best Social Media Gadget 2009.
• WiseStamp integrates with all major Webmail services: Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL.
• WiseStamp currently supports Firefox, Chrome, Thunderbird, Safari, Internet Explorer & Rockmelt

Learn More About WiseStamp Email Apps

This is a guide in helping you to avoid your emails be sent to a bulk or spam folder and what to consider in minimizing complaints.
Email tips, blacklisting, email spam, ISP spam complaints, email deliveries, ISP deliverability.
We’ve discussed blacklisting, I wanted to spend some time looking at where the rubber hits the road for email delivery: the ISP inbox.

Let’s be very clear about this for consumer facing campaigns there are 4 major ISP’s that manage the majority of consumer inboxes.

?MSN/Hotmail

?Yahoo Mail

?AIM Mail

?Gmail

What Does this Mean?
Basically unless each of these mail platforms relays your message to the primary folder, your email campaign is far from optimized.

What Causes mail to be delivered to a bulk/spam Folder?
All of these ISP’s allow their users to report spam with a “report spam?button. The ISP uses this feedback to create a profile for your mail. If users are reporting your mail as spam you will run into problems.

What Can I do to make sure I do not create ISP Spam complaints?
AOL recommends keeping spam complaints below 1-3 percent of traffic, depending on volume. This figure is unique to AOL’s user base; it’s too generous when applied as a general standard. Be at or below the range of one complaint per 6,000 to 8,000 messages, or 0.013 percent.

Minimize Complaints

Minimizing complaints always starts with practices used to collect e-mail addresses. It should be obvious by now sending unsolicited e-mail only gets you in trouble. Mailing lists with the lowest complaint rates are either confirmed opt-in or properly managed single opt-in. If you have a solid permission-based list but still find incoming complaints are higher than the optimal rate or are rising, consider the following:

?Brand your subject lines. Mail systems with spam complaint buttons offer it at the inbox level. A recipient need only to scan subject lines and decide which messages not to delete immediately. A subject line such as “Exciting offers for you, Bob!” will surely be marked as spam. Consider using your company or newsletter name in brackets at the beginning of your subject lines.

?Consider including unsubscribe instructions at the top of your e-mail, in addition to the footer. Some users use the “report spam” button as an unsubscribe method and won’t scroll through an entire message to find that link.

?Include instructions for users to whitelist your domain. This prevents a user-based filter from mistaking your message for spam and either diverting it to the spam folder or prefixing “[SPAM]” to the subject of the message.

?Provide a preference update page. Disclose how your organization will use a subscriber’s e-mail addresses, and how often. Allow subscribers to select preferences on the opt-in form, and link from e-mail to a preference or profile update page.

?Avoid spammy looking content. Try not to use garish, bold fonts; large, red letters, and the like. Avoid images with poor compression quality. A clean, readable design isn’t as likely to be mistaken for spam.

?Don’t over e-mail. If recipients expect to receive a few informational e-mail messages each month from your company, don’t suddenly start sending two or three each week.

?Don’t send unexpected e-mail. If subscribers opted in to receive your “Trends & Tips” newsletter, don’t send them your hard-sell e-commerce messages, unless they clearly requested them.

?Include opt-in information. If possible, add to your e-mail admin area information, such as the subscriber’s e-mail address, date of opt-in, and how she potentially subscribed (product registration, white paper download form, sweepstakes entry, etc). With many subscribers receiving dozens of commercial e-mail messages daily, it’s easy to forget signing up for your newsletter — and then to file a complaint.

What Can I do to test my ISP deliverability?
We recommend you use a service like EmailReach. Their trial is free and let’s you know where you stand in about 5 minutes.
http://www.emailreach.com/default.aspx

Following these guidelines should help you to avoid being bulk foldered by the main ISP’s.

Here are some tips for writing email responses that are both thorough and appropriate:
writing Email, Email communication, SEO, Internet marketing,
Hello Reader,

Nowadays, we communicate more and more through email. We use Email communication to write something to friends, relatives, colleagues or clients. Whoever the recipient of your email, it is becoming very important that you write email effectively. As you know, by writing effective email, you can save your time, other person’s time and you can win more trust & confidence from the other end.

Give Reply of Email As soon as Possible

More and more people contact each other through email. Even if they mention directly or not, they expect prompt responses. One of the study by Jupiter Research indicates that 35% of customers expect a reply within six hours, an additional 55% expect a response within 24 hours. Though many people focus on response time, content is just as important. The same study indicated that lack of a thorough response (45%) will cause on-line customers to view a company negatively when considering future purchases.

Learn the art of writing Email

Poorly crafted emails will generate additional emails back & forth, which potentially eating up more of your time. Worse, they can drive unnecessary calls to your most costly channel ?your phone. And at that point, customers are bound to be angry and frustrated.

Here are some tips for writing email responses that are both thorough and appropriate:

1. Format your response so that it’s easy to read on a screen. Do not write email using very long sentences, which are lengthy horizontally. Each line must be short. Ideally, write 5-6 words in each line only and not more than that.

2. Make sure the subject line is concise and meaningful to the recipient…not just a generic
“Response from Marketing Team?But also be careful that it doesn’t look like spam.

3. Have one subject per paragraph. Mention this separately by blank lines, so that its easy to read and understand.

4. Be brief. Use as few words as possible to convey your message. More is not better when
it comes to email. An email is not perceived as an electronic letter.

5. Use simple, declarative sentences. Write for a third or fourth grade audience,
particularly if you’re creating templates that are sent automatically. You do not know the
education level of your sender or the sender’s level of comfort with the English language.

6. Be sensitive to the tone of the original email. If the sender is upset because of an error on
your part, acknowledge the error. Clearly state what you are doing to correct the situation.

7. Make sure you answer all the questions posed in the original inquiry. A partial answer
frustrates the sender and results in additional contacts. It also makes the company sending
the response look inept.

8. Make it clear what actions you will be taking next and when the writer can expect the
next contact from you.

9. Don’t ask for an order number/case number or any old information which you remember out of your mind only when one is included in the original email…sounds pretty basic, but sometimes people miss very obvious info in email.

10. Don’t just tell the sender to go to your web site. In many cases, they have already been to
the web site and couldn’t find the answers they were looking for. If you want them to go
back to the web site, provide a direct link to the exact information the reader needs.
For more information visit on: http://www.infotrex.com

Chad Cook has been doing email marketing since 2000. You can learn more about his autoresponder Tips & Tricks at: http://www.aceresponse.com/AutoResponder_Tips.pdf

For more of Chad’s Internet marketing tips, tools, news, articles, and resources, visit: http://www.aceresponse.com/
autoresponder, autoresponders, free autoresponder
An email autoresponder should come as natural to every business. Web surfers stopped looking at ordinary websites years ago. Now every internet visitor wants a website that is caring and will build a positive relationship with its visitors. It is for this reason that online companies are investing huge millions into Customer Relationship Management programs. But if you are a start up businesses without the huge capital outlay to put into customer relations, you can use auto responders to deliver an amazing warm reception and interaction with their visitors.

To conduct a successful online business, you may want to be guided by available research on customers. Research has long established that, positive and timely responses are important ingredients that visitors use to judge how friendly websites are and how they would want to interact with them. And you may want to know that visitors are more likely to establish relationships with sites that provide excellent feedback and timely responses.

Auto responders therefore positively answer the call of website owners seeking automated interaction with customers at all facets of their customer relations.

An email autoresponder can securely perform 5 principal business boosting roles for every website which needs to get a high rating in customer relations and therefore enhance customer loyalty.

Acknowledgement:
Autoresponders can let people know you have received their emails and that you will soon respond to their enquiry. Even when you are not available to reply immediately, you will do so at some later time. You see, buyers are predominantly in a state of anxiety and it is a good marketing strategy to allay such anxieties.

People buy with several reasons; one of their being an urgent need to do something. So acknowledging their emails sets their minds at ease and then they are confident that a reply will be forth coming on their enquiry. If you have one thousand emails a day, there is no way you can efficiently reply to all these manually and that is where an auto responder comes in.

Notices:
Assuming you were out of the office for two days and a customer interested in bringing you a hundred thousand Dollar deal writes to you with the hope of receiving a response so business is transacted. It will be quite discouraging for him to wait and wait for no answer to come forth. If you have an email autoresponder installed, some preliminary email marketing messages can be sent to the sender; at least informing him of products/services available or explain your absence and when you will be back. If the sender wishes to wait, you can come back to respond appropriately and get the deal finalized.

Confirmation:
In this age of scam and fraud on the net, every buyer will want a confirmation of his purchase. An autoresponder confirmation serves two purposes ?it assures the buyer that the goods will be forthcoming and it relieves him of the thoughts that he had transacted with a fraudster. An auto responder performing this function will make your customers happy and buy from you always.

Appreciation:
Buyers do businesses a great favor by buying. Although you are giving away a product or service in return, customers need to be appreciated for buying from you. At least they had other several options but they chose to buy from you because they like you or how you conducted your business. You can use an email auto responder to send follow up messages to customers thanking them for their business and assuring them of continued support.

Every business must make it a point to rely on an email auto responder to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty. Modern online businesses cannot afford to lose this part of everyday web-based transactions. There are many auto responders on the market available for free or a fee but the most versatile that can effectively perform the vital duties mentioned above can be found at http://www.aceresponse.com/

This article explains how to create an avalanche of FREE targeted traffic using T.O.D.(Traffic On Demand).
joint ventures,free traffic,internet marketing,traffic generation,web promotion,online marketing tactic,online marketing,list building,
Traffic… the life blood of every online business.

The problem is, are you getting enough of it to make your online business grow to your expectations within the time period you have set?

In my mind you can never have enough traffic But the fact remains, NO Traffic, NO Profits, NO Business.

Though there are many ways to generate traffic online, both FREE and Paid, the question remains, which method or methods are right for you and your business to get it moving and profitable in as little time as possible?

Now, with that being said, what I’m about to share with you IS a ‘Proven’ way to create an avalanche of FREE targeted traffic to your website, without having to pay a single penny.

This is ONE of many of the tactics the guru’s online use to get the word out ‘Quickly’ about there NEW product and/or service.

But, before I move on any further, let me first explain what “T.O.D.” stands for and what it is so there won’t be any confusion through the rest of this article.

“T.O.D.” stands for — “Traffic On Demand”.

What is “Traffic On Demand”?

It’s simply an website and/or list owner with a large ‘eMail List’ of subscribers to which he/she can Blast an email out to at any time absolutely FREE about whatever they want as long as it’s related to there target audience.

Now, your probably wondering, “Well, how’s T.O.D. going to benefit me?

Simple.

You proposition the website and/or list owner with a JV(Joint Venture) proposal they simply can’t refuse.

For those of you who don’t know what a ‘Joint Venture’ is it’s simply a business partnership between two or more parties that agree to share the $$Profits$$.

If you’ve been online for any length of time I’m sure you’ve heard of ‘Joint Ventures’ at least somewhere online and how people claim is how there Internet fortunes were made.

There’s good reason for there claims simply because they already knew where to find an ‘Hungry’ targeted audience waiting for what they had to offer known as “T.O.D.”.

All they had to do was take the time to contact and proposition the website and/or list owner with a JV proposition they counldn’t refuse.

And belief me when I say this, there are literally MILLIONS of websites out there just waiting for you to hit them up with your Product or Service so they can send it to there lists of subscribers and collect there share of the $$Profits$$.

And, if you already have an ‘Affiliate Program’ set-up for your product or service, your half way there. All you need to do is write a compelling JV proposal(not to long, these people are very busy and are hit up everyday with JV offers) and tell them… “What’s in it for them?”

And, here’s another quick tip… make sure you ‘Personalize’ the JV proposal you send, otherwise, they won’t give you the time of day and will discard your hard work as SPAM.

Now, how can you get started – Starting Today?

The ‘Search Engines’ are a great place to start under the keywords related to your product and/or service.

You can also go to ‘Ezine/Newsletter Directories’ and search through there database of list owners to find relevant JV partners.

Keep this in mind that not all the website and/or list owners you contact will jump on your JV offer.

Don’t get discouraged.

If you don’t here from them within a few days or a week, send out an follow-up email just in case your first JV proposal didn’t get through to there Inbox, otherwise, keep on searching and keep on contacting.

You just never know what might happen.

Few local businesses utilize the power of email marketing. It is simple and cost effective in converting prospects to customers, and increasing the lifetime value of existing customers.
local, business, internet, online, marketing, advertising, search engines, small, ppc
As a local business owner you realize the opportunities available on the Web, but you probably do not have the time or money to invest into a full blown web presence. The obstacles and costs in building a web site keep many local businesses on the sideline.

But as a local business there is an opportunity to exploit the marketing power of the Internet at little or no cost, and it does not require a web presence.

Through email marketing you can have a direct conduit to both your customers and prospects. You may think email marketing is complicated, but that is a misconception. If you are already using email to correspond, then you are quite capable of advertising through virtual mail. In fact, if you are communicating to your customers through email, in a sense you are already marketing online. You are probably aware that a small amount of customer communication can be very profitable, and email can generate considerable income.

All you need to do is start collecting customer emails, and send them occasional promotions or sale updates. The email advertisements do not need to be coded in html, plain text messages are quite acceptable.

So how do you start down the road to Internet marketing success? You begin by simply collecting customer email addresses, with their permission. Permission email marketing is a requirement. It is referred to as opt-in marketing. At all stages of email marketing you MUST respect your customers and their privacy. Only when they have accepted your request to send information, should you forward email promotions.

How do You Collect Customer Emails?

You simply ask! As a local business owner you are constantly in touch with customers and prospects, either in person or on the phone. As a retail business you could have a clipboard by your register or pre-printed index cards that your customers can fill-out. As a service business you just ask for their email address when you make contact.

What’s in it for Your Customers?

The opportunity to save money or be notified of special offers. People are always looking for a bargain, and through email you can keep them informed on the latest deals, in addition you can alert them to new services or products. This is very appealing. And customers will perceive this as a value added service, that makes doing business with you more appealing.

How Difficult is Email Marketing?

It is quite simple. If you email friends or family, you are quite capable of marketing through email. Initially your list will be small so you can manage it through the use of your current email client like MicroSoft Outlook. You place your customer emails in a “group,” compose a message, and hit the send button. Not exactly rocket science. (Note: Make sure you use the “blind box” feature.)

But from the start, you may want to consider using a professional email management service like ConstantContact.com. They have a service that is free for lists that are under 50. Their next level handles up to 500, and cost only $15 per month. A service like Constant Contact simplifies the management of your list. These types of services offer features like tracking, reporting, templates and customer support. In addition, they automate the process of people opting out of your list. An important factor with permission email marketing.

What Results Can You Expect?

Think about the potential profit from simply keeping your customers informed. This is not invasive advertising, but permission marketing, where your customers have willingly given their consent to receive your advertisements. It is like they are saying, “Please allow me to spend more money with your business.”

If you already have a web site then you will also want to add an opt-in box. Give your site visitors an opportunity to join your promotional list. Many will.

From a marketing perspective it doesn’t get anymore targeted then this. And your advertising costs are insignificant. A perfect example is a local wine store owner who works her list twice a week with special promotions. She makes a killing, and often sells out her promotional inventory through email alone.

As a local business owner there are opportunities and there are golden opportunities. This one is solid 24 karat. It’s simple, direct and very profitable. And yet few local businesses are taking advantage of email marketing. Why not lead the pack.

How to develope your income by building trust and respect with your personal subscriber list. It will never happen overnight. Just follow some basic rules and your income will grow at a nice steady rate.
email list, email marketing, optin email list
So, you put up a website and started building your optin email list, and you kept on building your optin email list for a few months and sending out the weekly emails asking them to buy your recommended product or service because its the best thing since sliced bread and . . .
NO ONE’S BUYING!!

So you keep it up for a few more months, building your optin email list a bit more and sending out the weekly emails asking them to buy your better than sliced bread product and . . .
NO ONE’S BUYING!!

So now, you’re getting frustrated and annoyed, because you’ve read all the articles and PDF’s that the guru’s have sent you, telling you “You Must Build Your List” And now, after reading endless success story after success story, you’re finally asking yourself why you can’t succeed, where others make it all sound so easy, and very profitable. If other people are making money from their list, why can’t you?

In fact, you may be losing money. You may be hiring writers to help you out, or you may have upgraded your autoresponder. Even if you managed to build a big list, you may find that only a small percentage of your subscribers will actually buy from you, so you’re still not in profit. And it does not really show up, until you read the horrible facts and figures after a few months.

So what could have gone wrong? Why have others succeeded where you have failed? The most common mistake is that you dived straight in. You chose a topic that you thought, would have been quite popular and would earn you money. But this is just not the case. Just because you emailed people from your optin email list does not mean that they are going to buy straight away, or ever. If you’re selling golf balls, and the only people on your optin email list don’t play golf, then you have a problem. Even if they are better than sliced bread golf balls.

For those who have started an opt-in list and failed, you can rejuvenate your failed venture. For those who are starting, here are three fast and easy ways to build a profit making opt-in list.

For this exercise, we are going to say that you have a website that sells golf balls, you have the knowledge, you know which golf ball is best for any particular type of player.

1) Start building your optin email list in an area in which you have some knowledge. If your site is selling golf balls, it makes sense that if you have people who play golf on your optin email list, then sooner rather than later you will get a response. Hang out in a couple of golf forums and start answering questions about golf balls. Find out what people want, and what they are buying. Then you will know exactly who to target, and who you want on your optin email list.

Should that be golf forums or golf fourums?

Join forums from other related topic sites as well. How about golf clubs. You know that certain golf balls work better with certain types of clubs. Answer questions and provide advice and recommendations.

2) Find a product or service that people want and need. You know what people are looking for, from your travel around the forums. Although it may not be your specialist subject, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can carry it forward. Invest your time, effort and money in products or services that you could sell, as well as the buyers or subscribers of your opt-in list want to buy.

While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have an interest in, there may not be many people who have the same interest as you, if you decide to sell something that is not entirely popular or profitable. Do your research well and you should see the profits come in. Also provide your subscribers with promotional material that they could actually use and spread around.

3) Make friends with other opt-in list owners, again try and find areas of related topic. How about golf bags? This can be very beneficial especially if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people that have the experience in this venture and experience is still the best teacher. While there are many articles available for you on the internet to use, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust. And you may be able to do some ad swapping to make it even more profitable.

Experienced opt-in list owners will be able to tell you what to do and what not to do, because they have gone through it. While different situations occur for different people, the general concept can still be very helpful. There are many things to avoid and these people will be able to tell you which ones.

Building a profitable opt-in list does not just happen overnight. There is a lot of preparation and work required before you can begin. Opt-in lists are built from scratch, as your optin email list grows, you should also maintain the quality of your optin email list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will be willing to buy from you.

Oh, and one more little thing. When a subscriber joins your list, do NOT have your first email to them, be one which is recommending they buy your better than sliced bread golf balls! Let them get to know you first, provide them with bits of information (for free) and then, after a few emails, you’ll find that selling your better than sliced bread golf balls is really quite easy.

“Do you want to know how to build and maintain a responsible email list? Learn some of the top secrets and build up your profitable mailing list.?
list, mailing list, list management, business mailing list, email list
Building a good email list of customers or partners forms is the integral part of doing business in long term. All websites cannot make it to the top of the search results of major search engines. Building a mailing list of interested customers can evade many of the ill effects of not getting to the top of search listings. With a little effort you can collect the email addresses of potential customers. But to build a good mailing list, you need to give something before you get the email addresses. You can offer free tips related to the products you sell or careful advices regarding the service you give. Offering a free e-book with useful information is also a good method of building a business mailing list.

With the stringent laws to fight the big enemy called spam, business houses need to take extreme care that the emails they send out don’t fall to the category of spam mails. You need to implement good measures for careful email list management. With each email you send out, you need to provide an ‘unsubscribe?or ‘opt out?option. This is mandatory by the rule of the land.

Managing a business mailing list is always going to be a tough task. Updating, omissions, categorization of the list is necessary. While building an email list or mailing list, the categorization based on location, products and the income stream of the potential customers is important. New enterprises always shall take time to develop a profitable mailing list.

While maintaining a mailing list, it is always necessary to send only targeted mails according to the preferences and interests of the receivers. If you use the mailing list only to promote your products, chances are higher that the receivers will opt out of your business mailing list. Mailing list management is also about sending out useful tips and information that is important for the receiver.

Building a long mailing list from which you can reap profits is a time consuming task. You need to do some search engine optimization works so that your website appears in front of the interested users while they make a search. Give a solid reason for the visitors to sign up for your periodic newsletter. Make the suggestion that you regularly come up with useful suggestions, tips and techniques related to their field of interest.

The spending capacity of the individuals, geographic location, preferences of making online purchases etc need to be assessed to gauge the efficiency of your mailing list.

Giving enough stress to building a strong email list through which you can promote your products or affiliate products somehow minimizes your dependency on costly pay per click advertising to attract traffic to your site. All the receivers may not make a purchase every time you send out an offer. You can also go without a minimum number of sales if you maintain a strong mailing list of qualified customers.

Copyright ?2006 Andreas Obermueller

Valuable autoresponder tips and strategies that will help you to use your autoresponders to successfully increase your sales.
how to use autoresponders,autoresponder tips,article on autoresponders
Using autoresponders will help you to close more sales through consistent and effective follow up of your visitors.

With your autoresponders you’ll be able to:

- Educate your visitors about your product
- Share the benefits of purchasing your product
- Increase your credibility
- Build up your visitors’ trust in you
- Continue to keep your marketing message on your visitors’ minds so that when your visitors are ready to purchase from you, they will.

Some profitable ways to use autoresponders:

1. Publish an ezine

Done right, your ezine will provide you with a powerful way to promote your products, special offers, and also your affiliate programs.

Your ezine can also provide you with an extra income, once it’s large enough for you to start selling ads to your readers and visitors.

Begin promoting your ezine by including your subscription form and also your link to your sign up page on all your pages.

Also use a “popover?to plug your ezine and direct your visitors to either fill out your subscription form or visit your sign up page.

In addition, get the word out about your ezine by submitting it to ezine directories and ezine announcement lists.

Because these submissions can be very tedious, it’s wise to use ezine promotion software to handle much of this time-consuming work for you.

That way you’ll be able to concentrate more on your ezine’s content and also on effectively marketing your business.

2. Offer a free email course.

The key to your winning course is your content.

Give your readers useful content, and they’ll view you as a credible source of information and your product’s value will increase in their eyes.

If your an article writer, you can use your articles as the basis of your course.

Because your articles are on topics of interest to your target audience, using them will enable you to create a course that both appeals to your visitors and provides them with information that they’ll find to be very useful.

Simply choose a few related articles that cover different aspects of what you would like to write about. Then use these articles as your guide for writing the different parts of your new course.

3. Follow up with people that take you up on your free download or trial.

Start the follow up process by asking your visitor to fill out your subscription box or form in order to access her free trial.

On your “thank you” page, let her know that she’ll need to confirm her subscription, and that after she does that she’ll get her link to start her trial in her welcome email.

Give your visitor a strong incentive for taking you up on your offer.

For example, if you were offering a trial of your article submission software, you could offer an ebook that shares how to write articles and properly promote them to article directories and announcement lists as your special bonus.

4. Offer an article announcement list.

Your list will help you to get your articles published more frequently by webmasters and ezine publishers that have audiences that are interested in what you write about.

Your list can also help you promote your affiliate program and get more new affiliate sign ups.

In your publishing guidelines, let your subscribers know that they can earn money by rebranding your articles with their affiliate links in your “About the Author” section.

Your subscribers will be more apt to publish your articles, and you’ll be able to get more new affiliates that have responsive subscribers and targeted traffic that they can promote your business to.

5. Offer a training course to your affiliates.

Savvy marketers know that to have a successful affiliate program, they need to invest in the success of their affiliates.

One powerful way to do this is to make a generic training course available to them by autoresponder.

Through your course, you’ll be able to provide your affiliates with valuable tips and strategies and elevate your profits by helping your new affiliates get started fast.

Make your course available on your affiliate sign up page/info page and also within your affiliates “control panel” where they check their stats.

If you run a two-tier affiliate program, your course can also be used as a smart promotional tool for your affiliates.

Just have your affiliates give your course away to their visitors or subscribers, and they’ll be able to increase their commissions by referring more new affiliates into their second tiers that will successfully promote your biz.

In this article we will discuss one of the most underrated steps in building a successful email marketing campaign: the sign-up form.
optin form,opt-in form,opt in,subscribe,newsletter,email campaign,email marketing,intellicontact,mailing,mailings,mailing list,e-mail marketing,mass mailing,permission based,sign-up,sign up,web form
Email marketing is an extremely powerful and effective marketing technique. It is also the most cost effective way in existence today, to contact prospects and customers. If done incorrectly, by sending unsolicited emails, it is called spam and gets you blacklisted and hated by the ones you were trying to reach. If done right, it is called permission-based email marketing and it will build the value of your brand, increase your sales and keep you in constant contact with your targeted audience, whether prospects or existing clients.

When most people think of permission-based email marketing, they automatically associate the concept with the old practice of mass mailing, that is building a list, and emailing a message, or a newsletter to that list. Today, the process is much more elaborate, as you have to push your message across in a way that will not piss people off, that will not get you blacklisted and that will not get you labeled as a spammer.

In this article we will discuss one of the most underrated steps in building a successful email marketing campaign: the sign-up form.

With the introduction of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/canspam.htm) it became increasingly important to make sure that your recipients opted in, that is requested themselves to be emailed your information. The easiest way to achieve this is through subscription, or sign-up forms.

Here are some tips on how to effectively build sign-up forms, gathered from experienced email marketers:

1. The more often your prospects are exposed to your sign-up form, the greater the chance they will notice it and actually sign up to receive your emails.

As with everything else in life, you have to be very careful as not to reach the saturation point, which is the point at which your viewer gets annoyed.

Our studies have found that strategically, it is best to place your forms in one of the following locations:

- On the top right of a page;
- On the left hand navigation bar;
- At the bottom of the page, directly after the relevant content.

2. Entice your subscribers.

An effective sign-up or opt-in form is as effective as your enticement campaign. You have to convince people to trust you enough to give you their real names and email addresses.

Explain the benefits of subscribing (ex. “to receive tips, tricks and techniques on how to??, include a few samples and testimonials. Finish it up with a strong call to action.

3. Offer opt-in incentives.

Properly used incentives can significantly increase opt-in rates.

Some of the most proven and effective incentives in use are:

- Free whitepapers or e-books (you can find one on almost any topic, and if you don’t, then consider writing one yourself);

- Opt-in discount or a free service (for example, if you are a web hosting company, you can offer one month free hosting);

- Special report.

Whatever incentive you chose to offer, do not forget to follow up on your promise. In your welcome message, you should automatically provide a link to the free product ?if applicable, for example if you are giving away a free report or an e-book, then provide a download link ?or a coupon (discount) code that you are ready to take automatically online or via phone.

4. Design your form with the user in mind.

Walk through your form yourself after you put it online and see if you would be annoyed by it or if you would find it easy and comfortable.

Some tips to remember:

- People use various devices and browsers today. Make sure your form and the entire page the form is on is readable by all browsers. Do not place the form on a page that is heavy in graphics and multimedia, as people generally don’t have too much patience if the page is slow to load.

- Do not forget people who browse the web on PDAs. You might think I’m nuts, but it’s a reality, a lot of people now browse on their Blackberrys and Treos. This is especially important if your opt-in form is a link inside an email message. People do click on those links on their PDAs and you don’t want to lose them, as after they read your message, they will not go back to it again, on a regular computer. You want them to sign up right there, on the spot. So make those forms simple, use only plain and traditional HTML. Also, things shift on a PDA screen so try to borrow one and see how your form looks like and make the appropriate size adjustments.

- Don’t forget to make sure that the TAB key advances through the fields in the proper order and that the ENTER key submits the form. You’ll be surprised to know that a lot of people are turned off at the slightest misbehavior of your form. You’ll also be surprised to know that the vast majority of form fillers rely solely on the keyboard. If hitting the ENTER key activates a link instead of submitting the form, you lost them.

- Do not ask for too much information, at least in the initial opt-in stage. People are reluctant to fill up long questionnaires, especially that their intention was not specifically to fill up your form but you enticed them to do so. Name and email should be sufficient. Collect your demographic data later on.

- Have a privacy statement on the page where the form is, or as a link, accessible directly from the page with the form. People trust companies that openly display privacy policies and promise not to sell their data. Remember that with opt-ins, they can’t just put fake data on or use those “shopping?email addresses, but they trust you with their real contact information.

- If you are rusty at creating HTML forms, use an opt-in form generator from a reputable email marketing solutions provider.