Time Greater Than Money

How Email Marketing Software Can Solve Some Common Problems

2010-04-01T05:04:59Z

Although it’s one of the easiest and effectives forms of digital activity, there are a few problems that are commonly encountered in email marketing. Solutions to these problems are of course available – but you may not have the skills to deal with them yourself.

Luckily there’s a fair few options out there to help you improve your digital marketing efforts and resolve, avoid or ignore these problems. Perhaps the easiest of these is to license a set of software tools for email marketing campaigns. Generally, a good set of tools will provide a solution to some of the most commonly encountered problems in email marketing, such as:

Permission marketing

Email marketing only works if you’ve got permission from the recipients. If your prospective audience isn’t interested in the first place, they’re not going to read your messages – and they could even be poisoned against your brand if they get unsolicited mail. Someone’s inbox is their own spot of the web in many respects. Worse though, if your mail is reported as ’spam’ by enough users, then your domain – your sending address – may be added to the spam-filters of the web’s most popular mail servers. It won’t even get through to an audience, interested or otherwise.

Software tools can provide you with an easy solution to this. By integrating it with your website, you can create an easy system for users to ’subscribe’ or ‘unsubscribe’ from your mailing list. If you run separate mailing lists, the software can be tailored to make it easy to keep someone on one and take them off another. You can also use merge or target individual lists depending on the data you have stored in your system – targeting those who purchased one product, or took advantage of an offer at some point, etc – with ease and make sure that your mail is going to the right people.

Effective analysis

One of the best aspects of digital marketing is the ease of which you can track the ROI for the time you spend on it. Email marketing software lets you extend this tracking from when you send it, to the moment the user opens the message and even on to their eventual progression onto an embedded link. Without the software, tracking this data would be nearly impossible for anyone but an experienced software engineer with hours and hours of time. With it, it’s a matter of simple organisation.

Using the software you can see the click-through rates of a campaign, identifying what aspects of your messages are having the most impact on your audience; you can check bounce rates, either from when your email is rejected by automatic filters, goes entirely unread or even when people click on your mail but don’t bother to read it; you can also upload data from different campaigns and compare them to one another providing a great historical and contemporary view of your efforts.

Creating an effective campaign

Possibly the easiest part of your email campaign is creating the content for it. Still, to do anything outside the standard format and capabilities of a word processor, you need to be experienced in photoshopping, HTML coding, flash integration…in short, standing out takes a lot of work. Like the dozens of desktop publishing packages, email marketing software integrates all of these technologies and makes it simple for the uninitiated to create their own mail.

Still Here Just Extremely Busy!

2010-03-29T21:04:23Z

So many great opportunities have recently come my way which have been keeping VERY busy! Before I had too much time now it is not enough but that is not a bad thing. So be patient and I will get things rolling again soon. Until then, check out this Meji over @ 365 Hustle. He has a great site and has provides great mentor-ship on certain subjects for me.

Drew Shope At Stewart Success Summit

2010-03-24T22:56:15Z

A quick video of the President of Sales and Marketing for Thrive Social Media LLC. This was from his social media 201 class last week at the Stewart Success Summit. Pretty soon I will be teaching these classes. I am still owning the skills needed but these type of presentations are in my very near future. It is not long at all so check it out!

Affordable Online Logo Creation Options

2010-03-23T00:36:25Z

If you have been thinking of starting a new website I am sure you have done a bit of homework already, looking at things like web designers, graphic designers, hosting cost, etc. When I first developed my site, I was in aw at the amount it cost to have a decent logo created. For some reason I had in my mind that an online logo design would not cost me any more than $100, boy was I wrong.

I ended up paying a decent amount of money and was happy with the work, but I did not do much research and now see there are many cheaper options available. Taking part in a logo contest is one of the more popular options available to get a quality logo at an affordable price. In a nutshell a logo contest is simply you going out and finding freelance designers to submit designs and the winning design receives that payment.

On top of that, like any other design/developmental projects there are online marketplaces that streamline this entire process for you and match you up with the freelancers. As long as you are a paying customer you get to sit back and let the foot work be taken care of by better… (I take that back), more interested individuals than yourself. It is usually best to outsource this type of work and marketplaces like this are website/business owners golden goose.

Have you taken part in or held a logo design contest yourself? Or have you used a marketplace similar to the ones I talked about above? If so let me hear about your experience in the comments.

TGTtv – Amazon.com Has Given Me The Boot!

2010-03-20T23:31:39Z

Amazon.com has given me the boot and kicked me off of their associate network. I was kicked off at no fault of my own but that did not matter, I am still off. Watch the video and find out why.

Below is the email I received:

Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:
We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to “voluntarily” collect Colorado sales tax — a course we won’t take.

We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.

There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.

You may express your views of Colorado’s new law to members of the General Assembly and to Governor Ritter, who signed the bill.

Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.

We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.

Best Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

After further review of that email, it looks as if I may in fact get my earnings paid to me. From what I have read from others that this has happened to it seems unlikely but I will just have to wait til the end of June to find out.

TGTtv – Flipping Online Real Estate

2010-03-19T02:57:41Z

New video blog for ya until things calm down a bit for me… Enjoy!

TGTtv – IRS is Coming

2010-03-15T18:42:02Z

Uncle Sam is one person who you DO NOT want after you but with this new Paypal law if you are not careful he maybe. Check out the video for more information. I am one of the people who this will have an effect on so it is best to catch it early than wait till it is too late!

Ferguson vs Beckham – A Battle in Effective Public Relations

2010-03-12T18:42:21Z

The media hype is starting to build around David Beckman’s first club return to Old Trafford since his acrimonious bust up with Sir Alex Ferguson in 2003.
The former England captain and Manchester United winger will be returning to Old Trafford for the first time as a club player, in the crunch Champions league tie with AC Milan.

On Beckham’s return, Ferguson was recently quoted in the press saying “The only difference with David’s return to Manchester United compared with other players is that there will be a big media circus surrounding him when Milan arrives. He’s such a high-profile celebrity – not just a high-profile footballer – and we haven’t really seen anybody else return to the club in that situation. Our job is to concentrate on the football match and let the David Beckham media circus carry on – we know we’re not going to stop it anyway.”

In February 2003, Ferguson famously admitted to kicking a boot at David Beckham in a dressing room fracas that ultimately would conclude in the player’s sale to Real Madrid for £23million that summer. Sir Alex Ferguson acknowledged kicking a football boot in an angry tirade, which struck Beckham and left a gash above his left eye; needing several stitches to close. The incident occurred after United lost 2-0 to Arsenal in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Ferguson stormed into the dressing room and kicked the cleated shoe, which struck the then England captain. Ferguson found himself in a crisis management situation, with the ever growing popularity of David Beckham became a threat to the empire he had built at Old Trafford.

The details of the outburst were never truly disclosed, although the nature of Beckham’s ever growing celebrity status was believed to be one of the major triggers of the incident. With Fergusson’s recent comments referring to the ‘media circus’ surrounding the player, it would seem Fergie still has a bee in his bonnet about players who create a public image for themselves outside the sporting arena (al la McGrath, Whiteside, Ince, Yorke and Ronaldo).
There is no doubt the celebrity PR machine that is David Beckham still acts as a huge annoyance to Sir Alex. The Beckham Empire has developed into a global franchise and has arguably become bigger than both Ferguson and Manchester United. However, in many ways, Ferguson has been proven right to sell one of the most gifted English players in living memory.

Since departing the club seven years ago, Beckham has picked up only one major trophy; whereas Ferguson and Utd have gone on to win nine.
In reality, Ferguson will be please with the media circus Beckham will bring with him to Old Trafford. It will allow him to play his old mind games and manipulate the football PR machine to his own advantage. The more attention given to Beckham, the less focus there will be on his own players in the build up to the fixture.

Ferguson has been an expert executioner of effective public relations in the past and in another life would have made an exceptional publicity agent. With Beckham spending the majority of his playing time in the United States and a possible retirement from football after the World Cup – both titans of the game know that this may be the first, last and only time they will face each other as opponents.

With Beckham’s media circus about to arrive, it will surely be Ferguson who will prevail as the ringmaster.

It Is Not How Much You Make, It Is How Much You Keep!

2010-03-10T23:03:36Z

The older you get, the more you learn. For the longest I was under the impression that making more money would make things in my life easier. But after time I began to realize one very important thing. What I realized is that the more money I made, the more I would spend leaving myself in the exact same position as before.

No matter how much you make, if you cannot manage your money you will be broke. This has become increasingly important with me making money online. Paydays are not guaranteed and you do not necessarily know when one will come. So if I spend every dollar I get when it comes in, there will be no way I could live this Dot com lifestyle that I do.

I enjoy having the free time that I have and the ability to work from anywhere with an internet connection but you have to be responsible with your earnings. What has been working for me is of every dollar I pull in, I take 30% of it to hold onto and keep the rest to play around with. Of that 30%, I take 10% and put it into my savings account, 10% for investing, and 10% for tithing. And I literally do this with EVERY dollar I make both offline and on.

For those that have read any of the Rich Dad series by Robert Kiyosaki this may sound familiar. It will sound familiar because that is who I took this practice from. Now his financial situation is much better than mine because he has been doing this much longer than I have. He has his set up to where 80% of every dollar he makes goes to savings/investing/tithing and 20% to play around with. That is my goal to get like that one day but I simply cannot in my current situation.

So with that being said, take a look at your own finances and if they are not where you want them to be re-evaluate what you do with your money. Fill out a financial statement and really pay attention to it! You cannot get to where you want to be without first seeing where you are.

TGTtv – New Thriver In Town!

2010-03-10T01:58:17Z

Just got a new toy and decided to make a video to test it out and update you on my escapades. Enjoy!