Fortune-Magnet News

1. Make sure all your email recipients are opt in or double opt in. This means that they have subscribed to your ezine, newsletter, report or e-course.

2. Always provide an unsubscribe link

3. Always sign each email with your name, address, company (if any), telephone # and email address. This will ensure you are never accused of spam or at least you will be found innocent.

4. Keep the email short, with each paragraph 5-10 lines at most. People are in a hurry and they scan most email so make sure your email has the most important point in the first sentence of each paragraph.

5. Create a compelling or interesting subject line. You want your email opened at the least. Good headlines aren’t hype of over-stated, simply what the benefit the reader will get for opening and reading your email.

6. Format every email to 60-65 lines. This ensures your email won’t look like:

when you send an email make sure its properly formatted with 60-65 characters per line with a ‘hard return’ so it looks even and professional.

First things first, I’m not a legal expert and so this article DOES NOT represent any legal or professional information and nor can I guarantee its accuracy. I only wrote this article to introduce you to these email laws that might affect us, email marketers.

OK, so what’re these email laws?

They’re the Child Protection Registry laws that have been taken into effect in the State of Michigan and Utah.

These laws established “Do Not Email” registries into which individuals or institutions that primarily serve minors can enter minors’ email addresses or any email address to which minors may have access. Institutions or entities that primarily serve minors can also register their entire domain names.

People are prohibited by these laws from sending email to the addresses that have been in the registries for 30 days or more if the email contains material or link to material that is illegal for minors. And it doesn’t matter whether the email is solicited or unsolicited, you still can’t send such email.

You might think that the materials must be something obvious such as pornography, gambling, alcohol, etc. Yes, but they’re only part of the materials.

The other part consists of less obvious stuff, namely stuff that looks fine, but might be illegal for minors because minors are prohibited by law from viewing, receiving, participating, possessing, or purchasing this stuff. This includes automotive sales, financial services such as credit card, etc.

And according to the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy, these laws apply to almost all people in the United States and even those outside the United States who have a physical presence in the United States. (see http://www.isipp.com/child-protection-email-address-registries.php)

So, imagine you have some email addresses in your list that happen to be already in the “do not email” registry for 30 days, but you’re not aware of them. And one day, you send an email that contains a link to a webpage that has some Adsense ads that advertise some automotive sales, guess what may happen to you?

Well, your action may be considered as a computer crime and you might face civil suit and fines or/and you might even face criminal suit and penalty.

So far, there are two things that you can do to prevent you from getting trouble with these laws.

First, make sure that you never send email that contains material or link to material which is illegal for minors. This is so obvious, right?

Second, if you think that you can’t comply with the first option, then you can purge your list by matching it against the registries in a regular basis. But there are fees for this.

Don’t panic about these laws. Instead, find more information about it. You can start learning more about these laws by visiting the references below:

• Michigan Children’s Protection Registry site:

  https://www.protectmichild.com

• Michigan Public Act No. 241:

  http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2003-2004/publicact/htm/2004-PA-0241.htm

• Michigan Public Act No. 242:

  http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2003-2004/publicact/htm/2004-PA-0242.htm

• Utah Code - Child Protection Registry:

  http://www.le.state.ut.us/~code/TITLE13/13_26.htm

• Michigan government’s press release:

  http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-23442_21974-121645–,00.html

About The Author:

Mohamad Zaki Hussein is the webmaster of http://www.webtrafficideas.com. To learn how to build a perpetual traffic engine by combining Viral Marketing with RSS and Blog, grab the FREE “Instant Traffic Formula” report at http://www.webtrafficideas.com/getviral.

Catch More Flies With Honey Than Vinegar!

I am in no way implying a Pollyanna attitude, for that is the furthest thing from my mind. What I am suggesting is that you still catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Trying to get the good stuff with nasty behavior will never win you the prize but will instead leave you feeling more frustrated and angry. If someone has behaved poorly and you want to try and resolve the situation, effective results will only come about with well thought out communication. Nasty or unkind comments just won’t cut it.

There Are Consequences to Rude Communication!

For the most part it’s challenging to create a specific tone in an e-mail communication so e-mail messages can be easily misinterpreted. Although the sender may think he or she is conveying the situation reasonably, the words can easily be misperceived. So before sending an outraged, nasty e-mail think about the fact that harsh words don’t mend fences. You may need to convey your anger but there is a way to do it effectively. Consider the following:

1. If a particular person or situation has upset you, start by taking a pause and silently counting to 10. Perhaps you could take a walk for a few minutes to cool down before addressing the situation.

2. When you respond, be professional in your communication. If you are unpleasant or rude, the person receiving the communication will turn off immediately and will have a hard time hearing what you’re saying. If you’re polite and honest you have a much better chance at being heard.

3. Try not to become defensive; pushing against will not result in resolution. If someone is expressing anger towards you, try to just receive it without defense. Later on when you’ve had a chance to calm down, you can respond with the appropriate words.

4. Be honest about your feelings but speak about you and your feelings and make every attempt not to blame the other person.

A message that earns respect makes sales. That`s why our first topic for discussion is email etiquette. (Later in the course, we`ll talk more about how to write an email sales letter.)

Train yourself to always — and I mean ALWAYS — stick to the rules below when crafting your email message.

=> RULE #1 - ALWAYS WRAP YOUR LINES AT 65 CHARACTERS OR LESS

Whenever you write an email, always format the lines so that they`re 65 characters, or less, across. To do this, you may need to do a “hard return” by hitting “Enter” at the end of the line.

Wondering why to limit your lines to just 65 characters? (Good question! It shows you`re thinking.) There are two reasons that “less is more”:

• The first thing to remember is that looking at a computer screen for a long time causes EYE FATIGUE for many readers. The shorter span of characters across the screen makes reading easier and more appealing to the recipient of your email message.

• The other reason to go short instead of long is this: some email clients AUTOMATICALLY ENFORCE LINE-WRAPPING at 60-65 characters on received messages. If your email is wrapped at 70, the content will arrive all “chopped up.” This makes it unattractive…and worse — unappealing.

• Tip within a Rule #1: Email clients such as Outlook Express allow you to SET THE LINE-WRAP to any character-width you choose. That means you won`t have to hit Enter each time after typing 65 characters. Makes life easier!

• Tip within a Rule #2 - You can type 65 asterisks or dashes in a Notepad file to create a template. Then paste your email below it to see if any lines extend too far to the right.

=> RULE # 2 - BE CAREFUL USING ALL CAPS

How many times have you changed the TV channel to avoid listening to a screaming car salesperson? No one likes a screaming salesperson…and no one likes a “screaming” email message, either. Odds are, when someone has over-amped the volume of their message by using too many capital letters (not to mention too many exclamation points and other punctuation) - you`re going to be turned off.

On the Internet, email messages written in all caps are considered yelling. It`s okay to write some sentences and some words in all caps, but don`t go overboard. (As you can see in this message, I`ve tried to use capital letters to help break up sections of the content from time to time)

• Tip within a Rule: Consumers buy from a source they trust. Emails in all caps are perceived as “shady” or uneducated, and have an appearance that damages the credibility of an offer.

Many types of Internet advertising don’t work as well as they once did. People have gotten used to banners and don’t click on them. Some ezines have failed to keep their readers’ interest and ads sometimes get less response. Search engines are overflowing with submissions. Getting your site listed high is almost impossible.

More and more businesses and organizations are now turning to email marketing to keep profits rolling in. While an increasing number of people say they rarely surf the Net, the vast majority of North Americans check their email every day.

Email marketing is the most effective and efficient way to influence purchases and keep customers informed and happy. It is also extremely inexpensive. Where you might have mailed out one printed customer update every month, you can now email one every week for a fraction of the cost.

Increasingly, companies need to embrace email marketing in a big way in order to stay competitive. Those who formerly used a service to send out their newsletters, sales info, and consumer updates are now doing all the emailing themselves.

New technology that is powerful yet easy to use allows anyone to handle email jobs that previously required expensive professional help. Many companies are bringing their email campaigns in house in order to have more control, grow their email efforts, and decrease costs.

Here are four features you will want to use in your email marketing efforts:

Include HTML in your email messages. Most email programs are now equipped to read HTML. Your logo, banner, bullets, and color elements can make your message jump off the screen. You can even include forms that allow customers to order instantly from your message. You take advantage of impulse purchases that can lead to big increases in sales. *Important - Make sure you have pre-qualified your recipient - do they want to receive HTML messages!*.

Use a campaign manager feature to schedule when your email messages will be sent out. You can prepare an entire months’ worth of messages and tell the manager which weeks, days, or hours to release them to your list.

by: Steve Slaunwhite

A few months ago, I wrote a guide entitled: 101 Writing Tips for Successful Email Marketing. In fact, many COPY TIPS subscribers have a copy. Since that time, I have worked on dozens of successful projects and have discovered some additional tips for boosting response.

1. Ask a question in the Subject line. This almost always gets the email opened. I suspect this is because questions are so much a part of everyday email between friends and colleagues. It’s a natural way to begin a conversation. Just be sure your question is honest and straightforward — not cryptic, hyped, or suspicious.

2. Write a letter, not an ad. With the growing use of graphics in email, a lot of marketers are experimenting with formats that look more like an ad than a personal message. The fact is, an “email ad” is more likely to be deleted on sight than one that appears to be a personal message – even if that message is obviously promotional.

3. Don’t be afraid to go long. In the early days of email marketing, short copy was the rule. But this is changing. For some offers at least, longer copy that tells a more complete story is doing better. This is especially true when a transaction is involved, such as a subscription or sign up.

4. Beginning, middle, and end. Most click-thru responses will come from the hyperlink at the top, bottom, and middle of your email message – in that order. A lot of marketers forget the middle hyperlink. Don’t. Your response rates will suffer.

5. Show a picture. For graphics-enhanced email, consider including a picture of your product. This will tend to lift response. Of course, if your product is intangible, you’ll have to think of an interesting way to present it as an image. But, trust me, it’s worth the effort.

6. Link the images. If your email contains pictures and other graphics, be sure to hyperlink them. You’ll be surprised how many prospects will click on these to respond.

by: Karen Fegarty

This holiday season 15 percent of consumers in the US plan to buy online, spending an average of $585. That’s 9 percent more revenue for online merchants in comparison to last year’s results.

A recent report estimates that Canadians will spend half a billion dollars online for gifts this holiday season. Even by conservative estimates the total number predicted is double the $282 million predicted for Christmas, 1999.

Whatever way you look at it - doing business over the net is growing at incredible rates and email marketing is becoming a ‘given’ element of many marketing campaigns. It should come as no surprise that tools to help us manage our email lists and distribution are becoming increasingly important.

The challenge in incorporating email marketing into a campaign is determining what type of email service best suits your business needs, today and in the long-term.

There are two main choices when establishing and maintaining email marketing programs: A desktop email marketing application or an email campaign submission service.

Let me describe the two options in greater detail -

Email Marketing Application- Tools such as these allow you to create, manage and distribute your own customized email campaigns. Cost is usually a one-time software purchase. This approach is best suited to those companies with a fairly well defined target market and corresponding email distribution list. This approach can also be used if your target audience is growing and/or change. The software applications available allow the user to build, maintain and change their own email distribution lists, create rich messages and distribute your campaigns.

I would recommend this type of product to those businesses with a pre-identified target audience and an ability to access a distribution list to reach this audience. With a desktop application your original investment provides you with the flexibility to manage and define your own e-mail distribution lists - this is the type of service for you if you’re interested in owning and maintaining your own list and using this list as part of the intellectual property of your business.

Campaign Submission Service - When you use this type of service you are contracting a third-party to provide you with the interface to your customers and/or target audience. The agent will distribute your message to one or several opt-in e-mail lists that have been provided based upon some stated interest on the part of the recipients. These are lists of people who have registered for certain websites, e-zines or newsletters or have asked to receive information via e-mail and have stated their interested in certain subjects.

The agent or submission service will work with you to determine the list that best matches your product, service or announcement - working together you will use pre-existing lists to create a target email audience for your company’s use. The submission service will receive your message and distribute to one or more of the email lists - the quality control element in place is that you are sending relevant information to recipients that have already stated an interest in a related subject matter and most likely the message will not be viewed as SPAM. Cost usually runs on an 8 to 30 cent per email sent charge.

The submission service allows you to work with experts in the field of gathering e-mail distribution lists based on subject(s) interest and the application of this technology in receiving information. Each time you want to distribute a message you rely on these service providers for their advice, lists and expertise in distributing your information. If you’re new to the e-mail marketing forum and your business does not yet have a substantial e-mail distribution list - this service may be able to fill the gap and get you into the game.

A couple of items to keep in mind - the overall cost of your e-mail marketing efforts, campaign tracking reports and the future role of email marketing in your overall direct marketing plans.

There are plenty of choices in the marketplace - educate yourself and make the best decision for your organization.

About The Author:

Karen Fegarty is with MailWorkZ. MailWorkZ has been instrumental in developing new email technology. MailWorkZ’s award winning email marketing tool, is key to reaching your customers in a highly efficient, personalized manner. Reach Karen at karen@mailworkz.com

by: David Chew

I am going to talk about how to improve your emails open rate. Everyday, count how many emails you receive and did you open all of them? I guess your answer is ‘NO’. We are all become more selective, we choose what we want to read based on the sender and the email title.

So, your challenge is to get your email recipient to open your email. Your job does not stops there by sending your email to your recipient inbox. If your emails do not get opened, all your efforts in preparing and sending the emails become wasted.

Here are some tips where you can apply immediately to improve the likelihood that your emails will be opened by your recipients.

(1) Make your title compelling

The email title is the most important part of your email because it determines whether your emails get opened or not. So, put some efforts to come up a good title. The title is your headlines.

(2) Your ‘From’ line must be recognizable with either:

• Your name

• Your web site name

• Your ezine name

• Do not use email address that carries no identity. I normally delete all these no identify emails. For example, 675no@yahoo.com, fhfhfhfh@yahoo.com or cutegirl@hotmail.com

(3) If possible, use personalization

Use your recipient name in the headline. This creates attention and provoke relationship between you and your recipients. For example:

David, your weekly marketing thoughts and tips newsletter.

Kevin, discover how we can help you to build a residue income at home.

by: Mike Savaliya

Email Marketing is growing more and more every year. Many small E-business owners have already made marketing plans for 2005. Email marketing is a very popular tool these days but often not utilized correctly to reach out to prospective customers. E-mail is very effective and inexpensive tool than regular mail to attract prospective customers, grow relationships with current customers, gain mindshare among affiliate partners and resellers and increase brand awareness. Below are six useful tips to make your 2005 email marketing successful:

Improve your Email Marketing tactics

When used correctly, and ethically, email marketing is one of the most effective forms of online advertising. But if misused, abused or underutilized, e-mail marketing may have an adverse effect on your business. Here are some keys to successful email marketing.

Select the right Audience

Selecting right audience is the first step to any marketing strategy. Make sure to buy the right targeted audience segmented in right demographic groups. If gathering audience list on your website, make sure you collect as much information as you can to segment your list in to interests. If you are using an audience list that you currently have, make sure to divide it in to groups to make your message more effective.

Personalize your message

Segment your audience in to groups depending on geographical areas or interests or age and personalize your message for each group of audience. Expert statistics and results show that the more you personalize your message or newsletter, the higher your open rates and clickthrough rate will be.

Send HTML and Text versions

Send both HTML and Text version of you message so that everyone of your audience receive either HTML or plain text message depending upon their server settings. HTML messages tend to get much more response in terms of open rate than regular plain text.

Proper use of From, To and Subject line fields

Proper use of these fields is one of the most important keys to a successful email marketing message. Effective subject line will make your prospective customers to read your message.

Use your company name or an individual within the company.

Personalize each message with the recipient’s first name or last name.

Use an effective and message related non-deceptive subject line. Creative, interesting and to the point straight subject line tends to give good results. Don’t use “newsletter” word in your subject line if possible. Don’t use the same subject line every time. Ad words like free, cheap, free money does not work.