Choose a page below...
Sideliner
China Tightens Web Controls
Internet service providers in China are ordered to screen all e-mails, and they will be held accountable for all postings on their websites, according to the tightest governmental controls yet
Wired News
Australia outlaws e-mail forwarding
Internet copyright laws throughout Australia make it illegal to forward an e-mail memo without the author's permission, and could result in fines of $60,000 or five years in prison.
The Register
How the postman almost owned e-mail.
A short history of the Postal Service's long relationship with electronic mail.
Imagine that the U.S. Postal Service was in charge of e-mail. Sound absurd? It does to most people—until they realize that it almost happened.
MIT Technology Review
It's in the post
Most on-line businesses prefer e-mail for written communication, but, according to the recruitment agency Stopgap, there are instances where business owners like to remain traditional: they prefer complaints from customers and CVs from job applicants by snail mail.
Tip
Send your important e-mails to yourself first to check that your formatting remains intact.
|
|
|
The Mystery Shopping Club
(Operated by ed-u.com's sister site)
Webmasters, (or in fact anyone!) do you need some extra money to supplement your income? Would you like to pick your own hours? - Casual work is available to you now...
The following is an article taken from Choices Magazine after a visit to the Mystery Shopping Club.
"Wanted: Shopaholic nosey parker with excellent observational skills, a good ear and flexible attitude to part-time work. Anyone can apply. Work available in all areas. Must be prepared to eat free meals, enjoy shopping discounts and visit pubs - and be paid for it."
Believe it or not, the above job advertisement is not as far fetched as it sounds. If you love shopping, you'll be pleased to hear that it's possible to shop for a living. In fact, it's a multi-million pound industry for market research companies who employ "mystery shoppers" to shop up and down the country - all in the name of customer service and research.
There are a number of mystery shopping companies who organise whole armies of professional shoppers on behalf of retailers, pubs, restaurants, banks and other service industries. Their mission? To mingle in, look inconspicuous and file a report on anything from customer service to cleanliness in the restrooms.
If you visit one or two pubs in a night, you'll get your food and drink paid for, travel expenses and you'll be paid anything from £6.00 or £7.00 (US$12) up for each visit.
But there is one problem with mystery shopping: truly dedicated shoppers never switch off from their work. You'll find yourself compulsively evaluating service and checking ceilings for cobwebs even when you're not on duty. It eventually becomes a part of your life.
To find out more about casual employment opportunities in the "Secret Shopper" industry, please visit ed-u.com's sister site:
Click here for the Mystery Shopping Club UK
or
USA
or
Canada
|
| |
How many keyphrases do you use to attract traffic?Let ed-u.com generate 1,000 relevant keyphrases including their commonly misspelled versions for your site. All keyphrases will be ready for use in your site's META tags or submission to the pay-per-click directories within one week.
We have vast experience in this field (we attract several million visitors a year to our sites with this method) and have been successful in creating substantial (and sustainable) revenue for many other sites. We will also write a professional, creative description and title for your site that will help to increase your click-through traffic.
We will research your business inside out - on-line and off-line! You will be amazed at the important keyphrases that you have missed.
Take the worst scenario: If only one person per year visits your web-site as a result of one keyword or keyphrase - and you have thousands of similar terms in place - that alone represents thousands of visitors per year. Now imagine how many visitors you would get from the hundreds of keywords or keyphrases that attracted hundreds of click-throughs. Most sites can expect thousands of clickthroughs from just the one keyword or keyphrase!
For US$1390 / UKŁ999 ed-u.com will generate 1,000 relevant keyphrases including their commonly misspelled versions for your site.
Please click here now to e-mail your domain name to us and we will contact you after we have given your site a FREE ASSESSMENT!
|
Increase Traffic to your Web-site - Traffic Tips and Secrets...
We invite you to add ed-u.com to your list of favorites/bookmarks. Internet Explorer users please click here, and others, right click here -> ed-u.com. Also, you can learn how to make any ed-u.com page your start page by clicking here.
E-mail marketing
There are 10% more e-mail users than Web users and almost 3 billion e-mail messages are already being sent daily. Commercial spending on e-mail marketing is expected to double in the next year - hitting the $2.0 billion mark. With nearly 100 million people using the internet, e-mail is an important and efficient addition to your marketing tool-box.
Unlike regular mail or telemarketing, you can communicate your message in a matter of seconds - and for a tiny fraction of the price. Match this with an average click-through rate of 3% and response turnaround of less than 48 hours and it is not difficult to see the power e-mail commands as a business medium.
Monty Python and the meaning of spam
E-mail is an excellent, cost effective medium for marketing your web-site, product or service, but you should NEVER be tempted to send bulk, unsolicited e-mail, also known as "spam", to promote your business.
The word "SPAM", an acronym for spiced ham, was used so often in a famous Monty Python sketch that its repetition soon became meaningless. Many attribute the new use of the word to this sketch.
When two American lawyers sent the first unsolicited advert to over 6000 internet newsgroups back in 1994, they unwittingly opened the floodgates for spam to become one of the primary banes of the web.
Are you flame resistant?
Disadvantages of e-mail spamming:
angry complaints from recipients (called e-mail flames)
anti-spammers can overload your server with millions of requests
your internet service provider can deny you access
your site can be taken down
possibility of prosecution in some territories
Your company can also receive some very negative publicity. For example, if your company is listed as a spammer on an anti-spamming web-site, that site could come up as a search result for any of your customers trying to find you.
Spam Information
All About Spam - What is Spam? - Internal Link
Responding to spam - Internal Link
1099.com
Arachnoid.com
Spamfree.org
Stopspam.sparklist.com
W3.one.net
Spam in the News
A Namby-Pamby Spammy Bill.
The congresswoman who represents Silicon Valley introduces a bill to control smut spam sent to kids. Critics -- and there are many -- say it either does too much or too little
...More from Wired News
Targeted opt-in e-mail marketing
The good news is that many legitimate e-mail marketing routes not only exist, but are thriving.
For instance, you could find newsletters that are relevant to your industry and considering advertising in them. Newsletters that have been requested by visitors, usually generate higher responses than web-site advertising. These subscribers have in effect pre-qualified themselves as leads and are therefore more open to be sold to. You can find targeted resources for newsletter advertising below.
But I want to buy a list of e-mail addresses
I'm very hesitant on this, as even though you may buy a "clean" opt-in list, many people who you send the newsletters to may not perceive it as opt-in. They may not remember signing up with the company who sold you the list.
The substantial downside to this is that you could possibly be unfairly reported as a spammer. Your site might be listed on an anti-spam website and would therefore come up in searches for your site or your name on search engines. Your domain might be added to anti-email-spam systems that hundreds of thousands (maybe millions even?) of people around the world subscribe to. Any further e-mails from you to these people (which might include existing customers and business contacts) would be automatically blocked.
If you have a newsletter, maybe find a company that is extremely targeted to your market that might consider swapping newsletter ads with you. I believe that this is a safer route.
Submit articles to e-zines, newsletters and e-mail groups
There are many thousands of e-zines and newsletters published regularly. They always need good content.
Find publications that are related to your business using directories and search engines and subscribe to them.
Take note of the type of articles they publish.
Submit a relevant informative article and append your web-site and e-mail address.
Never tell the whole story in your article, but attempt to generate curiosity. Create an unanswered question that will draw your audience to your site.
Answer questions in e-mail groups.
Give readers a reason to visit your site, avoiding obvious advertising blurb. If you keep your article free of hype, the editor will be more likely to use it.
Keep a list of editors that publish the article and send them more articles on a regular basis.
Resubmit your article after a month to editors that did not publish it - they may reconsider.
Always include your web site address and company details at the end of the article. Don't forget that many readers of e-mail have restricted or no access to a web browser, so you could also include an autoresponder e-mail address that will send inquirers full details immediately.
Click here to find out the 7 Key Items To Include in your Email Signature File.
Article Syndicators
Deposit your articles at article banks.
Article_depot.50megs.com
Connectionteam.com/submit.html
Cyberprosper.com/submit.shtml
Ezinearticles.com/add_url.html
Ezadsuccess.com/articles/submit.shtml
Goarticles.com - Recent Addition
Makingprofit.com
Mega-success.com/articles/submit.shtml
Netterweb.com/articles/
Top7business.com
Topten.org
Ideamarketers.com
Marketing-seek.com/articles/submit.shtml
Certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
Web-Source.net/articlesub.htm
Womans-net.com
Writebusiness.com
Writingtree.com
Yourarticle.net
Announcement Lists
Join the following announcement lists and submit your articles. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to each of the following addresses:
Aabusiness-subscribe@egroups.com
Article_Announce-subscribe@egroups.com
ArticlePublish-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Aageneral-subscribe@egroups.com
Aainet-subscribe@egroups.com
Articles_Archives-subscribe@egroups.com
Free-Content-subscribe@egroups.com
Publisher_Network-subscribe@egroups.com
PublishInYours-subscribe@egroups.com
Subportal-subscribe@egroups.com
Free services for setting up your own newsletters or e-zines
Egroups.com
Topcia.com
Help with e-zines
AbsoluteEzines.com
eZine-z.com
Ezine University.com
Free content for e-zines and web-sites
Please check at each site for varying rules concerning articles and as to whether articles are still offered for free before you publish them.
Certificate.net
Ezinearticles.com
Ideamarketers.com
Infobot.net
List-content.com
List-resources.com
Mediapeak.com
Web-source.net
Discussion Forums
Take part in discussions about your trade or industry, and append your company name, web address and e-mail address to you comments.
Groups.Yahoo.com
Discussionlists.com
Topica.com
Adventive.com
Deja.com
Talkcity.com
Insidetheweb.com
Forumone.Com
Theglobe.com
GeekVillage.com
Message Boards
Free-publicity.com
Bizweb2000.com
Start-smartz.com
Entrepreneur-web.com
Newsgroups
Always "listen in" to a user group first to gauge the tone of the discussion before you post your first message.
Yahoo Egroups
Usenet
Liszt
Tile
Topica
Ezines to advertise in
BestEzines
Ezinehub.com
Ezine-universe.com
E-zineZ.com
Newsletteraccess.com
Zdnet.com/filters/email
Gort.ucsd.edu/newjour
Nwwsubscribe.com/foc36
Autoresponders
An autoresponder is a handy tool that sends an automated message when someone clicks on an e-mail hyperlink.
You can set up some autoresponders to not only send an immediate welcome e-mail to new subscribers to your newsletter or e-zine, but to also send subsequent mail-outs. An effective use for an autoresponder is an automated reply for inquiries to your advertising or articles in e-zines, classifieds and discussion forums. Ask your web space provider if autoresponders are provided with your account or try the following services:
Sendfree.com
Getresponse.com
Autoresponseplus.com
No RSVPs s'il vous plait
A known problem with autoresponders is excessive recursion or "looping". This happens when you send an autoresponse to an e-mail address which is also set up to send an autoresponse. The messages just get sent back and forth until they are stopped.
Most mail servers are set up to intercept this behaviour and will terminate the loop at the 50th iteration. You might want to check this is the case with your webhost before going down this route.
The Ad Stop
Newsletter Access
e-zine Ad Auction
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is another expression of word of mouth or recommendation marketing. Using the internet, this method of marketing becomes proportionately more achievable. Click here to find out how.
How big are your attachments?
Do you really need to send information in an attachment and does it need to be that big? Try copying-and-pasting the information into the body of the e-mail itself. If you send a large, slow to download attachment, you risk annoying the recipient and many people simply will not open an attachment for the following reasons:
1. They may think that it contains a computer virus
2. They don't know how to open it
3. They don't have the correct software to view it
4. They receive the e-mail on their cell-phone and don't have a computer
Before you press the send button, remember that...
Misspelt words can ruin all your efforts
Abrupt e-mails do not attract sales
Read your important e-mails out loud to spot grammatical errors
Do you have an e-Book to promote?
Ebooks.searchking.com
Ebookdirectory.com
Ebooksnbytes.Com
Free-ebooks.net
Ldpublishing.com/index1.html
Reportsearch.com
Upload.com
Free-for-all sites
When e-mails attack! - Internal Link
HTML or text e-mails?
Creating Your First HTML Ezine! - Internal Link
e-mail in the news
Employers, business schools honing in on workers' e-mail writing skills?
Chain letters and silly jokes aren't the problem: It's the incomplete sentences, misspellings and rambling thoughts flying through cyberspace in the name of doing business
...More from the Los Angeles Daily News
What now? Are you overwhelmed with too much information about web-site promotion? Click here to find out what are the most important areas to concentrate on first...
Please click here to report inappropriate or "broken" links.
Save this site
Please don't forget to add ed-u.com to your list of favorites/bookmarks.
Internet Explorer users please click here and others, right click here - - ed-u.com - - Also, you can learn how to make any ed-u.com page your start page by clicking here.
Share this site
Click here to tell your friends, family or colleagues about ed-u.com.
Feedback
If you know of any advice that could be usefully included on this site, please click here to e-mail. I would also like as much feedback as possible, good and bad. Thank you - Robert Brady.
|