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       ** DEMC ** Volume VIII No. 34 **
        The Truth About Email Marketing!
    Serving the Internet Since November 1995

Quote for today:

"The successful man is one who had the chance
and took it." - Roger Babson
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Share DEMC with your friends and associates. They can subscribe free by emailing: Subscribe@sendfree.com

What's In This Issue - Features

1) Editor's Note: "How to Win Over $700.00 in Prizes!"
2) Email Marketing Insights: "Why Isn't My Email Marketing Profitable?"
3) Feature Article: "4 List Building Techniques That Work!"
4) SOHO Help Desk: "Ezine Publishing FAQs"
5) DEMC's - Advertising Information

======================

1.

Editor's Note:

"How to Win Over $700.00 in Prizes
For your List Building Ideas!"

Do you have a technique to legally and ethically add more subscribers to a permission list? Your knowledge can win you amazing prizes courtesy of DEMC!

Right now, through Thursday October 23, 2003, DEMC E- Magazine is holding a contest to see who can come up with the best way to grow a permission email list using online or offline methods.

Here's what you could win:

1st Prize: A Solo Ad emailing to 25,000 DEMC subscribers worth $247.00. Your ad will be emailed out alone one time to 25,000 DEMC subscribers.

2nd Prize: A Top Sponsor "In The Spotlight" ad in one issue of DEMC E-Magazine worth $227.00!

3rd Prize: Three "Marketplace Classifieds" ads, each ad to run in one issue of DEMC E-Magazine worth $180.00!

Random Prize: One "Marketplace Classifieds" ad, to run in one issue of DEMC E-Magazine worth $60.00. Each person who submits an idea is eligible to win this free ad. One lucky participant will be chosen from a list of all idea submitters. The more ideas you submit, the more chances you stand to win. But don't worry, a system is in place to prevent fraud.

This is a great opportunity for you to get free exposure and free advertising. Don't miss out. Enter to win today by submitting your best ideas on building a permission list.

Go to:
http://www.demc.com/Company/Contest/contest.html

Here are some quick Question and Answer on the DEMC List Building Idea Contest

How will the winner be chosen?

The editors at DEMC will read all the submissions and choose the ones that they see as the clear winners. We are looking for ideas that are guaranteed to work and the more effective they are the better.

What if two people submit the same idea?

In that case, the first reader to submit the idea gets credit for the submission. This is why, you should submit your ideas right away!

How will I be notified if I win?

All the winners will be contacted via email and given details on how to access their prizes. Furthermore, a special DEMC issue will be dedicated to announcing the results to all the subscribers. You will be able to read some of the submissions which we think are really worth using.

Can all my submissions win all top 3 prizes?

Yes, if your techniques happen to be so good that they are eligible to warrant you all the prizes, you better believe that as the winner you will take it all!

Will I get credit for my submission?

Of course! Should your idea make you the winner of any of the prizes, we will make sure that everyone knows who came up with it. Furthermore, all techniques published in the special report will be credited to their respective submitters. Of course, if you choose to remain anonymous, that's fine but please at least include your email address so that we may get in touch with you if you happen to be a winner.

How long does my submission have to be?

Submissions must be at least a couple of sentences and no more than 10 sentences long. The key here is to share your idea. If we find that there is need for more clarification, we will contact you and ask you to elaborate. Don't worry about grammatical perfection, we will edit your submission for you to make it more understandable if it needs correcting.

What are your terms and conditions?

For detailed legal speak terms and conditions visit:
http://www.demc.com/Company/terms/terms.html

The most important term and condition is to not plagiarize someone else's content. And you should be aware that your submission becomes the property of DEMC and we are free to use it as we see fit whether for commercial gains or not.

How can I enter the contest?

Submit your idea entry using the form at the DEMC web site:
http://www.demc.com/Company/Contest/contest.html

---

Thank you in advance for participating in our list building ideas contest. I'm looking forward to reading your strategies. And, I suspect that you will be interested in learning the list building tactics of other DEMC readers when we publish our special report.

Before we can compile the information, though we need as many of your ideas as possible. So please take a minute to send us your best list building technique and enter to win over $700.00 in prizes.

Go Now to:
http://www.demc.com/Company/Contest/contest.html

Good Luck!

Abbie Drew
DEMC Editor
mail@demc2.com

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2.

Email Marketing Insights:

"Why Isn't My Email Marketing Profitable?"
By: Abbie Drew, DEMC Editor

Success with email is determined by 3 factors. If you fail to consider these 3 points in your email marketing effort your results will suffer.

The first factor is building your own in-house permission list.

You will not find success with email marketing if you've purchased a list of generic opt^n or co-registration leads. In today's email environment, with spam filling our mailboxes, a message sent out to generic leads is only going to end up in the trash can.

To build your in-house permission email list you have to persuade people to sign-up to receive your specific information. What's more you also have to convince your new sign-ups to whitelist your "From" email address.

What is whitelisting?

Whitelisting means the new subscriber has to enter your "From" email address into their email program's trusted list of senders. Getting your email address whitelisted is becoming essential to having your email messages seen and read.

Why?

Up until recently only a minority of individuals have taken the time to put in place and use spam filtering software. According to a recent Double Click 2003 consumer email survey it has just been about a third of Internet users. Now, however, the new email software programs being released to the marketplace have built in spam filters. In these new programs, the default setting has the spam filters activated, making it unlikely that users will turn off the filters.

You may recall, I reviewed in a previous issue of DEMC the difficulties with AOL's new 9.0 default email filters. (See - http://www.demc.com/newsletters/10_1_03.html) I recently learned that Microsoft's new Outlook 2003 has similar default settings.

Outlook is the predominant email software on the Internet. As people upgrade to the 2003 version your emails are going to be effected unless your subscribers have whitelisted your "From" address.

What are some of the new Outlook 2003 default settings?

It has a number of algorithms that evaluate the content of your message to determine whether your email belongs in the Junk Mail folder. It also prevents all external images and graphics from being displayed. As a result, if you're sending HTML emails the format may be distorted and you'll no longer be able to track open rates.

The only way to prevent the default settings in AOL 9.0 and Outlook 2003 from effecting your messages is to be whitelisted.

So how do you get your subscribers to whitelist your address?

The obvious step is to note on your subscription sign-up form your "From" email address. I also would encourage new sign-ups to whitelist your address. You may want to provide instruction on your web site on "how to" whitelist to assist newbies.

Listing out your "From" email address on your site has another benefit, recognition. The Double Click 2003 consumer email survey found the number one reason an individual opens an email is because they recognize who the message is "From". Therefore, making sure your new subscribers know your "From" address up front will increase readership.

A notice about your "From" address and a call to whitelist your email address, however, is not enough to ensure your email marketing success.

The second factor to email marketing success is delivering compelling content.

Your email messages have to provide the information your subscribers want. When subscribers are interested enough in your information they will sign-up, whitelist your address and read your messages.

What makes compelling content?

Relevant information! Your emails have to deliver material on a subject matter about which your subscribers are interested. If your subscribers sign-up for updates on shoes, you need to send shoe information. If your subscribers sign-up for updates on wine, you need to send wine information.

You may need to sub divide your lists further depending upon what you sell. Thus if you sell shoes to consumers as well as to retailers, you'll need 2 separate lists. As information for consumers is not relevant to retailers and vice versa.

Providing relevant information is the most important factor to getting a subscriber to read your emails. Variety is also a critical component to compelling content. Continually present different offers, different viewpoints, different interest items, while staying focused on the targeted subject matter and you'll keep your readers' attention.

Here are some ideas to spice up your email messages.

1) Discount sales offers.
In fact, I learned from the Double Clicks 2003 consumer email study, close to 60% of those surveyed said they open email with a discount offer in the subject.

2) Special coupons or certificates.
Why not occasional set-up deals for your subscribers with other vendors in your field and send out coupons for those products/services.

3) Run contests and games.
Everyone loves to play games and win free prizes! Give your subscribes the chance to have some fun. Take a look at the contest DEMC is running right now on list building ideas, perhaps it will spark some ideas for a contest you could run. (http://www.demc.com/Company/Contest/contest.html)

4) Use varying visual images and graphics in your content.
Add a regular cartoon, or new catchy photos or helpful charts to your emails. If your images are interesting people will open up your messages just to take a peak at what you've created this time around.

5) News and Information.
While sales, special offers and pictures add depth to your emails, don't forget the importance of keeping your subscribers up to date on the latest findings in your industry. Again citing the Double Click 2003 consumer email study, close to 50% said compelling news and information will prompt them to open emails.

Use these ideas to make each of your emails different, while staying relevant and you'll increase your readership. As your readership improves so too will your email results.

The Double Clicks 2003 consumer email study also raises the third important factor to your success with email marketing - the necessity to avoid over delivery of your email.

Close to 2/3rds of those surveyed defined spam as email that comes too often, even though that email may have been permission based or from a company with whom they've done business.

If your subscribers are being overwhelmed by your email, because they think it comes too frequently, your email will be labeled spam. All your efforts to be whitelisted and deliver great content will be wasted and into the trash your email will go.

How do you prevent your email from being perceived as spam?

It's as simple as asking. Survey your current subscribers to find out how often they would like to receive your emailings. Take their suggestions and develop a handful of options for your readers. Set-up separate lists accordingly. You could have daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly mailed lists. Offer your subscribers their choice of frequency and then deliver on their preferred schedule.

If your email marketing results have been suffering recently, consider the 3 factors I've reviewed. Are you taking all of the steps you can to 1) make sure your email is whitelisted so it will get through, 2) make sure your email has relevant variety so it will be read and 3) make sure it's being sent only when your subscriber wants it?

When you follow these guidelines, you'll find email marketing really does work. Not only do I know email marketing works from my own experiences but studies show email works. The most recent study results being from Double Click's 2003 consumer email survey which noted that 67% of individuals had purchased from an email promotion they'd received.

Make sure your emails are on target and you too will have success from your email marketing.

Resource:
Double Click 2003 Consumer Email Study

###
Abbie Drew
DEMC Editor
mailto:mail@demc2.com


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3.

Feature Article:

* Exclusive *

"4 List Building Techniques That Work!"
By: Jean Bim

For the last few years, I have been building permission email lists for my various business promotions. I have written about my strategies and my results in my DEMC columns over that time.

Recently, I received an email from a subscriber wanting to know what was my favorite list building technique. At first I could not answer, but after a few days I had made up my mind and today's article outlines my response.

I determined that I actually have 4 favorite list building techniques. I have seen these strategies work wonders for the people who use them including myself. Of course these tactics are not the only way to build an in-house permission list. In fact, if you happen to have mastered another way or if you have seen other ways to add readers to a permission list then you should definitely share the idea with DEMC for your chance to win.

Here are my 4 favorites:

1) The easiest and best way to increase the number of sign- ups is by designing a website that is focused on getting sign-ups. Simple as that. I have seen people increase their sign-up rates by 35% just by creating homepages and web pages which sole purpose is to get the visitor to leave her email address.

If you have a content site for instance, do you have a call to action at the end of each article that invites the reader to sign-up to your mailing list for more helpful content? If you run an e-commerce site, do you have a mechanism that asks people to leave their email address so that they can be alerted when the item that is not in stock at the time of their visit is available? If you are a newsletter publisher, is your website designed in a way that prospective subscribers will immediately see the benefits of signing up?

Learn from sites such as Amazon.com or AssociatePrograms.com

2) My second favorite way to increase my subscriber base is to archive past ezine content in a way that it is search engine friendly. I came across this 5 years ago when I was searching for ways to increase my affiliate commissions. When I entered my keywords into Yahoo the first page that popped up was a past issue of a great newsletter. Needless to say, I was so impressed with the quality of the content that I looked for the subscribe form right away and have been a happy reader ever since.

I will not get into search engine optimization here but do ask around or visit my site for helpful resources.

3) The third best way to build a mailing list is with the help of an affiliate program. This is actually the ultimate way for all the readers who are involved in e-selling. I used to wonder how all the gurus managed to grow their lists to considerable proportions in such a short time until it hit me. When you have a network of affiliates that send traffic your way 24 hours a day, most of this traffic does not result in immediate sales. However, they capitalize on the traffic by offering incentives such as trial offers or free email courses to undecided prospects who later might become lifetime customers.

This rather slick move is so lucrative that if you aren't doing it and you sell something online, you are either stingy or you like doing things the very, very hard way. But then again, some people have their own techniques that work wonders too :-)

4) Here is a one more sure strategy to increase one's readership... Produce a quality newsletter! This might sound very obvious and you probably are calling me names for insulting your intelligence but think about it... How is it that certain email publishers or business owners find their subscriber base increases at lightning speed without them doing any major promotional effort? Because everybody (search engines, other publishers, their current readers) do make it a point to let others know what amazing content these publishers are producing.

That wraps up my top 4 list building tactics. What are your favorite techniques to grow a list? Share them with DEMC and you stand a chance to win valuable prizes as Abbie mentioned in her Editor's note. Just go to: http://www.demc.com/Company/Contest/contest.html

And be sure to look for an upcoming special issue of DEMC in which we'll share the best list building tactics!

### Jean Bim is not an Internet marketing guru. Just a regular online business operator that tries, tests then reports his results with you (http://www.legitmoney.com). If you like his column and want him to write for your web site or newsletter (some conditions apply), see http://www.freshmarketingcontent.com

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~/~ SOHO Help Desk ~\~
http://www.demc.com

"Ezine Publishing FAQs"
By: Terri Seymour

Over the years I have been asked many questions about ezine publishing. I remember having many of these same questions when I first started.

Q: What is an ezine?

An ezine is simply an electronic newsletter or magazine mailed periodically to a list of permission subscribers. Permission means that these subscribers have signed-up for or requested to receive your ezine.

Q: Who do I mail an ezine to?

You obtain a list of subscribers by advertising and promoting your ezine in several ways.

Q: Where do I get subscribers?

Announcement lists - Follow guidelines for posting and get some fr~e exposure!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Join-My-List

Writing Articles - Definitely something you want to get into. Very powerful method of fr~e promotion!

Ad swaps - Running other publishers' ads in exchange for them running yours is a great way to get a lot of fr~e ezine advertising, plus you get to make new friends as well! ;-)
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Sigtag - Always add a sigtag to your email with your subscribe link and an attention grabbing headline about your ezine. Very effective!

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Message Boards - Similar to discussion groups. Establish yourself as an expert who is there to help.
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Q: How can an ezine make money?

Publishing an ezine is important to your business because it enables you to keep in contact with the people who are interested in your website, your product and you. You can build a solid foundation of trust and respect on which to base your business success! You can also earn additional income by selling advertising space in your ezine.

Q: What do I put in an ezine?

Lots of good resources, helpful information, a little fun, motivational stories, original or guest articles, product or affiliate program reviews, freebies, etc. You must also add your personality to your ezine. That is what makes your ezine special! Write an editorial so your readers can get to know you and can interact with you. Let your ideas flow and make your ezine interesting and unique!

Q: How do I mail my ezine?

There are several ways you can mail out your ezine.

Autoresponder - A favorite of many publishers because of their ease and automation.

Mailing List Manager Software - After your list grows, you can purchase software which you can run from your computer or install on a server and the software will manage your list.

Web Host - When you buy your domain, your web hosting provider may offer a mailserver you can use to send out your ezine.

Yahoo and Topica, etc - Fr~e mailing list managers like these are a good way to get started on a tight budget. I used Yahoogroups way back when they were onelist? and then egroups. I never had any major problems with them, but eventually wanted to take control of my own list.

Answering all questions in detail is quite impossible in one article, but I hope I have covered some of the main points that you might be curious about. If I have not answered a question you may have, feel fr~e to contact me anytime. Thank you.

###
Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com
Learn to publish and promote your own ezine.
mailto:subscribe@myownezine.com
Sign-up for the FR~E MOE Ezine Publishing Ecourse
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You can contact Terri at mailto:ter02@newnorth.net

----

If you have a valuable tip, promotional idea, question or answer you would like included in an upcoming issue of DEMC, all you have to do is submit it by email to - mailto:helpdesk@demc2.com

Be sure to include your SIG and contact URL with your post as we'll be sharing any viable ideas/information in an upcoming issue of DEMC E-Magazine.

======================

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For information on advertising to the DEMC E-Magazine's 175,000 subscribers for as little as $36, plus details on How To Get a FREE Ad in DEMC E-Magazine Go To Visit Our Web Site: http://www.demc.com/Advertise/advertise.html

DEMC
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Clinton, CT 06413
(860) 669-4365

(c) 2003 DEMC All rights reserved

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