Click Here to Advertise
 

                 ** DEMC ** Volume IX No. 8 **
        The Truth About Legitimate Email Marketing!
          Serving the Internet Since November 1995

Quote for today:

"Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems ... create our courage and wisdom."
                    - M. Scott Peck
_________________________________

In The Spotlight:

Why use First Stream Videomail for your next email marketing
campaign?... More cost-effective, offers results you can
track, 100% web-based, gives 340% higher click-thrus, 100%
greater customer retention, easy as 1-2-3, and more. Starting
at just $49.95 a month, you can send 1,000's of First Stream
Videoemail messages at once. We offer webcams too.
Learn more/sign up at http://videoemail4biz.com

_________________________________

For details on advertising to DEMC E-Magazine's 175,000 subscribers for as little as $36.
Go to: http://www.demc.com/Advertise/advertise.html

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: "Are Your Ready For Email Postage Fees?"
2) Email Marketing Insights: "How To Use Affiliates To Build Your Email List"
3) Feature Article: "Interview with Internet Marketing Pro Ryan Deiss"
4) SOHO Help Desk: "Ezine Advertising"
5) DEMC's - Advertising Information

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

1.

Editor's Note:

"Are Your Ready For Email Postage Fees?"

With spam volumes on the rise, the concept of having emailers pay postage for their emails' delivery is getting a lot of coverage. In January, Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland suggested the spam problem could be defeated by adding a cost to the sending of email. He sketched out a "sender-pays" system for email.

In addition a new company, Goodmail, has developed technology where email senders first identify themselves and then buy digital postage stamps for their mailings. The paid "postage" guarantees their email will be delivered to participating ISPs, as the ISPs are then paid for accepting the email.

While Goodmail has been in talks with the major ISPs, so far none have committed to the "postage" plan. However, reports indicate the ISPs are interested in the idea. They see paid email "postage" as a way to cut down on spam while also providing a new revenue source.

Before you panic, and assume email marketing for the little guy is over, there are a few issues to consider. The first is that should ISPs go along with Goodmail, those emailers using Goodmail are only guaranteed delivery past the ISPs filters.

Plus, there's no talk at present that emailers will have to use Goodmail or its like to get email delivered. If you do not pay "postage" your email can still be delivered, it just will have to pass through the ISPs' filters on its own.

Fortunately, you can already check your email deliverability, without paying any postage with our new Delivery Checker tool. To see if your emails are making it through the filters of the major ISPs just test them at - http://www.sendfree.com/dchecker.html .

While Delivery Checker works now to help you confirm your email will be delivered, it may not for long. Unfortunately, it looks like ISPs are headed towards paid email "postage". The technology, however, does not yet exist for Internet wide email "postage".

First, ISPs have to find a way to authenticate emailers' identities. Developers are working to create an identity system for every email's origin so that ISPs can distinguish between legitimate marketers and spammers. Right now AOL is testing Sender Permitted From protocol to fight forged email addresses, while Yahoo has introduced its own method, called DomainKeys.

With Sender Permitted From (SPF), the "From" address of an email has to match the domain registered to the sending IP address. If the "From" and IP of the incoming email do not match then the email could be considered illegitimate and rejected.

With Domain Key the email provider, like Yahoo! and Hotmail, digitally sign all outgoing messages. The digital signatures of all companies would have to be registered with an Internet governing body. An ISP receiving a digitally signed message could then use the digital signature to verify the sending company. An unverified company's email would be rejected.

To help ISPs know good from bad email sources, there is also the idea that profiles should be kept on all email companies. Brightmail, an email filtering service provider, in fact has already started a reputation service which is creating profiles on current email senders.

As of yet, no identity standard has been established and validated as effective. And until there is a reliable method for authenticating emails, ISPs are unlikely to begin charging the sender. So while paying for sending your email is not an immediate problem, it could become a reality in the years to come.

Rather then letting this news discourage you, put the information to good use. Take the time now to prepare your business for this eventuality. What can you do to be ready?

Focus on quality with your list building rather than quantity. If you're going to have to pay to send email in the future, you want to make sure you're only sending to those individuals who truly want your information. Double opt in your subscribers and consider only keeping active list members in your database. Even if email postage does not come to pass, a smaller highly responsive list is more valuable than a large unresponsive list.

You also should start tracking and keeping detailed records of the results of emailing to your list. If you are going to have to pay to send email, you'll need to know how profitable each emailing to your in-house list is for your business. You should know how many click throughs and sales each of your emailings generate.

If you acquire subscribers from different sources, consider keeping them separated on different lists. Then track the results of each list over time so you know which subscriber sources are worth maintaining.

Only by knowing how much money your emailings make to your lists will you be able to budget paying for emails in the future.

Should email "postage" never become reality, good statistics will still be beneficial to your business. As you'll know what offers work, what fail, your best subscriber sources and more.

While I'd like to think email "postage" will not occur, I have to admit it looks probable. ISPs and big business marketers like the idea. Small businesses, to avoid being squeezed out of email marketing by these larger companies, are going to have to be prepared. Smart email marketing tactics and knowledge will be our best recourse.

Abbie Drew
DEMC Editor
mail@demc2.com

======================
Business Services Classifieds
======================

Tested and Proven List Building Method.
How To Get People To Pay You Month After Month
To Stay On Your Email List.
Go to: http://www.ad-alyzer.com/727/ad337311227991

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

Get 900+ Passionate Writers To BID Competitively To Write Sizzling and Magnetic Copy For Your Ads, Website, Brochures. Writers From The US, UK, Australia. Within Budget - Always.
http://www.copywriterworld.com/dt/t.php?id=2

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

DomainSpecialist.net Offers you Domain Names from $6,
Hosting From $5, email from $3. Uptime Guaranteed at 99.9% min.
Choose the worlds favorite Domain Providers.
http://www.domainspecialist.net

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

HUGE Savings On Worldwide Advertising!
A Top of the Line set of Business Portals created to promote YOUR MLM or Business using lead capture technology and focused viral traffic. http://www.plugged-n.biz

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

GET A WEB SITE THAT SELLS!
e-In-Come.com's BIG collection of web master tools can help anyone build a successful business online. BIG PAGE OF FREE Tips and Tools plus domains, hosting.
http://www.e-In-Come.com

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

How To Easily Win HUGE Six Figure Federal Contracts
Guaranteed Your Small Business Will Win a Federal Contract
http://www.federalcontractsforsmallbusinesses.com/ebook.shtml

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

2.

Email Marketing Insights:

* Exclusive *

"How To Use Affiliates To Build Your Email List"
By: Jean Bim

In my last article, I discussed how investing in search engine optimization was a sure way to increase your subscriber list. Today, I will discuss another tactic that you set-up once and then allow the system to run on almost auto-pilot.

Have you ever noticed that most business owners who manage an affiliate program tend to have huge subscriber lists? And the more active their affiliates are, the faster their list grows.

It's not just good luck. It is part of a plan. There are two main ways to use an affiliate force to grow a list for you. The first is straight-forward: you have an affiliate network to sell your products/services and you encourage the affiliates to get visitors to sign-up to your opt in list. You tell your affiliates the repeat-contact through your list will increase the chance of a sale for the affiliate.

The second tactic is to have affiliates send you visitors who subscribe to your opt in list. You pay the affiliate an agreed upon amount for each subscriber.

If you choose to, you can use both methods to build your list. The first strategy works most effectively for business owners who sell multiple products and services and use email marketing to generate sales. The second tactic works well if you do not yet have your own products or services to sell.

At first glance you may think both tactics look to be relatively easy ways to grow a list but be forewarned, without proper preparation they can be quite tricky.

Why?

Well, in the case of the first method where you get your affiliates to send you subscriber after subscriber so you can convert them into buyers, you'd better convert. If your affiliates see no commissions, they will simply stop sending you visitors. You need to have an effective email follow up campaign that works before you set-up this strategy.

With the pay-per-lead tactic, you have to know your exact subscriber value. Paying-per-lead can become very expensive if you're not prepared so make sure you have the numbers worked out first.

I will stress this again. Do not attempt to run a pay-per- lead affiliate program to grow your email list if you have no idea what the worth of your subscriber is.

How do you determine that? Personally, I like to have six months to a year's worth of data to help me make the financial calculation.

So, if you are just starting up your email list, the pay- per-lead option is a risky gamble that I would suggest you undertake with serious caution.

If you have a list, however, you may want to consider the pay-per-lead option as it can be very lucrative. Here's how you can make a decision to see if this tactic will work for you. First you'll have to have tracked and kept records of your emailing campaigns.

Next look over the numbers and determine the worth of a subscriber. Over a one year period, look at how much money you made from your emailings then divide this by the number of subscribers.

You want to see in your records, consistent results on a mailing to mailing basis. You should feel comfortable predicting how much money you typically make each time you send an email out.

So let's assume that you make about $1 off a subscriber a month. And most subscribers stick with you for an average of 6 months. So in total you will earn $6 per subscriber over a 6 month period.

Would you be willing to pay up to $0.50 to get a quality subscriber? If you can afford it at the moment (because you will not get the 6 bucks in one shot but over a 6 month period) then by all means, do not waste time and get that affiliate program up.

Of course, along the way there will be people who will try to cheat but if you get a good affiliate program service, you will be fine. And be sure to track the source of your leads.

Not all leads will be the same. You will quickly notice that some affiliates send you subscribers that never read your emails, never do anything and basically are an expense. You will also find situations where a given affiliate can send you a small number of subscribers but they will be very active (read: profitable).

It does not take rocket science to figure out that you need to take care of good subscribers sources and politely dump the rest. After all, its your advertising money.

###
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

======================
Business Opportunities Classifieds
======================

Earn Money taking Surveys online.
All companies provided are guaranteed to pay or your money back.
Earn 99% more than everyone else on the internet with 550+ paying companies.
http://www.paidsurveys.fundit.net

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

"Would You Be Intrigued By..."
a new and unique affiliate program that generates -
not just one - but 15 different streams of income?
I've found such a program - and I'm delighted with it!
Go to: http://www.library-digital.com to prove it to yourself.
There's nothing to buy - just free information.

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

Take care of your HEALTH and the WEALTH will follow.
You'll also eventually end up with lots more f'ree time.
For more info on this opportunity, go to the link
http://www.myxango.com/effective

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

Global Entrepreneurs Wanted!
Success Minded. Network Savvy. Use your skills to build globally.
Rapidly expanding field. Huge Potential. 24/7 web support.
Your Great Future Begins Here!
http://www.gatetosuccess.com/freedom4u

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

EASIEST WAY TO MAKE MONEY ever invented!
I'm ready to GIVE YOU my $29 report for FREE.
You'll quickly learn how to earn a steady income in the remarkably simple Cash Flow business.
http://www.witcfb.com/jamesgilmore

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

7 Steps To Start and Build Your Internet Business & Make Money Start making money in less than a month following the 7 steps of Internet Business Blueprint - Results Guaranteed http://www.webmarketingsa.com/blueprint/blueprint.html


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

3.

Feature Article:

* Exclusive *

"Interview with Internet Marketing Pro Ryan Deiss"
By: Mike Merz

Ryan Deiss is the founder of SoftnicheSolutions.com, the creator of opt in Automator, the author of 'Niche Factors' and the co-author of 'How To Create Best Sellers Online' with Jimmy D. Brown. Ryan Deiss is both a successful Internet Marketer, and newsletter publisher. He has some interesting feedback for us.

Read on ...

MM

Ryan, I'm so glad you made time for us ... I'm a big fan of you and your work.

RD

Thanks Mike, I'm happy to do it.

MM

With software the likes of opt in Automator to your credit, and years of successful newsletter publishing, you're obviously no stranger to email marketing ...

How important are autoresponders to your email campaign strategy?

RD

I think autoresponders are an absolute must if you want to do business online. They're just as important as getting a hosting account, and we all know that you can't have a business without a web host.

Personally, I wouldn't be able to do business without them.

MM

Do you employ any methods or practices in your autoresponder driven campaigns that you'd consider unique?

Or common techniques that you've modified to generate better results?

RD

One thing that I do that I don't see done near enough, is to add my solo mailings to my autoresponder followup messages.

Let me explain...

Let's say I'm using autoresponders as a lead generator for one of my products. We'll use mine and Jimmy D. Brown's "Potential Best-Seller Product Idea List" that we use to promote our product "How To Create Best-Sellers Online." [This ecourse is available at http://www.createbestsellers.com/ecourse.htm ]

Anyway, so my mission is to get as many people as possible to signup for this ecourse, and then have my autoresponder followup series finish the selling process. But beyond just being a lead-generator for my product, this ecourse also builds a good-sized list of folks that might be interested in other products related to product development and online marketing.

So, like good marketers, Jimmy and I often promote other people's products to people on this list via solo mailings. Now this is nothing new, but most marketers just stop there. What I recommend doing, however, is to then add these solo mailings to your followup series. This way, the people who signup after you send out the mailing will still receive the offer.

If you do this with all of your autoresponder messages, you can literally build up years worth of promotions that are all delivered on autopilot. It won't bring you windfall profits, but the sales that trickle in every now and then will start to add up after a while.

Another strategy that I haven't personally used myself, but that I plan to try is "Fast Forwarding" my messages. This is a feature I can set-up with my autoresponder offers. Basically the way it works is it allows the recipient to fast forward the message, or receive them all at once.

If you offer a 7-day ecourse, for example, and your reader doesn't want to wait the full 7 days to receive each issue, give the reader the option to make a second request to have all of them sent to their inbox at once. If you're dealing with a truly rabid potential customer, this could shorten the selling process quite a bit.

MM

Taking your past successes into consideration, you simply MUST have developed advanced list building techniques ...

Care to share a few with our readers? ;)

RD

To be honest, I don't do anything overly special or unique. I still believe, however, that special reports and ecourses will build a list faster than a newsletter. It's the instant gratification that people really go for, and if you create a site that actually "sells" the f'ree report, you can actually build a list pretty quickly.

Also, I've made the decision to shift everything to double opt in. For me, it's not about the spam laws, although that is certainly a consideration. Mostly, I just want to build the highest quality lists possible. In my experiences, a double opt in list of 1000 will pull better than a single opt in list of 10,000. Why? Because these people are quality subscribers. By forcing them to jump through an extra hoop, you ensure that they take your emails seriously, which in this day and age is a difficult thing to accomplish.

Also, I've found around 90% of the people who signup from my site go ahead and complete the confirmation process, so the drop-off really isn't that bad.

MM

Do you advocate the use of co registration services to accelerate the list building process?

If not, why?

RD

Co-reg lists are tricky...

In my opinion, if you're going to use them, you need to treat them like totally cold prospects. By that I mean, never purchase co-reg names and then just dump them in your newsletter or general mailing list. These people don't know who you are, and many will issue spam complaints again you.

Personally, I know some marketers who have built lists of over 100,000 single opt in names, almost totally through co-reg. The problem is, you don't get paid by how many people you have on your list, you get paid by how much those people buy. And I would pit my double opt in list of 10,000 over a co-reg list of 100,000 single opt ins any day.

A better way to handle co-reg is to funnel them through an autoresponder series separate from your primary mailing lists. Deliver quality content for a few weeks, with zero offers, and then and only then invite them to join one of your other lists. If they don't opt in, after a few tries, consider them gone for good. (The fact is, you never had them in the first place.)

It does not matter, how qualified the co-reg company claims that the names are ... if they don't specifically opt in to your list, from your site, I wouldn't consider them quality subs.

MM

Have you considered HTML formatting in your email campaigns? ... or do you prefer traditional text?

RD

I actually use HTML formatting for my "Profit Diary," which is available for f'ree at http://www.ProfitDiary.com. The problem is that HTML gets pummeled by the spam filters, so if I were to do it all over again I would use plain ol' text. As it is, I send out an issue in HTML format, and then send out another, text-based email, the next day letting my subscribers know that they can read the issue online if they didn't receive it in their inbox.

MM

I don't think it's possible for me to go any further without hearing your opinion of the recent CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

What effect has it had on email marketing, in general?

RD

It hasn't effected my marketing one bit as far as I can tell. Other than the hassle of having to go back and add a mailing address to all my autoresponder messages, it's really a pretty benign law.

The fact is, governments will never be able to legislate spam laws, because the majority of spam will simply be routed through other countries. When it all comes down to it, this is an election year, and our politician friends in Washington D.C. simply wanted to be able to tell their constituents that they helped to stop spam.

One thing I am grateful for, however, in regards to the CAN- SPAM Act is that it stopped that crazy law that California was trying to pass. I'm not an attorney so I don't want to get into this too much, but in my opinion, spam legislation will only effect the legitimate email marketers negatively. The spammers will simply find a way around the law.

MM

Along similar lines ... how have you, personally, dealt with the filtering issues?

RD

In all honesty it hasn't been that much of a problem. Sure, I get reports from subscribers that they didn't receive the last issue of my "Profit Diary," but that's just the cost of doing business. If I were doing direct mail, I wouldn't expect a 100% delivery rate, so I think we're naïve to expect the same with email.

In the end, if you build a quality opt in list and tell your subscribers to look for your emails, you'll be ok.

MM

What's happening in the world of Ryan Deiss, these days ... anything new? ... in the works? ... on the horizon?

RD

I'm actually about to release a video product called "The Quick Start System" very soon that people should keep an eye out for. Also, Jimmy D. Brown and I are always trying to kick up something new and different. :o)

If someone wants to stay up-to-date on new product releases, I highly recommend that they subscribe to my "Profit Diary" over at http://www.ProfitDiary.com . This is the main list that I use to communicate with my customers and prospects.

MM

Thanks for joining us today, Ryan ... it was a real treat!

RD

Anytime Mike, I enjoyed it. Hopefully DEMC readers will pick up one or two things that they didn't already know.

Stay tuned for next month's autoresponder master interview...

Who is it, you ask? ... ;)

Regards,

Mike Merz

###
Mike Merz is a well known Internet Marketing expert, specializing in Online newbie campaign start ups, and is the owner of ...
Internet Marketing For Newbies The IM4Newbies Forum The IM4Newbies Update

======================
Miscellaneous Products and Services Classifieds
======================

WE SELL HOMES in just 30 days or less!
Get FULL VALUE for your home--FAST! YOU can be a part of our
profitable operation. MILLIONS of home owners need to sell NOW.
EARN A GREAT INCOME! http://tinyurl.com/ubaf

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

NEED 24/7 ENERGY?
Support every cell of your body with a Nobel Prize Winner.
Non-toxic, natural, life enhancing, proprietary blend of nutrients.
FREE unless you love it! http://www.mannapages.com/support4u

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

How to Prevent disease, You Can Live Longer, Be Healthier
Boost your ImmuneSystem and Prevent Disease
Biggest Medical Break-through since Penicillin!
http://www.marketingmind.com


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

4.

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

"Ezine Advertising"

Today's SOHO Help Desk discuss ezine advertising.

If you have a valuable tip, promotional idea, question or answers 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

To start us off today, we have a DEMC subscriber who would like your input on ezine promotion. Please take a minute to review this week's question and then send in your response.

=== Help Request ===

From: Roy McCallop

I publish a financial newsletter and I would like ideas and advice on how to promote the e-newsletter. Would FFA be a good tool for getting subscribers?

I welcome all assistance and considerations.

Thanks, Roy McCallop
Financial Advisor

Send your answer to: mailto:helpdesk@demc2.com

=== Answer for Paul ===

Paul's Question:

> Are ezines a good place to advertise as of late? I mean
> maybe 2-3 years ago but right now with filters and can spam
> if I put the wrong word in my subject line I can't even
> email my brother on AOL!
> ...can ezines produce customers today like they did
> 2 years ago. Is it really worth using them to advertise?

Answer:

From: Dave Turner

Paul:

It is very difficult to assess the full impact of spam filters on ezine publishers at this point, but at the very least, it's extremely challenging. That's why it's more important than ever to avoid using words or phases that trigger filters.

Having said that, I wouldn't give up on ezine advertising just yet. I would just be more selective of the ezines I advertised in. If you stick to reputable ezines like DEMC, you can rest assured, your advertising message will be seen.

How can I be so sure? Because smart, determined and resourceful ezine publishers like Abbie Drew and others have worked too hard for too many years to give up on their ezines without putting up a fight. That's why they have a list of known filter triggers to use as a reference, to assure their ezines get through to their readers.

Perhaps one of the reasons your emails aren't getting through is because you're inadvertently using words and phrases that are filter triggers. Here's a link to an article that contains known filter triggers:

http://tinyurl.com/rklm

Yours in success,
Dave Turner
http://www.dave-turner.com

===

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.

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

Advertise In DEMC - * Prices *

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
PMB 227, 24-G West Main St.
Clinton, CT 06413
(860) 669-4365

(c) 2004 DEMC All rights reserved

View other back issues of DEMC.
Just click to access our email marketing newsletter archive.