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       ** DEMC ** Volume VIII No. 21 **
        The Truth About Email Marketing!
    Serving the Internet Since November 1995

Quote for today:

"Procrastination is opportunity's assassin." - Victor Kiam _________________________________

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What's In This Issue - Features

1) Editor's Note: "Don't End Up As Collateral Damage In The Email Wars"
2) Email Marketing Insights: "Do You Suffer From Promotion Addiction?"
3) Feature Article: "3 Profit Pulling Promotional Strategies"
4) SOHO Help Desk: "Ebook Publishing"
5) DEMC's - Advertising Information

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1.

Editor's Note:

"Don't End Up As Collateral Damage In The Email Wars"

As I've discussed previously the fight against spam continues to heat up. In light of the challenges this war causes permission email marketers I wanted to follow-up on the latest development.

Just this last week law makers and ISPs have been busy instituting new restrictions to fight back the tide of spam. If you want to ensure your permission email campaigns are still effective and not classified as spam you're going to need to take some precautions.

The first issue to be aware of is that Congress is likely to pass new legislation this June to curb the tide of deceptive unsolicited commercial email. The initial outline of the latest legislation makes very reasonable provisions and complying should not be much of an issue for permission marketers. The legislation requires commercial email be marked as an ad and that marketers honor customers' requests to be taken off their mailing lists. In addition, marketers will have to disclose their online and physical addresses in the email.

Another piece of legislation, however, that just passed California's Senate is considerably more restrictive, as it has an "opt in" requirement. California's Bill SB 12 states that businesses must have permission before sending email if they do not already have a business relationship with the recipient. Any email designated to be spam is a felony offense and could cost an estimated US$500 for each unsolicited email sent.

Should California's bill become law, you'll want to make absolutely sure you double opt in all of your lists and that you store the confirmations. You should check now to ensure your email list host has the ability to double opt in requestors and I'd recommend you start using the feature.

The third important update is Earthlink's new anti-spam technology, which uses a challenge-response system. What is a challenge-response system?

When you send an email to an address the challenge response system replies back with an automated message asking you to verify that you are a live person. With Earthlink's challenge response system you'll need to copy a series of numbers displayed on your computer and return them in a message to Earthlink. You may have seen similar challenge response systems if you've ever used or had a customer who uses the services of Spam Arrest or Mailwasher. These services send you to a web site where you have to enter in information.

In the case of Earthlink, once you have returned their challenge response message, your original message is allowed through. You only need to verify once and then all future messages from your email address are recognized and delivered. Blocked and unverified messages are sent to a bulk box that Earthlink customers can view.

Earthlink users have the option to create an approved email address list, i.e. a whitelist, of friends, family and business associates. Any address on the whitelist does not have to go through the challenge response process.

As Earthlink is a major ISP with 5 million subscribers, you might want to take steps to notify current subscribers of your list's "From" email address so that they can whitelist it. In fact I'd like to take a moment right now to let you know the "From" address for DEMC E-Magazine is: DEMC-mag@lyris.demc.com .

In addition, consider posting a notice on your subscribe form or in your confirmation email that new sign-ups will need to whitelist your list's "From" address in order to receive your messages. While asking subscribers to place your address on their approved sender list is not full proof, it will alert subscribers that they need to be pro-active rather than wait for you to verify the challenge response.

While these developments may add to your frustrations of marketing by email do not be discouraged. Individuals interested in your information and your products/services will continue to subscribe, confirm and whitelist your email. They will be avid, responsive subscribers. Your list volume may decrease but the quality of your subscribers will increase.

Continue to send your email wisely, as discussed in today's "Email Insight" column, and you'll improve the results of your campaigns. Plus use the strategies covered in today's "Feature Article" to supplement your email marketing with other promotional tactics and you'll generate more sales and profits for your business.

Abbie Drew
DEMC Editor

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2.

Email Marketing Insights:

* Exclusive *

"Do You Suffer From Promotion Addiction?"
By: Charlie Page

The great promise of the Internet has always been that you could get more done in less time. Article after article, some written by me, promise a better life, more time with the family or to spend any way you want, if you just embrace the idea of automating your business.

While the Internet does offer incredible tools for automation (things like autoresponders don't exist in the offline world) more and more online marketers are still chained to their keyboards, fearing they will miss the next "big thing." Even more are looking for the next "hot product".

I call this fear of "missing it" promotion addiction. Promotion addiction is simply the need to keep promoting to stay alive. The never-ending need to offer your list the newest thing out there, even if the quality doesn't quite hold up.

Interestingly, it's a disease many of us (myself included) have helped to create.

Is it any wonder that we become addicted to promotions?

After all, how many emails do you receive with over- hyped subject lines that try to create urgency and a feeling that you might miss out if you don't act now? How long can reasonable people expected to be assaulted in their own inbox before they simply become numb to all promotions?

Marketers who are addicted to promotions scour the Net and watch their inboxes constantly, looking for their next super-promotion. They frantically send out emails with subject lines intended to either seduce or scare readers into action. And they're giving email marketing a bad name.

What are the symptoms of promotion addiction? The symptoms are subtle and sometimes hard to recognize. Here are the top six symptoms of promotion addiction.

* Nervously watching for orders after sending out an email promotion.

* Receiving an email on a hot new product and feeling that you've completely missed the boat because your email wasn't the first to the market.

*Promoting a product you haven't used or an ebook you never read because you just didn't have the time to check it out.

*Subscribing to ezines just to see what ads the publisher runs, then frantically getting those products to sell to your own list.

* Agreeing to promote an inferior product for fear that the creator of the product won't ask you again if you refuse to promote for him or her now.

* And the BIG one ... a rise in your heart rate when you hear the words "master resale rights". ;)

Do these symptoms sound familiar? If so, there is hope. There is a cure for promotion addiction! I know because I've been set fr^e myself.

Here now is my five-step program for curing promotion addiction.

1. Create a series of messages using an autoresponder like SendFree that is topic specific. This series should alternate between providing great fr^e information and offering the reader a chance to buy a product or service related to the topic at hand. Load your series with quality products from proven sources and literally sit back as time becomes your ally, not your enemy.

2. Use product specific autoresponders to make backend sales. If a customer buys a weight loss product they will probably need new clothes too. Or perhaps they will want to take a vacation with their new slimness. No matter what product or service you offer, make a list of products that compliment what your customer purchased and offer those products to them over time. Again, time will become your friend as automation goes to work for you.

3. Survey to find out what your readers really want, then go out and find the "best of the best" products to meet those needs. Then schedule a promotion for those products using the product specific autoresponders from step 2 to create backend sales.

4. Never compromise quality just to promote the "product of the week". Let's face it, most of what can be said has been said. Far too many ebooks and information products are simply restatements of what came before. Avoid promoting these and your reputation for quality and integrity will increase.

5. Think long term in your marketing strategy. I heard a man say one time "The more I work ON my business the less I need to work IN my business." At the time I was in the full throws of promotion addiction and snorted back "That's great for you. You've already made your fortune!" Funny thing is, he was right. This particular fellow now has one autoresponder series (on Internet marketing) that runs for 18 months out! All he needs to think about on a daily basis is building his list. Time and his excellent follow-up series do the rest.

Please don't misunderstand me. There are very fine products being created every month that are worthy of our promotion. When those products come to our attention we should do all we can to get the word out to our readers. As email marketers, it is our obligation to keep readers well informed.

But how much better is it to choose to promote a product because it qualifies to be in your series rather than being driven by the need to promote something to get some cash flow going?

Email marketing can create a powerful passive income and offer us plenty of freedom if we do it well. Or it can chain us to our keyboards and rob us of our quality of life. Ironically, it's how we approach email marketing that makes the difference between freedom and bondage.

All things being equal, I'll choose freedom every time.

###
Charlie Page owns several sites including the Directory of Ezines and Nine Buck Newsletters. Ever wanted your own ezine but didn't have the time or don't want to write the articles? Nine Buck Newsletters are the solution. Check it out now at http://www.ninebucknewsletters.com

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3.

Feature Article:

* Exclusive *

"3 Profit Pulling Promotional Strategies"
By: Jean Bim

Last month, I wrote that email marketing was not dead just more difficult than previously. This month's column will discuss tactics for diversifying your marketing strategies by looking at other ways to promote and sell more of your products or your services.

Let me first say that there are various ways to promote anything online and the trick is to invest your time, effort and energy into those activities that have a highest return. I have identified three strategies that are literally pulling in millions for the people that implement them. As usual, my space is limited so let me get to it right away.

1. Online auctions are hot, hot, hot.

eBay is one of the most successful website on the world wide web. I am sure that by now you know of it and you probably have bought or sold an item for personal use. eBay is also an amazing place to sell your products since customers come to you and not the other way round!

Imagine being able to have people bid on your products and get them to buy them at prices that they choose as long as it is above your minimum price. Even though there are many people trading on eBay now, only a handful know how to milk it for what it's worth.

I am willing to bet that no matter what you sell on your website, you can sell it at eBay. The kicker is that you don't have to spend all day chasing after customers because they come searching for your products and they're not lookers: they are serious shoppers! Suppose that you sell calculators or even your own ebook. You can find out before hand if it will generate enough attention and once you start selling, profits can be immediate.

Now before you think that you this so far-fetched and it seems too good to be true, get yourself the no-cost valuable email course called "The eBay Home Business Explosion!" (http://tinyurl.com/cu2o) where John Reese, the author tells you exactly how to do what I have just mentioned above. He's been doing it since 1995 so his knowledge will help you sell.

2. Play the Search Engine game.

I am sure that by now you are sick and tired of hearing this but let me stress it again: if you are not playing the search engine game, you are losing out. I assure you that it is not hard but you will need a very good dose of patience and perseverance. Once results start kicking in, you will be over the moon when you see how many targeted shoppers you are attracting.

If you don't have your own product don't worry. You can play the search engine game on behalf of someone else who is willing to give you a nice cut of the profits that you generate for him. I am talking about referral or affiliate programs. This is a trend that will not be going anywhere anytime soon and the Internet success stories that you hear of everyday (your competitors :-| ) either own an affiliate program or generate most of their income from affiliate commissions.

200 million searches are done daily at Google (and its partners) alone!. If you could attract only 0.0001% of these searches a day, you should be in a sweet position. To see samples sites that are ranking well in Google, check out: (http://www.mikino.com/?start7.html)

3. Cost-per-click advertising gets results.

If patience is not your virtue or if you don't want to invest a great deal of time and effort into playing the search engine optimization game, you can simply do it the easy way and buy yourself in :)

Let's take Google's cost-per-click (cpc) advertising program, AdWords as an example. Google's site says: "With Google AdWords you create your own ads, choose keywords to tell us where to show your ads and pay only when someone clicks on them." (more info at: https://adwords.google.com/select/ ).

The difference with cpc advertising and normal search engine optimization is that you have to pay for clicks. Of course, you can lose a fortune in lightning speed which is the reason why many online marketers have mixed feelings about cpc advertising and the Adwords program.

I originally made the mistake of following the general opinion and dismissed the cost-per-click advertising concept altogether until I started noticing an ad that kept appearing for months on Google each time I made a search on certain keywords. Last month, my curiosity got the best of me and I contacted the advertiser and asked him if the Google AdWords was worth anyone's time, m^ney and attention.

The advertiser told me that it was the best thing since sliced bread. Now, I was amazed because all the marketing gurus I heard commented negatively about it. The AdWords advertiser assured me that it works so well for him that it's the only way he promotes the products in his online store which makes him a crazy fellow or someone who's stumbled onto something big.

The secret with cost-per-click advertising is that it must be super targeted. What I mean is that you must attract the ready-to-buy search engine user as opposed to someone looking for information. For example targeting a keyword such as "laptop computers" will cost you a lot of m^ney and a low conversion rate but a term such as "Sony Vaio GRX670" will probably get you less traffic but your conversion rate will be so much higher (assuming that your site sells well) you'll be amazed.

Common sense tells me that the more super targeted keywords you have out there the more revenue they will bring in. For a comprehensive report that will be worth your attention and money, check out: http://tinyurl.com/cu2t

Pheww! This is getting a bit long. I need to catch my breath and leave space for the other valuable content in this issue of DEMC. I hope that you will give serious attention to these alternative promotional avenues and if you decide to implement them, they're sure to benefit you in very profitable ways. Good luck!

###
Jean Bim is not a marketing guru. Just a person dedicated to helping others to find success using the Internet as a business vehicle. To see people that are achieving some extraordinary results online see: http://www.mikino.com/?start7.html

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4.

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

Today's SOHO Help Desk discuss the best strategies for publishing an ebook.

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

And, remember participating in the SOHO Help Desk is a great way to get fr^e exposure for your business as we include your tag line and contact URL with your message.

First, take a minute to review this week's question and email in your advice and answer. Send your response to - mailto:helpdesk@demc2.com .

=== Help Request ===

Hi All,

I need information on how to promote my online business, online or offline. I provide administrative services to help small businesses.

You can view my website: http://www.smpadministration.com

Thank you,

Beatrice

=== Answers For Lois ===

Lois' Question:

> I am currently writing a novel that I would like to
> publish electronically as an ebook. I'd like to know
> what people recommend for publishing an ebook. Should
> I invest in Adobe Acrobat, use Microsoft Reader or is
> there other software I should consider

From: Scott Lucas

Hello Lois,

I would recommend using Adobe Acrobat versus other ebook compilers because Adobe can be viewed on any computer, even Mac PCs. Go to https://createpdf.adobe.com and sign up for a free trial to create your first 5 Adobe PDF files - free.

Hope this helps!

Expect Success,

Scott Lucas
Find out what is being STOLEN from you ==>
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=== > Offer Multiple Formats

From: Darlene Bishop

As a former ebook publisher, and an ebook author myself, I would suggest doing both. Some people can read PDF who wouldn't be able to read Microsoft Reader and you're opening the door to more potential sales by offering both formats.

Darlene Bishop
Christian Minister, Freelance Writer and Editor
Website: http://www.darlenebishop.com

=== > Evaluate Your Goals

Hi Lois,

First of all I want to tell you that I am your biggest fan. I have always admired people with skills and talent for writing and I will be happy to read your novel.

Back to your question regarding suitable software, I think that it depends upon your goals and how you want your novel (ebook) to look. If you want to insert pictures, banners, links that can be viewed on as many computers as possible then a high performance software like Adobe Acrobat is your best choice. On the other hand, if you're looking for less costly software which creates HTML based ebooks viewable by any computer with Windows, visit - http://www.ebookcompiler.com .

If you are only interested in achieving your goal of writing a novel and the appearance of the final product is not essential than any word processing editor could work for you.

May you succeed,

Valerian Dinca
You'll appreciate this "silly idea" http://tinyurl.com/cgwj

===

Send in your feedback for an upcoming issue. Email your questions, advice and/or thoughts 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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View online other back issues of DEMC, the email marketing newsletter for small business.