Author: ProWebs

Email Marketing – Are Your Emails Being Seen?

ProWebs

Do your Email marketing campaigns really get read or even seen by the subscriber?

Are you spending money on your email marketing campaigns, with a great looking template design, great pictures, and great content? You may be surprised that what you see is not what the subscriber gets.

I have been telling a number of clients recently that including pictures only in a mass marketing email campaign might actually be causing problems and reducing the ROI. I have various email addresses that I typically use to view emails from both large and small name companies. I also use several types of readers, both online and on local computers, to see how the emails render. Some of the large name companies think that if they put a lot of cool looking pictures in their email campaigns they will increase the ROI. The truth is, the opposite affect might be happening because of how email client readers render an email, and the default handling of pictures with them off by default in many readers.

The email article titled, The Rendering Run-Around, By Len Shnyder, Director of Partner Relations and Industry Communications, Pivotal Veracity is an excellent article about understanding how the e-mail rendering process works for all the major email clients and online readers.

Everyone does not see the same thing. Some of the major email readers are defaulted to not displaying images, even in the preview pane mode. This can have a serious lack of branding affect and cause the reader to place the email into the spam box even if they subscribed to the email in the first place. The reason is because the pictures are not displayed and the reader can not tell what the brand is.

Here are some of the highlights from the article that is definitely worth reading.

# Images are “ON” by default in: AIM.com, AOL.com, Cox, Comcast, Earthlink, Outlook 2002, Roadrunner, Lotus Notes, Yahoo’s inbox folder.
# Images are “OFF” by default in: AOL 9, Gmail, Hotmail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Outlook Express 6, Windows Live Mail

11. Does my design effect my delivery, reputation and/or ROI?

Everything is connected! The elements of “good email” don’t exist in a vacuum. The design of your email can and does impact delivery with most spam filtering programs incorporating design-based rules as well as various forms of HTML validation.

Read the whole article The Rendering Run-Around

I would add this little piece of advice. Email marketing campaigns must take the rendering issues into account up front. When designing an email template, take into account the ability to hyper link to the main article in the website or specific web pages for landing pages. Do not try to make your email marketing campaign the website. Images in emails should be held down to a minimum or a good balance between body text and the layout; with the understanding of how images are not displayed (when a subscriber blocks images from being seen) and the large gaps that can result in the actual email as being displayed in a client’s email box.

I personally think that email clients will continue to tighten up how email is handled in the delivery aspect. Both business to business, B2B marketing, and business to consumer, B2C email marketing campaigns will have to tune their templates and in some cases eliminate 90% of the pictures in the emails, if they want to have the best possible ROI.

Jim Warholic,
President of Professional Web Services

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Marketing Deja vu

ProWebs

Deja Vu Marketing

This was a very interesting movie. Great marketing of the movie too.

Internet Marketing Deja Vu


Adapt Marketing To The Internet Times


Marketing Creativity Online

Internet Marketing Clues for Your Business on the Web

Marketing Adaptation

Internet Marketing

B2C and B2B Internet Marketing Comparisons

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Can I Trust My Email Address With That Website?

ProWebs

The Internet is like the Wild Wild West. It is the final frontier, with lots of landmine hazards to watch out for.

Consumers are signing up for free information by email, downloading freeware programs, and buying products and services online. How do you know if a website is secure or if they are going to release your email address to the spammers?

One of the ways in which people are fighting the online fraud is with disposable, temporary, dedicated email addresses specific for online sign ups. When someone sees or reads something that they are interested in, a person may have one or several email addresses to use when they sign up for something online. However, many websites are requiring more information, or permanent email addresses, and herein lies the problem.

The trust issue is the main ingredient when dealing with any company. If a company’s online privacy policy states that they share information with other advertising members or a conglomeration network has hundreds of other websites, will I then get tons of spam if I sign up for something? Then, even after reading privacy policies that supposedly do not share information, how can I be sure the company can be trusted?

McAfee is one company that has come out with a very cool automated tool that can give you a quick check of what is going on. The program is McAfee SiteAdvisor. The program can tell you before you even go to a website from the search engine results pages if a website is good or bad. With indicators of green, yellow, or red flag warnings of what to watch out for from each website.

It is an excellent program that works in tandem with your browser. It can be used for both Internet Explorer or Firefox.

The automated system for checking websites is very unique. The program checks for all types of Internet threats. “They built a system of automated testers which continually patrol the Web to browse sites, download files, and enter information on sign-up forms. They document all these results and supplement them with feedback from their users, comments from Web site owners, and analysis from their own employees.” Go to McAfee SiteAdvisor to download the software.

While you are at their website you could take the McAfee SiteAdvisor Spam Quiz (McAfee recently updated their website and the quiz page has been moved). This quiz test would have given you an indication to see if you could spot the websites that will produce the spam. It was very interesting to see for yourself. McAfee also provides the privacy policies from the websites to read and you can analyze the privacy information based on what McAfee says. I have to say that I read lots of privacy policies on the Web. Many of these policies are opened ended invitations to share your email address with virtually everyone. So, I fully expected to get a 100% on my grade. I missed one. After you take the test look at the results for all of the people that have taken the test so far. I think you will be surprised at the numbers of people that got it wrong.

While reading a privacy policy is important for a consumer today, the legal mumbo jumbo, and the length of these policies can be difficult to overcome. That is where having this program can be a great benefit for everyone. Check out your favorite websites. Can you trust them?

Look for a privacy policy that is easy to read and understand, and one that specifically states the company keeps your information private today.

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Car Of The Future

ProWebs

Is This The Future of Transportation?

Watch the entire video to see the GM Highwire Car of the future. The power plant is a hydrogen fuel cell with no batteries. The built-in hydrogen power station is said to be so powerful that a house or even half the block could be powered by it. They expect to have these cars available in ten to twenty years. The source for the hydrogen is said to be sea salt water. Just drive down to your local salt water station and Fill ‘Er Up.

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A Great Addition of Features to Gmail

ProWebs

Google has recently added a few new features that make your Gmail box even easier and more powerful to use. Review the Gmail Tips.

Global actions can be taken across a whole select set of emails with a few simple clicks of the mouse. See: How do I apply an action to all messages in a label?

With this addition to Gmail, Google has made it much easier to manage a large number of emails and perform a global action item. There are numerous other new features that I personally use, but one feature that is really cool for me is the ability to allow Gmail to handle multiple email accounts from just one account. In fact, Gmail can send an email as though it is from one of your other email accounts. If your like me, I suspect most people have at least a couple of email addresses. These other accounts could be forwarded to the Gmail account or kept separate. By customizing the settings in Gmail a person could send an email, using Gmail, from their other email account. See: How do I customize the ‘From:’ address on outgoing mail?

The advantage of being able to do this is that many times you might not want to use your personal Gmail email address for sending a inquiry notice or wish to keep your email private to just a select few individuals. This allows you to use your other account directly without having to log off and log in at the other one.

Check out some of the other cool features.

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Google Gmail Update Report

ProWebs

I know this is going to sound cliche but I am not sure what I would do with out the Gmail Service.

I would venture to say that my usage is at the Internet power level mode. Not that Google has the power level mode but I use it for most of my day-to-day email solutions.

The reality of being able to go on any computer without having to lug a laptop around and check and respond to emails along with being able to have all the information at my finger-tips, makes this online application a truly remarkable achievement.

Gmail Power Level Mode

With the massive amount of daily research being conducted automatically online from Google News Alerts the ideal situation is to use a Gmail account for saving, searching, grouping, reading, and documenting the findings. I am one of those users that does conduct ongoing Internet research into a vast amount of different subjects. By subscribing to the news alerts one can quickly scan the subject lines or click open the alert and review the latest up-to-date findings. Once the email comes into the inbox it can be archived or remain in the inbox. A star can be placed for important emails. The emails can be grouped by labels and filters. A label is essentially a name assigned to a group of emails. Multiple labels can be linked to any email. Filters are customizable and are a type of automatic action that can take place when an email arrives.

Some other Internet power level features are the ability to have multiple email accounts forwarded into one Gmail account. Plus, the Gmail account can be set up to send as though it were coming from the associated account. This can be extremely helpful when trying to keep track of multiple email accounts without having to log in to each one. If an email arrives from one of the associates, a reply can be sent as though it were the main account.

Internet SearchIf you would like to try out the Gmail account ask for an invitation. Visit our website at Fridays and send us a Gmail Email request invitation. We would be more than happy to send you an invite.

For a couple of different B2B, B2C, and C2C blogging websites visit the Life and Times and the Wild Wild West. And, remember it is always wise to have 20 20 Business Vision with Professional Web Services, Internet marketing services.

Web Applications or Web Apps and Web 2.0 Apps too

ProWebs

Web Applications or Web Apps

This is an example of a document that can be written Online using Writely. Writely is now part of Google Docs.

Writely (now Google docs) is an online set of applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, drawings, collections, and even large file sharing of all types of files.

Some of the features include:

* Word processing document includes the ability to run spell check.
* Online collaboration with others.
* The files can be saved as a Word document.
* The documents can be published online with their own unique web address.
* Documents can also be set to private.
* Pictures can be included in the documents.
* Upload large files to share with others.
* Graphs and charts with the spreadsheets documents.
* Microsoft Word plugin.
* Build information gathering forms that can be linked to or embedded into a website.
* Convert documents to PDF.
* Import PDF documents, graphic image files with written text, and use technology called Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and convert to a Google Docs document.


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* The writer can publish directly to a blog using the application.
* Various fonts and colors can be applied.
* Hyperlinks can be included in the document.
* Revision tracking.
* Documents can be imported from MS Word and others.
* Save as a PDF document.
* Document can be printed from the application.

The strength of online applications is the freedom that is delivered to the user. As more Web applications become available, there will be less of a need for the business user to have to lug around a laptop in order to stay in touch with customers and other employees. The consumer should also realize a savings through not having to buy expensive software in order to write various letters to friends, relatives, or even consumer complaints and other forms of letter communications.

For more information about Professional Web Services visit the business solution website today.

Say hello to Jim at, Professional Web Services, provider of SEO, Internet marketing, online advertising, and Web branding solutions. Email us today for B2B & B2C Internet marketing services, Online advertising strategies, and business Web solutions.

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Glib On Privacy – Use Online Tools to Check Now!

ProWebs

I have seen the Internet grow from its infancy to where it is today with billions of pages of information.

Many individuals, both older and younger take online privacy very lightly. The younger crowd is using the MySpace.com, Facebook.com and other areas online for sharing way too much personal information in my opinion. This younger group of people haven’t a clue how this could possibly affect them in the future when prospective employers will be doing online background checks on these prospective employees. The older group of individuals also are unaware of the power of online search and what type of discovery can be attained by advanced searches using the search engine tools available.

To really understand the implications of privacy online, one only has to do a Google , Yahoo, and Bing Search on their own names. To do this may require a little advanced search engine search techniques, especially if you have a common name like, Joe Smith.

Here are a few helpful insights into doing a search for yourself.

We will use Joe Smith as our example for Google Search.

First try just doing a search for Joe Smith. In this particular example it shows a large number of Joe Smiths. To filter it further try doing a search with “Joe Smith” in quotes as shown. This will bring up the exact results for the name in quotes. This produces less search engine results but does not exactly break it into just one particular individual. Try adding a middle initial or middle name to the search criteria. Then filter it down even further to the area of the country or world. For example, let’s say that your are a Joe Smith, living in Washington. Then just add the word Washington after your name in the search box. “First I. Last” State

Most people are surprised by the number of online results for their names. This might be OK for individuals that understand the privacy aspect, but have chosen a high profile profession. Others on the other hand might not understand the implications of writing online, publishing personal content, or having their names posted in an online company directory, or postings in forums, or being a member of a local soccer or softball club in which their name is picked up by the search engines.

A little advice for those wishing to maintain as much privacy as they can. Consider carefully where you post your name online. If you are a member of a club or if your company has an online directory ask that your name or even your email address be kept offline. Do regular background searches on yourself to verify your brand image online. Use all of the major search engines to double and triple check the results.

Writers and journalists, be careful of who you quote, even in newspaper reporting. Consider the privacy of individuals. News stories are picked up and published online. Consider the ethics aspect when reporting information in news stories. Bloggers too should follow ethical standards when publishing information online.

More Global Sales and/or Local Sales for Your Business

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Professional Web Services provides: Internet marketing services, online advertising strategies and solutions, ethical SEO services, and web branding solutions to provide more local and global sales for your business.

Email us today for professional Internet marketing services to get your business and website discovered online by new prospects and customers. Search engines will love your business-to-business, B2B or business-to-consumer, B2C website.

Contact Professional Web Services today to get your business discovered the right way. Gain more qualified leads, new customers, and sales from the web.

It Pays to Fight the Good Fight

ProWebs

In a victory for privacy, Google stands up to the government

Google Wins Ruling on Turning Over Search Queries to Government

March 18 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc. won a partial victory in a battle with the government when a federal judge ruled yesterday that the company didn’t have to turn over customer search queries to the U.S. Justice Department.

As far as I am concerned, this is a major victory for everyone.

As time went on, the government’s demands for search information had dwindled down from asking for billions of urls and a entire week’s worth of search results, then “1 million Web addresses and a week’s worth,” then “50,000 Web sites indexed by Google and the text results of 5,000 random search requests,” and finally they wanted “10,000 of the Web sites and 1,000 of the search requests.” Fed’s Google Search Limited

In the ruling the only thing that Google has to give is a random sample of 50,000 web addresses.

US District Judge, James Ware, San Jose, California ordered Google and the Justice Department to come up with a method to randomly select the 50,000 Web addresses in a way that would not force Google to disclose any confidential information. He gave both sides until April 3 to raise any problems with the confidentiality requirement.

This is a win for Google and online privacy rights. No other search engine even considered standing up to the government and say No. The other Search Engines simply handed over all the data requested by the government a long time ago.

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Internet Privacy Concerns and Your ID Information

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We got Your Number, and Then Some

No matter what your take is on the ACLU, I think they certainly have a point with this one. As Internet technology continues to expand, the reverse occurs with a decrease in our privacy. Click the Privacy Concerns video above for a Web look at the amount of ID information that is at the government’s fingertips.

Privacy must be protected. So, you think you have nothing to hide, think again.

Defense of Controversial Internet Law Does Not Justify “Fishing Expedition,” ACLU Says Plaintiffs’ Response to Motion to Compel Google

Privacy & Technology:
The tremendous explosion in surveillance-enabling technologies, combined with the ongoing weakening in legal restraints that protect our privacy have us drifting toward a surveillance society. The ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project fights this trend and works to preserve the American tradition that the government not track individuals or violate privacy unless it has evidence of wrongdoing.

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