THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTERS
May 3, 2007
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Hello to another week of stimulating information about e-mail marketing. My mailing list grows once again. Those of you reading my newsletter for the first time, I would like to direct your attention to the next article about why you’re receiving this newsletter and why I’m publishing it. I also continue to receive a steady flow of questions, which I’ll answer in the Q&A segment of this newsletter.
Many of you are already starting to develop your own e-mail marketing programs, and I’m humbled that my advice has inspired many of you to do so. However, some of you have made a few errors that could get you into a little trouble. How I learned what to do and what not to do is by making mistakes and learning from them. I’m hoping to help you avoid the same problems by teaching you what I already learned, so you won’t make the same mistakes. I’m also learning from you too.
This week’s article will cover what spammers do, so you can learn how to avoid spamming as well as learning how keep from getting spammed. My readers inspire the information I’m providing today, so please continue sending your questions and responses. If you don’t have a question, please consider sending me an “Atta Boy” response to let me know that my information is appreciated.
For those of you reading this for the first time, you can get filled in on what you missed by going to my blog. It has all of my previous articles, and can be found on my blog at:
http://primeconcepts.blogspot.com/
Let’s get started!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Q: My e-mail (account) won’t let me send to more than ___ number of recipients. How do I get around that?
A: Most of the popular e-mail services (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) limit the number of recipients for a single e-mail. The limit can be as little as 10 or as high as 50 depending on the service. You should really use a mailing list service or server, which I will cover in a future article. A simple fix for now is to send your e-newsletter to a block of recipients at a time. i.e. if your limit is 10, then break down your mailing list to blocks of 10 each and send to each of the blocks separately.
I also want to emphasize that what I’ve covered so far is focused on sending individual e-mails and not bulk e-mailing yet. The more personal, you make your e-mails, the more likely it will be read and the less likely your e-mail will end up in the heap of spam mail. I strongly suggest you consider that before continuing with your e-newsletter.
Q: My e-newsletter didn’t come out right when I sent it. What did I do wrong?
A: A few of you had made the same mistake, and the fix is simple. Make your newsletter text only instead of trying to include pictures or background images in it. The less technology you use in your newsletter, the less likely your newsletter will crash on your recipient’s computer. Also, most of the popular e-mail services will flag your e-mail as spam or infected with a virus if there are unnecessary attachments. If the image is important for your readers to see, then upload the image to your Web site and use a link to get to it. This will prevent your e-newsletter from crashing and drive traffic to your Web site.
Q: I received delivery errors when I sent my e-newsletters out. What did I do wrong?
A: It’s the nature of the beast when you bulk e-mail. The bigger your mailing list, the more delivery errors you will receive. Most of the time, the errors will be an incorrect e-mail address. Sometimes a major e-mail service will limit the number of e-mail you can send to their service during a certain time period. AOL is notorious for this, and it’s likely the brunt of such errors is from AOL.
Q: How’s your Dad doing this week?
A: My Dad is currently in Loma Linda VA under Respid Care. This was a planned stay to have him evaluated by several doctors while there, and to provide a little break from taking care of him at home. The break didn’t really happen, because I’ve constantly been on the phone coordinating his appointments. However, my Dad is doing okay.
Keep sending those questions, and I’ll keep answering them!
HOW SPAMMERS SPAM
By Dan Harley, Jr.
I’m hoping this article will give you enough information to better understand spammers, so you can keep your e-mails out of the spam folder and to keep spammers from spamming you. Believe it or not, it is very difficult to be a spammer. It is a lot of hard work, and is not worth the effort.
Although it seems like there are millions of spammers out there, most spam comes from just a handful of spammers. The most popular spammer is what I call the “Pharmacy Guy.” Depending on whom you ask, Pharmacy Guy is responsible for 10% to 50% of today’s spam. Pharmacy Guy is linked to thousands of credit card fraud cases around the world. Pharmacy Guy is being hunted down by just about every law enforcement agency in the world, and the closest the law has gotten to him is they think he is either in Canada or Russia. Pharmacy Guy has been doing this for years, and he is very good at it.
Pharmacy Guy’s operation is immoral, unethical, illegal but also very ingenious. He sets up his online business Web sites with hosting services by using credit card information that he had previously stolen. The Web site’s objective is to collect credit card information by impersonating a legitimate online business. His most popular Web site is the online pharmacy, but he also has tobacco shops, bookstores, opportunity seminars and dozens of other imaginary businesses. The sites remain dormant until Pharmacy Guy is ready to use it.
When the time comes, Pharmacy Guy will send an e-mail blast to tens of millions of e-mail addresses to visit the imaginary online business. The sheer number of e-mails will find someone naïve enough to leave their credit card information on the Web site. Pharmacy Guy’s e-mail campaign ends within a couple hours due to getting flagged for spam, but the damage has already been done. Credit card information is downloaded immediately, the site is abandoned and Pharmacy Guy’s tracks are already well hidden in the complex maze of the Internet. The scary thing is Pharmacy Guy could have several of these Web sites operating at any one time.
How Pharmacy Guy acquires his e-mail addresses is through several means of e-mail farming, with the most effective means is chain e-mails. Pharmacy Guy sends out chain e-mails; which could be jokes, political statements, online polls, virus alerts, etc., that will eventually come back to him full of e-mail addresses from being forwarded around the Internet. Most all of the e-mail addresses farmed from the chain e-mail are live e-mail accounts, which are more valuable than randomly generated e-mail addresses. It doesn’t take too long to build an enormous database of e-mail addresses by doing this.
Other major spamming operations use more or less the same tactics, and they use it because it works. It is a very complex system that requires an extreme level of knowledge and expertise as well as commitment to break laws without getting caught. All this in mind, it is very tough to be a professional spammer. On the other hand, it is very easy to end up on a spam list because of what the professional spammers do.
To avoid being tagged as a spammer is as simple as sticking to good morals and managing your mailing list carefully. A well-managed mailing list used for good intentions will receive a thousand times better response rate than a professional spammer’s mailing lists. The mailing list that is used for this e-newsletter conservatively receives a 20% response rate, and I’ve had only one unsubscribe request since starting this publication. A professional spammer’s mailing list is considered good with just a couple dozen responses out of millions of recipients.
I hope this article clearly defines what a professional spammer really does, and gives you some ideas in how not to look like one of them. The next couple articles will focus on spammers and spamming, so that those of you who are jumping ahead can avoid problems of your own.
I’ll talk to you next week, and keep those e-mails coming!
Thursday, May 3, 2007
DON'T do this
THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTERS
April 24, 2007
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Hello to another week of stimulating information about e-mail marketing. My mailing list grows once again. Those of you reading my newsletter for the first time, I would like to direct your attention to the next article about why you’re receiving this newsletter and why I’m publishing it. I also continue to receive a steady flow of questions, which I’ll answer in the Q&A segment of this newsletter.
I was a speaker at Rotary District Assembly last Saturday, and I rocked as usual. I’m one of the weird people who actually love public speaking, and can’t wait to be in front of an audience. Although Rotary is a target rich environment for business referrals, I NEVER take advantage of such situations without first considering my ethics, morality and commitment to Rotary. That doesn’t mean that I don’t apply my e-mail marketing techniques in my Rotary affairs though. I just started a Yahoo Group so Rotarians within my district can communicate more easily with each other. Let me know if you want to know more about Rotary.
Some of you are taking my advice, and are already starting to apply it. However, there are a few steps in my advice that you’re still missing, which you get into trouble if you don’t have it right away. This week’s article is going to cover what not to do with e-mail marketing. If you read any article that I write, you need to read this one.
For those of you reading this for the first time, you can get filled in on what you missed by going to my blog. It has all of my previous articles, and can be found on my blog at:
http://primeconcepts.blogspot.com/
Let’s get started!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Q: What is the best joke site?
A: Ironically, this is a question that I’m not sure if I can answer. As funny as I am, I don’t look at joke sites all that much. I’m an America’s Funniest Videos cult fanatic, and I go to You Tube and Google Videos to quench my insatiable apatite for funny videos.
Q: What do you think about the communist government in Vietnam?
A: Before my first visit to Vietnam in recent times, I had thought much like everyone else had thought about communism and probably had good reason to never visit Vietnam, but my opinion has completely changed. Things may have been different in the past, but communism in Vietnam is not the big ugly monster that I was lead to believe through my life. Their government is very corrupt, and punishment can be very severe for things that are completely legal here. On the other hand, Vietnam experiences more freedom in some situations than we do as Americans. Chuck Searcy, who is Vietnam Veteran living in Hanoi right now, summed it up nicely. Communism is simply another form of government bureaucracy.
Q: How many e-newsletters do you have?
A: At my peak, I published six e-newsletters at one time. It was fun, but was a lot of work, because I usually created my own content for all of the publications. I whittled down to two publications before I started this newsletter, which would currently make three publications that I’m managing at this time.
Q: Have you tried using paid mailing lists?
A: Yes. I had been a reseller of Postmaster Direct (http://postmasterdirect.com) a few years ago, who sells opt-in mailing lists. Postmaster Direct has a strict policy of accepting only double opt-in subscription lists, which pays off in very high response rates. Response rates are usually 5%-10% with their mailing lists. Let me know if you want more information about this.
Keep sending those questions, and I’ll keep answering them!
WHAT YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT DO IN E-MAIL MARKETING
By Dan Harley, Jr.
Some of you have included me in your e-mail lists, and I now regularly receiving e-market material from my own readers. I am humbled to see many of you taking my advice and running with it. For those of you who haven’t done this yet, please include me in any of your subscription lists. I will do my best to critique your work so you can improve on what you’re doing.
A few of you are making a fatal mistake with your e-mailings, and I want to give you information so you can correct this immediately. So far, I’ve been giving you advice on how to use e-mail marketing by sending personalized or individual e-mails instead of broadcasting to a mailing list. The technique that I’ve shown you eliminates the possibility of being flagged for spamming, but there are different techniques that you need to use if you send bulk e-mail. You MUST use these techniques to protect your readers, let alone yourself, from spammers.
NEVER reveal your recipient’s e-mail addresses if you bulk-send to a mailing list. Always use BCC instead of CC or Recipient fields when you insert their e-mail addresses into your e-mail. Using BCC will hide your recipient’s e-mail addresses from others and especially from e-mail farmers who could sell such information to spammers.
NEVER send file attachments in your bulk e-mails unless you thoroughly check the attachment. Some of you are sending newsletters as a Word file to save time and trouble to reproduce it as e-mail. Word files are very susceptible to contacting viruses. If you must, create a PDF file and send the PDF file instead.
NEVER refer your recipients to a Web site without thoroughly checking it first. There is technology that can open a computer like a sardine can and infect it with a virus by just visiting a Web site, and you don't want to be blamed for screwing up a friend's computer.
Be careful with forwarding jokes, political statements, etc. E-mail farmers send chain e-mails through the Internet as jokes, political statements or surveys to collect e-mails when they receive their e-mail back. If you think it’s funny and you want others to know, make sure you rip out any e-mail addresses that were previously attached.
I’ll cover more of how to do bulk e-mailing next week. Until then, don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions on this.
E-MAIL MARKETING CASE STUDY
By Dan Harley, Jr.
This week’s case study is for anyone in the real estate industry. The real estate industry was my focus industry when I was working with a Web development company in San Diego many years ago, and I’ve done a lot of homework in that field. There are plenty of signs that the real estate industry has taken a turn for the worse right now, and it’s probably going to get even worse before it gets better. The readers who are in this field know this very well, because they are career realtors or brokers instead of the others who will be looking for gainful employment soon. Believe it or not, the change in the market and mass exodus of what had been your competition creates opportunity for you to capitalize on and to thrive.
As a career realtor or broker, you know how to get through the bad times by adjusting with the market. The market is becoming filled with foreclosures and those who want to get out of their properties before they get into trouble. You have privilege information that is valuable to others. I know of brokers who charge a subscription fee just to be on their foreclosure and pre-foreclosure mailing lists, and that should tell you how valuable such information is.
You can build a special mailing list very quickly by indicating that you will inform your subscribers about hot deals before you advertise it, which will give your subscribers an exclusive first look at hot real estate deals. Trust me on this, information on hot real estate deals get passed around the Internet faster than bad jokes do. This technique can be used by anyone in the real estate industry, but be careful that you don’t violate any disclosure laws.
April 24, 2007
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Hello to another week of stimulating information about e-mail marketing. My mailing list grows once again. Those of you reading my newsletter for the first time, I would like to direct your attention to the next article about why you’re receiving this newsletter and why I’m publishing it. I also continue to receive a steady flow of questions, which I’ll answer in the Q&A segment of this newsletter.
I was a speaker at Rotary District Assembly last Saturday, and I rocked as usual. I’m one of the weird people who actually love public speaking, and can’t wait to be in front of an audience. Although Rotary is a target rich environment for business referrals, I NEVER take advantage of such situations without first considering my ethics, morality and commitment to Rotary. That doesn’t mean that I don’t apply my e-mail marketing techniques in my Rotary affairs though. I just started a Yahoo Group so Rotarians within my district can communicate more easily with each other. Let me know if you want to know more about Rotary.
Some of you are taking my advice, and are already starting to apply it. However, there are a few steps in my advice that you’re still missing, which you get into trouble if you don’t have it right away. This week’s article is going to cover what not to do with e-mail marketing. If you read any article that I write, you need to read this one.
For those of you reading this for the first time, you can get filled in on what you missed by going to my blog. It has all of my previous articles, and can be found on my blog at:
http://primeconcepts.blogspot.com/
Let’s get started!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Q: What is the best joke site?
A: Ironically, this is a question that I’m not sure if I can answer. As funny as I am, I don’t look at joke sites all that much. I’m an America’s Funniest Videos cult fanatic, and I go to You Tube and Google Videos to quench my insatiable apatite for funny videos.
Q: What do you think about the communist government in Vietnam?
A: Before my first visit to Vietnam in recent times, I had thought much like everyone else had thought about communism and probably had good reason to never visit Vietnam, but my opinion has completely changed. Things may have been different in the past, but communism in Vietnam is not the big ugly monster that I was lead to believe through my life. Their government is very corrupt, and punishment can be very severe for things that are completely legal here. On the other hand, Vietnam experiences more freedom in some situations than we do as Americans. Chuck Searcy, who is Vietnam Veteran living in Hanoi right now, summed it up nicely. Communism is simply another form of government bureaucracy.
Q: How many e-newsletters do you have?
A: At my peak, I published six e-newsletters at one time. It was fun, but was a lot of work, because I usually created my own content for all of the publications. I whittled down to two publications before I started this newsletter, which would currently make three publications that I’m managing at this time.
Q: Have you tried using paid mailing lists?
A: Yes. I had been a reseller of Postmaster Direct (http://postmasterdirect.com) a few years ago, who sells opt-in mailing lists. Postmaster Direct has a strict policy of accepting only double opt-in subscription lists, which pays off in very high response rates. Response rates are usually 5%-10% with their mailing lists. Let me know if you want more information about this.
Keep sending those questions, and I’ll keep answering them!
WHAT YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT DO IN E-MAIL MARKETING
By Dan Harley, Jr.
Some of you have included me in your e-mail lists, and I now regularly receiving e-market material from my own readers. I am humbled to see many of you taking my advice and running with it. For those of you who haven’t done this yet, please include me in any of your subscription lists. I will do my best to critique your work so you can improve on what you’re doing.
A few of you are making a fatal mistake with your e-mailings, and I want to give you information so you can correct this immediately. So far, I’ve been giving you advice on how to use e-mail marketing by sending personalized or individual e-mails instead of broadcasting to a mailing list. The technique that I’ve shown you eliminates the possibility of being flagged for spamming, but there are different techniques that you need to use if you send bulk e-mail. You MUST use these techniques to protect your readers, let alone yourself, from spammers.
NEVER reveal your recipient’s e-mail addresses if you bulk-send to a mailing list. Always use BCC instead of CC or Recipient fields when you insert their e-mail addresses into your e-mail. Using BCC will hide your recipient’s e-mail addresses from others and especially from e-mail farmers who could sell such information to spammers.
NEVER send file attachments in your bulk e-mails unless you thoroughly check the attachment. Some of you are sending newsletters as a Word file to save time and trouble to reproduce it as e-mail. Word files are very susceptible to contacting viruses. If you must, create a PDF file and send the PDF file instead.
NEVER refer your recipients to a Web site without thoroughly checking it first. There is technology that can open a computer like a sardine can and infect it with a virus by just visiting a Web site, and you don't want to be blamed for screwing up a friend's computer.
Be careful with forwarding jokes, political statements, etc. E-mail farmers send chain e-mails through the Internet as jokes, political statements or surveys to collect e-mails when they receive their e-mail back. If you think it’s funny and you want others to know, make sure you rip out any e-mail addresses that were previously attached.
I’ll cover more of how to do bulk e-mailing next week. Until then, don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions on this.
E-MAIL MARKETING CASE STUDY
By Dan Harley, Jr.
This week’s case study is for anyone in the real estate industry. The real estate industry was my focus industry when I was working with a Web development company in San Diego many years ago, and I’ve done a lot of homework in that field. There are plenty of signs that the real estate industry has taken a turn for the worse right now, and it’s probably going to get even worse before it gets better. The readers who are in this field know this very well, because they are career realtors or brokers instead of the others who will be looking for gainful employment soon. Believe it or not, the change in the market and mass exodus of what had been your competition creates opportunity for you to capitalize on and to thrive.
As a career realtor or broker, you know how to get through the bad times by adjusting with the market. The market is becoming filled with foreclosures and those who want to get out of their properties before they get into trouble. You have privilege information that is valuable to others. I know of brokers who charge a subscription fee just to be on their foreclosure and pre-foreclosure mailing lists, and that should tell you how valuable such information is.
You can build a special mailing list very quickly by indicating that you will inform your subscribers about hot deals before you advertise it, which will give your subscribers an exclusive first look at hot real estate deals. Trust me on this, information on hot real estate deals get passed around the Internet faster than bad jokes do. This technique can be used by anyone in the real estate industry, but be careful that you don’t violate any disclosure laws.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
SOURCES FOR FREE ARTICLES
THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTERS
April 11, 2007
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Hello to another week of stimulating information about e-mail marketing. My mailing list grows once again. Those of you reading my newsletter for the first time, I would like to direct your attention to the next article about why you’re receiving this newsletter and why I’m publishing it. I also continue to receive a steady flow of questions, which I’ll answer in the Q&A segment of this newsletter.
This week I will talk about sources for free articles that you could use in your own newsletter or even for support information in follow-up letters. This is excellent information for those of you who don’t have strong writing skills, because it will prove that you don’t have to write a single word and still be able to publish a very powerful e-newsletter publication.
IMPORTANT!!!
I found some disturbing news about our personal information in the face of the Homeland Security Act. A friend gave me information about a Web site that could have access to ANYONE’S driver license information. This is very disturbing information, that I want to pass to my readers here. I have included an article concerning this today.
Keep in mind that my previous articles can be found on my blog at:
http://primeconcepts.blogspot.com/
Let’s get started!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Answering questions in a newsletter is an excellent way to provide very informative content to your newsletter readers. I encourage all of you to send me your questions, and I will gladly answer them in my future newsletters. Thanks to your input, this Q & A segment is a permanent fixture to this newsletter.
Q: How do you fight spam?
A: This is a very good question that I should have answered earlier. Everyone has been confronted with spam, and that is especially so for me. I receive more spam than anyone I know, because I oversee over 200 Web sites. I receive more than 300 and sometimes over 800 E-mails a day, but I see maybe six to eight spam mails a day.
I use an Outlook plug-in called SpamBayes (http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/), which is a spam filter that uses a statistical anti-spam filtering system. Plainly speaking, the spam filter learns what is spam and what is not then applies some math to sort spam out of my inbox. Best of all, it’s free!
Q: What is the best Web site you have ever created?
A: My business objective is not to create the best Web site for my clients, but to make as much money as possible with my client by using the Internet. That in mind, I have three “best” sites.
My first best is Maverick Company (http://mavcoland.com). This is one of my first clients who had become a very good friend of mine. My search engine promotion strategies used on the site generates over 10,000 unique visitors/month. I actually had to tear down parts of the site to slow down the number of contacts coming from the Web site.
My second best is a collection of Web sites owned by Harbor Breeze Cruises. 2SeeWhales.com generates over 60,000 unique visitors/month during the peak of whale watching season. In turn, the Web site generates over 60% of my client’s business. The other sites focus on different services offered by my client.
My best non-profit site is Apple Valley Rotary (http://applevalleyrotary.com). This Web site won the first two District Web site awards. I had to take a dive last year and again this year to keep the competition from looking like it was rigged.
Q: How many seminars do you do?
A: I’m one of the weird people that love to do public speaking. I had regular seminars on business Web sites at many of the local chambers, business resource centers and other functions. I haven’t done as many seminars as I used to, due to getting married in Vietnam last year. I will pick the pace up again as soon as my wife is stateside.
Q: How’s you Dad?
A: Many of you know that my Dad’s health is not very good. He suffers from many health complications related to his tour of duty in Vietnam, and things seem to be getting worse lately. He’s not dying, but he is requiring more care. He’s currently having a hard time with recent adjustments to his medication. I’ve been stretched a little thin during the past couple weeks because of this.
He came to Vietnam for my wedding and to receive acupuncture treatment, which improved his health almost immediately. We have plans to bring him back to Vietnam for further treatment.
Q: Where’s you wife?
A: My wife is currently in Hanoi, and will be going back to Saigon in a few days. My Uncle Chau, who lives in San Diego, had recently arrived in Vietnam and my wife has done a fantastic job in taking care of him. She has shown my uncle places in Hanoi that he has never seen despite visiting there many times already. My wife will be going back to Saigon
Keep sending those questions, and I’ll keep answering them!
SOURCES FOR FREE ARTICLES
By Dan Harley, Jr.
Believe it or not, there was a time that I was not a very good writer (some of you may think that I am still not a very good writer). The tech bug had bitten me early in my life, and it directly affected my abilities to write well. Other computer geeks could understand me, but hardly anyone else could. I cheated through college grammar courses by taking classes with a professor that worshiped my Dad, who was an icon at Victor Valley College during his teaching days. It was an instant “B” for me without hassling through studying proper grammar. I never thought that writing would be such an important part of my life back then.
I had become better at writing as I grew older and acquired more wisdom. I wrote more as time passed by, and developed my own writing characteristics, which made writing a lot more fun for me. Although I enjoy writing now, it can still be burdensome from time to time. Now, I think too much about what I write, and probably take longer than I have to just to write something simple. Long story short, I have just as many excuses to avoid writing articles for my newsletters and anyone else would, despite being (arguably) a better than average writer.
My old e-newsletter was a lot easier to publish than this one is, because I often used articles written by someone else. I had known Dr. Kevin Nunley (http://drnunley.com/) through the Internet, and often re-published his articles in my e-newsletter. He has some great information in his articles, and it took less than a minute to copy and paste into my e-newsletter. The cost was subscribing to his newsletter and giving him credit for writing the article. Sometimes, he would return the favor and publish one of my articles, which gave me incredible exposure to his 100,000+ readers.
You can find free sources for articles, like I have with Dr. Nunley, on any subject you can think of. Finding sources is as easy as searching Google for “free newsletter articles”. If you don’t want to wade through the thousands of sources for free articles, here’s a few links for you to look through right away:
http://www.freenewsarticles.com
http://www.articlecity.com
http://www.articledepot.net
After wading through the hundreds of free articles available, you might be thinking about why so many people do this and what do they get out of it. The catch is the write receives free exposure. You will be obligated to national and international copyright laws, which simply means that you give credit where credit is due. Make sure you state who wrote the article and their contact information they want you to provide in trade for use of their articles. That is a heck of a deal!
You don’t necessarily have to use the articles for a newsletter. You could use them as follow-up information to support what you are doing with your customers. Many of you are realtors, and you could support your information with a related article. This will give you credibility on top of your own words.
Next week, I will discuss the information you will receive from the article following this one. See you later!
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRIVER LICENSE
I have recently come across some disturbing information concerning our privacy as citizens of this great country. I believe the Homeland Security Act has gone too far, and you should know what they have done in exploiting their power. Your personal information could be public knowledge now.
If you have a valid driver license, ANYONE could access this information through the National Motor Vehicle License Bureau’s Web site. I had searched for my driver license information, and am very upset with what I have found. You should see this for yourself. Go to the following Web site and search for your own driver license information:
http://www.license.shorturl.com/
Write me back, and let me know what you think.
OPPORTUNTY OF THE WEEK!
If you read anything in this newsletter, you will want to read this segment. I will have an offer of some kind published here weekly. It could be discounts on my services. It could be coupons for free dinners. It could be opportunities to earn cold hard cash.
This week’s opportunity is a FREE INVITATION…
I will continue this opportunity for one more week because it has been very successful.
For those of you who live in the High Desert, you may have heard about the Victor Valley Cigar Club. The Cigar Club is an opportunity for many of my friends to get together. I invite you to join the cigar club mailing list and join in our debaucheries.
To join, all you have to do is reply back to this e-mail with JOIN CIGAR CLUB in the subject line. I will add you to the mailing list, and let you know when our next cigar social will be.
END
April 11, 2007
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Hello to another week of stimulating information about e-mail marketing. My mailing list grows once again. Those of you reading my newsletter for the first time, I would like to direct your attention to the next article about why you’re receiving this newsletter and why I’m publishing it. I also continue to receive a steady flow of questions, which I’ll answer in the Q&A segment of this newsletter.
This week I will talk about sources for free articles that you could use in your own newsletter or even for support information in follow-up letters. This is excellent information for those of you who don’t have strong writing skills, because it will prove that you don’t have to write a single word and still be able to publish a very powerful e-newsletter publication.
IMPORTANT!!!
I found some disturbing news about our personal information in the face of the Homeland Security Act. A friend gave me information about a Web site that could have access to ANYONE’S driver license information. This is very disturbing information, that I want to pass to my readers here. I have included an article concerning this today.
Keep in mind that my previous articles can be found on my blog at:
http://primeconcepts.blogspot.com/
Let’s get started!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Answering questions in a newsletter is an excellent way to provide very informative content to your newsletter readers. I encourage all of you to send me your questions, and I will gladly answer them in my future newsletters. Thanks to your input, this Q & A segment is a permanent fixture to this newsletter.
Q: How do you fight spam?
A: This is a very good question that I should have answered earlier. Everyone has been confronted with spam, and that is especially so for me. I receive more spam than anyone I know, because I oversee over 200 Web sites. I receive more than 300 and sometimes over 800 E-mails a day, but I see maybe six to eight spam mails a day.
I use an Outlook plug-in called SpamBayes (http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/), which is a spam filter that uses a statistical anti-spam filtering system. Plainly speaking, the spam filter learns what is spam and what is not then applies some math to sort spam out of my inbox. Best of all, it’s free!
Q: What is the best Web site you have ever created?
A: My business objective is not to create the best Web site for my clients, but to make as much money as possible with my client by using the Internet. That in mind, I have three “best” sites.
My first best is Maverick Company (http://mavcoland.com). This is one of my first clients who had become a very good friend of mine. My search engine promotion strategies used on the site generates over 10,000 unique visitors/month. I actually had to tear down parts of the site to slow down the number of contacts coming from the Web site.
My second best is a collection of Web sites owned by Harbor Breeze Cruises. 2SeeWhales.com generates over 60,000 unique visitors/month during the peak of whale watching season. In turn, the Web site generates over 60% of my client’s business. The other sites focus on different services offered by my client.
My best non-profit site is Apple Valley Rotary (http://applevalleyrotary.com). This Web site won the first two District Web site awards. I had to take a dive last year and again this year to keep the competition from looking like it was rigged.
Q: How many seminars do you do?
A: I’m one of the weird people that love to do public speaking. I had regular seminars on business Web sites at many of the local chambers, business resource centers and other functions. I haven’t done as many seminars as I used to, due to getting married in Vietnam last year. I will pick the pace up again as soon as my wife is stateside.
Q: How’s you Dad?
A: Many of you know that my Dad’s health is not very good. He suffers from many health complications related to his tour of duty in Vietnam, and things seem to be getting worse lately. He’s not dying, but he is requiring more care. He’s currently having a hard time with recent adjustments to his medication. I’ve been stretched a little thin during the past couple weeks because of this.
He came to Vietnam for my wedding and to receive acupuncture treatment, which improved his health almost immediately. We have plans to bring him back to Vietnam for further treatment.
Q: Where’s you wife?
A: My wife is currently in Hanoi, and will be going back to Saigon in a few days. My Uncle Chau, who lives in San Diego, had recently arrived in Vietnam and my wife has done a fantastic job in taking care of him. She has shown my uncle places in Hanoi that he has never seen despite visiting there many times already. My wife will be going back to Saigon
Keep sending those questions, and I’ll keep answering them!
SOURCES FOR FREE ARTICLES
By Dan Harley, Jr.
Believe it or not, there was a time that I was not a very good writer (some of you may think that I am still not a very good writer). The tech bug had bitten me early in my life, and it directly affected my abilities to write well. Other computer geeks could understand me, but hardly anyone else could. I cheated through college grammar courses by taking classes with a professor that worshiped my Dad, who was an icon at Victor Valley College during his teaching days. It was an instant “B” for me without hassling through studying proper grammar. I never thought that writing would be such an important part of my life back then.
I had become better at writing as I grew older and acquired more wisdom. I wrote more as time passed by, and developed my own writing characteristics, which made writing a lot more fun for me. Although I enjoy writing now, it can still be burdensome from time to time. Now, I think too much about what I write, and probably take longer than I have to just to write something simple. Long story short, I have just as many excuses to avoid writing articles for my newsletters and anyone else would, despite being (arguably) a better than average writer.
My old e-newsletter was a lot easier to publish than this one is, because I often used articles written by someone else. I had known Dr. Kevin Nunley (http://drnunley.com/) through the Internet, and often re-published his articles in my e-newsletter. He has some great information in his articles, and it took less than a minute to copy and paste into my e-newsletter. The cost was subscribing to his newsletter and giving him credit for writing the article. Sometimes, he would return the favor and publish one of my articles, which gave me incredible exposure to his 100,000+ readers.
You can find free sources for articles, like I have with Dr. Nunley, on any subject you can think of. Finding sources is as easy as searching Google for “free newsletter articles”. If you don’t want to wade through the thousands of sources for free articles, here’s a few links for you to look through right away:
http://www.freenewsarticles.com
http://www.articlecity.com
http://www.articledepot.net
After wading through the hundreds of free articles available, you might be thinking about why so many people do this and what do they get out of it. The catch is the write receives free exposure. You will be obligated to national and international copyright laws, which simply means that you give credit where credit is due. Make sure you state who wrote the article and their contact information they want you to provide in trade for use of their articles. That is a heck of a deal!
You don’t necessarily have to use the articles for a newsletter. You could use them as follow-up information to support what you are doing with your customers. Many of you are realtors, and you could support your information with a related article. This will give you credibility on top of your own words.
Next week, I will discuss the information you will receive from the article following this one. See you later!
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRIVER LICENSE
I have recently come across some disturbing information concerning our privacy as citizens of this great country. I believe the Homeland Security Act has gone too far, and you should know what they have done in exploiting their power. Your personal information could be public knowledge now.
If you have a valid driver license, ANYONE could access this information through the National Motor Vehicle License Bureau’s Web site. I had searched for my driver license information, and am very upset with what I have found. You should see this for yourself. Go to the following Web site and search for your own driver license information:
http://www.license.shorturl.com/
Write me back, and let me know what you think.
OPPORTUNTY OF THE WEEK!
If you read anything in this newsletter, you will want to read this segment. I will have an offer of some kind published here weekly. It could be discounts on my services. It could be coupons for free dinners. It could be opportunities to earn cold hard cash.
This week’s opportunity is a FREE INVITATION…
I will continue this opportunity for one more week because it has been very successful.
For those of you who live in the High Desert, you may have heard about the Victor Valley Cigar Club. The Cigar Club is an opportunity for many of my friends to get together. I invite you to join the cigar club mailing list and join in our debaucheries.
To join, all you have to do is reply back to this e-mail with JOIN CIGAR CLUB in the subject line. I will add you to the mailing list, and let you know when our next cigar social will be.
END
SUCCESSFUL E-MAIL MARKETING BY USING CONTENT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR BUSINESS
THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTERS
April 4, 2007
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Hello to another week of stimulating information about e-mail marketing. I was a guest speaker at a business class at Victor Valley College last night, and some of those who attended are new readers here. Those of you reading my newsletter for the first time, I would like to direct your attention to the next article about why you’re receiving this newsletter and why I’m publishing it. I also continue to receive a steady flow of questions, which I’ll answer in the Q&A segment of this newsletter.
This week, I’m going to discuss about things that you can discuss in an e-newsletter or regular correspondence that doesn’t necessarily have to do with you business, but will still keep your prospects interested in you business. By the way, it was intentional if the subject line of this e-mail fooled you. You will see why when you read the article.
Keep in mind that my previous articles can be found on my blog at:
http://primeconcepts.blogspot.com/
Let’s get started!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Answering questions in a newsletter is an excellent way to provide very informative content to your newsletter readers. I encourage all of you to send me your questions, and I will gladly answer them in my future newsletters. Thanks to your input, this Q & A segment is a permanent fixture to this newsletter.
Q: What should I have an e-newsletter if I can’t write worth a damn and I don’t like to write in the first place?
A: You can still publish a professional and respectable newsletter without writing a single article yourself. However, it does help to write your articles. I’ll cover this more in depth in the following article.
Q: What is Plaxo, and why do I receive e-mails to update my information?
A: Plaxo is a service I use to help manage the thousands of contacts I have. Among many things, I use it to keep all of my contact information updated. The updating system is semi-automatic; whereas I press a button then Plaxo sends a contact e-mail to update your information and automatically updates it in Outlook for me. There are other Plaxo features, such as electronic greeting cards, which are helpful tools to have.
Q: What makes you different from a Web developer?
A: This question comes from someone attending my class last night. I do a whole lot more than Web development for my clients. Unlike most Web developers, my objective is not just to build a Web site and let my clients fend for themselves for other services. I want to make the Internet an effective tool for my client’s business, which requires much more knowledge and skill than just being a Web developer.
Q: What is a domain squatter?
A: A new client of mine just received some bad news regarding his domain name, which prompts this question. A domain squatter fits several descriptions of people or persons taking control of a domain name usually for immoral reasons. Most domain squatters are Web developers or Internet service providers, who register their customer’s domain names to them self rather than to their customer. The customer finds out that this has happened when they change services, and end up in a big mess in trying to get their domain back.
If you have a domain name and are unsure of whether it is being squatted on, contact me and I will check it for free.
SUCCESSFUL E-MAIL MARKETING BY USING CONTENT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR BUSINESS
By Dan Harley, Jr.
If you think I’m crazy about writing on this subject, you’re probably right. Before you contact a psychiatrist to have me locked up, you should hear about my crazy idea.
Good salespeople aren’t really selling whatever products or services they receive their commission checks from. They are selling themselves. They do this by building quality relationships with their prospects. The more they work on relationship building, the better they are at closing sales. So why not tell your prospects about your favorite hobby or sport!
We are good at something other what we do for work, and are probably experts at that something too. For instance, I’m a very accomplished horseman. This is something that is quite unique for being a techie and Asian. This is also something that will make me unique among my competitors.
My clients and prospects already know what I do and what I sell, so sending a sales letter regularly could become boring and even ignored. However, sending something describing my last ride through the Mojave Narrows with links to pictures that I took during my ride is a much different story. I can access places in the Narrows easier and faster than someone could on foot or even on a motorbike. So, I can talk about and show pictures of places that my clients wouldn’t be able to see them self unless they too have a horse. Now, that’s fun to read!
For those of you who were fooled by the subject line, think about why you opened this e-mail. It worked didn’t it! I fooled you to make my point. People are more interested in you rather than what you’re selling, and it should be that way if you want to be good at sales. I do have stories and pictures of Vietnam to show you. Here they are:
My Vietnam Blog: http://danharley.blogspot.com/
My Vietnam Pictures: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/danharley/
The blog is a compilation of e-mails that I sent home while I was on my trip. As you see, there is nothing mentioned about my business or services in them, but I still received four referrals when I returned home. Not bad for having the time of my life!
A suggested task for you to do is to think about something fun you’ve done that you would want your friends or family to know about. Now, send e-mail to your friends, who happen to be your prospects, and tell them about your experience. The reaction you receive will be much better than a boring sales letter.
Next week, I will show you how to obtain free articles on just about anything you can think of for your own e-newsletter. Talk to you next week!
END
April 4, 2007
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Hello to another week of stimulating information about e-mail marketing. I was a guest speaker at a business class at Victor Valley College last night, and some of those who attended are new readers here. Those of you reading my newsletter for the first time, I would like to direct your attention to the next article about why you’re receiving this newsletter and why I’m publishing it. I also continue to receive a steady flow of questions, which I’ll answer in the Q&A segment of this newsletter.
This week, I’m going to discuss about things that you can discuss in an e-newsletter or regular correspondence that doesn’t necessarily have to do with you business, but will still keep your prospects interested in you business. By the way, it was intentional if the subject line of this e-mail fooled you. You will see why when you read the article.
Keep in mind that my previous articles can be found on my blog at:
http://primeconcepts.blogspot.com/
Let’s get started!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Answering questions in a newsletter is an excellent way to provide very informative content to your newsletter readers. I encourage all of you to send me your questions, and I will gladly answer them in my future newsletters. Thanks to your input, this Q & A segment is a permanent fixture to this newsletter.
Q: What should I have an e-newsletter if I can’t write worth a damn and I don’t like to write in the first place?
A: You can still publish a professional and respectable newsletter without writing a single article yourself. However, it does help to write your articles. I’ll cover this more in depth in the following article.
Q: What is Plaxo, and why do I receive e-mails to update my information?
A: Plaxo is a service I use to help manage the thousands of contacts I have. Among many things, I use it to keep all of my contact information updated. The updating system is semi-automatic; whereas I press a button then Plaxo sends a contact e-mail to update your information and automatically updates it in Outlook for me. There are other Plaxo features, such as electronic greeting cards, which are helpful tools to have.
Q: What makes you different from a Web developer?
A: This question comes from someone attending my class last night. I do a whole lot more than Web development for my clients. Unlike most Web developers, my objective is not just to build a Web site and let my clients fend for themselves for other services. I want to make the Internet an effective tool for my client’s business, which requires much more knowledge and skill than just being a Web developer.
Q: What is a domain squatter?
A: A new client of mine just received some bad news regarding his domain name, which prompts this question. A domain squatter fits several descriptions of people or persons taking control of a domain name usually for immoral reasons. Most domain squatters are Web developers or Internet service providers, who register their customer’s domain names to them self rather than to their customer. The customer finds out that this has happened when they change services, and end up in a big mess in trying to get their domain back.
If you have a domain name and are unsure of whether it is being squatted on, contact me and I will check it for free.
SUCCESSFUL E-MAIL MARKETING BY USING CONTENT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR BUSINESS
By Dan Harley, Jr.
If you think I’m crazy about writing on this subject, you’re probably right. Before you contact a psychiatrist to have me locked up, you should hear about my crazy idea.
Good salespeople aren’t really selling whatever products or services they receive their commission checks from. They are selling themselves. They do this by building quality relationships with their prospects. The more they work on relationship building, the better they are at closing sales. So why not tell your prospects about your favorite hobby or sport!
We are good at something other what we do for work, and are probably experts at that something too. For instance, I’m a very accomplished horseman. This is something that is quite unique for being a techie and Asian. This is also something that will make me unique among my competitors.
My clients and prospects already know what I do and what I sell, so sending a sales letter regularly could become boring and even ignored. However, sending something describing my last ride through the Mojave Narrows with links to pictures that I took during my ride is a much different story. I can access places in the Narrows easier and faster than someone could on foot or even on a motorbike. So, I can talk about and show pictures of places that my clients wouldn’t be able to see them self unless they too have a horse. Now, that’s fun to read!
For those of you who were fooled by the subject line, think about why you opened this e-mail. It worked didn’t it! I fooled you to make my point. People are more interested in you rather than what you’re selling, and it should be that way if you want to be good at sales. I do have stories and pictures of Vietnam to show you. Here they are:
My Vietnam Blog: http://danharley.blogspot.com/
My Vietnam Pictures: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/danharley/
The blog is a compilation of e-mails that I sent home while I was on my trip. As you see, there is nothing mentioned about my business or services in them, but I still received four referrals when I returned home. Not bad for having the time of my life!
A suggested task for you to do is to think about something fun you’ve done that you would want your friends or family to know about. Now, send e-mail to your friends, who happen to be your prospects, and tell them about your experience. The reaction you receive will be much better than a boring sales letter.
Next week, I will show you how to obtain free articles on just about anything you can think of for your own e-newsletter. Talk to you next week!
END
Thursday, March 29, 2007
What You Can Do With E-Mail That You Cannot Do With Your Business Stationery
Addition and removal instructions at the end of this message
THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTERS
March 28, 2007
By Dan Harley, Jr. - danharley@primeconcepts.net
Hello to another week of stimulating information about e-mail marketing. I’m a little late with this edition due to a power outage from the nasty storm that went through Southern California yesterday. My main computer took yesterday’s activity a little hard, and decided to take a break from working for a few hours. It’s back online thanks to a few cuss words and a claw hammer that I threatened to use if it didn’t start up again.
My subscription list for this newsletter continues to grow. For those of you reading my newsletter for the first time, I would like to direct your attention to the next article about why you’re receiving this newsletter and why I’m publishing it. I also continue to receive a steady flow of questions, which I’ll answer in the Q&A segment of this newsletter.
If you’re into cigars, socializing or simply don’t have much to do on a Thursday night, then you might be interested in another newsletter I publish for the Victor Valley Cigar Club. The Cigar Club is a group of friends who get together regularly to smoke cigars or drink or “B.S.”. Reply back if you’re interested in being on that mailing list.
This week, I’m going to discuss what you can do with e-mail that you cannot do with your snail mail correspondence and how to capitalize on this to market your business. If you are confused about today’s topic of discussion, it might be due to missing information from my previous articles. All of my previous newsletters can be on my blog at:
http://primeconcepts.blogspot.com/
I have a lot to cover, so let’s get started!
IS THIS YOUR FIRST TIME READING THIS NEWSLETTER?
First of all, I want to thank you for spending the time to read my newsletter, and I’m sure you will appreciate receiving my newsletter every week from now on. You have been included on a very private mailing list to receive this newsletter. I know you and everyone else on this mailing list personally, and manually managed to assure it remains private and will not be used for any other purpose.
I’m publishing this newsletter to teach my clients, friends and associates on how to capitalize on e-mail marketing for their business. E-mail marketing is an extremely powerful way to advertise and market your business that costs little or nothing to do. Unfortunately, spamming has created a lot of negativity on this form of marketing as well as a lot of misinformation about e-mail marketing. Most won’t do e-mail marketing despite the fact that of literally throwing away business. I’m hoping to correct that with you and the rest of my readers by publishing this weekly newsletter.
I provide common sense e-mail marketing strategies each week that my readers will be able to implement into their daily business operations right away. I’m also proving that e-mail marketing works by building on my own business success through this same newsletter. I reveal EVERYTHING of how I am doing this so you can do the same for yourself. Best of all, this information is FREE! I will teach you what I have learned from the many years of taking courses and seminars to hone my own skills as an Internet consultant and doing this for myself. Learning what I know will cost you is about ten minutes of your time to read my newsletter each week and then implementing the information that I’ve given you.
Thanks again for being one of my readers for my special newsletter!
Dan Harley, Jr.
GET A WEB SITE UP IN LESS THAN TWO DAYS!
For more information, contact me at: danharley@primeconcepts.net
Or call 760-247-4814
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Answering questions in a newsletter is an excellent way to provide very informative content to your newsletter readers. I encourage all of you to send me your questions, and I will gladly answer them in my future newsletters. Thanks to your input, this Q & A segment is a permanent fixture to this newsletter.
Q: What do you use to manage your mailing lists?
A: The subscription lists for my other newsletters are managed on an e-mail server configured to handle subscription lists. I’m in the process of upgrading this service to handle much larger subscription lists as well as volume, because I’m planning to offer this as a service to my clients who also have large subscription lists that require sophisticated management. However, the mailing list for this newsletter IS NOT on my e-mail server.
This mailing list is managed through Microsoft Outlook on my main computer, and this is done on purpose for a few reasons. I want to use the same tools that you could be using to manage your own mailing lists on your own computer. I’m also better able to manage details of the mailing list through Outlook than from the e-mail server.
Q: What is a blog?
A: This was a question in reference to my own blog for this newsletter. A blog is like an online journal. Use of blogs goes back before the Internet was established, and had been called “Web Logs” instead of blog. Modern use of blogs expands well beyond just being an online diary. Also, creating and managing blogs have become very easy to do now. Many blogs have become extremely popular, which has drawn more interest to blogs.
Blogger.com (http://blogger.com) is arguably the most popular place for blogs, and I have two of my own blogs there, which are:
PrimeConcepts Newsletters
http://primeconcepts.blogspot.com/
Dan Harley’s Ventures in Vietnam
http://danharley.blogspot.com/
Setting up and managing the blogs are free and very easy to do. I’ll cover blogs in more detail through a future article.
Q: How do you get to be good at the Internet?
A: The simple answer is to keep surfing the Internet. The more you use the Internet, the better you will get. There is a more detailed answer when it comes to conduction business in the Internet.
There is a marketing theory called “Infinity Marketing.” This theory basically states that any product or service will find a consumer if it is presented to an infinite number of potential customers. The Internet is the first business tool that could allow a business to reach an infinite number of potential customers around the world with lower costs compared to other forms of marketing. E-mail is by far the most used service on the Internet, which is one of the reasons why I’m publishing this newsletter for you.
Q: What can’t my wife come to America after I married her?
A: For the new readers, I regularly receive personal questions, which should indicate how close the readers on this mailing list are to me.
Marrying my wife is not an instant ticket for her or anyone else to come to America. We are in the middle of processing my wife’s K-3 visa, which usually takes a year to complete. We’re doing everything we can to speed up the process, and we’ve already been successful in shaving off a few months. Our original date for her to come to America was November 2007. Now, it looks like she will be here by no later than August 2007 or even as early as May 2007.
DOES YOUR WEB SITE SUCK?
DO YOU EVEN HAVE A WEB SITE?
I can fix that problem for you!
Contact me at: danharley@primeconcepts.net
Or call: 760-247-4814
WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH E-MAIL THAT YOU CANNOT DO WITH YOUR BUSINESS STATIONERY
By Dan Harley, Jr.
The Internet has changed the way we can do business in more ways that most anyone can imagine. However, we tend to get stuck into doing business as it has been conducted before the Internet. I had taken a business writing class in college that taught me the proper way to write business letters, memos, etc, which I had implemented in my business communications ever since. You have probably followed a similar path in your own business communications, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The difference now compared to what I was taught in college is the Internet and e-mail.
It has been ingrained in our heads to keep business communications brief and to the point, because we have been impressed for years of what is proper and professional. We are taught to communicate on paper, and the paper itself limits what are able to communicate. Your business stationery doesn’t allow for much more than two or three paragraphs of information after the letterhead, address, signature and other miscellaneous items are added. We are literally communicating within a box, which is the shape of your stationery if you haven’t notice. What you need to realize is e-mail doesn’t have a box to limit itself. In other words, it’s you should “think outside of the box” with your business e-communications.
This newsletter is a perfect example of breaking traditional business communications barriers. This newsletter would be six to seven pages if printed out. The information I’ve provided here could never fit on one piece of stationery. There are no such restrictions in e-mail. I have devised a strategy that capitalizes on this freedom, and the foundation of this strategy can work with anyone.
I have compiled dozens of form letters using a word processor and I’m constantly updating them. These form letters range from a brief introduction of my company and services to incredible amounts of information on products and services that I offer. I use these form letters to respond to just about any situation I encounter.
Some of you may already have a library of form letters for your business. If you don’t, then you should start building your form letter library right away. Whether you have a form letter library or not, you should look at your form letters from a perspective outside of the box, because your e-mail is no limited to eleven inches of paper.
You should at least have a form letter describing your business or service. You could add as much information as you need to support your business since you aren’t limited to space. A very good idea is to include some testimonials from your customers. Once you have this form letter ready, you can cut-and-paste it into e-mail in a matter of seconds. Imagine the reaction of your new prospects when receiving such e-mail compared to not receiving anything at all from you.
As an example of how far you can go with form letters, I’ve included one of my form letters concerning Apptomix towards the end of this newsletter. You will notice that it is very detailed with lots of information in it, and I’m constantly adding to it. I usually delete most of the content down to what I believe would interest the prospect before I send the e-mail to them. This way, it takes me about two minutes to provide the quality information that I want my prospect to have instead of three to four hours in creating it from scratch. This format and strategy is far from the traditional sales letter format that I was taught in college business communication class, but it is extremely effective.
I’m sure that I will be receiving a lot of questions on this subject, and I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Next week, I will discuss a very effective e-marketing strategy where you don’t even have to describe anything about your business or services. Keep those e-mails coming, and I will talk to you next week!
OPPORTUNITY OF THE WEEK!
If you read anything in this newsletter, you will want to read this segment. I will have an offer of some kind published here weekly. It could be discounts on my services. It could be coupons for free dinners. It could be opportunities to earn cold hard cash.
This week’s opportunity is a FREE INVITATION…
I will continue this opportunity for one more week because it has been very successful.
For those of you who live in the High Desert, you may have heard about the Victor Valley Cigar Club. The Cigar Club is an opportunity for many of my friends to get together. I invite you to join the cigar club mailing list and join in our debaucheries.
To join, all you have to do is reply back to this e-mail with JOIN CIGAR CLUB in the subject line. I will add you to the mailing list, and let you know when our next cigar social will be.
FORM LETTER EXAMPLE
A SMALL BUSINESS WEB SITE THAT CAN
MAKE YOU MONEY!!!
I am Dan Harley, Jr. and I want to tell you about an incredible product, which I know you’ll find to be a tremendous benefit to your business. The product is called Apptomix, and it could increase your business in ways that you would never imagine. It could increase your credibility. It could cut your advertising costs. It could create new streams of income. It could solve problems for your business. It could generate more return customers. It could make you lots of money!!! Let me explain why I think Apptomix is the best thing to happen on the Internet for small businesses.
I’ve worked with many businesses in making them successful on the Internet. I’ve done this for a long time, and I’m very good at what I do. Many of my clients make a lot of money because of my efforts, and I want you to be successful ion the Internet too. Before I tell you how to be successful and make a lot of money from the Internet, let me tell you a cold hard fact about small businesses and the Internet.
MOST SMALL BUSINESS WEB SITES FAIL…
I’ll be honest to tell you that I have had my share of failures, and almost all my failures had been with small business clients. I’ve analyzed the failures over the years to find out what goes wrong. It comes down to falling short of enough resources to succeed online.
Money is not the problem, but usually ends up as the reason why many small businesses abandon their Web sites and others don’t go forward to build one in the first place. I’ll be honest to tell you that it could cost a lot of money to build and maintain a successful customized Web site. However, my successful clients don’t mind spending the money on their Web site because they’re making a whole lot more from it. Like I said, money is not really the problem. The problems lie between where my new clients start at and where my successful clients are now.
A common issue with many of my small business clients is thinking that just having a Web site will make them successful on the Internet. Yes, a Web site is an important part of what will make you successful online, but not just any Web site will make you successful. You need a Web site that will extend your already successful business strategy.
You know your business better than anyone. You know what will make you money and what will be a waste of time. You know that spending money on a Web site just for the sake of having a Web site is an expense of time and money that you could use for things that will actually make you money. If you’re going to have a Web site then it must provide a positive benefit to your business. In other words, your Web site needs to be a tool for your business.
SMALL BUSINESSES NEED THEIR WEB SITE TO BE
A POWERFUL BUSINESS TOOL…
A small business Web site need to have lots of features, functions and flexibility that will allow you the ability to discover what will work for you. You need the capability of easily modifying and maintaining the Web site, and preferably to do it yourself. You need promotion tools to help you find new customers and keep in touch with existing ones. You need something that will help you reap the rewards that only the Internet has to offer. The downside of all this is translating what you know will be successful into a successful Web site.
The big problem is taking what you know and having a Web developer create a Web site that will generate success. Just like your business, it will take some time and creativity to develop a Web site that will be successful. This usually translates to spending a lot of money before you find the right formula. More often than not, the resources of a small business fall short of obtaining online success. Frustration, anguish and failure from all this is usually blamed on the Web developer (I know this very well) and any further thoughts of going online will seem ridiculous. This creates another problem.
Would you take a customer knowing that they will be mad at you in a couple months? You wouldn’t if you had a choice. That’s why good Web development companies will steer away from small businesses and especially start-ups. They don’t want to deal with the headaches of failure when their customer’s Web site doesn’t meet expectations. This leaves small business owners with fewer choices for good Web development service. Quite often, friends or family members with some technical skills try to fill the need, but eventually find out that developing a successful Web site is much more difficult that it appears. This leads to more failure and pretty much kills any ideas of taking a business online.
Why I know all of this is because most all of my small business clients have had similar experiences. They all have great ideas about expanding their businesses online, but don’t have the right or enough resources to turn those ideas into something successful. That is why Apptomix was created.
The Solution: Apptomix!!!
Apptomix is a Web solution that is designed to fit the needs of a small business and helping them to succeed online. The years of developing Apptomix is focused on giving small business the tools they need to get online successfully. We’ve built in numerous features and functions into Apptomix to create a very powerful business tool. Apptomix will do much more for you than just a Web site can, because it is much more than just a Web site.
You can modify your Web site on your own without knowing HTML or other technical Web development skills. You can add and remove pages and function on your own. Do you want to sell products or services online? Apptomix comes standard with an electronic shopping cart system that you can activate, deactivate or configure into being a product catalog with just a few mouse clicks. Your customers can contact you through your cell phone with our special SMS text messaging system. You can keep in touch with your customers through electronic newsletters and electronic greeting cards. You can do all this and much more!
Apptomix is completely self-contained and requires no special software. Even the E-mail service is Web based. All you need is access to a computer that is connected to the Internet. You can literally operate and maintain Apptomix from anywhere in the world!
The best feature of Apptomix is our customer support, which starts with our Marketing Partner who had contacted you. They are business professionals just like you who were carefully selected for their integrity and desire to help their customers succeed online. They are supported by our staff, which also has the same objective of helping you succeed. We do not want to just sell you a Web site. We want to help you succeed.
What can Apptomix do for your business?
Get you online very fast…
There is no need to wait weeks or months to launch your Web site, as typical for custom Web projects. Apptomix is pre-developed with all the features and functions built-in. We can activate your Apptomix Web site usually within 48 hours. All you need to do is add content.
Give you the tools you need to make your Web site work for your business…
Apptomix is packed with features, such as shopping cart, events calendar, appointment booking and photo gallery, which can benefit your business right away. You don’t pay extra for these features and you don’t have to wait for them to be developed. The site administrator allows you to modify and maintain your Apptomix Web site, giving YOU control over how you make your Web site work for you.
You can try different online business strategies…
We’ve spent a lot of time and effort in making Apptomix easy to use yet powerful enough to be an effective online business tool. You can easily activate or deactivate Web pages and online functions, allowing you to see what Internet tools will work for your business without spending a dime in development costs.
Start selling online…
You can start selling items online right away by adding products to your online store that comes standard with all Apptomix Web solutions. The electronic shopping cart was designed to be easy to use yet robust enough to handle many complex online purchasing transactions.
Interact with your customers…
Apptomix can let your customers know more about your business with little or no cost. You can post special events, such as demonstrations and seminars, on your events calendar. You can send electronic newsletters to your customers notifying them of specials and new products or services.
Give you online marketing tools…
Apptomix has tools to help you attract new customers or draw existing customers back to do more business with you. This brings me to ask a very important question….
Do more for less…
The features and function contained in Apptomix could cost several thousand dollars if developed independently into a custom Web site. We skillfully packed numerous features into a single package and offer it at a much more reasonable price.
Give you the support you need to succeed online…
Our Marketing Partners and staff are there to help you succeed. We can give you the expert advice you need because we’ve already worked with numerous small businesses wanting to take their business online.
Your online success is going to come from taking your proven business strategy and using the Internet as a tool to improve on it. Apptomix is the online business tool you will need to be successful and make more money for your business. We want to show you how to use Apptomix in doing so.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to create an Apptomix Web site?
An Apptomix Web site can be activated within a couple business days. If you already have a domain name, it usually takes a couple days or more to transfer it. If you don’t have a domain name our staff will help you obtain one and assign it to work with Apptomix. You need provide content for your Apptomix Web site and you can start deploying it as soon as your account is activated and even your domain name is activated.
Can I maintain an Apptomix Web site myself?
Yes! Apptomix was designed to let small business owners maintain their Apptomix Web site themselves and without the need of technical skills to do so.
I’m on a tight budget. Do you have payment options?
We have payment options that will allow you to get online with Apptomix even with a modest budget.
I’m too busy to put time into a Web site. Do you have services that can help me?
Apptomix and our Marketing Partners can provide support services as an option if you are unable to find the time or resources to do it yourself.
Can I add to an Apptomix Web site?
Yes! Apptomix is packed with all kinds of features that you may not have to add to it at all. There are times when Apptomix users require special functions, which can be provided through a workaround within the capabilities of Apptomix or adding to Apptomix as a custom feature.
Do I need a special computer, software of Internet access for Apptomix?
No. Maintaining Apptomix is done completely online. Even the e-mail is Web based. All you need is access to a computer that is connected to the Internet.
Do you want to know how to draw customers back
to your business WITHOUT spending a dime?
Did you know that a return visitor to your Web site would six to ten times more likely conduct business with you than a first time visitor? Apptomix has the tools to make that happen.
Some of the unique features of Apptomix are the built-in promotion tools. I can’t tell you what these tools are without revealing trade secrets that are waiting for patent approval. I will tell you that the tools allow you to market to your existing customers and Web site visitors without spending a dime on television ads, yellow page ads, newspaper ads, radio commercials, printing, envelopes, business cards or even on a single stamp…
Apptomix could bring you more business than any Web site can. Let us show you how!
Want to know more?
I would love to give you a thorough explanation of Apptomix and a demonstration of it’s capabilities. I work primarily with business clients, and can make it very convenient for you by setting appointments after hours and/or setup a conference call meeting. Let me know when is the best time to contact you by replying back or contacting me through the following information:
Dan Harley, Jr.
E-mail: dharley@apptomix.com
Phone: 760-247-4814 Ext. 4
I’m looking forward to talking with you, and I wish you good fortune in your business…
Regards;
Dan Harley, Jr.
Apptomix - Empowering Small Business
dharley@apptomix.com - http://apptomix.com
Apple Valley, California Office
ph: 760-247-4814 Ext. 2 - fx: 760-247-1387
"Technology to help grow your business"
Get an Apptomix Web site for FREE!!!
Contact me to find out
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