ghostwriting Archives - Ron Kness Writing

Bringing the Laptop on Vacation with You…Without Going Crazy

Laptop In an ideal world, we would go on vacation, leave the laptop at home and never give business another thought. Unfortunately, we don’t live in the ideal world. For most business owners, going on vacation means having to tote the laptop, iPad or other digital device. However, just because you bring it, doesn’t mean you have to have it attached to your hip. Here are some tips that might help.

Choose Your Device

The important thing is to have the device that works best for you. Laptops can be large, but smaller devices like netbooks, iPads or other tablets may not have the full functionality that you’re looking for. On the other hand, using a smaller device might make it easier for you to get less distracted by work and simply do what you need to do and get offline.

Accessing Your Documents

If you don’t bring your usual computer, you can still have easy access to the documents you need. You can use a popular service like Dropbox.com, but you will have to load the files you need ahead of time. Using an automated backup service like Mozy or SugarSync ensures that you can access ALL of your computer files, even the ones you didn’t think you’d need. Both services also include mobile apps for a variety of platforms, so you can access your stuff from a variety of types of devices.

SugarSync

Do Work Ahead of Time

When you know you’re going to be going away, get super focused and get a lot of your work done ahead of time. There’s nothing quite as motivating as knowing that you’ll be going on a fun vacation when all the work is finished. You can pre-write emails, blog posts, product promotions and get a lot of your work done ahead of time.

Plan Your Device Time

Vacation Time Just like when you’re at home, you should plan your work time while you’re away. Sure, it’s not always possible to know what will be happening every moment of your vacation, but the better you can set your work schedule, the more likely you won’t let work time take over your vacation. If mornings are most convenient, set aside an hour or two in the mornings to get things done.

Get Help with Communication and Customer Support

Having to worry about customer support or answering emails can be the kiss of death to just about any vacation. Hire a virtual assistant (VA) or someone to take care of the daily communication, so you can relax and only work on things that are absolutely necessary.

Plan Your Wifi

Wifi is available in many places, but it’s not everywhere. Find out which destinations will have wifi available to you or consider purchasing a wireless card through your cell phone provider, which can make it easier to get connected wherever you can get a cell phone service. Or many mobile phones can be toggled with your computer (either through USB or Bluetooth) and you can use your phone’s connection on your work device.

Keeping the balance between work and fun can be challenging, but if you plan ahead, things will be much easier. One thing I mentioned in this post was hiring a virtual assistant or someone to help you with correspondence. In my next post, we’ll be talking about outsourcing, even if you’re on a budget.

Should You Use Single or Double Opt In?

Confirmed or Single Opt-in? It should be fairly apparent that your approach to email marketing should only involve sending e-mails to individuals who have signed up or opt in to receive them. This might be done as a sign up on your website to receive your newsletter, an autoresponder series, or some other type of information. Avoid any temptation to send unsolicited emails under any circumstances. I know I probably don’t have to say that, but just in case.

The process of getting people to sign up to receive your emails can be accomplished in different ways. The simplest way is known as “opt in” or “single opt in.” This is where you add the e-mail address to your list after someone enters their address on your sign-up form. You may decide to send a “welcome” or “thank you” e-mail to that person as soon as they sign up. This e-mail will likely contain instructions and a link for unsubscribing, and the subscriber will begin receiving your e-mails without having to take any additional action.

The other common technique is known as a “confirmed” or “double opt in” sign up. With this method, as soon as an individual submits their e-mail address in your form, you send back an automated response that asks them to click a link to confirm their subscription. If the individual does not click the confirmation link, then they will not be added to your e-mail list.

Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Single Opt-In

Pros:
• This is by far the simplest for prospective subscribers; they provide their e-mail address once and then they’re done.
• You can begin sending your messages to new subscribers right away; there’s no need to wait for them to click a link in a confirmation e-mail.

Cons:
• This method does not confirm that a particular email address was actually submitted by the person who owns it. Sometimes people make mistakes or write in bad addresses and you definitely don’t want to email those addresses.
• A competitor or someone else who wants to harm your business can submit third party email addresses, and those individuals could complain that they never signed up for your mailings – and get you blacklisted with spam services.

Confirmed or Double Opt-In

Pros:
• An individual who takes the extra step of clicking the confirmation or double opt in link is likely to be more interested in your marketing message than someone who fails to make the confirmation.
• It protects you from sending email to the wrong addresses or addresses that simply do not exist.

Cons:
• If you’ve never sent e-mail to a particular individual before, your confirmation or double opt in follow-up could easily be routed to their junk folder. Unless they happen to check it and notice your e-mail, they may never get the opportunity to confirm their scripture.
• Some people might simply be too lazy to actually click on your confirmation link.

What’s the Right Way?

Analyze In summary, it’s far from a clear choice on whether you should use a double opt-in method to build your mailing list. The best approach may be to analyze the sign-up, confirmation and conversion rates for whatever method you’re currently using, and use those numbers to help you decide whether a different approach may be more effective.

The same considerations apply even if you’re setting up your very first mailing list, which we’ll discuss in the next post. We’ll go through the first steps you need to do, so you’re well on your way to using the power of email marketing.

Understanding the Difference Between Autoresponders and Broadcast Emails

In our previous article we discussed the autoresponder services that can help you become significantly more efficient with your e-mail marketing efforts. It gets confusing when we use the phrase “autoresponder services” and then talk about “autoresponder messages” and “broadcast messages”, but an autoresponder service can generally send both types of messages. So don’t worry, once you have chosen an autoresponder service, you’re ready to use both of these different techniques.

Comparing Broadcasts to Autoresponders

Let’s discuss some of the differences between autoresponders and broadcast emails, so that you know what type of communication is likely to be better suited to each of your promotional campaigns.

Autoresponder Messages

Autoresponder Messages Autoresponder e-mails are a series of messages that are sent to a subscriber at predetermined intervals once they sign up for your mailing list. The interval term is generally somewhere between a few days and a week or two, depending on the nature of your content. This allows you to build a relationship with each subscriber over time, and position yourself as a trusted source of information.

Pros:
• Autoresponder messages are relatively easy to administer. Once you’ve prepared a series of e-mails, you can use an autoresponder service to have them sent out at predetermined intervals to each new subscriber who signs up.
• Autoresponders can strengthen the relationship with your readers because they allow you to communicate with those individuals over an extended period of time.

Cons:
• Autoresponder messages may grow stale. Even though your messages can be reused for multiple subscribers over time, you still need to periodically assess whether the text of those messages needs to be revised in light of developments within your niche or industry.
• Autoresponder messages, if not drafted properly, can come off as impersonal and perhaps even having too strong of a sales message.

Broadcast Messages

Broadcast messages are those that occur outside of an autoresponder series of e-mails. One of the key features of a broadcast e-mail is that it can be highly topical and relate to “breaking news” type events. Broadcast e-mails can also make your mailing list aware of a new item or new promotion that you may be running.

Pros:
• Broadcast messages can be highly specific and targeted to some or all of the individuals on your email list.
• Broadcast messages don’t require the reader to commit to reading a series of emails over time; each message is a self-contained marketing message.

Cons:
• In contrast to autoresponder messages – where your subscribers have signed up specifically to receive them – you don’t always know when your subscribers will find a broadcast message interesting or valuable.
• It can sometimes be difficult to determine “how much is too much” when it comes to broadcast e-mails. The last thing you want to do is have one of your broadcast e-mails cause someone to unsubscribe from your list.

Now that you have a better idea of when to use an autoresponder series and when to use a broadcast message, you can decide what techniques you should use to build your mailing list and that’s exactly what we’ll talk about next time.

Choosing an Email Marketing Autoresponder Service or Software

Autoresponder Decision Ah technology. It’s such a great thing, but sometimes can be frustrating to figure out what exactly we need and then how to use it. Let’s explore some of your options when it comes to email marketing and hopefully things will become a bit clearer.

As your mailing list grows, it should quickly become apparent to that you don’t want to try to manage it manually. Not only will it become a significant administrative burden, but sending emails with more than a dozen or so recipients can greatly increase the likelihood that your autoresponder messages will be marked as spam, and never reach your intended audience.

An autoresponder service can help accomplish the dual goals of freeing you up to work on other important tasks within your company, and making sure your email messages reach their targets. Here is a summary of a few of the leading services, and the pros and cons of each.

Aweber

Aweber is one of the leading services for automating the process of building your mailing lists, and sending emails to everyone on your list.

Aweber

Pros:
• Aweber has a very reliable delivery mechanism.
• Aweber offers strong support for autoresponder series, including conditional moving of subscribers from one list to another. For example, if someone buys the product you’re promoting with a particular autoresponder series, you can configure Aweber to move them from that autoresponder series to a different one immediately after their purchase (after all, you don’t want to continue promoting the product after they’ve already purchased it).

Cons:
• Aweber does not offer a free trial (although it does offer the first month of service for just $1, with a money back guarantee).
• They have changed their interface a lot recently and many complain that it has become more difficult to

arpReach

arpReach, formerly known as AutoresponsePlus, takes a somewhat different approach to the other major services in that it offers downloadable software that you pay for once, rather than an online service that you pay for each month.

arpReach

Pros:
• One-time cost; there are no monthly fees, and your initial license fee is not tied to the number of addresses on your list or the number of messages you send.
• Full control over your list with the ability to import subscribers as you’d like.

Cons:
• The arpReach software must be installed on your web server, but you can pay one of their recommended installers to install it for you.
• arpReach is currently not compatible with GoDaddy hosting services.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact has rapidly become one of the most recognizable services for email marketing, and has a strong customer base that includes some very large companies.

Constant Contact

Pros:
• Constant Contact allows you to run social media campaigns to supplement your email marketing efforts.
• A free 60 day trial is available for a mailing list of up to 100 names.

Cons:
• Potentially more expensive than other services as your list grows.

iContact

iContact, formerly known as Intellicontact, provides email marketing support services as well as higher value advisory and strategy services.

iContact

Pros:
• A large number of highly stylized email templates.
• The ability to create custom messages with the proprietary MessageBuilder and MessageCoder applications.

Cons:
• Only larger customers with Premier Accounts can use Google Analytics and split testing features.

If you’re looking for your first autoresponder service or software, the best approach is to try a few of the ones on this list before making a commitment.

Next up, we’ll be talking about the difference between autoresponder and broadcast messages. Both have their benefits, so let’s take a closer look at that.

Meet Andy Johnston, Our New Guest Blogger

If there’s one thing for certain, email still makes the online world go around. Despite the doom and gloom many have predicted for email with innovations like RSS and social media, email still rules the day. It’s a crucial marketing medium for the success of any online business (or any business at all), so I’ve brought in our guest blogger, Andy Johnston, to take you through all the important aspects of email marketing.

I’ll let Andy tell you a little more about it…

Hello to all and thanks for the welcome. I am looking forward to sharing a whole lot about email marketing in the coming weeks. I plan to cover everything from why email is important to all the nuts and bolts stuff you need to know to make email marketing successful for you business.

Here are the topics I’ll be covering for you:

– Why email marketing is important for business
– Choosing an autoresponder service or software
– Understanding the difference between autoresponder and broadcast emails
– Should you use confirmed / double opt-in?
– Your first steps to setting up a mailing list
– The importance of the opt-in / squeeze page
– Surefire ways of growing your list
– Engaging your readers and delivering exactly what they want
– Email conversion tips

If any of that terminology isn’t familiar with you, don’t worry, I’ll explain everything. We’re going to cover a lot in the next few posts, and I look forward to helping you turn your email marketing into an important profit source for your business.