+=+=+=+= SIM's INSIDER REPORT =+=+=+=+ ISSN 1710-0739 E-Zine #163 April,2006 The SIM INSIDER REPORT is dedicated to helping readers succeed online while saving time and money with cutting- edge tools, tips and strategies for internet marketing, online advertising and website promotion. Note: This report is also available as a digital Web Book... http://startupinternetmarketing.com/sir/163.exe If you prefer to download it in ZIP format, click here http://startupinternetmarketing.com/sir/163.zip IN THIS ISSUE -> Tip of the Month -> Best of Weekly Reports -> Tips, Tools & Resources -> Feedback & Contributions -> Food for Thought -> Classifieds -> Administrivia I'd like to extend a warm WELCOME to all our new subscribers joining us this past month... Our featured report this month is an in-depth look at what you can do to overcome the difficulties we all face trying to deliver email to our opt-in subscribers. The report is titled "Email Delivery Tips" and although not long, it is packed with juicy pieces of advice from Tom Kulzer, CEO and Founder AWeber Communications. Regards, Dan Porteous Featured Sponsor's Message: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>> INSTANT SALES LETTERS In Only 2½ Minutes You Can Quickly and Easily Create A Sales Letter Guaranteed To Sell Your Product Or Service... Without Writing! http://startupinternetmarketing.com/isl ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TIP OF THE MONTH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Make viewing EASY. See this report with your web browser. (graphics, hyperlinks and all--much easier and more fun to read) Clicking on the following link will take you there... http://startupinternetmarketing.com/ezines/emailtips.html ~~~ Email Deliverability Tips Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification. Permission: Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe. Subscriber Addresses: When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their "real" or "primary" email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address. List Maintenance: Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP's track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes. Message Format: Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format. Content: Many ISP's filter based on the content that appears within the message text. Website URL: Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered. Words/phrases: Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don't attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you'll just make your messages appear more spam like. Images: Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content. Attachments: With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It's often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size. CAN-SPAM Compliance: The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It's important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages. Reputation: Reputation services are often used by large ISP's as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are: http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php http://www.bondedsender.com http://www.habeas.com Relationships & Whitelisting: Contact with major ISP's and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list. Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal. . . . About the Author: Tom Kulzer, CEO and Founder of Newtown, PA based AWeber Communications, Inc. an opt-in email service provider. With 7 years managing opt-in follow up and newsletters for small businesses, email deliverability is an integral part of day to day operations... Learn more: http://startupinternetmarketing.com/aweber and http://www.DeliveryMonitor.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SIM's "Tip of the Week" back issues are available at... http://www.startupinternetmarketing.com/ezines/ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TIPS TOOLS & RESOURCES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Amazing Formula The information is this free 24-page report is priceless... Marlon Sanders previews his BEW 2006 version of the "Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy!" I strongly suggest you grab it and READ IT thoroughly... http://startupinternetmarketing.com/dl/amazing.pdf ~~~ What Is A "Whitelist" This is a free report available from sitesell.com that does a great job on explaining what a whitelist is along with instructions on how to set yours up... It's geared towards their own mail of course BUT the process can be applied to any mail you want to receive. http://www.sitesell.com/whitelisting.html ~~~ Free Downloads for Windows XP Here's a website that offers essential downloads of free software and freeware for Windows XP. While most of the items listed here you will never need, there are some gems to be found. I found particular interest in the audio/video software programs. See if there is anything you like... http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?D7BURzs1vtSzjSBogsbPRQ ~~~ FREE WEB BOOKS Internet Marketing Basics If you're not TOTALLY familiar with the BASICS of marketing online then you owe it to yourself to grab AND read this dynamic 39-page report by Shelley Lowery. She discusses the many aspects involved with bringing your business online... http://startupinternetmarketing.com/tools ~~~ The Birth of a Professional Website This free download is brand new and available from the SIM site ONLY. It's a compilation of 10 articles by Shelley Lowery that completely covers the job of launching a professional website. Get it at... http://startupinternetmarketing.com/birth ~~~ Syndicate Your Headlines Using RSS RSS is quickly becoming the standard choice for delivering syndicated web content. Have you ever wanted to syndicate your own content? RSS may be just what you've been looking for. This report by Shelley Lowery will get you started... http://startupinternetmarketing.com/rss ~~~ FREE COURSES We have a large selection of free courses waiting for you at http://www.startupinternetmarketing.com/fc Courses: *Mastering Search Engine Placement *25 Secrets eBay Doesn't Want You To Know *Netwriting Masters Course *Affiliate Masters Course *Service Sellers Masters Course *Webmaster Business Masters Course *Make Your Net Auction Sell *Make Your Price Sell, The Masters Course http://www.startupinternetmarketing.com/fc ~~~ FREE ADVERTISING Post your ads to thousands of people 100% free. Simply register with the Free Advertising Form and you will be able to post your ads and get your own web site promoting numerous Clickbank products for you. Check out my free advertising form webpage at http://www.startupinternetmarketing.com/fafws Post your free ads here... http://www.startupinternetmarketing.com/faf * For more great tips and tools, visit our website: http://www.startupinternetmarketing.com/fr ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FEEDBACK & CONTRIBUTIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Post-It Desktop Alerts These electronic Post-It notes are great for me because all my reminders are in one place - in my face whenever I see my Desktop. I can even set an alarm for each Post-It note. One thing that I use it for is to compile each issue of "Update". During the week, as an idea comes to me, I add it to the Post-It note I created for this purpose. Another example - every Thursday another Post-It note alarm goes off reminding me to update my City Of York website. I only mention this, Dan, because I thought you might find this a useful little tool. It's produced by the manufacturer of the paper version of Post-It - the mighty 3M corporation. When I got my copy, it was a free "Lite" version. Now it seems that 3M aren't making this readily available. However.. I've managed to track down the "Lite" version on the 3M website. They've tucked it away in their "Press Room", making it difficult to find! Here's the link - and it's NOT an affiliate link! http://tinyurl.com/boj5s . . . If you have a promotion tip to share (or an affiliate program that would be of interest to the rest of us) or if you have a web design tip, or a specific question, please feel free to post all tips, questions, or answers to posted questions here and I will add your email or URL with it. It's free Send your tips, questions or answers to: mailto:sir@startupinternetmarketing.com?subject=Q_&_A ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FOOD FOR THOUGHT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 Ways To Make A Living Online 1. develop your own products and services and sell them 2. sell other people's products and services 3. be the person who puts #1 and #2 together as a middleman ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ CLASSIFIEDS ~~~~~~~~~~~ Our sponsors and advertisers help bring this newsletter to you free of charge. Please support them. >>> SUCCESSFUL JOINT VENTURES REVEALED Discover how you too can launch your products to millions of hungry customers through the Power Of Joint Ventures... done correctly. (includes master resale rights) http://startupinternetmarketing.com/instant/jv2006 >>> HOW TO SET UP A SECURE MEMBERS AREA FOR FREE Discover how to run & manage your own membership site professionally, securely and 100% for FREE. You get full resale rights to this product and a website - so you can offer it from your own website and keep all the PROFITs! http://startupinternetmarketing.com/instant/membr/ >>> AUTOMATIC UPDATING CONTENT Fresh content is what keeps the search engine spiders coming back to your site, gaining you more traffic and more traffic equals more sign ups, sales, customers and profits. This product normally sells for $24.95 BUT -is available NOW for just $9.95 - resale rights included. http://startupinternetmarketing.com/instant/content/ >>> 1001 NEWBIE FRIENDLY TIPS! Discover 100's of Practical and Usable ideas to help you start your online business, and the simplest ways to implement them. Learn how to maximize your site's profits with these proven strategies... http://startupinternetmarketing.com/instant/newbie/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ADMINISTRIVIA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for reading our free "opt-in only" publication. Please forward this to any one whom you think would find this information useful or interesting. I'm sure they'll appreciate it - I know I certainly will. Back issues of the INSIDER REPORT are available at http://startupinternetmarketing.com/ezines/back.html Was this issue forwarded to you by a friend? Grab YOUR own free lifetime subscription here... mailto:sir@startupinternetmarketing.com To unsubscribe from future mailings click here: mailto:danp@nt.net?subject=REMOVE-TIPS Need to change your email address? Just send the following email - FROM your NEW address with the OLD address in the body of the email... mailto:danp@nt.net?subject=SIR_ADDRESS ~~~~~~~~~~~ Legal Stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~ We accept no responsibility whatsoever for the content, profitability or legality of any published articles or advertisements contained within SIM's Insider Report. Although all of the articles have been selected for their content, the publishing of such articles within this newsletter does NOT constitute a recommendation of the products or services mentioned or advertised within those articles. Be responsible. Always do your own Due Diligence before responding to any offer. The SIM's INSIDER REPORT is a production of Startup Internet Marketing and is owned by Dan Porteous mailto:danp@nt.net ISSN 1710-0739 (C) 2004 Startup Internet Marketing - All Rights Reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher. Startup Internet Marketing 53 McKelvie Avenue Kirkland lake, ON, CA. P2N 2K6 Tel: 705.567.3519 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This newsletter is DELIVERED in both web book and .TXT formats by the business automation software - Mailloop. For the complete story on this software visit... http://startupinternetmarketing.com/ml ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~