Stop email attachment abuse!
I love my friends and family dearly. And I really like receiving funny emails and jokes from them. It shows they are thinking of me! They want to stay in touch!
But I run a business, and sometimes an email with a 10mg video attachment of sweet Aunt Sally’s cat can prevent me from getting fast […]
SPF Protection for Email
photo credit: kweezy mcG
What’s SPF? When you hear “SPF” you might be thinking “Sun Protection Factor”. (Especially now that it’s spring!)
But last week, I set up SPF email protection for two clients.
When it comes to the internet, SPF stands for “Sender Policy Framework“.
What’s SPF do?
Basically, it tries to keep you from getting burned by […]
Just Say No to Catchall Email!
For every piece of legitimate email you receive, how many pieces of spam do you filter?
Sadly, the spam/legitimate ratio is frequently +1. And growing.
Sigh.
That’s why I was surprised to see that a few small business folks I hold in high regard still have catchall email enabled at their servers.
Catchall email is a terrible idea. When […]
No More Video Embeds!
Don’t embed YouTube videos (or any other multimedia) into blog posts.
Instead, take a screen shot of an engaging frame of the video.
Link to the site that hosts it.
Ask your readers to watch it at YouTube (or SlideShare or whatever.)
Here’s why I quit embedding: many of my RSS subscribers request email updates instead of online feedreader updates.
Video embeds […]
Instead of e-newsletters, why not blog?
If you have an active blog, there might be a much easier way to stay in touch with your customers than writing and delivering e-newsletters.
For starters: Why not put a double-opt-in email script for your blog feed into the sidebar of your blog? That way, when you add a new post to your blog, your […]
Warning: What Every Small Business Should Know Before They Start an E-Newsletter Campaign
“Should my company do an e-newsletter?”
I cannot count how many times small business clients & prospects have asked me this question! Mostly, clients ask me this after they receive a sales pitch from an email delivery company that promises to handle their list management and design for the low, low price of — oh, say […]
DST - What Every Outlook User Must Know
I have long held that (DST Daylight Saving Time) is nonsense. It does not really help us save any time or energy. Oh, perhaps it did in the age of agriculture or industry, but those days are gone. Now, DST is just an annoying habit that we continue to perform for no good reason.
To make […]
Another reason to blog: post important news pronto!
Consider this true story:
I received a W9 form from in the mail yesterday. The accompanying letter asked me to fill out my personal info — you know, name, address….
…and Social Security Number!
The letter asked me to fax the completed form to a fax number I did not know, or to alternately mail the completed form to a PO Box I […]
Times 2006 Person of the Year is Dead in 2007
In direct response copywriting, we were taught that the pronoun ”you” is the magic word that brings success.
Use the pronoun “you” PLUS your prospects’ name a couple dozen times in your emails, web pages, and direct marketing letters…. and YOU will be rolling in riches!
Well…. sort of.
“You” is important! But consider this…
Over-personalization has become tired and stale. I’m not […]
If you don’t RSS now, you’ll hate yourself later
All over the blogosphere, you see bloggers asking people to subscribe to their blogs with RSS.
The problem is, RSS is not intuitive for most audiences. It is not like the early, easy days of email. Back in the day, you asked your audience to enter their email addresses and hit “Subscribe”. You promised not to spam them, […]
