August 30, 2007

Ecommerce Explodes For Home-based Business Entrepreneurs

In recent years, we0ve seen a figurative explosion of home based business websites online. When once we only dreamed of having so many options available in order to individuals to make their own hours and work at home, the dream became a reality.
Ecommerce has allowed people from all walks of life to meet the needs of their target market audience and offer them the sorts of products that they really want.
However, this can be tricky when it comes to home based business options, since many online entrepreneurs want the opportunity to offer something that their competitors can0t.
In some cases, this is as simple as using autoresponders and various email marketing strategies that are not used by other individuals involved in the same field.
As a result, more buyers0 trend toward buying from the vendor that appears more internet savvy and who uses different marketing tools in order to make the experience more convenient for the customer.
When people began to realize that there was an abundance of information available both free and paid, to help them with their businesses, many were skeptical at first. They wondered if it was really possible that […]

Full Article At: KnowHow-Now.com Articles

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Opt In Email Marketing Lists - Opt In, Not Optional

Are opt in email marketing lists optional for your online business?
Sure, if you enjoy running an online business which is draining your financial resources instead of replenishing them, as online businesses are meant to do. No matter what you0ve heard, email is THE marketing tool of the 21st century, but only if the emails you are sending are going to people who really want to receive them.
Targeted marketing from opt in email marketing lists is your best chance of bringing traffic to you sites and bringing cash to your bank account.
But if you want to build really effective opt in marketing email lists, you0ll need a strategy. There are some steps you should implement right from the start, so that you get your opt in email marketing lists functional ASAP.
Know Your List Members
* Decide exactly what you need to know about your opt in list members, as far as making your site sales more lucrative, and think of a way to solicit that information, and only that information.
Of course you0ll need their opt in and their email addresses, but if you have resale rights on software or an ebook related to your site0s business, how […]

Full Article At: KnowHow-Now.com Articles

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August 29, 2007

Open Source Email Marketing Tools

Tip! I will have to try really hard to get the customer back (without the aid of Email Marketing - which will be super hard and in some cases impossible).

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably constantly looking for the best deal out there. Whether its shopping for a new car, home or just groceries, I’m always drawn to the freebies! I guess its the same with Email Marketing. Especially when you’ve first started and “getting your feet wet”, you might not be prepared to spend too much on your tools yet.

Although there’s some really great tools out there, like Aweber and Send Studio, I’m going to be talking about a few Open Source (read free) alternatives that you can start with. Now, these software are not for the faint-hearted or technologically challenged. Although most of them are quite simple to install, you still need to have some grasp of the technical jargon involved. You’ll find that popular hosting panels like cPanel and Fantastico might have them pre-installed.

Tip! Automate Your Programs and Routines. To optimize your email marketing software efforts you should automate processes including subscriptions, unsubscribe, monthly newsletters and more.

1. DadaMail - mojo.skazat.com/
Dada Mail has been around for awhile. Its written in Perl and can be set to use a flat file or a database like MySQL or PostgreSQL. The installation can be a bit daunting, but worth the effort. Once installed you can use it to generate your subscription form and cut and paste that into your website easily. Read our Dada Mail review here.

Tip! More often, boring Email Marketing messages get put right into the delete box.

2. PhpList - www.tincan.co.uk/phplist
The description on their website reads: “PHPlist is a double opt-in newsletter manager. It is written in PHP and uses an SQL database for storing the information. PHPlist is software that runs on a server.” The install is also quite simple but I found the interface less friendly than Dada Mail’s. However it has some nice prebuilt features like Open and Click Tracking, plus a nice ability to pickup from the last email in case the sending fails midway.

3. Infinite Responder - infinite.ibasics.biz/
Unlike the 2 above, this is an Sequential Autoresponder developed with PHP that allows you to time your messages. It has an opt-in feature plus allows for Unlimited Autoresponders. A nice piece of software with an active forum to ask for help when you need it.

That’s an intro to some of the more popular Open Source Email Marketing tools you can use. I’ve left out Mailman and Majordomo as its far too complicated for this purpose. If there’s more that you’d like to see added, please contact me. But tools aside, its how you use them creatively that matters, but use them you must! A website without a mailing list is leaving a lot of money on the table as you would not have any means of contacting your prospects!

Tip! AVOID the Word FREE in Your Message: Why, because the spam filters will get you. While FREE might be the most attractive word in email marketing, it’s also one of those that spam filters will likely detect to block your message.

What I also like about using tools like these is that the information is in MySQL and that’s easy to integrate into other membership registration forms and systems. You can even program your order form to automatically capture buyer’s email addresses into the same database but use these email marketing tools to contact them.

If you don’t know where to start or find installing scripts like this daunting, then head on over to Scriptlance or Elance and you get someone to do it for you affordably. Or perhaps if you ask nicely, some tech support at your hosting company might do it for you.

Tip! Don’t be afraid to go long. In the early days of email marketing, short copy was the rule.

That rounds up my quick tour of Open Source Email Marketing tools. Remember that free is not always bad as these tools are often developed with collaboration from many brilliant programmers, ensuring you stable and reliable software.

T.C. Watts operates http://www.TopEmailMarketingSoftware.com, a website filled with tips, articles, reviews and how-tos dedicated to Email Marketing Software. Compare the best Autoresponder service with the Autoresponder Comparison chart - http://www.topemailmarketingsoftware.com/software/autoresponders/comparison

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