| LED Digest 1795: The Real Cost of UCE |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ................................................ May 3, 2004 Issue #1795 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== The Demise of Email? ==-- ~ Adam Boettiger "...[spam] shifts marketing costs to the recipient but also indirectly to other businesses..." ~ Philip Scriver "...educating our politicians is a bigger problem than educating our customers." ~ Michael Linehan "Hopefully there are others on the list who can point to excellent resources..." --== SEO - What to Pay? ==-- ~ Gomez "Obviously there is no easy answer..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Coding Stymie ==-- ~ Grant Ogden ~ Kathryn Martyn --== Emails in Flash Files ==-- ~ Ian Fulton ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Adam Boettiger Subject: The Demise of Email? > ... I have found direct (requested) e-mail marketing > to be extremely effective. The last year, I have become > increasingly aware of my customer base avoiding... > e-mail. Does anyone see a solution to this insanity? - Dave Ushkow, LED 1794 For all the years that marketers were arguing that sp*m was not harming anyone, that it was their right and that it was irritating but not harmful, I think your note above clearly demonstrates that it *is* in fact costing lost revenue for many other businesses. I've been doing business online since 1995 and I hate to say "I told you so", but "I told you so". With regard to your question about a solution to communicating with customers, while you may not like the answer, the solution is that more and more people are reverting to doing business by phone. It's faster, easier to read emotions and moods and you're sure you got through. A two-minute phone call is often more efficient than a 15-minute email. That doesn't solve your problem though, because the benefits that were so wonderful with email - inexpensive, fast, personal - do not necessarily translate to other media, especially the inexpensive part. To which I say that you can thank the sp*mmers not only for increasing your marketing costs at the benefit of their own, but for creating an atmosphere where your customers are now numb to most any type of messaging, simply due to overload. Other solutions for communicating with your customers are there but they are more costly than email for sure. One way I've found at reducing phone costs is to use a solution like One Suite http://www.onesuite.com/ that offers long distance at 2.5 cents per minute prepaid. Program one of your speed dial numbers on the office phone to dial their local access number and by using it you'll save tremendously on your business long distance. While it isn't as cheap as email once was, it is likely a reduction in what you are paying currently. Regardless of legislation and laws, the problem of sp*m is not likely to go away any time soon. The only thing that is going to make it go away is for people to stop buying products advertised in those messages. Unfortunately there is always someone, somewhere, stupid enough to respond and to buy. As long as there is a customer base there - even if it is only one sale in one million sends, they will remain in business and proliferate. If it is not profitable they will look to other methods of marketing or new lines of business. Sp*m has always been a business that has shifted the marketing costs to the recipient. Now it is morphing into something that not only shifts marketing costs to the recipient but also indirectly to other businesses as well. It is unfortunate that their business is proliferating at the expense of yours, but it is reality. I think in the future far more business will be done via the phone and cell phone - especially as the cost of mobile phone usage continues to decrease via flat rate, all you can eat plans and voice over IP technology emerges in that space. Adam Boettiger One Lead Place LLC http://www.oneleadplace.com/ adam.boettiger, oneleadplace.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Philip Scriver Subject: Email demise I have found with my site that it isn't that clients don't want to read my emails it is that their server puts it in the spam file. Very few clients know that they MUST look in the spam box and educate their server whose email they want to accept. A classic "error" is that the emails I send out confirming a booking automatically includes a tracking code, given be me. Their server says any email with a number in it is spam and files accordingly. If I don't get a reply from my client I send a follow-up email without my tracking code suggesting if they haven't received the email it might be in their spam box and to "whitelist" my address. Then I have to explain "whitelist", then I have to explain how to use their email programme and so on and so on. I am afraid I'm resigned to the fact, though it was very easy to do business by email in the old days, I just have to put more work into my "mail" than before. Defeating spam senders is a priority for all of us, but educating our politicians is a bigger problem than educating our customers. Philip Scriver Explore Britain http://xplorebritain.com philip, xplorebritain.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: Email demise Hello Dave, One thing that comes to mind is educating your clients and potential clients about taking care of spam. If they were eliminating most of it effectively and easily, they may lose some of their building aversion. In my own experience, EVERY potential client I've done a site evaluation for had their email address fully exposed. Educating them on what to do about that would be helpful. Setting their filters to trash anything not directly addressed to their full name and specific address (with exceptions for excellent ezines.) An email client that uses intelligent filtering. And so on. Hopefully there are others on the list who can point to excellent resources in this regard so you can build a comprehensive (but easy and brief) guide to pass on --- or does someone already have it compiled? I get just a few spam a day. I know many other similar sized micro-businesses who get a couple of hundred. So it's not my size. Something's working. I'm imaging the gratitude you'd receive if you help someone attain similar figures! Certainly a strengthening of your client relationships. Michael Linehan www.marketing-alchemy.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Gomez Subject: Paying for SEO I want to offer my heart felt thanks to everyone who has responded to my question of what I should expect to pay for SEO/SEM services. Obviously there is no easy answer but I am now better prepared to go make that case to my supervisors. Of course I still have to figure out where to go from here so I'll will keep reading LED-digest and I'm sure that little by little the pieces will fall into place. Best regards, Gomez ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Grant Ogden Subject: Coding stymie > I am stymied by the fact that the top of page arrow > will not work on this website... > cardblanks.com/new_cardblanks/cardmaking.php - Helen Estlin, LED 1794 The addition of a "& nbsp ;" in the top link <.a name="top"> & nbsp ;<./a> seems to resolve it http://www.web-building.com/cardbank.html Grant Ogden www.thefixor.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: Coding stymie Helen, apparently the anchor itself must be located within the first table? I'm unsure why, but I moved it, and now it works for me, so just move the anchor and you'll have it solved. That's impressive that you noticed the problem. Many do not take the time to check every link. I recommend everyone find someone who you can trust and then have that person go through your site, page-by-page, by hand, to check every single link to be sure it a) goes where intended, and b) works at all. Software which checks links will miss those that work but lead to the wrong page or place on a page. It's also best to submit every form, and go through the order process, if one exists. Coding errors happen, but if there are numerous on a site, I'll take my business elsewhere. I think it's also smart to have a human being read every page for grammar and spelling errors, but that's another day. Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Ian Fulton Subject: Flash email I think that Mekhong Kurt has gone astray [issue 1794] in his definition between a graphic link for email which will still have the mailto: in the source code of the page which can be picked up by spiders and a flash link. Flash it technically a movie and all the code is contained within the .swf file. Within this file you can have a clickable links that are impossible to detect in the source code of the page unless you specifically download the .swf file and decompile it. If you are afraid of spiders 'arachnophobia' then placing your links in a flash movie is certainly the best way of avoiding them crawling you site and picking up you email links. Ian Fulton Legsby Web Services www.legsbywebservices.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "A lie told often enough becomes truth." - Lenin (Vladimir Ulyanov) |
