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Business Resource Article: "11 Tips For Sending HTML Email To Your Subscribers" Author: Nick James

Business Resource Article: "Buy, Sell, And Value A Website" Author: Sharon Housley

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11 Tips For Sending HTML Email To Your Subscribers
Author: ©Nick James

11 Tips For Sending HTML Email To Your Subscribers People view their emails through many different programmes that treat each email differently - Outlook, Lotus Notes, Gmail - and there are also many different screen sizes, from desktops to mobiles. Although we are all able to dictate our own personal settings, people generally use the preview panes to view emails and have an email account that requires them to right click to download the images.

Busier inboxes mean marketers can no longer rely on pictures of fancy cars or pretty ladies to get the interactions they want, as all we see is a box with a little red cross and the words "Right click here to download pictures. To protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the internet". What does this mean from a marketing perspective?

What it doesn't mean is that we should stop being creative with our emails. It just means we need to test what our audiences like and make sure we include a good ratio of text to imagery. Remember, people expect email to be interactive. We can use it to drive recipients to the web where we have a much more flexible and live environment; your videos can play and people can submit forms and interact. The internet is much more standardised from desktop to desktop so it is easier for you to test your campaigns on different web browsers, such as Explorer, Mozilla or Firefox, and therefore have confidence that most people will get the same interactive experience.

Here are a few tips for optimising your emails for image blocking:

1. Design for the inbox
Do not just re-purpose an offline piece or webpage and dump it into an email. You need to optimise what you are sending for the inbox whilst making sure the brand journey remains consistent from email to web.

2. Use text before imagery and include your company name
Even with image blocking on, the recipient can still read an introduction and know who the email is from before having to right click.

3. Host images online
Avoid embedding images in your email as most firewalls will strip these out and people won't even be able to right click to see them.

4. Use headlines
People scan emails when they receive them so make sure you have meaningful headlines that your recipients can pick out quickly to get an understanding of the content.

5. Do not use images for headings
Make sure that relevant content is in text format. This will ensure recipients quickly know what you are trying to say without having to right click to download designer titles.

6. Front load your sentences
Use keywords and hot topics early in your paragraphs as people will not always read to the end of the line.

7. Repeat your calls to action
People are more likely to click on text than images, so write your actions out and repeat them within your email.

8. Keep the design simple
Do not have too many colours or competing pieces of content, as there will be too much noise. Your recipients will delete your email rather than try to work out which elements are important.

9. Make sure there is brand consistency from email to web
Create landing pages if necessary, but ensure that when a recipient clicks on a link to the web they feel like they are on the same message journey.

10. Consider your subject line and from address
These are the first pieces of information people will see when they get your email. If they are not intriguing, the time you have spent on your creative and content will be wasted as people will delete the email without even opening it.

11. Be a safe sender
Get people to add you as a safe sender as this will mean your images will be downloaded automatically in the future.

Click Here for Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware Resources.

Buy, Sell, And Value A Website
Author: ©Sharon Housley

So, you've built an empire on the Internet, and now it's time to move on. Well OK, maybe its not a full-blown empire, but it has taken substantial blood, sweat and tears to create, and you want to make sure you get a reasonable amount of money for all your efforts. Determining the value of a website can be tricky, because a number of factors can play a role. Factors involved in determining the resale value of a website include...

1. Traffic Volume
The volume of organic web traffic that comes to a website influences the value of that website. Organic web
traffic refers to any traffic that is not the result of advertising.

2. Ranking For A Critical Phrase
How a website ranks for critical or popular keyword search phrases can also play a role in the value of a website. Ranking high in Google's organic search results for important, relevant, or popular phrases can influence the value of a website.

3. Volume Of Backlinks
The number of websites that link *to* the website in question can influence the amount that the website is worth. The number of incoming links, and the quality of those links, can both impact the value of the website.

4. PageRank
The PageRank (also referred to as PR) can be an indication of how Google views the website. A high PageRank indicates that a website is trusted by Google. PageRank may influence how much a buyer is willing to spend on a website.

5. AlexaRank
Alexa's ranking can be manipulated easier than some of the other factors. Nonetheless, a high Alexa ranking can show historic changes in a website, and can play a role in determining a website's value.

6. Established Revenue
Any revenue that a website generates can clearly show a website's earning potential. Naturally, the higher the earning potential of a website, the more its value will be.

7. Web Logs
The website's logs can be extremely useful in determining the site's value. Web logs not only reveal the volume of traffic that the website receives, but they can also show some other very important statistical information ... which you may not want shared! So a word of caution is in order -- be careful when deciding which details you wish to disclose to potential buyers.

8. Domain Name
A "good" or short domain name can also influence a website's resale value. Shorter domain names are becoming more and more scarce, and a short, catchy domain name may help to increase a website's value.

9. Age
The age and history of the domain can influence a website's value. An older domain is typically more valuable than a newer one. However, if an older website had historically ranked well but no longer does, that could have the opposite effect and could negatively impact the value of a website.

10. Technology
The technology behind the website can also influence the site's value. If the website is database-driven and dynamic, and the technology that supports the website is included as part of the sale, that may also impact the value of the website.

Determining the value of a website can be complicated and confusing. Ultimately, a website is only worth whatever the highest bidder is willing to pay. But providing the details above during the negotiation process may help close the deal and make the sale.