Welcome to the Aspects of Design monthly newsletter. Distribution is on the first Tuesday of
each month.
This newsletter may be distributed freely, so long as the entire issue is included.
The Publisher's Desk
Another busy month.
I've been keeping busy testing EzineAnnouncer, which I told you about
last month. It has so many features and resources, I'm still testing
it. It's wonderful so far! Really makes it easier to get this ezine
listed in the directories, articles submitted, and so forth. If you
want to hear more about it, just take a look at the in
progress report I am doing on it.
I'm doing my first
auction of website design service on Ebay this week, ending October
9. It should be interesting to see how that turns out. If you'd like
to take a look it's here.
If you have any
questions, comments or contributions, please send them to newsletter@aspectsofdesign.com
Feature Article
Ruin your business
reputation - Guaranteed!
by Stephanie Foster
Whether you are
an established business or just starting out, one thing is very important
to your business - its good name. If you just have to ruin it, however,
there are some very easy ways.
First, you can use
deceptive advertising. It doesn't even have to be outright false advertising,
just leave your customers and potential customers feeling like you think
they are stupid.
For example: I once,
several years ago, worked for a jewelry store which had a "Going
Out For Business" sale. Just as many of you probably did, most
customers read that as "Going out OF Business." They were
furious when we pointed out the switch. Was this false advertising?
No, but it gave people a very low opinion of the company and created
a lot of mistrust. Shortly thereafter, the company filed for chapter
11 bankruptcy protection and eventually went out of business.
Think of spam as
a great way to drum up business if you don't mind what people think
of you. Surely it doesn't matter that most people will hate you for
it, that your ISP or hosting provider will get many complaints and maybe
even shut your service down, you'll get a few sales, right?
Don't forget to
take control of your user's computer if you really want to annoy them.
Design popups that keep coming back and use them on every page. Set
them up so that if someone double clicks to close one, they will accidentally
click on the one behind it. Remember, when one window is closed, that's
no reason not to open another.
Take your time when
responding to customer questions, and feel free to be rude and treat
them as if they're stupid. They're just customers, after all. You know
what's best, right? And if you don't have time to answer questions,
don't worry! It's not like you'll ever meet these people.
If you're shipping
products, don't worry about quality packaging. It's the customer's problem
if the item arrives broken, particularly if you're already ignoring
complaints. Also feel free to add outrageous amounts to the shipping
cost for handling, they'll never notice.
If you don't care
at all about your business, these tips will help you to do your worst
at it. On the other hand, if you love your business and want your customers
to come back and order again and again from you, and tell all their
friends, make sure you avoid these mistakes. Treat your customers as
the valuable resources they are and help your business grow.
Stephanie Foster
is the owner of Aspects of Design, where she offers website design,
marketing and writing services at affordable prices. She also publishes
the Aspects of Design Newsletter for small businesses or people just
thinking about starting a business. For more information, visit http://www.aspectsofdesign.com/.
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Featured Website
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with the Kids
This is a family-friendly
site aimed at parents who want to spend more time with their families,
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Home with the Kids
also offers a discussion board and a free newsletter.
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Resources
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Guest Article
FIVE profitable
ways to use Your Follow up Autoresponder.
By
Radhika Venkata(c) 2003.
What? You are not using a Follow up Autoresponder? Then better be. If
you are SERIOUS about increasing your subscriber database, you need
Follow up autoresponders.
Web site promotion
should start with search engines. Next comes your opt-in list. To maintain
your opt-in list you need a mailing list manager or an autoresponder.
You can publish your ezine or offer a free email course through your
autoresponders.
What are Follow
up autoresponders?
Follow up autoresponders
send a series of emails to your prospects that goes at specified intervals.
You have complete control on this interval period.
Some of the Follow
up Autoresponders:
(These are follow up autoresponders with mailing list manager features
like broadcast emails)
http://www.autoresponseplus.com/
http://www.scripts4webmasters.com/arpproadv/index.shtml
What you can do
with your Follow up autoresponder:
1. Offer free email courses:
Load your autoresponder
with a series of emails as a free course. Name it as 'Mini course that
doubles Your profits in 7 days' or something like that. User should
really get temptation to subscribe for your course.
Once they subscribe,
emails will go at the set up intervals.
Remember these tips
before offering an email course:
=Name your email course something attractive
=Don't keep too much gap between your emails
=If possible refresh the previous topic in every next email
=Keep short URLs
=Try to use short courses like 7 - 10 days. It would be
interesting for your reader. They shouldn't feel like a classroom
=Check the URLs before loading them in to your autoresponder
2. Follow up your customer:
After your buyer
purchase your product they will be landed on your subscription form.
They will enter their name and email address. They will be redirected
to your download page. You can set a follow up emails at an interval
of 15 or 30 days. Offer some discount in this follow up emails on your
other products. Selling a product to your present customer is easier
than searching for a new prospect. In this method, you have to keep
one form for each of your product.
3. Conduct quizzes, polls:
Yes. You can fill
your follow up autoresponder with 10 quiz questions and can set up to
send it one per day. People that answer all questions correct will get
a discount on your product or free product or free membership etc. DON'T
forget to keep your product links in each of your emails. This is a
kind of advertisement for you.
4. Benefit from your Ezine articles:
You write ezine
articles. Don't you? Good...
Then load your Follow
up autoresponder with 5 - 10 ezine articles and put a subscribe link
on your web pages or in your signature file. Send the link to publishers
who are willing to receive your articles. Your articles will be delivered
to the subscribers and publishers at an interval of 30 days or what
ever time you set up there.
I like to send the
articles every 1 - 2 months to my publishers list. Good publishers always
file articles they receive. So if you send them too frequently, it will
be little annoying. So better to keep minimum interval of one month.
5. You can also use your follow up autoresponder to send:
=testimonials of your products
=ebook chapters as samples
=product reviews
=Frequently asked questions
=Tutorials
---------------------------------------------------------
Radhika Venkata
Subscribe to 'EbookBiz Magazine' which is completely focused on ebook
business and Internet marketing.
Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month. http://www.ebooks-world.com/freetosell.shtml
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