I saw an ad posted on Craigslist the other day from a person who wanted to find someone with software to spider the Internet and collect email addresses to send their ads to.
I normally just chuckle at something like this and move on, but for some reason I sent a note and asked them not to do it. The advertiser was in insurance and I thought why would someone in a position like that want to look like a spammer.
The reply that I got really made me think…
“It’s only spam if you go to an ISP, NOT Web sites They invite people to email them. Big difference, and we only go to web sites in our profession not general public. “
Here’s someone who thinks that just because someone puts contact information on their website that they are inviting you to send them junk mail. I wonder just how prevalent that this thinking is?
I did write back and explained that this was not the way for any professional organization to behave and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.
Remember this if your are sending bulk email. You are not the one who decides if what you are sending is spam or not. The people who are receiving your mail are. No matter what you can claim to comply to if your recipients complain you will get labeled as a spammer and getting rid of that label may be more difficult than you think.
If you’re sending bulk email I can highly recommend the Email Experience Council website. It has some great resources for anyone sending or even thinking about sending bulk email.
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One of the best ways to move your site up in the search rankings is to get links from other sites. When I mention to my customers that one of the easiest places to get these links is social networking sites they tell me that they don’t want a MySpace page or one on Facebook.
My reply to this is that there are many more sites that they can use than those. Some can be very compatible to what their site does and they all will allow you to post and link back to your site.
For example a site like Upcoming which is part of Yahoo will allow many different kinds of postings for events. They are there for all kinds of social groups, bands, entertainers, and artists of all kinds. They allow you to post your events, jobs, public presentations and also photos. With all of these postings you are allowed to provide a link back to your site. So in addition to the traffic that this free ad brings, you also get the benefits of a one way link to your site from a very highly rated site. Even if you don’t get one visitor from your ad, the link back will help your search engine rankings.
It’s something to consider adding to your regular promotion tactics.
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I have a page on my site with some of my favorite new sites that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of things that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these sites, they all look good and are clear and easy to use. The graphics are good, but not overpowering. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of them are not in English and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called StarHill Co Creating a Sustainable Neighborhood.
I like the color combinations of this site.
I also like the way it looks like the site has swirls through it.
There’s good content in plain text and the first page tells exactly what the site is about.
The navigation is clear and easy to use.
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Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
Just in time for Halloween you can carve your pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern right on your computer screen then light it up.
I went to a website today to buy a part for a small appliance that I own. I’m not going to name names here (bionaire.com) because I didn’t like their site.
I found my model and couldn’t find any links to parts for that model on the page. I clicked the general parts menu and was taken through a maze of pages and could find things that looked like it may be my part, but no confirmation of an actual model number that went with that part. Nothing that said that the part that I was looking for was even available.
I wanted to send an email to ask about this and went to their contact page. On their contact page there was only their phone number. No address and no email address. I thought that this was supposed to be their contact page. I had to search for an email address to contact them. I did finally find one on the privacy page, but not too good a visit if you ask me.
I have written before about my customer MeloSleep.com. They wanted to promote their product by giving away free samples. They placed a large newspaper ad with a limited amount of success and then decided to post their free offer on a few “freebie give away” sites.
I haven’t had much experience with sites like this and I have always thought that people will take anything for free even if they don’t need it so I’m not really sure what the success rate will be.
These sites must copy the offers from one another and Melosleep who was averaging 10-20 visitors a day got 4,000 yesterday. It sucked up almost a GB of bandwidth and they got thousands of requests for free samples. These visitors were going directly to the offer page and filling out the form. Not thinking far enough in advance I had some big pictures on that page and the form sent an email request instead of building a database.
As soon as I noticed what was happening I removed most of the pictures from the order form page and the “thank you” page. That saved quite a bit of bandwidth. I made a copy of the page with pictures for the regular visitors and I also changed the form script to save the information to a database which could be used much more easily.
While it was lucky that I caught this early, these things should have been done before the rush of traffic. I could have taken my own advice “the lesson I’m taking from this is that you run a promotion, not only do you have to be prepared for your idea not to work, but you have to be prepared for it to work beyond your wildest expectations (which may be harder).”
I’m not sure what they think a good conversion rate from free sample to paying customer is, but I’ll keep following this and let you know if in the end they think it was worth it posting on the freebie sites or not.
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I wrote the other day about how many companies just don’t understand just exactly how bad publicity can have a negative effect on their business on the web these days. How social media can take one person’s negative opinion and if left alone can spread faster than wildfire.
While it’s probably more usual these days to hear someone ranting about something that a company has done to annoy or aggravate them, but there are also some wonderful stories about companies that have gone out of their way to be a good neighbor.
For example here’s a wonderful post on a site called zazlamarr.com. You can see from the comments and trackbacks that it has been picked up by many other bloggers and news sources (including this one) and spread all over the world. This kind of goodwill and publicity probably can’t be bought, but if it could it would cost a fortune.
I am so glad that I decided to work for myself. The hours are long, but the work is fulfilling.
I believe that I know how to treat customers. It’s a skill that, unfortunately, many people these days have forgotten or ignore. You have to treat everyone that you deal with as though they could tell the world about their experience with you because some of them can.
Who would you rather be?
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My wife Nancy and I took a long drive through the PA Laurel Highlands yesterday to see the fall foliage.
It was a spectacular afternoon no clouds and almost 80°.
The leaves are changing a little late this year and some of the displays are spectacular.
I took quite a few pics and posted some of my favs.
We hope that you enjoy the view.
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I have a page on my site with some of my favorite new sites that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of things that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these sites, they all look good and are clear and easy to use. The graphics are good, but not overpowering. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of them are not in English and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called Mac 3D Software. I don’t use a Mac, my recommendation is Ubuntu, but I like this site.
I like that most of the first page (including the navigation) is just plain text that looks fancy because of the backgrounds.
There are few shadows which makes them stand out and they are done well.
A simple page inviting and usable.
Note - Because I wrote about Ubuntu and 3-d software in the same post I am getting a couple of inquires about 3-d software for Linux.
Try this post
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Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
My wife was looking at a book the other day that gave a review of what happened that day in history. While looking for that book for her online I found that the Library of Congress has a great free American history section. They also have a “Today in History” page and I found myself returning back to read it almost every day.
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