Thursday, August 16, 2007

Weird Business Startups - Smashing-Plates.Com

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http://smashing-plates.com/

Fascinated with car number plates himself, James Newell decided there had to be an alternative to commission-based dealers. The solution came through his listings website, smashing-plates.com. He reveals how he got started.

Tell us what your business does
Smashing-plates.com is the first dedicated online marketplace in UK for buyers and sellers of personalised registrations. We are don’t charge commission, we offer adverts for a fixed fee- with no relisting.

Where did the idea for your business come from?
I bought six numberplates with a view to selling them for profit but realised how expensive and tricky it can be to sell numberplates as it’s a slow moving market. After a while relisting fees for adverts / commissions from numberplate dealers erode the selling price of the plate.

How did you know there was a market for it?
I knew from my own experience as well as from some market research that the private number plate market in the UK is big business but there was a gap in the market for an online marketplace. The market is dominated by commission based dealers and until us there wasn’t much alternative.

What were you doing before starting up?
I came back from travelling and got stuck in straight away- leaving my job for travelling was a joyous occasion!

Have you always wanted to run your own business?
At about age 5 if you’d asked me what I wanted to do when I was older I’d have told you I wanted to be rich- it’s only now I’m working out how to get there!

What planning did you do before you started?
It has taken me a little over a year of solid work to get to where I am today. Market research and building a prospecting database has been key- I have a business plan and have crunched numbers- but only to a degree- there’s no victory over customers and so far things are looking promising.

How did you raise the money?
Thankfully I have been able to fund the business from my own savings. As the business grows I may need to seek funding which is where a solid business plan and good presentation will be key. I am determined not to trade any ownership of my business in return for investment.

What would you say the greatest difficulty has been in starting up?
There aren’t enough hours in the day- it’s as simple as that.

What was your first big breakthrough?
Day one of trading- I took more money that day than I had planned to take in the first few months- that was when I knew I was on to something.

What would you do differently?
I’m only 23 but I wish I had started sooner- I wanted to be sure of my concept and be sure what I was doing was fun- generating revenue really is a by product.

[Via - Startups.Co.Uk]


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Choosing a Web Designer the Easy Way

The Most Powerful Marketing Tool Ever Created
My Daily Diets Tips

Choosing a Web Designer

When you choose a web designer, there are many things that you need to be aware of and that need to be taken into consideration before you make a decision.

To some extent, the ability to work successfully with your web designer is sometime as important as their actual skill in being able to deliver the project.

A web designer that is skilled in what they do but is a pain to deal with can make the whole process frustrating and not worth the money being spent, especially if you have an emotional attachment to the project (which you should have being the one supplying the money and motivation)

That relationship can be worth a large proportion of the contract.

However, there are some key things you need to consider.

Be careful in what you get for your money. Some possible pitfalls you may want to check on:

Obviously what do you get for your money

What is included? Design, Content, Search Engine Submission, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Updates? You need to get these details so you can compare your quotes against each other. You also need to quantify some of these things in terms of quantity, hours, numbers search engines submitted to etc.

What are the ongoing costs?

All websites have ongoing costs. Web Hosting, Domain Names and updates are the main three. Make sure you know the total cost of your investment. Some companies offer lower up front costs to lock you into higher ongoing costs that end up costing you more. Some other things are SSL certificate costs, more bandwidth and web space.

How easy is it to incorporate your branding

Some template sites are hard to blend a logo or colours into them, be wary of template driven website companies, some of these people are skilled enough only to change the text on a template. Some designers design their sites from the ground up incorporating all of you design elements in their design. These companies offer the most flexibility.

How reliable is the services provided

With hosting and email, too much down time can make the whole experience unworkable. You don't want to have to change hosts after six months because your designer has provided you with a poor host. Some people rely heavily on email and these are the people that need to choose carefully so their business inst impacted.

What are the costs for making changes later on?

Updates and maintenance on your site is something that will eventually happen, even if you don't change the content frequently (see the Making Your Site Super Sticky Article for the benefits of this) you will eventually change some content and so you need to know what it will cost over a year.

Hidden costs

Make sure common things (like search engine submissions) are either not included or are an extra cost. Some key things can be omitted to keep the price down. Make sure you don't get sold short. An important one...is the web designer doing the job part time Are your web designers doing this as a full time job? Some designers are working during the day and then web designing at night. A lot of designers started out this way, but it can cause issues when you need something done and they don't do the job from 9-5.

If all these things check out then you have found someone who you can work with and provide you with a service that will get you your desired result.

Remember; choose a designer with the right skills, but also one you believe you can work with on an ongoing basis. Build a working relationship that will benefit you both and your web project will benefit as well.


About the Author: Steven Gardner runs DeepWeb Web Design, a web design business that caters to all businesses looking to get an edge with their presence on the Web, providing web design, maintenance and consulting services. You can find him at www.deepweb.co.nz.


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Newest Fad In Farming: The Internet

8 Secrets of the Super Successful
Distance Education Helps You Get Ahead.
Tucked away in the den of his 127-year-old farmhouse, Ed Winkle huddles over his computer. The screen's soft glow lights up his eyeglasses, reflecting messages about tractors, corn hybrids and crop insurance.

Winkle is checking the latest postings on his favorite Internet farm forum. Advice from fellow farmers around the country has enabled him to increase his corn and soybean production, better market his crops, learn how to rebuild engines and get good tires for his tractor.

Online forums, message boards and chat rooms are replacing rural coffee shops and feed mills as places for farmers to talk farming and trade tips as more of rural America goes online.

"You get the best thinkers in agriculture," Winkle said of the forums. "You're mixing such a diverse group of people — from different areas, from different backgrounds, different experiences, different ways of farming."

Fifty-one percent of U.S. farms have Internet access, according to a July 2005 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from 48 percent in 2003. More than two-thirds of them still use dial-up access.

The popularity of online farm forums has grown as well, said Mack Strickland, an agricultural engineer at Purdue University and farm-computer expert, with some forums claiming to have as many as 30,000 registered users.

The Internet division of Farm Journal Media, www.agweb.com, says user traffic doubled between October 2005 and October 2006, with the forums on the site enjoying similar growth. Traffic on the Des Moines, Iowa-based www.agriculture.com has increased 20 percent to 25 percent over the past year, said editor John Walter. Both sites are funded by ads and free for users.

Enthusiasts say the forums have improved farm production and saved farmers precious dollars by helping them avoid costly mistakes in planting, fertilizing, equipment buys and maintenance. And forums have enabled farmers — many of them miles from their nearest neighbor — to educate each other and build community.

"We all like to talk to folks like ourselves who have the same problems," said Stan Ernst, a marketing instructor at Ohio State University's department of agricultural economics. "We have so much riding on many of our decisions economically that you've got to find people with experience."

A farmer can spend as much as $160,000 on a combine, for example. If it breaks down during a critical harvest time, that could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for some farmers.

Walter said the average visitor to www.agriculture.com spends 11 minutes at a time on the site.

"It's enough time to have a cup of coffee and a conversation and learn something," he said. "It's just rearranged who their neighbors are in a sense. You can't help but think that has changed farming to some degree."

Rural America has lagged behind the cities in Internet usage — especially broadband — because wiring the population-rich cities is more profitable and wiring the countryside more expensive due to long distances and natural barriers such as hills. In addition, rural businesses haven't needed the Internet as much to compete.

However, farmers and existing rural businesses are becoming more reliant on the Internet to be competitive, and rural communities are becoming more aggressive in seeking Internet access. They see it as a way to attract white-collar jobs, and urban dwellers who have moved to the country are demanding it.

Paul Butler, who grows corn and soybeans on 260 acres in Macon, Ill., returned to farming four years ago after 25 years in the computer business. He doubts he would have made it without the Internet and online advice from fellow farmers.

"I would have made a lot of expensive mistakes," said Butler, 39, who logs on using broadband. "Purchasing seed is a pretty complicated decision. It was nice to have 20 unbiased people that weren't selling seed that could give me an opinion on it."

Eric Neer, 24, of Davenport, Iowa, discovered farm forums from fellow students when he was in college.

Although he seldom posts a question, Neer — who works for a farm equipment manufacturer — devours the information he sees on precision farming, using the forums to shop for equipment and information about tractors and combines that are steered by computers linked to global positioning satellites.

Machinery — the universal language of farmers — is a hot topic in farm forums. So is when best to take crops to market to get the best price. Sometimes the talk veers away from pure farming.

In a recent exchange on www.newagtalk.com, a popular farm forum, an Illinois farmer complained that the starter on his pickup truck was acting up. A fellow farmer replied that the electric solenoid atop the starter was probably worn out and the contact sticking in the closed position.

"I would put a whole new starter on it," he wrote. "Fix it now before it ruins the flywheel teeth."

An Ohio farmer wondered if he should replace his fuel-oil furnace with a geothermal heating system. The idea got high marks from a farmer in Indiana who said a geothermal system leaves no smell or residue, makes less noise and leaves no hot/cold spots. Then he offered tips on insulation and heat distribution.

Farmers have to decide themselves whether the advice they get is sound. Walter said he tries to screen out the hokum, blowhards and occasional shyster. Strickland said some users give opinions not based on fact or research.

And some farmers still rely on the neighbor they know.

"You can get some good ideas from people in other states, but they're dealing with different circumstances," said Jim Meimer, who raises corn, soybeans and wheat on 900 acres.

Meimer, 28, goes online to get market data but prefers to get advice from friends and neighbors. He often sees them at the feed store and fertilizer plant when he goes into nearby Mount Gilead, Ohio, to pay bills.

Glen Feichtner, 48, who raises 300 head of cattle near New Washington, Ohio, prefers to get his tips from fellow farmers at the stockyard and grain elevator because he knows they have been successful.

"I get face-to-face interaction," he said. "I know these people. I know their story."

Winkle, 57, became a believer when a tip from an Iowa farmer prompted him to change his no-till farming technique. Winkle increased his yield by about 30 percent.

During the winter, he spends about two hours a day wading through the forums from his farm, about 40 miles northeast of Cincinnati. Since April, he has posted 1,738 messages on one forum alone.
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How To Make Money Running.

Is Your Ego Hurting Your Business?
All About Diet & Nutrition

http://www.cityrunningtours.com/

The service: City Running Tours
Key player: Michael Gazaleh, founder, president and CEO
Cost: For most cities, the price is $50 per person for the first six miles and an additional $4 per person for each mile after that. In New York City, the cost is $60 per person plus an additional $6 per person after the first six miles.

What the service does: City Running Tours combines sight-seeing with fitness by leading runners on jaunts around cities. Gazaleh says the majority of runners that sign up are tourists, though he has seen business travelers and locals on his tours. The guided running tours began in New York last year and have expanded into Washington, DC, Chicago, Austin and Denver. Gazaleh has his sights set on expanding into more cities, including San Diego or San Francisco.

How it came about: City Running Tours began after an Australian tourist called the gym Gazaleh worked at and asked if anyone would take him on a run. None of the trainers at the gym were runners, so Gazaleh became his running travel guide. That week, he thought more about the idea of combining running with tourism. He set up a website and began operating the company during breaks from seeing clients at his chiropractor studio. Gazaleh says he hopes eventually to focus solely on City Running Tours.

Why it's unique: There are certainly other tours available in large cities, but there aren't many that offer health benefits. "What we're selling is the opportunity for travelers to continue their daily routine and feel more like themselves in a new place," says Gazaleh.

Our take on it: Testimonials from City Running Tours' clients echo Gazaleh's sentiment. Runners from all over the world say the tour was a highlight of their trip. I felt better after Gazaleh emphasized that they cater to all types of runners, and don't operate like a boot camp; walking is allowed. He also points out that a majority of the running happens in the city, meaning there are plenty of opportunities to stop at lights and busy intersections. And the guide provides water and a digital camera for capturing tourist moments.

[Via - Entrepreneur


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How To Make Money Running Errands For Others

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Best Organic Diet's Tips

http://www.bizebodieserrands.com/

Many people are just too busy these days for their own good — and that’s fine with Mandy Leeuwen.

The White Marsh resident has opened BizEBodies, a business doing odd jobs that the over-scheduled can’t get around to.

The 26-year-old woman, who holds a degree in public relations, has hired an employee to assist her after just eight months in business.

For advertising, Leeuwen said she has used the consumer Web site Craig’s List, releases to local newspapers and her Web site to generate a clientele of 20 weekly customers and others on a less-regular basis.

She estimated her active roster at 60 accounts.

She does chores like walking dogs, scanning business cards into a computer and picking up dry cleaning from the Washington suburbs to the Baltimore area. Her charge is $25 per hour, including travel time.

“I cater to high-end people, people who are willing to pay me that for whatever they need done,” she said.

[Via - Dane Carson's Blog]


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Can small businesses help win the war?

Managing a Satellite Staff
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The U.S. military is studying small companies such as 24-employee Craigslist to see how the online bulletin board has all but terrorized the newspaper industry by siphoning classified advertising.

Such research may unearth ideas that will help the United States fight the war on terror.

It may seem a stretch that within the chaos of capitalism are the secrets to fighting al-Qaeda. But the military and business have long borrowed leadership lessons and competitive tactics from each other.

JOIN THE BLOG CONVERSATION: What can small business do for the military?

In the past, sharing between military and business has been largely a one-way street. The Art of War by the ancient Chinese general Sun-Tzu remains a must-read for corporate CEOs, and most great lessons have been learned the hard way on the battleground before migrating into commerce. For example, CEOs have come to embrace the idea that it's better to act quickly on an imperfect plan than to introduce a perfect plan too late, a lesson first learned the hard way in the fog of war.

But now the military is paying closer attention to business than business is paying to the military, because the world of geopolitics has discovered itself to be on the same road that business has been on for some time. That road is flatter, more networked and more decentralized than ever.

Large companies are groping for strategies to fend off disruptive competitors, including YouTube, Kazaa, Skype and Wikipedia, companies that are giving away video, music, long-distance and information while eroding the revenue stream of companies that charge for it. YouTube is a website where users swap millions of free videos. With fewer than 100 employees, it has created anxiety throughout the giant industries of film and TV.

The Wikimedia Foundation has no plans to bring Western civilization to its knees, but the organization that provides a free Web-based encyclopedia has done as much to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Some 100,000 readers comb Wikipedia entries for errors. Two of those volunteer editors wouldn't recognize each other if they passed on the street. But they are joined at the hip by an ideology and can inflict pain upon a company that has been around since 18th-century Scotland.

How large, traditional companies fare in this fight may prove invaluable in developing a strategy against al-Qaeda. That's why the military is going to school. A book making the rounds at the Pentagon is The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. It was written for a business audience, but military strategists are saying, "This is the best thing I've read that applies to counterterrorism," says Lt. Col. Rudolph Atallah, a Defense Department director in international affairs.

The premise of The Starfish and the Spider is that centralized organizations are like spiders and can be destroyed with an attack to the head. Decentralized organizations transfer decision-making to leaders in the field. They are like starfish. No single blow will kill them, and parts that are destroyed will grow back.

When Starfish co-author Rod Beckstrom arrived at USA TODAY's suburban Washington, D.C., headquarters for an interview in November, he said he had just come from meetings with representatives at the Pentagon and elsewhere in the "intelligence community." He said he was contacted "out of the blue" in September by one of the highest-ranking officers in special operations, and more recently by a high-ranking special operations officer at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Next week, Beckstrom will present a "high-level briefing set up for a dozen members of different intelligence groups in D.C.," he said.

Bin Laden has business smarts

It's no coincidence that Osama bin Laden is the first leader of terrorism to have studied economics and public administration, nor that he cut his teeth on the family business in Saudi Arabia, says Bruce Hoffman, a professor of security studies at Georgetown University.

As disruptive as the Irish Republican Army once was, it had but "450 trigger pullers and bomb throwers, because (the leadership) couldn't control a larger number," Hoffman says.

But long before he became a household name, bin Laden was creating an organization so flat and decentralized that it can plot destruction from cells in about 65 countries no matter how deep its leader is pushed into the caves of Pakistan or Afghanistan.

He created a "terrorist sausage factory," in Afghanistan and then, like any good Silicon Valley CEO-geek, he attracted employees with an ideology and secured their dedication with vacations, airline tickets home to see the family, and death benefits, Hoffman says.

"Decentralized organizations can be more effective and resilient," says Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, who says he has come to the same conclusion that companies such as his have something in common with al-Qaeda.

Craigslist might be little more than an online bulletin board, but it gets 5 billion page views a month.

"People who are passionate and can work independently can get more done than a centralized organization," Newmark says.

Others have reached the same conclusion, although most companies declined interviews because they didn't want any part of the al-Qaeda analogy.

Many experts have identified terrorism as being hard to defeat because it is decentralized. But Beckstrom and Starfish co-author Ori Brafman, both with Stanford MBAs, hold out hope for victory. Beckstrom recommends three strategies against terrorism:

1: Change the ideology that fuels it. For example, he says the West should help fund public schools in terrorist hotbeds where parents now send their children to radical madrasahs because they feed and educate their children. For now, parents have no alternative.

School choice and other strategies aimed at the ideology take a generation or more, but Atallah says he, too, has decided that blunt military weaponry is not enough, and success depends on winning hearts and minds.

When Sandy Weill was CEO of Citigroup he took steps to decentralize a company that today has 300,000 employees in 100 countries by letting divisions compete freely against each other. To defeat terrorism, young people must believe they have opportunity in the world, or they will blow themselves up to get to the next, says Weill, who helped raise $100 million for victims of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan, a country known as a breeding ground for terrorism.

2: Centralize the decentralized opponent. An example of this would be to let Hezbollah go ahead and govern in Lebanon. Hezbollah is defined as a terrorist organization by the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Israel. But it is more centralized than al-Qaeda and is funded by the centralized government of Iran. Centralized governments are easier to persuade and/or defeat than independent cells, Beckstrom said.

Google's decision in October to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion is the business equivalent. The move has already tamed YouTube into respecting intellectual property rights, because Google, with a $140 billion market value, has deep pockets and must worry about lawsuits. YouTube has purged copyrighted programs such as The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.

3: Decentralize yourself. The obvious military example here is to expand special operations and give small units the freedom to complete missions without oversight and second-guessing from command and control.

Of course, that has its downside as it does in business, says Robert Shillman, CEO of Cognex, maker of vision sensors that gauge, guide, inspect and count on the production lines of companies, including Ford Motor. When you give others freedom to succeed, you also give them more freedom to make costly mistakes, he says.

Were the military to become more decentralized with few orders other than to win, it would lead to greater success, Shillman says. But it also could cause a special-ops unit to destroy religious buildings if they were being used as havens by terrorists. Such tactics are necessary if the U.S. wants to win, Shillman says, because if bin Laden is decentralized, the U.S. military must decentralize to defeat him.

Bin Laden tells his fighters: "I want you to kill people and wreak havoc. Don't check with me, or they'll find me. We'll send money," Shillman says. "It's the same way Cognex runs our acquisitions. We hire smart people, give them cost guidelines and a reward if they succeed."

Ups and downs of decentralization

Even in business there has long been a love-hate relationship with decentralization. Sara Lee was little more than a group of independent, decentralized companies when Brenda Barnes became CEO in 2005. But with everyone acting independently, Sara Lee was unwieldy, losing volume discounts, and its computer systems were such a patchwork that employees couldn't communicate across the street.

Robert Nardelli reached a similar conclusion when he became CEO of Home Depot six years ago. Both he and Barnes have moved to centralize some aspects of their companies. Home Depot's stock was flat last year, and the jury is still out on whether Nardelli gained purchasing efficiency at the price of entrepreneurial spirit. Sara Lee's stock was down 16% last year while the S&P 500 index gained 14%.

"If you take decentralization to an extreme, you get chaos," Beckstrom said. But decentralization is winning, and he has yet to find an industry that isn't moving at least gradually toward decentralization.

Oversee.net, an online ad firm, has 150 employees. Companies that small have traditionally been managed top down. But CEO Lawrence Ng says he has already decentralized his employees into what he describes as SWAT teams and battalions.

"They know their goals. They don't have much intervention from myself or my senior management." Knowing what his teams are capable of accomplishing on their own, Ng imagines that it would be incredibly difficult for a centralized government to fight decentralized terror.

"How many cells are out there? All want to be successful and are coming up with their own strategy," Ng says.

Hoffman says no decentralized company thrives without strong leadership in the field, and the U.S. has probably avoided another attack after 9/11 by effectively taking out the second and third tier of al-Qaeda's leadership, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah. The "decapitation approach" of killing bin Laden would have been less effective, he says.

On the other hand, the U.S. government has been unable to take advantage of one of its greatest areas of business expertise: marketing. Any first-year business school student learns that the first rule is to know the customer. Know the audience.

The U.S. marketing message has focused on freedom and democracy. A little research might show that "stability and justice are what people seek," Hoffman said.

Don Tapscott, whose book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything went on sale Dec. 28, says we've entered a time when people with no relationship other than a passion can come together to invent an encyclopedia or a computer operating system. California is thinking about using such collaboration to "wiki all school books," he says, which means using software that allows users scattered throughout the world to collaborate to create and edit.

There are 90,000 chemists online, 90,000 problem solvers, Tapscott says. Groups of strangers with an ideology — a passion — can "create a school book, a mutual fund, a motorcycle. They can also create terror."

It's unfortunate that the bad guys use the same tools as the good guys, says Craigslist founder Newmark. But the good guys have an advantage, he says.

"You can build a network around hatred that works in the short run. The way to disrupt a culture of hatred is to be noisy about a culture of trust. Until recently, the United States has stopped hatred from developing by standing up for our ideals," he says.


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Tracking Your E-Mail Marketing Campaigns

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One of the best features of an e-mail marketing service is tracking and reporting. When people are first introduced to e-mail marketing, they're thrilled to find that they can see who is (or isn't) opening their e-mails and what they’re clicking on.

But after experiencing the initial delight that comes with discovering this helpful tool, the next reaction can be one of confusion or disappointment. I’ve heard questions like, What's a good open rate? Why is it that only 40 percent of my list opens my e-mails? When I first started sending, I had a 60 percent open rate, and now it’s dropped to 37 percent. What happened?

First, you should know what your open rate is telling you. Basically, it's the percentage of your e-mail recipients who opened your e-mail (bounced addresses are taken out of the equation). The reporting feature of your e-mail marketing service tracks the number of unique opens, which means that no contacts are counted twice, no matter how many times they open the e-mail.

Open rates aren't an exact science; unique opens can be undercounted or overcounted. E-mails don't get counted when people view them with the images turned off or when they're read on a handheld device like a BlackBerry or Treo. Unique opens can be overcounted when someone views your e-mail in a preview pane (which sends back tracking information) but doesn't actually open the message.

So when you've got your percentage, how should you feel about your open rates? One place to start is by comparing them to industry standards. According to "MarketingSherpa’s E-mail Benchmark Guide 2006," the most common range for B2C open rates for 2004 and 2005 was 30 to 39 percent; the B2B range was 10 to 29 percent. Open rates also vary widely by business type. According to the "Harte-Hanks Postfuture Index for January-June 2006," restaurants had the highest open rates of any of the 13 business types considered during that period, while retail businesses had the lowest.

What does this mean for you? According to industry standards, if you have a 35 percent open rate, you're doing well. But don’t just judge your open rate against these statistics; judge it against your past performance. To examine your own results, map out your business’s open rate trend line. Over the past 12 months, when did you get the best open rates? Look at the e-mail communications you sent and ask, What did I do that made this successful? Then try that tactic again.

If your e-mail open rates aren’t where you'd like them to be--or you think you can do better--here are five easy things you can do to improve them:

  1. Send more targeted e-mails. The better you know your contacts and their interests, the more you can target your e-mails and increase your open rates. Have you thought about how you can segment your list into interest groups? It’s worth the effort. Don’t you love it when you get an e-mail about something you're truly interested in? And aren't you far more likely to open it?

  2. Improve your subject lines. A good subject line will always increase the chances of an e-mail getting opened. Lead with a benefit that lets the recipients know what’s in it for them. Make it interesting, and try to pique the readers' curiosity. You want them to feel compelled to find out more. Also, remember to avoid using all caps, exclamation points and words like “free” and “sale.”

  3. Test your sending times. Try sending your message on a different day or at a different time of day to see if you achieve a higher open rate. We’ve seen customers improve their rates 15 to 20 percent by changing when they send. It has long been thought that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to send, but a report released by eROI in 2006 showed that open rates were higher on weekends--38 percent on Saturdays and 37 percent on Sundays--and Monday was the best weekday at 35.7 percent. Because open rates are different for every type of business, it’s important for you to figure out the best time to send to your contacts.

  4. Check your “from” name. Is your “from” name easily recognizable? Will your contacts know who your e-mail is from? If they don't, they'll likely hit delete, so you need a name your receivers are familiar with in your “from” line. In most cases, this isn't your name (or the name of the person in your office who sends out your e-mails). Best practice would be to use your company’s name, though you could use another name if it would be easily recognized by your customers and make sense with your campaign.

  5. Evaluate how often you send. You might send too often or you might not send often enough. Send too often and readers will stop opening; send too infrequently, they won't recognize your name. Consider asking your contacts how often they want to hear from you. You can do this by giving them the option to sign up for weekly or monthly e-mails.

By using e-mail marketing to connect with your customers or members, you have the benefit of knowing who's interested in what you're saying or selling. And every time someone opens your e-mail, you're planting a seed, reminding them, “I’m here when you need me.” With tracking and reporting, you can know how many seeds you're planting, and you can watch them as they grow.


Gail F. Goodman is the"E-Mail Marketing" coach at Entrepreneur.com and is CEO ofConstant Contact, a web-based e-mail marketing service for small businesses. She's also a recognized small-business expert and speaker.


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This Is How You Sell T-Shirts Online

Ebay CEO says Web scams hurt business
Magnetic clasps - Clever Clasp.

Matt Cohen figured that the millions of people who love T-shirts might love them even more if they sported personalized designs. His company, Pennsauken (N.J.)-based ChoiceShirts, makes custom shirts using a fully automated process that keeps costs low and volume high.

Cohen was no stranger to the T-shirt business when he started his company with about $500,000 in personal savings in 2001. His family had been in the business for about 30 years, selling everything from T-shirt designs to heat presses. Cohen had learned about selling online during a previous job at an e-commerce company. He sold stock designs at first, but quickly realized that offering custom designs could set him apart.

Cohen upgraded the software on his Web site, working closely with an online development company in which he has an ownership stake. The process took about four months and cost several hundred thousand dollars, most of which went to developing interfaces that connect to back-end administrative and production systems. In 2002, he launched Mother's and Father's Day shirts that customers could personalize with their own or their parents' names.

Today, customers can download any photo and place it in one of 600 templates. About 65% of ChoiceShirts' $3 million in revenues in 2005 came from the custom shirts. More recently, he has launched a system to allow customers to create designs from scratch. He says an added benefit is that offering personalized products breeds loyal customers. "There's a greater impact on the customers, and they are more likely to come back again," he says. About 20% to 30% of ChoiceShirts' business comes from repeat customers.

[Via - BusinessWeek]


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