Tech Bite

Hope above tips will help you to write better email. Thanks

Have you ever received an email telling you that the person you emailed is on vacation and will not be answering his email for the next week? What about a company that answers with an email thanking you for your interest and that they would get back to you in a day or two? Or even an email saying that the email you tried to send could not be delivered? Each of these is a different version of what we commonly call an autoresponder. An autoresponder is simply that, a computer program that automatically answers email sent to it. This simple definition, however, belies a world of difference between the different types of autoresponders in use today. The first auto responders were incorporated into mail transfer agents or email providers. When they could not deliver a piece of email, they would send an autoresponse to you letting you know as much. These types of emails were helpful, but not particularly sophisticated. That has all changed radically in recent years, as autoresponders have been incorporated into the marketing strategies of many companies. Today autoresponders are used by companies to immediately give feedback and information to prospective clients. This might include sending an autoresponse to email inquiries which include pricing information, more details about a product, and a timeline for when they can expect someone from the company to get back with them. These ‘client touches’ are a valuable commodity in the world of marketing because they improve conversion rates in the purchase of goods by keeping the product or service in the mind of the purchaser for a bit longer, as well as provide the company with an additional opportunity to provide the potential customer with more information on the product. Autoresponders are setup primarily in one of two ways, with an outsourced ASP model, and a server-side model. The Outsourced ASP model involves the company or provider who would like to incorporate an autoresponder into their business model contracting with an outside provider. The outside provider will then typically provide the user with access to a web-based control panel. From there the company or individual can dictate exactly what they would like the autoresponder to say to each email received as well as how to deal with different types of emails and other variations. For these services, the company typically pays a monthly fee to the autoresponder provider. The second category of autoresponders is server-side. Server-side autoresponders simply refers to programs that instead of paying for someone to implement for you on a monthly basis, a company can install the system on their own server and run it for themselves. While this process is typically not as simple as purchasing a program out of a box and uploading to the server, it has become significantly simpler in recent years.

In the internet marketing industry, keeping in close contact with your customers and potential customers is imperative to your success. You need a method of instantly responding to customer inquiries and a way to follow up with those who have expressed an interest in your business. An autoresponder will allow you to instantly respond to emails and your responses are completely automated. You can create the messages you wish to send and your autoresponder will take care of the rest. You will have a round the clock customer service department that send replies in an instant. You can increase your repeat business and your new business alike through the use of an autoresponder. Your customers will love the frequent contact and you will increase your web site traffic and sales considerably. Many online businesses fail due to a lack of speedy follow-up contacts with potential customers and the inability to keep the company name visible to interested parties. Internet marketing is a highly competitive industry and you must keep your business and products fresh in the minds of those who visit your site. An autoresponder will help you build your mailing list without the necessity of questionable practices such as spam. Try an autoresponder for your initial email responses. You will save time and money and your customers will enjoy the fast response. You can create many autoresponder messages and send them out as frequently as you wish. A fully automated autoresponder is the best way to maintain your customer contact and increase your visibility. You can get an autoresponder for no cost that contains many helpful features that can add to your ability to keep in touch with your clientele.

Over the past few years, research has continued to prove the benefits of e-mail marketing for business: low costs, high conversion rates and detailed tracking are all notable features. But e-mail marketing is becoming much more than just a tool for spammers and e-businesses. Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy on the differences between spam and permission-based emails, and more and more of them are accepting permission-based e-mail marketing as a positive replacement for direct mail. The best news is that the majority of people who receive permission-based e-mails open, on average, 78% of them. Jupiter Research reports effective email marketing campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and 18 times the profits of broadcast mailings. But crafting an effective business email is both an art and a science. Here is a list of factors, potential problems and effective solutions to keep in mind: 1. Spam! Spam! Spam! I don’t need any Viagra! The average consumer receives more than 300 emails a week, 62% of which are spam. No wonder there’s such hostility towards the industry. But spam filters, bulk folders and “report spam” features are helping consumers become more at ease about the perils of spam. While 89% of users cited spam as a major concern in 2003, that number dropped to 85% in 2004, proportionally to an increase in the use of spam-fighting tools. So as a permission-based business email marketer, what can you do? One tip is to remind your subscribers to add you to their “safe senders” list. The second, and most important, tactic is to make sure your email marketing service provider has a good relationship with ISPs. This will ensure that your email marketing campaigns go into your subscribers’ inboxes, not their junk mail folders. When choosing an email marketing software, make sure the company has strict anti-spam policies and complies with the guidelines of Can-Spam. 2. Images and formatting: Why do my emails look broken? Broken email campaigns are an increasing concern among email marketers, especially since several companies and web-based email providers now block graphics as a measure to combat spam. In fact, according to ClickZ, 40% of email marketing messages delivered to inboxes are “broken.” This was actually something that came up during Eliteweb’s beta-testing phases, as we had a client in the Canadian Government whose recipients were mostly using highly secure email programs. The solution we came up has now become one of our key competitive advantages. What Eliteweb does is it publishes every single email marketing campaign sent to a secure location on the web (a location only original recipients of the email can access, thanks to encrypted technology that automatically authenticates the user). The technology also ensures you can track your users’ behaviors, even if they are reading your email campaign at the secure web location. 3. Personalization and relevant content: In a business e-mail, one size does not fit all. In a recent study by DoubleClick, email users were 72% more likely to respond to a business e-mail if its content was based on the interests they had specified. That number points out the absolute importance of allowing users to choose their own interest groups and have control over which business e-mails they receive. The most popular interest categories, according to the study, are coupons and household goods. But your coupon is no good unless the user opens the email. Users in the study said the most compelling reason for them to open a business email is the name in the “from” field. So it’s a good idea to make sure your company name is clearly stated there. Another major factor is the “subject” line. Users cite discount offers and interesting news as the most compelling subject lines, followed by new product announcements and free shipping offers. 4. Click-through and conversion: Show me the money! So the user has opened your email and read the content. Great. But where’s the sale? There’s good news here. For one, consumers are increasingly likely to make purchases as a direct result of a business email campaign. One-third of users in the DoubleClick study had purchased something by clicking a link on an email. Another 42% clicked on an email link for more information, then purchased the product at a later time. Second, online couponing is booming: 73% of consumers have redeemed an online coupon for an online purchase, and 59% have redeemed an online coupon offline. In terms of industries, the top performers are travel, hardware/software, electronics, apparel, food, home furnishings, gifts/flowers and sporting goods. All companies sending business emails in those categories said between 71% and 80% of recipients have purchased their products because of an email campaign. There’s no need to fret if your company doesn’t fit in to one of those industries. The overall landscape for email marketing conversions is looking brighter every day. The average click-to-purchase rate has increased nearly 30% since 2004 and the average orders-per-email-delivered rate has increased more than 18% since last year. 5. Stats tracking: who are my real consumers? E-mail marketing is an increasingly popular tool in effective CRM, and it’s about time more businesses recognize that. First off, if your provider’s email services for business do not include detailed, real-time tracking, you’re getting a raw deal. Real-time tracking is now an industry standard, and it’s highly valuable, as it allows you to see the exact moment a user opens your campaign, clicks on your link and makes that purchase. Studying your users can help you improve your communications efforts, so each campaign performs better than the last (several email service providers also let you compare the performance of your campaigns). But many marketers are still in the dark. According to a recent WebTrends research, only 5% of marketers are very confident in the measurement of their online marketing efforts, while 26% admit they’re “flying blind.” WebTrends says the low confidence comes from a lack of knowledge when it comes to measurement, which means there’s still a lot of work to be done. In email marketing, a blind shot won’t take you very far. But if you aim properly by following these essential rules of play, you should soon be reaping the same major results as so many online and offline businesses.

Every new computer that’s brought home from the store has an operating system installed onto it. But what most new computer users don’t realize, is that without an operating system, that computer would be a simple shell of possibilities. A powered computer lacking an operating system wouldn’t display anything more than a bunch of confusing text messages that describe the computer’s boot process. At the very end of this process, the computer looks for an operating system and if not found, it will prompt the user to tell it where it is. Earlier computers didn’t have an operating system and if you have experience with the computers of the early eighties, you’ll remember that most to them didn’t even have a hard drive! These old computers booted an MS-DOS type operating system from drivers stored onto a floppy disk, and in order to use a program, users would remove the boot floppy and then insert a new floppy that contained the program. The floppy not only stored the program (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.), it also stored the drivers that the program needed to communicate with the computer’s hardware. As you can imagine, the cumbersome process of switching from floppy to floppy prompted the birth of the operating system. An operating system is a software program that controls how the computer’s hardware (and installed software) works. It manages the activity of every component and then displays that activity as a user-friendly interface (GUI). It keeps track of where things exist on a computer’s hard drive as well. But perhaps most importantly for the end-user, the operating system is responsible for translating commands issued with a keyboard and mouse into binary code (010110101 stuff) that can communicate with a set of speakers, a printer, a scanner, and more. With an operating system installed onto a computer’s hard drive, users no longer need to boot a computer with a floppy disk, nor do they need to run programs from a floppy disk. All the drivers of a program are stored onto the computer and used whenever a program is started. Apple’s Macintosh computer was among the first of a couple systems to establish a user-to-hardware relationship through a user-friendly interface. Today, we have quite a few operating systems. Some of the more popular ones are Windows Vista, Mac OS X, ZETA, IBM, Unix, and Linux. But even still, operating systems have extended onto to non-computer devices such as game consoles, portable music players, and PDAs. Regardless of the device, the operating system installed onto it serves the same purpose across the board: to enable user-to-hardware communication. When you think about upgrading your computer to a new operating system, be careful to make sure that you have the necessary hardware components. We tried to upgrade one of our Windows 98 machines to Windows XP, but we were cautioned that the former may not be hardware compatible with XP technology. Apparently, the Windows XP operating system requires components that weren’t developed at the time Windows 98 was distributed and if we were to install Windows XP on this machine anyway, the new operating system would look for hardware that the computer didn’t have. And that would be an instant recipe for failure. Also be careful about installing operating systems that are incompatible with existing hardware. The hardware of Macintosh computers is extremely different from the hardware of Windows computers and under no circumstances will a Windows operating system work on a Macintosh machine!

Computer users and programmers have become so accustomed to using Windows, even for the changing capabilities and the appearances of the graphical interface of the versions, therefore it has remained Microsoft’s product. Although, Lycoris, Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse, Knoppix, Slackware and Lindows make up some of the different versions of LINUX. These companies release their own versions of the operating systems with minor changes, and yet always with the same bottom line. The simple fact that not one of these companies are close to competing with Windows, for the most part causes the difference in market share. It sometimes seems everyone on the planet is using Windows. Many say Windows is way better than LINUX because of the simple handling of the software or hardware. There are huge differences between the number of users of LINUX and Windows. Many say LINUX is far better because it started as an Open Source software and thus is more flexible than Windows. Then what accounts for the enormous difference in market share between these two operating systems? Windows and Linux are different in many ways. 1. Windows GUI is an integral component of the OS; speed, efficiency and reliability, while the Linux GUI is optional, are increased by running a server instance of Linux without a GUI, something that server versions of Windows simply can’t do. The nature of the Linux GUI makes remote administration of a Linux computer easier with a more natural feel than Windows computers. 2. The command prompts of the operating systems are very different. The command interpreters in the Windows 9x series are very similar to each other and the NT class versions of Windows also have similar command interpreters. There are, however differences between a Windows 9x command interpreter and one in an NT class flavor of Windows. Linux, like UNIX, also supports multiple command interpreters, but it usually uses BASH or “Bourne Again Shell”. 3. While you have to pay hundred’s of dollars for a new Windows version, you can just go download Linux. There’s no manuals or simple installers for the free version. Although there is quite a learning curve when utilizing the free package. There are some easy automated packages of Linux for low prices. Microsoft’s “big con” is the supposed security issues with windows. Most spyware, adware and malicious files programs work with Windows just fine. In general you do not deal with these kinds of circumstances unless you are working with Windows. whereas Linux offers a strong protection, password protection for Windows can be bypassed with ease. The software availability is the key to why Windows wins over Linux in this competition. Most software releases are already configured for Windows. If you chose to use Linux you must copy Windows with special software in order to use your windows based programs. You could always install Windows as a subsystem to Linux, this would take the administrative capabilities of Windows and allow them to funtion on Linux. If Linux is ever to compete with Windows, it must become more user friendly and provide serious technical support.

Whether you have a desktop, or a laptop, you need various computer accessories and peripherals to derive the maximum benefit from them and also optimize their use. There are quite a lot of accessories available in the market today, and new ones are making their entry on a day-to-day basis. In most of the cases these accessories and peripherals are available with your computer, but if they aren’t then, they are available at all computer shops. Some of the special items in this regard, will not be available with your computer, but can be bought from exclusive vendors. The different types of computer accessories and peripherals The keyboard Everyone knows what a keyboard looks like and its functionality. All computers come with their own keyboard, and you don’t have to buy them separately. However, there does come a time, when you find that they don’t suit you or they do not have the features that you are looking for. Its arguably one of the most important of all computer accessories and its primary activity is to input data. The amount of choices available in terms of keyboards and their functionality is enormous. These days you also get a wireless keyboard, and even a keyboard that is ergonomic in nature. Ergonomic keyboards are a great buy for people who spend a lot of time typing. They prevent strain resulting from the same. The mouse Though you can control your computer without the use of your mouse, it’s still much easier and comfortable to do so, using the mouse. All operating systems, that are available today, are configured to work with the use of a mouse. Mouse, as an accessory, is an overriding necessity and you simply can’t do without it. It is available in a variety of designs, and are configured to suit various requirements of the user. There are various types of mouse available in the market. The most affordable out of all this variety is the simple mouse that contains a ball underneath, which helps in the movement of the cursor. Other expensive varieties include the optical mouse and the wireless mouse. The printer Printers cannot be called a necessity in terms of computer accessories and peripherals, but are required if you want to print material on a regular basis. However, they are a helpful addition to all computer systems. The market is replete with numerous options, when it comes to printers. Today, buying printers is not difficult or even expensive. You can go for the black and white variety or opt for a color printer. Laser printers are the most expensive of the lot, but in the long run, help save a lot of money. The scanner Again, like the printers, it’s not a primary requirement when it comes to a computer system. A scanner, basically, helps you scan various images, and documents onto your computer. After you get them on your computers, you can edit them and even print them. The purpose of a scanner is to make a graphic image of your document and save them into your computers. Scanners are not cheap, but to call them expensive wouldn’t be right either. Today, you can buy a combination that includes both a scanner and a printer. Such models can be a good buy. The speakers All computers come with their own sound cards, which enable you to hear sound played from your computer. This can be done using a set of speakers that are reliable and give out good sound. You can buy a host of speakers, dependant on size, price, design, and style. Sophisticated speakers are expensive, but are recommended if you are going to use your computer to watch DVD films or play computer games. Web cam Web cameras are the miniature version of regular cameras and their images can be accessed using the services of the World Wide Web. These web cameras are a combination of digital cameras, with a capability to upload all images on a particular web server. These cameras are attached to a PC, enabling people to see each other, when they chat or do video conferencing. Flash drive A flash drive is essentially a storage device. It’s called a flash drive, because it uses a flash memory rather than the traditional methods of data storage. Many a times, they are used as a replacement for hard drives, and most of the times, their functionality, size, shape, and even user interface is similar to these hard drives. Pen Drive or USB Flash Drive These drives are integrated with a Universal Serial Bus or USB connector, and are generally small, removable, rewritable, and lightweight. They are the new age replacements for traditional data storage accessories like floppy disks or even data CD’s. They are able to store more data, are easy to use, and are inherently more reliable. There are many more computer accessories and peripherals that are available in the market. Such accessories have exclusive uses and are only used for specific purpose. The ones listed above are the ones that are commonly used.

Domain name makes an Internet address of your web site that is why it has to be easy to remember and to type, it has to be representative and correspond with your web site. In other words it has to be effective. To make it to be this way I’ve prepared a couple of tips for you when choosing an effective domain name. Make Your Domain Name Representative In order your domain name to be representative, make it to be accordant to your web site name. And make your site’s name also be your URL. As your web site visitors will remember it by its name. So when they decide to return to your site again don’t make them wonder what the URL to type in their browser to get to the site they need. There is another problem when the web site’s name and its URL spelled differently. Imagine your web site’s or the company’s name is, for example “MySuperBusiness” but some other company has such URL. The visitor who remembers your web site by its name would naturally type mysuperwebsite.com in his/her browser and will get to your competitor’s web site. And it would make a loss for you. There are thousands of domain names are registered every day and that could be a problem for you to get the one you want. In case you are just starting out it would be more comfortable for you to register a domain name first and name your web site only after you did that. And if you have a promoted brand name and don’t want to change it only because the domain name that fits you is already taken by someone else you can check its owner through the “Whois” to see who owns it. And you can purchase it from its present owner. Make Sure Your Domain Name is of Optimal Length In general domain names can be of any length up to 67 characters. There are a lot of disagreements about of what length the domain name is better to be. A short domain name advantage is that it’s much easier to remember and it’s less compliant to typing mistakes. A long domain name is usually easier to human memory instead of the one that was made short by all means. If it was, for example, replaced with its abbreviation it would be much easier to remember the complete meaningful name than the combination of letters and numbers that might have no sense. So I guess it would be a perfect choice for you to use as short domain name as possible but only on condition of it remains meaningful. Try not to use any symbols that carry no important information like slashes or hyphens. As it’s very easy to forget them when typing your URL. Choose the Right Domain Extension Choosing a domain name extension depends on what exactly your activity is. In case it is of local scales, like pizza delivery, you can take a country- specific domain name. You also get in a good position with such domain name as the people your activity is targeted to know that they are dealing with a local entity. The most common types of domain extensions are .com, .net and .org. These domain extensions are for your use in case you are planning to benefit from the international activity. Usually this domain extensions are bit expensive but some top rated webhosting site like Bluehost offer a free domain name with their web hosting plan. There are some domain names that require from the registrant to represent a certain type of entity such as .edu, which is reserved for universities or high schools, .aero, .biz, museum and some others. So as you can see it is vitally important for you to get your own domain name. And it would be better if it corresponds with your activity and the web site’s name. But the bottom line of the article is that you sure should purchase your own domain name.