Archive for March, 2010

Email Gadget for Marketers

Author: Jennifer

March 23, 2010

This handy piece software allows you to send large files by email or by instant messenger without having to divide the file in half or worry about having it returned because the size of the file is too big. There is a free version that allows you to send a 1GB version, a Pro version that you can buy that allows you to send 5 GB. There is also a Publisher version that sends 50 GB. This tool is very positively reviewed in such prestigious newspapers as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune. It is ideal for people who frequently need a convenient way to send large image files or heavy PDF files by attachment.\
Here are some ways you can use it….
-If you are a graphic designer, photographer or artist you can now use Pando to send your entire portfolio in one big file
- Pando makes it possible to send a brochure or ebook about your business without having to worry about whether the person on the other end will be able to open it
- Now when it is time to send your relatives and friends those vacation photos or photos of your wedding you can send them an entire album rather than just a few photos per I.M. or email
-Save on Xeroxing and printing costs by sending large manuscripts directly to a printer or publisher rather than having to print it out yourself first
Similar online gadgets are runbox.com and sendyourfiles.com
You can also get online email gadgets that act as reminders. You can email yourself so you don’t forget to do things.
Future mail allows you to email yourself at any point in the future on any date and time you choose. You can consider it to be a kind of online reminder service because you can program FutureMail to send yourself reminders, notes, or any kind of information. In this sense it can be used like an email autoresponder program or opt in mailing list where subscribers get timely reminders. You can even share your future items in a public RSS feed (where anyone who would like to can view the email online) or keep in touch with your own FutureMail Blog.
Similar programs are futureme.org and mailtothefuture.com.


March 20, 2010

The first thing to say is that unless you are very proficient in HTML coding and design, building your site from scratch is probably not something you want to get involved in. Doing things this way is going to be a long and involved process, one that is likely to prove frustrating and difficult.
If the time that it is taking to do the job does not dissuade you from pursuing your goal, the frustrations that you suffer on the road to doing so may very well blow your e-commerce idea out of the water before it is ever even launched!
It is far easier and quicker to put together a list of what you want your site to do, how many pages you want it to have in the beginning with a list of products that you want to sell, so that you can submit the whole thing to a professional website designer. Having a site designed from scratch should not cost more than a couple of hundred dollars, which is money extremely well spent, because it frees you up to do things that are more likely to make money for your business.
An alternative would be to use a website template which you would then need to modify and alter to suit your own requirements. Doing this is not as difficult or time-consuming as designing the whole thing from scratch. Furthermore, as long as you have an easy to use, visual WYSIWYG (‘What you see is what you get’) HTML editor like the free Kompozer, you should be able to edit the template itself, which saves the design fee.
There are dozens of places where you can find free templates, starting within the cpanel of your Hostgator web hosting account (this will probably also apply to any other web host who uses a cpanel, but as every individual host is different, you would need to check).
You can also find over 2000 no-cost website templates on the OSWD web site, and while these are not specifically e-commerce templates, you should be able to modify anything you really like to suit your requirements easily.
Using templates in this way makes creating your site a whole lot easier, but there is a one disadvantage. You are not the first person to have chosen the template that you are going to use to promote your business, so there may well be other businesses in your market that have an e-commerce site that looks like yours. However, the more modifications you make to the template, the less it will look like other people’s sites, so it really is your decision to decide how much work you want to do on it.


March 14, 2010

Every time you add new content to any of your websites, information about that new content should be submitted to the major social bookmarking sites, because doing this will generate new visitors and create extremely valuable one-way incoming links to your site.
Social bookmarking is often overlooked and should not be. It is a great way to introduce people to your blog and websites.
There are hundreds of social bookmarking sites currently online, and submitting your information to each of them on a manual basis is undoubtedly going to be both time-consuming and tedious. This is where you could consider hiring a virtual assistant. However that can be expensive. Thank goodness there are gadgets to assist you with notifying people when you have new contacts on our blog list.
However, there is no doubt that you should submit information about your new content to these sites so it is something that you cannot afford to ignore. There are a couple of software programs available that you can use to assist in your social bookmarking submission efforts.
The first of these is Onlywire, which after a recent revamp and upgrade will submit your information to 27 of the leading social bookmarking sites completely free.
You simply install the program and the ‘Onlywire’ button to your toolbar so that every time thereafter, if you want to bookmark your content, you click the button.
Alternatively, you might consider using Social Bookmarking Demon, which although it only submits your information to around about the same number of sites as Onlywire, does so in a far more professional and search engine friendly way.
For example, while every submission that you make using Onlywire will be identical, Social Bookmarking Demon has inbuilt randomization features that ensure that every submission is unique.
The third social bookmarking possibility is to use a company that can offer an individual social bookmarking submission service . Once again this is a more expensive option than getting a simple gadget. However it may be necessary if there is anything finicky about your gadget.
Try running a Google search for “social bookmarking submission” and you will find plenty more companies like this that will submit your site information manually on your behalf. This option reduces your involvement (and even the involvement of anyone helping you) to an absolute minimum, saving you both time and money.