Posts

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Why Vetting Your E-Newsletter Subscriber List is Important

So you’d like to start sending out an e-newsletter, that is great, and I highly recommend it. The person who reads your e-newsletter is very different from the person who reads your blog. It is important before you start to understand that you just can’t start your e-newsletter with names you buy from a service or harvest from website or for that matter take off of business cards. There is criteria for the people to whom you can include on your e-newsletter list.

First, I recommend that all websites have a privacy policy and whether you have an e-newsletter now or not, that you cover in your online privacy policy that if someone contacts you by email, you will be adding their email to your newsletter list.

Second, the rule by the FTC, in very simplified terms, is that if you have a business relationship with a person, that means you have estimated something, sold them something, or chatted with them about one of your services or products then you can email them a promotional notice about your services. This does not cover you getting their business card at a mixer or from a bulletin board. There has to be a real “business relationship”.

The FTC clearly states that no emails that are harvested, even by hand, from the Web can be used in creating your new e-newsletter mailing list. There is simply no way around this no matter how creative you think you can be, you will still be in violation. With pretty serious fines for violations, it just isn’t worth the risk of trying to bend the rules for your benefit in trying to start out with a big list.

If your list is over about 1,000 subscribers you will trigger all the filters of any firm you are using to send out your e-newsletter. You may end up finding that they will allow the first email send, but then may force you to validate  your subscribers, by double opt-in confirmation, all your subscribers for your second send or they may ban you all together.

It is by far better to build your list over time starting now from legitimate clients than to try to break the rules and start with a big untargeted list especially when you have so much to lose in regards to your reputation and a CAN Spam Act violation hanging over your head.

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How Do You Know if Your Twitter Account is Hacked?

Twitter is an important marketing tool and you want to make sure to protect your followers from blocking you or not trusting you by watching your tweets. Having your Twitter account be hacked can create havoc with your ability to have an authoritative voice in your arena.

You will not always know your account has been hacked but here are some tips to help you keep tabs.

1. Use a Twitter application like HootSuite or TweetDeck and make one of the columns set to show all your own published tweets. You know what you’ve written, so if you start to see tweets that are not yours take immediate action. If you use a tweet ghost writer, make sure that you yourself periodically go to Twitter.com and check your tweet list and direct messages. Sometimes you will see problems or tweets with links that do not belong.

2. Guard your Twitter password and be very careful with the third party applications that you give access to your Twitter account and Twitter password to. If you suspect a problem, just immediately change your Twitter password to lock out potential problem applications.

3. If your blog is hacked and you are using any Twitter plug-ins, most likely your Twitter account has been hacked as well. Now’s the time to change your password on your blog AND on Twitter.

4. Watch your direct messages in Twitter. In many cases followers will let you know that you sent them something weird and out of the ordinary. Don’t blow that off, start digging as most likely you have been hacked. In many cases the tweets from a hacked account will go out in the middle of the night so you may not see them first thing in the morning unless you have a column set up as in number one.

I recommend vigilance. Just watch what is happening on your Twitter account. You don’t want to lose the loyal following you’ve created with a hacked account that posts garbage alienating your followers.

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Do Double Duty With Your Blog Posts

If you have a blog writer or are writing for your own blog, it is time to “think outside the box” when it comes to using your content. Here are just a few of my suggestions. Now before you start though, if you pay a writer to write for your blog, you must make sure you have the rights to use your blog content in the ways I am suggesting.

1. For well received blog posts consider taking them and posting them on Google Knoll or American Chronicle as well as a few well chosen article syndication sites. Your blog posts should be at least 275 to 300 words long and should not be just on selling your own products and services.

2. Consider using your best blog posts as content for a quarterly e-newsletter. Choose the posts you really like or check your website statistics to see which blog posts got the most traffic then consider expounding on that topic further in your e-newsletter. As many blog readers will not be e-newsletter subscribers and vice versa you are pretty safe with reusing some content, just try to add fresh ideas to your newsletter as well.

3. If you’ve had great traffic with a blog post think on maybe paying your blog writer to do a mini whitepaper on the same topic that you can offer as a free download on your website. Better yet provide the download only after you have gotten the readers email address to start creating your own list for your own marketing uses.

There are lots of ways you can creatively re-use your content, but just make sure you have the proper rights to do so before you start.

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Blog Showcase

I’ve got a few blogs I would like to showcase, some are new clients and some we’ve been blogging for for a while.

Moon Costumes
This is a fun blog and our writer is having a ball writing for it. The client is a costume firm based in North Carolina. The blog posts are much more than Halloween oriented. Costumes are fun year round and you just would not believe the fun that adults have in dressing up for conventions and the like. Some of the blogs integrate YouTube videos. It’s a fun blog to read and one you should check out.

Kuno Creative’s Accentuate Within Blog
We write the content for this blog for the nice people at Kuno Creative in Ohio, they then optimize it and post it with an image. The combination has been working to help position the client in organic placement and provide real value for readers and visitors of this plastic surgery practice. Check it out and see what you think.

ChemTec Pest Control
We have written for this blog since startup, but took a break for several months and now we are back writing at a higher blog level. The client has been providing direction on insects that are prevalent in the month and tips from their technicians. The combination of our writing plus their pest expertise is making this a wonderful and informative blog to read and follow. Check out the Notes from the Green Truck blog today.

Natco’s Boatline Blog
This is a fairly new blog for us. We write for two other blogs for this particular client plus provide twitter services and e-newsletter content creation. Based on that we understand the client’s needs and type of audience he has. We think that this blog will be a winner just like the others the RV blog and Classic Car blog too. Visit the new Boatline blog today.