Unlike a powerpoint template which just about anyone could use, a little bit of knowledge will go a long way in being able to effectively use your WordPress template.  Here is a short checklist to determine if you have the knowledge required.

1. Do you know what a transparent ping is?
2. Have you had experience in uploading things to a server?
3. Are you familiar with server file paths?
4. Do you know what a Gravatar is? [this one isn’t vital]
5. Have you had experience setting up google analytics?
6. Do you know what an RSS feed is?
7. Can you determine the difference between static content and dynamic content?

If you have answered NO to most of these questions then you may not have the knowledge or experience to work with Woo themes directly.  You could still purchase a Woo theme and then get a web developer to set it up for you.  This will be a lot cheaper than designing a site from scratch but it does ensure that your site will look good and you will be able to work with it.

Click here to download the pdf

Sending people unsolicited email, commercial or otherwise, is against the law in many countries worldwide.
Besides that, wouldn’t you rather be talking to people who you know are interested in what you have to say?

Who can I send email to?

People who have specifically signed up through your website
For example, by ticking a checkbox (not checked by default) on your signup or sales form
People who completed offline forms & indicated they wanted to be emailed
Eg: By filling in a competition or survey form where they specifically agree to receive email
People who gave you their business card and asked to receive email
If someone gives you their business card and you have also explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them.
They purchased something off you in the last 2 years

Who can’t I send email to?

Anybody that is not covered by the list above! Here are some examples:
Lists or email addresses received from a third party
Includes any list you bought or rented, got from a partner or membership organization. No matter the claims of the source of this list, you cannot send email to them.
Addresses you collected or “copy & pasted” from the Internet
Even if they look like ideal customers for you, you can’t email someone just because you found their address.
Addresses you haven’t emailed in the last 2 years

Permission doesn’t age well. Even if you got their permission legitimately, they won’t remember giving it to you. If you haven’t sent something to that address in the last 2 years, you can’t start now. By making a purchase from you they have provided their permission implicitly, although it is much better to explicitly ask them.

Click here to download the pdf

Copy and paste from word
Issue: You end up with weird formatting and word wrapping
Solution: Paste copy without formatting, remove lines or type directly into interface. Use paste from Word dialogue box in WordPress tools.

Links & Email Links
Issue: email address link doesn’t work
Solution: type “mailto: email@address.com”

Photographs
Issue: Not right sizing, quality poor, wrong specification, low resolution but low quality
Solution: Get specifications correct e.g. image should be at most jpegs of no more than 1000 pixels across.

Formatting while putting into content management system
Issue: Formatting normal text that overrides design format of design and in a nutshell usually looks bad e.g. making text really big
Solution: Get style set by designer. Upload plain text. Use sub headings and have sub headings consistent throughout site. Paste using dialog for Word docs Use paste as plain text option and remove line breaks.

Grammar & spelling
Issue: Spelling mistakes, or grammatical errors. Not all content management systems have a built in spell check facility.
Solution: Get a proof reader. Create in Word and then transfer into plain text.

Not so intelligent hyperlinks
Issue: Not using rich text linking e.g. See the pictures of the puppies [click here]
Solution: Rich text linking e.g. See the pictures of the puppies.

Not putting in alt tags for images
Issue: This can make the site more accessible, for visually impaired, it also misses out on the opportunity for additional info for google and other search engines.
Solution: Give your photo a name that is relevant and descriptive.

Time References
Issue: Outdated copy particularly if the copy is not updated frequently e.g. referring to something in 2004.
Solution: If you are going to refer to items by date make the commitment to
regularly update your site’s content. If not going to update content regularly avoid dates or date specific content where possible.

Click here to download printable pdf

Marketing Geek information sheet No1

Promoting your website address
Email was invented before the internet and as such systems have evolved in a way that does not always work in the best interests of the business user
Q: What is the number one way to promote your website?
A: Put it in your email address
Why have apmarketingworks@bigpond.com
When you can have sales@apmarketingworks.com.au
If you have a bigpond, i-primus, hotmail address people don’t always assume that you have your own website.
How to Make Your Domain Name Part of Your Email Address

1. Purchase your domain
2. Organise web hosting with mail or point your mail to an internal mail server on your local network.
3. Start to phase out your existing email address
4. Set up your client (e.g. outlook, entourage) to collect both addresses during that phase.
5. Make sure both mail accounts send as the domain based email address

Issues:
Q: How do I keep my old email address?
A: You can always maintain two addresses. It can get a little difficult to manage particularly if you have
multiple computers.
You may choose to use your ISP based email address then have a domain based email address forwarded to it. You can change your ISP quickly and not be totally cut off.
Also you can forward a number of domain based email addresses to one ISP based address.
Mechanism:

1. Here is how the transition from an existing ISP based address to domain based works.
2. When collecting email use Outlook, Entourage or any mail application on your PC as
3. the default method.
4. Only use webmail to collect when you are not at your own computer. (All email
5. accounts via your web server should offer webmail applications)
6. Don’t ever use a free email address like hotmail as a web based system for any length
7. of time especially not for business.
8. Some online systems act as exchange servers like gmail are improving to a point
9. where they may become useful under certain circumstances. Also now there are paid
10. for email services like mobile.me. These might be the ultimate solution to avoid the
11. issues raised however obviously require financial outlay.

An address you have total control over is an important company asset not unlike a business name or domain name.
Benefits:

• You are not ISP entangled so you can switch to a better/cheaper at any time.
• Your email address will remain constant.
• Your email data can be backed up locally and archived.
• It becomes part of your marketing package that is the business name.
• You can collect through desktop clients (e.g. applications outlook etc.) or webmail
• You can have multiple accounts through your client e.g. sales@ info@

What to do in the transition

• Send out from your new address to let people know.
• Send email with the new email address as the return address regardless of the collect address.
• Don’t reply to emails that come in from your old address – cut and paste with the new address.
• Manage your branding.

Tips if Using Webmail and Desktop mail

1. When using both desktop mail client and webmail for one address, make sure the desktop client deletes mail from the server after
2. it has downloaded.
3. When using webmail do not delete, that way your desktop client will archive all mail even email that you have viewed using webmail.
4. Make sure however that you do not use all your storage on the web server as your email will stop
5. working.
6. As soon as possible make sure a desktop client collects and deletes from the web server. For this reason we recommend only using
7. webmail when you are on a computer you do not own.

If you receive message….. “mailbox is full”
Your web server may have space for 40meg that is 20 emails on average of 2 meg. If they are left on the webserver it will get full and
you will no longer get new email.
What to do:

1. Delete from your webserver using webmail application like squirrel, hoarde
2. Set up your client e.g. Outlook so that when you have made a copy onto your
3. computer it deletes from the webserver.
4. Organise a backup of your emails either on local storage or online backup solution
5. separate to web services

Get help from an IT person if you don’t know how to set up your client to
automatically delete mail.

Click here to download a printable pdf

You don’t get loyalty from customers by setting up a plastic loyalty card scheme….“Here’s the ‘secret’. Customers will keep coming back if their needs are being met … they don’t chop and change for no reason,” she said.

She said common mistakes made in the “pursuit of loyalty”, included not rewarding existing customers before starting to give freebies to potential ones, not keeping track of the points and being “too stingy” with the rewards.

Whatever you do, avoid doing a Who-is lookup that uses Network Solutions before you try to book a domain.
This story from Command Line Warriors.

“Advanced common sense” approach to creating a simple, manageable system for dealing with large amounts of email. One of several clever observations, which certainly applies to me, is that those of us who started using email in the early 1990s (or earlier) developed habits and conceptions – based on the then-available email clients and very different number of messages received in a typical day – that no longer apply today.

Well worth watching for those who struggle to manage as email load increases.