List Profit Email Marketing Blog

I’m sure you have heard how social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn have taken off like rocket ships. And maybe you’ve also heard that smart marketers are setting up profiles on those sites, and using them to “brand” themselves and their businesses.

It’s a powerful model, and a big chunk of the Web 2.0 movement, which also includes things like Squiddoo and similar sites, as well as the big social bookmarking sites.

One drawback to the whole web 2.0 thing, however, is the amount of time that it takes to post to all of those sites, and maintain contact with all of your friends.

Now, someone has finally solved that problem!

This “new kid on the block” has a revolutionary idea. Several, in fact.

They are coming out with the Toksee Universal Communicator that can chat with all of the major chat clients (e.g. Yahoo Chat, Messenger, Skype, etc) from one central location.

It is *free* to use, and it allows you to put audio/video/text chat on a web page with just a few lines of javascript.

Think about it … you can put that code on any web page, and chat with whoever wants to chat with you, on any platform, all from one central location.

It can even do video “chat” with cell phones!

Now this may sound like something that is only for kids, but it is actually a dream come true for marketers.

The chat client is not their only product. They also have a social community that may well become bigger than any that exist now.

And they have a VOIP service that works even on dialup, because the compression is in the handset, not on the network.

And heavy duty marketers can upgrade to a marketing suite that allows you to upload a video and blast it out to all the major video publishing sites, among its many capabilities.

And get this … they share the revenue from the chat client and the social community and the revenue from the upgraded services with all of their users … even the free users.

Learn more about this universal communications revolution

You need to look at this to see the earnings and social network list building potential that is built into it from the get go.

Technorati Tags: social networking, Web 2.0, Toksee Universal Communicator, audio/video/text chat, social network list building

How would you like to increase the click-through rate of the links in your emails by several hundred percent? We’re not talking about just doubling your click-throughs, but maybe even tripling them.

It’s really very simple. I’m not sure who first discovered this, so I can’t give credit where it’s due. But research has demonstrated that links that “stand out” tend to be clicked much more often.

On a web page, you can put an arrow or small animated graphic next to your link, to call attention to it.

You can also do that in your email, if you send HTML email.

But what are you supposed to do in a text-only email?

Try this ==> http://NitroListBuilder.com

Did you catch that, or just click the link? The trick is the little arrow… the ==> that points to the link. Doing that often increases your click through rate several hundred percent.

You’ll also notice that the link is “in context” and suggests you’re going to learn something by clicking it. Yes, it’s a trick, but it gets people to your website, which is what you want in the first place, isn’t it?

*********************************************
Learn the Secrets of Direct Email Marketing
http://email-profit-formula.com
*********************************************

There’s something else that is nearly as effective. You just saw it a moment ago. I just sort of stuck that link in there, right in the middle of the email, without even bothering to reference it.

It’s sort of an “embedded solo ad” for my own product, and it “interrupts” the flow of the rest of the email, sort of like a billboard along the side of a road.

Interestingly enough though, those “interruptive” links that are made to stand out, sort of like an ad, get much higher than average click rates.

You also need to test the effectiveness of the *location* of the links in your emails.  Some audiences are much more likely to click if the link is at the top of the email, while in other markets, the links in emails need to be down towards the end of the email.

And do not overlook the importance of using a “P.S.” for your call to action.  Many people find these to be the most effective links of all.

You can set up simple tracking of your links, using a slightly different destination URL for each link in an email, so you can monitor which ones get the most clicks.

Another, even better method is to “split test” link placement.  Send out two identical emails, one with the link at the top, and the other at the bottom, and send equal numbers to two segments of your list, and track the results.  Then test again, with and without a call to action in your “P.S.”

To Your Success in Profitable Email Marketing!

Technorati Tags: click-through rate, links in emails