Having a "hiccup" with MailOut Manager
This post follows up from the previous one on
Building an Opt-In List using SBI!As I was saying, I have a problem when it comes to, more specifically, the Confirmation Email, which is automatically generated by MailOut Manager.
Let me explain.
Once someone subscribe, they will be sent a confirmation email (automated by SBI!, great), but the message is from and signed off with your full name. If your SBI! site is a hobby site, or if you are operating an individual business, this may not be such a big issue.
But my newsletter is intended to brand my company, not my name. My partners will not likely be too happy with me as well.
Additionally, I would like to import my previous list from my
my non-SBI! site.
I can do that easily at MailOut Manager by individually entering the emails followed by names, or simply import a csv file from my computer. But then I found that the Confirmation Email (for double opt-in) is not up to my satisfaction.
At this stage, SBI! only allows partial customization of the Confirmation Email (i.e., add a paragraph in between the ready-made message). So, even if you do not like the way the automated message was written, you have no way of changing it.
Let me illustrate...
The Confirmation Email started with something like the following:
Hello { first_name_of_subscriber },
{ Your Full Name } here. I am writing this letter to ask you to subscribe to our e-zine, which is called Tropical Vacation Borneo Newsletter
(note: that's the name of my planned newsletter through my SBI! site).and the message signs off with:
All the best,
{ Your Full Name }
http://www.borneo-tropical-vacation.com
Hope you can see from my perspective.
I guess I'm not the only one who feels this way. A lot of SBIers also touched on this at the
SBI! Forum and the last I heard was This functionality is currently being developed by SiteSell. Many are anxiously awaiting it.
With regards to my full name on the message, I read from the Forum that if you remove your name or part of it from the "My Account" section of SBI!, then it will update in the other modules but still won't affect your ownership or renewal.
Hmmm, I could possibly change it to "The e-borneo.com Team" like we used to sign off previously in our now defunct newsletter, but then I suppose all my emails from SiteSell as well as my name at the Forum will be "The e-borneo.com Team"?
And how would SiteSell charge my credit card if the name of the contact person is not in their record?
More crucial though, since SBI! and SiteSell Affiliates contact info are integrated, I wonder whether if I have a check, it will be made payable to "The e-borneo.com Team"?
This I gotta ask at the Forum soon.
But besides the full name issue, I guess most experienced webmaster would prefer to fully customize (and re-write) all automated messages. I for one would like to use my tone of writing, and whether it's against SiteSell's advice or not, I don't feel like a professional starting a message with "
Hi, Rich Adz here".
Hence, I just have to wait and...
That holds back my plan to publish my newsletter.
Patience..., Richard.
Building an Opt-In List the SBI! Way
SBI! allows you to build an
Opt-In mailing list with ease.
As most of us know that the "
Money Is In The List", building an active mailing list can be one of the most effective marketing strategies for your online business.
But it also requires a lot of time and in most instances, money.
My non-SBI! site used to have a thriving list using a free CGI script installed on my own server. But it was very tedious especially in deleting inactive or bounced email subscriptions.
Then, there is the awful need to deal with spammers and those who accused us of spamming them.
Later, as the email spam filtering system of most email providers improved, we were often branded as spammers and were constantly investigated by the likes of Yahoo! and MSN.
That is why we decided to discontinue our Newsletter even though our list was up to 5,000 subscribers at one stage.
One of the main reasons for me to activate an
SBI! site is because I wanted to rebuild my list and restart a related newsletter.
SBI! includes a module that provides an integrated built-in mailing list program cum autoresponders to capture leads and manage subscribers as well as publish a professional looking newsletter (or e-Zine as they liked to call it).
Setting up a subscription form is also simple..., without the need to know any HTML or CGI.
The
MailOut Manager in Site Central (i.e., Site Build It! BusinessCenter module) is the place where you can set up your Opt-in E-zine for your site.
Side Note: At first, I got confused between the MailOut Manager and Form Build It!, a related module where you can build any kind of form you like from contact to survey to e-courses. But that's another story which I will relate my experience in another post.
Back to the MailOut Manager...,
Site Build It!'s MailOut functions allow you to create different e-Zines and sent to different lists (if you want to). However, each E-mail Address List can receive one, and only one, e-zine.
You'll also be able to easily integrate subscription forms into the pages created by your HTML editor (e.g., in either your SBI! or non-SBI! sites).
But, you must first set up your e-zine in the MailOut Manager, before you can access the HTML code.
It will also automatically generates a default Thank You Page for your subscribers as well as a Confirmation Email.
Now..., that's where the problem lies for me.
I'll share with you more in my next posting.
Straying away from SBI! to a New Marketing System
As I mentioned in the P.S. of my previous post, I for some unknown reason strayed away from building my
SBI! site, or even focusing on my main
non-SBI! site since last Friday to look into a so-called new marketing system that can bring me residue income without doing much work - I'm refering to those work that requires thinking too much.
I normally do not get caught up with what had been termed as "
Business Opportunities" or "
Biz Op". I guess such ops go against the SiteSell's principles of building a profitable long-term ebusiness.
But..., the sales letter of that particular program was so good that I was sold. The PREsell content was excellent to say the least and I joined the promising program with a $97 per month subscription.
But there was a hiccup...
And till this point of writing, I really wish I didn't signed up...
But, looking at positive side...,
If the hiccup can be solved (by the program founders), and the program works like it said without the need for me to do much work, then, I'll be getting some great residual income each month.
I can't really explain clearly about this program as I'm stucked at some steps and need them to resolve some issues first.
Will fill you in later..., regardless of whether the program is a thumbs up or a bomb.
Want to know what Site Build It! *REALLY* is?
Speaking of
sitting on the fence...
Here's another look at what is the Very
ESSENCE and the
CORE of
SBI!Check out
this posting at my just published blog on
SiteSell eBusiness Philosophy for further reading of what
SBI! is ALL about.
For those seriously thinking of starting or growing a successful eBusiness, I hope that this will offer some "spark" to your mind-set.
Have a great weekend.
I surely would..., as my wife's away outstation in Kuala Lumpur.
Just kidding ;)
P.S. By the way, will keep you update on a new marketing system I subscribed to just this morning for US$97 per month (nothing to do with SBI!). That is, if it is worthwhile or otherwise. But unfortunately, it doesn't look too promising even at this early stage.
If you are still sitting on the fence about getting SBI!
Here's a little story for you...
There are three cats sitting on the fence.
Two decided to jump off the fence.
How many cats are left sitting on the fence?
"One?" You answered?
Wrong..., the answer is three.
Yes, three..., because the two cats only decided to jump, but they have yet to.
You may have heard of the above tale many times before.
Basically, the moral of the story is...,
If you have decided that
SBI! is the right tool for you but have yet to make a move, then you are still sitting on the fence about getting SBI! You have not moved on. You have not started your business yet.
What's stopping you is best known to you.
But do take a look at the
SBI!'s Case Studies Site, which provides detailed recounting of individual
SBI! experiences, each in their own words and styles.
Nothing gets a point across better than the personal, real-world story told by a flesh-and-blood human, one who is/was in the same boat as you.
While at the site, please DO MORE THAN READ THE WORDS -- read between the lines.
Feel the emotion the SBIers have for
SBI!.
It is the very rare product that elicits this kind of intensity.
SBI! literally changes small business people's lives,
including mine.
It's time to change your live by first, jumping off the fence.
Good luck.
P.S. Have a question? Go ahead...
CLICK HERE to ask an SBI! Advisor a question - by phone, online chat or e-mail.
My SBI! site showing PR4 and PR3
Seven months since I purchased SBI! and six months since
my SBI! site went online, most of my T2 (i.e., Tier 2) web pages are now showing a PR of 3 (i.e., Google Page Rank 3 - the higher the PR, the more important the page as deemed by Google and hence, better search results placement for certain keywords).
One of my T2 pages is even showing PR 4, which was a pleasant surprise for me. I'm really really impressed by SBI!
In fact, I have noticed the PR early this month, but due to the
Google Dance phenomenon (I shall not attempt to explain what it means - just google the term yourself), one week it may show the current PR but the next week, it may be zero PR, which is the older version of the dance - hemmm).
To get to that level of PR in 6 months is not impossible. But you will need a lot of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) hard work as well as URL submissions and link exchanges.
I did not have to do much work on SEO. In fact, I just let SBI! guide me and did all the SEO for my site.
I have not started exchange any links with other sites yet.
And I have yet to
submit my site to the major 2nd tier directories.
I estimated that I must have spent the most
5 hours per month on my SBI! site since it went online.
I tend to focus on my more established non-SBI! sites at present as they are bringing in the business. I also have to deal with my demanding day job, and spending quality time with my two young girls and..., with my beautiful wife, of course.
As such, SBI! is a super leverage for me to build and grow a different (but theme-related) site with minimal time required.
The only puzzle I have with regards to the PR is that my main page or the T1, does not show any rank at the moment.
But come to think of it, it looks exactly what SBI! Inverted Pyramid principle means? The T1 will normally be the last page to be indexed (as its main keyword is the most competitive), and the least visited page at the beginning.
Who cares. I will leave all these puzzles up to SBI! to resolve while I run my business.
In the final analysis, these PR ranks are mere ego-booster and not traffic-booster. But it is a good indicator of its potential to bring in the traffic based on Google's measure of importance.
New Blog on SiteSell
Two weeks ago, I started a another blog called the
SiteSell eBusiness Philosophy blog.
I had in mind a blog that will provide some ideologies of SiteSell's way to build a successful business (which encompasses Site Build It!).
Short but descriptive insights and tips about
the SiteSell Way.
To my surprise, the name sitesell is still available so I latch onto it.
However, coincidentally, Blogger.com was experiencing some problem so I was not able to add anything much until recently.
Anyway, check out the
Introduction and Objectives of the Blog for more information.
Although I'd noted clearly that SiteSell is a trademark of SiteSell Inc., and it is not in any way associated with sitesell.blogspot.com and its affiliated sites other than that the author is a current customer of SiteSell Inc., I do hope that Ken Evoy and SiteSell will have no objection to this blog or that I would need prior approval to publish this blog.
In any case, why should they stop one of their customers and long time affiliates attempts to promote them?
Well, hopefully, my concern will be of no relevance in the context of blogging :)
Problems at Blogger?
Lots of bloggers at blogger.com were faced with a big headache on 16/17 March 2006, including yours truly - we were not able to make any posting.
At first, I thought my
other older blog was over quota (although I did not read anyway in Blogger's terms that there is such a thing - correct me if I'm wrong) as I have almost 500 postings since end-2004.
But I had the same problem with this current blog, which is much newer, I began to suspect something else. Maybe I did something wrong somewere with my new anti-virus software that I'd just installed?
I kept getting a big message in red: "There were errors" each time I hit submit to post.
And the details were either:
"001 java.io.IOException: EOF while reading from control connection"or
"550 Could not open: No such file or directoryblog/14/19/12/e-borneo/archives/2006_03_01_e-borneo_archive.html"
Since there is no posting on maintenance update at Blogger, and I can't figure the problem out myself, I quickly "ran" over to
Blogger Help Group and to my surprise..., or rather, to my relief, there was a host of bloggers making the same complaint.
Not sure what's happening to the usually reliable Blogger.com, but this little issue became a "meltdown" issue for a lot of bloggers.
As at this point of writing, the situation had improved slightly. Some postings went through but some still receiving the same dreaded error. And my
daughters' blog is not even accessible (i.e., forbidden?)
Time to think hard about
relying too much on a free blogging service? Even if it's a service provided by the almighty Google Inc.?
P.S. And while at Blogger Help Group, I read with astonishment that my blog is not the only one which kept showing Public Service Ads by Google.
I thought SBI! will auto submit to 2nd Tier Directories
Pardon my ignorance folks,
In the SBI!
SE HQ, I read that:
Quote:
SBI!'s WorldSubmitter submits your pages to the major global engines that accept
free, non-password-protected submissions.
I apparently had the misconception that the above statement includes submission to (some 1st & 2nd tier) Directories as well...
Until by chance, I read some postings at the SBI! Forum.
Can you imagine that all this while I did not submit my sites to the directories? I thought WordSubmitter is doing that for me.
I may be wrong, but I simply can't find a clear description/explaination in the SBI! manual regarding the search engines and/or (1st or 2nd tier) directories that WordSubmitter will automatically submit my site to (except for the major ones like
Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask of course where statistics are provided for me to track my rankings for each webpage/keyword).
Don't make the mistake I'd made. If you are not sure, just ask someone at the Forum. I thought of doing just that earlier but never got to do it for some unknown reason.
However, I (and other ignorant SBIers) would appreciate if the SBI! Manual could have made this point clearly, instead of the need to refer to the Forum...
After more than 6 months since my SBI! site went online, only now I will be submitting manually to the 2nd Tier Search DIrectories.
Shukssss
Site Statistics (Sept 2005 - Feb 2006)
Now that
my SBI! site is nearing 6 months old (i.e., when it went online), I think the statistics will be getting some interesting results to be posted in this blog, don't you think?
From the
Traffic Stats, which is part of Site Build It!
TrafficCenter module, I found the
following month-to-month summary:
Monthly Totals ( Visits / Visitors / Pages )Feb 2006 - 1665 / 1082 / 3450
Jan 2006 - 1748 / 1147 / 3974
Dec 2005 - 1318 / 807 / 2983
Nov 2005 - 490 / 215 / 799
Oct 2005 - 250 / 98 / 466
Sep 2005 - 141 / 17 / 269
Daily Avg ( Visits / Visitors / Pages )
Feb 2006 - 59 / 38 / 123
Jan 2006 - 56 / 37 / 128
Dec 2005 - 42 / 26 / 96
Nov 2005 - 16 / 7 / 26
Oct 2005 - 8 / 3 / 15
Sep 2005 - 7 / 0 / 14
How I make some sense out of the above statistics is to zero in on '
Visitors' - the number of monthly unique visitors to my site (as per unique IP per 24 hour).
Forget about the stats for September 2005 as I'd just started building a few pages. Comparing Oct 2005 and Feb 2006, my 'visitors' increased more than
11 times or by
1,104.1% to be exact. Not bad really considering the fact that I did not spent as much time as maybe I should have in building the site.
I'm also quite satisfied with the increasing daily 'visitors' per month, from 3 per day in Oct 2005 to 38 per day in Feb 2006.
And I'm not too worry about the decline in total 'visitors' in Feb 2006 as compared to Jan 2006. There were 3 days short in Feb, and basing on the monthly visitors per day, Feb 2006 should get slightly more visitors than the previous month.
I remembered that for
my first website (non-SBI!), it took more than a year and a lot of hard work to get more than 1,000 visitors per month.
What more can I say?
Now..., if only I can find more time to focus more on my SBI! site.
Rich Kid Poor Dad - Lessons from a 7-year old
After reading "Retire Young, Retire Rich", I bought another
Robert Kiyosaki's book called "Rich Kid Smart Kid" a week ago. But before I got the chance to read it, my 7-year old daughter, Tessy, wanted to read it first...
Tessy likes reading, ever since she was a toddler, and when she's into one book, the whole family knows very well not to touch that book until she finish reading or all hell will break loose.
Since Kiyosaki's book was primarily written for parents to educate their children financially, I wasn't sure that Tessy could understand the book thoroughly. I thought if the book was too 'deep' for her, I could persuade her to let me read it.
So I tested her this morning before I go to work by asking what she'd learnt from the book so far.
To my utter surprise, not only had Tessy read up to Chapter 4, she had also picked up some of the invaluable lessons from the book.
Besides telling me about Robert, Richie and their rich/poor dads, and Kim (Robert's wife), Tessy told me that...
"If you think you can't afford it, you can't afford it!"
"If you think you can afford it, you can afford it!"
Like a Poor Dad, I asked "Huh? What do you mean?".
Like a Rich Kid, Tessy replied: "If you think or say you can't afford something, then you will never be able to afford it." (these are her very own words for your information)
"The moral of the story is...", my Rich Kid continued.
"If you want something badly, and you continue to think and say that you will have it one day soon..., then most likely you will always be able to find a way to get or buy it.
"Hey..., congratulations, you are truly a Rich Kid, eh?", I told her. I was very proud of Tessy but at the same time a bit worry, as I'm not 100% certain what she's actually talking about. She sounded like Robert Kiyosaki and that can't be good right? She's only 7 years old for Pete's sake...
Then in the context of
Site Build It! (SBI!), it finally hit me...
My friend Jeff thinks that he can't afford to buy SBI! even though he is financially more stable than me. And until today he still blames the lack of money for his inability to get a SBI! even though he agrees that SBI! is an excellent tool to expand his Internet business endeavours.
My other friend Steve thinks that SBI! will not work for him blaming the much needed time and hard work required to build a SBI! site. He wanted to get rich quick and he said that he didn't have so much time to read the SBI! manuals and guide and to go through the all-important Brainstorming process. Today, he'd given up on SBI! and his Internet business is going no way.
The moral of the story is..., like my Rich Kid tried to explain...
If you think you can't afford it, you can't afford it no matter how rich you are.
If you think it won't work for you, it won't work for you no matter how good that something is.
Thank you Tessy for opening your Poor Dad's eyes and context.
Discussion Board Participation - the most worthwhile reason
From an earlier posting, I said that I'll let you know what's the best or most worthwhile reason for participating in a forum or discussion board.
You may have known that posting messages on online discussion boards is a great way to get free advertising. For example:
Ask or answer questions and incude your site link or signature file at the end of each posting (problem: most discussion boards nowadays do not permit this)
Your site URL attached to the end of each of your postings will help build incoming links which is great for Search Engine Optimization (problem: this does not carry much weight for Search Engine ranking today as the SEs are getting technologically more sophisticated)
- post quality information that would be informative for members in the discussion board to gain credibility and click to your site.
But as far as I'm concerned, besides networking, discussion board participation can be used as a source for churning out your own content/article.
No....., I don't mean copying other people's postings.
Since part time entrepreneurs like me are always time conscious, we always look to "kill two birds with one stone".
So, my postings in discussion boards (whether there are comments, answers or questions) will normally end up as an article (or part of it) or a content for my site/blog. NOTE: This strategy can also be used for postings in Blogs, even if it's your own blog.
Of course, I will polish, refine and improve it further or even add additional information, maybe some latest development as an example.
A good example is my recent participation in the SBI! Forum where I posted several comments/answers on Article Marketing and Duplicate Content.
It turned out that I was able to produce two articles on the same subject - in a very short time, something like a few hours for each article). The best thing was that I don't have to write from stretch.
I just cut and paste from my postings at the Forum. Then after some editing, proof-reading, rearranging the flow, and adding some latest information on the subject, my articles were finalized as follows:
Yes, long title eh? Please do note that these are my so-called first draft. My articles are never finish in reality. I will continue to improve and update them, and be assured that if I decided to submit them to article directories, they may have a different title or may be rehashed.
Hey, rehashing your own articles is a normal practice, ok?
The part time entrepreneur needs to work smart as he can't afford to work hard!
As you know that article marketing is still one of the most effective strategies to generate a constant stream of long term traffic, publishing articles sourced from your postings in discussion forums is the most worthwhile reason for participating in a forum.
Come to think of it, this current posting can be used to come up with a future article. Hemmm....
Big changes to richADZ.com in 2006, thanks to SBI!
Thanks largely to
Site Build It! or more specifically,
Search It! and
Brainstorm It!, two of many excellent modules/tools of SBI!, I finally managed to find a better theme for my existing Internet marketing/promotion guide site, richADZ.com (a non-SBI! site).
This site started off many years ago as mainly catering mainly for local businesses at my hometown in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo. I was doing some 'outdated' web-related business such as web hosting, web page creation, etc.
The site remains virtually unchanged for 4-5 years and becoming irrelevant not only to surfers but to myself as I'm not providing most of the services published on the site anyway.
I had not spent much time on it as my energy was on another site or sites related to my travel business (i.e.,
e-borneo.com) which has surprisingly taken off significantly in the past few years). It has now been transformed from a web-based business into one with a physical presence with (real) staff working for me, and more importantly, one where I have a buisness mentor plus financer (more to this another day).
So I revamped richADZ.com slightly early last year, changing the theme to web promotion from the perspective of a part time
third world internet marketer.
It was a great little niche I thought. There are too many marketing gurus out there already, and I need to be a bit different from the rest. Although the demand and profitability appears to be not too good, I seldom rely on "high demand low supply" schools of thought anyway. I tend to rely on my instinct - what I think/predict will be popular in the near term.
Anyway, I do not really plan to focus on this site fully and so, I'm not too worried if it's not making much money.
But for 1 year, I really had a hard time trying to build/grow the site from the part time third world internet marketer theme. My mind was somewhat blocked. I can't find the right approach, the angle or after a while, the interest. What I meant was I was not sure what to write about and what to add to the site.
The only useful thing I'd done was to add the syndicated SBI! Blog (this blog) headings to the site.
After some frustration, I decided to read several "mind-opening" books such as those from Robert Kiyosaki, one of my current favourite authors.
Then I did some research on the subject through Search It! and also some brainstorming through Brainstorm It! to have an idea which theme would be easier to build/grow the site.
After several days, I suddenly realise that it is much easier to drop the third world and stick to just the part time bit.
And it still convey what I really want to share with the web audience in the first place anyway - my experience as a part time Internet marketer.
Voila...,
Yesterday, I re-write my homepage (just a tiny bit) and uploaded it and you can see
here. I guess I'll Tortoise It! over the years until I'm really ready to make the big bucks from it.
You see, my main focus at present in on my travel business as I'm on the verge of obtaining the all important travel agent and inbound tour license from the Malaysian Tourism Ministry.
In any case,
the moral of the story here is that SBI! with all its outstanding tools, can be utilized to start another web business or in my case, enhance my other non-SBI! based web business.
Site Build It! is really a tool of great leverage especially for the time-constrained part time entrepreneur.
