Greetings,
 How time flies when you're having fun. This is our second anniversary. Please sing a chorus of "happy birthday" to Web Words.
Well, that secret is out. But there are lots more, like some secrets about what stops people from launching their newsletters. The first article tells a success story and a few future success stories.
My candidates for the three secrets of a happy life are in the second article. Of course, they aren't really secrets. Everyone knows them. But making them actually work is the tricky part.
Lots of people enjoyed last month's article about travel and several offered their own favorite online source--TripAdvisor. So I pretended that I hadn't already been on my New Mexico vacation and tried to plan it using this free service. No luck. They barely knew where Taos Ski Valley was. Still, it's a great resource, and I'll certainly include this site in my future travel plans--but I'm not ready to count on it exclusively.
Finally, we had a little correction from Constant Contact on the Opt-In article.
"In your article you mention that by soft confirming within an email, your contacts are, in effect, double opting in. This is not technically the case. A soft confirm is a way of encouraging your contacts to confirm their acceptance of your email communications, without losing the contact if they don't respond. Where this differs from a Confirmed or Double Opt-in is that a) they do not need to click in order to get additional emails, and b) if you ever were required to do a Confirmed Opt-in email, these addresses would still be added to the list of email addresses to send to."
That may be more than you wanted to know, but now you have the full story.
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What's Stopping You?
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Congratulations to Alan Krieger whose e-zine launched last month after three months of development. Alan's issue #1 bears only the slightest resemblance to his first pass in early January.
Originally entitled Solutions for the Workplace: Making It More Positive and Productive, it débuted as Smart Strategies: Solutions for Workplace Challenges. Alan refined the design, adjusted the color scheme, changed his signature and handled a few pesky technical anomalies, but his content didn't vary much.
He knew what he wanted to say. Alan didn't need a lot of support along the way. I counseled him on the title change, answered some technical questions and checked in from time to time, but mostly Alan tackled the issues of e-zine startup on his own. He's a consultant after all.
No Content
Then there's Charlie (not his real name). He's a very busy technology consultant who first signed up for Constant Contact in 2003. He used it once in 2004. Then it languished. After months of promising himself that he would start email marketing again, he came to a startling realization. He wasn't going to get over the barrier of selecting and customizing a template. Duh! So he asked me to lend a hand. "A photo please," I said. That done, he had his own unique template in just a few days; several additional refinements and it's ready to go.
But it hasn't gone anywhere yet. No content. Charlie has more than enough to say about his topic, so that's not the problem. He's just too busy to write the content. But we all know what "too busy" really means. It means the e-zine doesn't have a high enough priority to get done. So, hopefully, after he reads this article, he'll take a few moments while he's on hold at a client site to create his first article. Let's give him a round of applause as encouragement.
No Address List
Doreen (not a real name either) does not-for-profit consulting. "An e-zine is a no-brainer," she said over a year ago. "I've got lots of former clients and prospects that I don't stay in touch with. Sending a regular email communication is sure to bring me more business." So we spent some time together going over the process and designing a nice template. But nothing happened. No content. And believe me, Doreen has a lot of ideas. In fact, she writes a monthly column for a trade publication. Then one day I got a call. "I've got the perfect opening article for my newsletter," she said proudly, telling me the theme. It was very clever--her most recent creation for her regular writing gig.
I enthused over the piece, but suggested some edits. Reluctant at first, she agreed that the revisions made it easier to read in newsletter format. But still no e-zine. Why? Well, you actually need an address list to send out an e-zine. I won't underestimate the enormity of the task, but it only needs to be done once. And I have a lot of helpful tips to share.
What's stopping you?
Whatever it is, we can overcome it together. Be in touch.
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Secrets of Success
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It's been an interesting month that included reading a novel about alchemy, attending a special meeting that I'd been hearing about for years and getting in touch with the son of a long-lost high school friend. And then there's spring--well almost.
For some reason, these activities got me thinking about success. So here are my three secrets of success. Take them for what they are worth. And, by the way, this is partly do as I say, not as I do. Here, in no particular order, are the secrets.
One Thing
Master one thing. Do it well. Become known as "the expert" in your field. And, by the way, timing does count. Take Lin Schreiber, coach extraordinaire, who decided four years ago to specialize in a new kind of retirement. She looked at what she loved doing, and she considered the demographics. Her first career was as a marketer, after all. She realized that as baby boomers approached retirement age, they would seek a new kind of retirement. Revolutionize Retirement was born, and today Lin travels all over the country advocating for the excitement of retirement.
Actually, I accomplished good timing once myself, so I can testify that it works. In the early 1980s, I saw that the future of corporate communication was going to be online. I became an expert (which was really easy then because there wasn't much to know), wrote a book and created a successful consulting business.
BAG
No, not the thing you put groceries in. But a Big Audacious Goal. Reach for something truly huge; something so scary that, at first, you don't even want to think about it. Declare for it--take it on. Commit to it, no matter what. Remember the famous quote from W. N. Murray in The Scottish Himalayan Expedition.
Once you commit to something, providence will join hands with you to make it happen. Trust me on this one. My first book, the house I live in and finding my husband all came about this way. It wasn't easy, but it turned out. I've got another BAG now, but I'm not quite ready to share it with you. However, it qualifies, I assure you.
Love Your Job
Whatever it is that you do--whether it's raising children or heading up a prosperous business--love it. Not all the time, every day. That's not possible. But when you love what you do, you radiate. You have fun as do those around you. Projects get accomplished; people get ahead; you reach your goals.
I love helping people get their e-zines off the ground. I like sitting with them and reviewing templates until the perfect one surfaces. I enjoy playing with colors and design until the result resonates with my client. I groove on making content suggestions, writing articles and editing the writing of others.
I even like sending out nudging emails, because I know how proud my clients will be when their message finally gets out to the world. And I get a kick out of being a Web site midwife and making things happen online for my clients. They aren't BAGs it's true. But they'll do for now.
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| Web Tips |
 Do you value your privacy? Forgetaboutit! Just type "reverse address lookup" into your Google search toolbar. Select one of the entries and enter your own address. Try several sites, as not all will have the same information.
This is really handy in case you forget how old you are. Your age seems to be a common matter of public record. I found myself, complete with photo, in one search. (I suspect they used LinkedIn for this.) In another, there I was, but with a wrong phone number.
I also tried to find my own cell number, without success (that's good news). Apparently, to be listed in these directories, you need to give permission. I haven't.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. For various fees--ranging all over the place--you can buy records on anyone you find this way. Here's a sampling of what one site offers: Full legal name and aliases, date and place of birth, property ownership and assets, driving, DWI and vehicle records and Social Security number. That's right--Social Security number.
I haven't invested in this about myself, so I don't know what other mistakes are out there. But I can imagine that the business of being a private detective has gotten a whole lot easier since the Internet.
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And Finally . . .
Shawenon Communications collaborates with small businesses, solopreneurs, professionals and not-for-profits to get their messages across in the written word.
We specialize in electronic communications, including e-zines and other forms of email marketing, and Web site content. We also ghostwrite articles and other business communications. As a business partner, we resell Constant Contact's email marketing service.
Thanks for reading. If you liked this issue, please click on the Forward email button below to share this newsletter with others.
You're also welcome to reprint material in this newsletter as long as it is unaltered and credited to the author. Be sure to send us a copy, too. If being reproduced electronically, the following link must also be included:
www.shawenon.com
Sincerely,
Susanna Opper
Shawenon Communications
413-528-6494
Copyright © 2008 Shawenon Communications.
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Contest Continues
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