Just as an experiment, a friend of mine subscribe to ten different opt-in e-mail marketing lists to see which ones are effective. Many websites and online businesses have resorted to sending promotional materials to people who have subscribed to them in an effort to boost their sales or traffic. Opt-in email marketing sends newsletters, catalogs updates and many more promotional materials to website visitors who have agreed to be updated whether monthly, weekly or semiannually.
Through e-mail, an internet user that is on the list will receive their updates through email. If a promotional material piques their interest they will go to the site to learn more or to purchase outright. For the website operators or owners, this is a chance to remind their list of their existence and parlor their wares. With the numerous sites in the internet that offers the same products or services in one way or the other, the competition can get pretty tight and it is easy to be forgotten.
Back to my experimenting friend, he tried to find out which opt-in marketing strategies grabbed a person into begging for more. Some would send in very simple fashion, some would very outlandish while there are some that would just lie in between. The differences could easily be noticed and some have gotten the idea of an effective opt-in marketing strategy. He dubbed them effective because he felt like he just couldn’t wait to go their site and learn more, the more persuasive ones even got him halfway to reaching for his wallet and to his credit card before he realized this was only for an experiment.
Many companies and site present their promotional materials in a wide variety of concepts. Each has their own distinctive style and designs, but more than the outline and the presentation, the content and the articles are what keeps the attention of your potential customer locked on to your opt-in marketing medium. Creativity is the key here.
From talking to many satisfied opt-in list subscribers and forums, I have learned of what is essential in opt-in marketing and what makes the subscribers begging for more instead of lining up to unsubscribe.
Keep your promotional materials light, creative and original. Many people are stressed out as it is. Getting a stuffy business proposal rather than a light hearted e-mail may just agitate them more. A warm friendly smile or banter is always more welcome than a serious business meeting or proposal. While you do want your customers to take you and your products and services seriously, you also want to show them that you know how to have fun.
Splash some color in your emails as well as provide some photos and articles that can be related to you but show good news or good light hearted images as well. Provide a newsletter or promotional materials that will keep them in a light mood. Make your materials eye catching and grabbing that they wont be able to take their eyes of them. Pique their interests.
Have good content and article, even if it means investing in an experienced and professional copy writer to write them for you. An effective copy writer should be able to build trust between you and your customers. They should be able to establish your credibility in what they write. It must be informative but not too stuffy. Let go of the professional jargons and “talk“to your recipients.
A good article and content should be able to outline the benefits of your product and services and why they need what you are offering. But do not look to be overeager and too persuasive. It should be able to entertain as well as lead them to buying from you.
Your promotional materials should be clear. Don’t leave people guessing. You should lead them to you and not vice versa. Explain to them what they need to do in a manner that won’t be confusing. Try to anticipate also what your target client needs. Do your research and information gathering, many sites will be able to help you with that.
Provide clear and crisp images of what you are offering. If the people know what you have for them, they are more likely to beg for more. For example, if you are selling a car, provide them photos but only enough to encourage them to go to your site for more.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
What is a Podcast Feed?
A podcast feed is a way of sharing files over theinternet. It involves the use of a small, machine readable file that is regularily updated to reflect changesin the files available for downloading. The internet addresses of these files are embedded into the feed fileand can be automatically downloaded when wished. At this time, podcasting tends to refer to the use of feeds to share only media files. Podcasting originally occured asa way to share audio mp3 files, and has only recently begun in corporating video into podcasts. However, the technology that allows the files to be shared is not limited to such media files and there is not reason that other files may be shared via podcast in the future.
Today, however, a podcast feed tends to refer to the use of a feed to share media files. Most podcasts are done with audio files, and the individual files that are created and shared are called episodes. These audio files may contain a variety of things; there are music, comedy,news, technology, even podcasts about wine. Podcasting, because of the low entry cost, especially foraudio podcasting allows nearly anyone who believes they have something to say to broadcast it over the internet. Even more established groups have found that audio podcasting works well.
Some radio stations podcast portions of their content, sharing it over the internet to allow listeners who missed a specific show to catch up on it later. NPR now does this with its news breaks, and the NPR show "This American Life" offers a podcast of its shows to subscribers who pay a small fee.
One of the newer innovations in podcast feeds is videoblog. These blogs usually contain a feed that distributes a video, rather than an audio file to feed subscribers. Although that would not have been feasiblea few years ago, growing numbers of broadband internet subscribers has meant that most users are ableto download large files, even video files, relatively quickly.
These video podcasts have been readily accepted by mainstream news organizations. They have found that podcasting portions of their content is a wayto share their tape and reach a wider audience. The BBC currently does this with parts of its news content. Pieces of the news show that is played over the airwaves is taken and placed online, along with a link to the content placed inside the RSS feed. Those who subscribe to theBBC feed can download the news clip and watch infrom the comfort of their home computer.
In the future, podcast feeds may be used for a number of purposes besides simply sharing media files. Some analysts predict that the feed system could also be used to share software updates, or any of a myriad of other file types. For now, however, podcasting is dominated by small audio and video files.
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Today, however, a podcast feed tends to refer to the use of a feed to share media files. Most podcasts are done with audio files, and the individual files that are created and shared are called episodes. These audio files may contain a variety of things; there are music, comedy,news, technology, even podcasts about wine. Podcasting, because of the low entry cost, especially foraudio podcasting allows nearly anyone who believes they have something to say to broadcast it over the internet. Even more established groups have found that audio podcasting works well.
Some radio stations podcast portions of their content, sharing it over the internet to allow listeners who missed a specific show to catch up on it later. NPR now does this with its news breaks, and the NPR show "This American Life" offers a podcast of its shows to subscribers who pay a small fee.
One of the newer innovations in podcast feeds is videoblog. These blogs usually contain a feed that distributes a video, rather than an audio file to feed subscribers. Although that would not have been feasiblea few years ago, growing numbers of broadband internet subscribers has meant that most users are ableto download large files, even video files, relatively quickly.
These video podcasts have been readily accepted by mainstream news organizations. They have found that podcasting portions of their content is a wayto share their tape and reach a wider audience. The BBC currently does this with parts of its news content. Pieces of the news show that is played over the airwaves is taken and placed online, along with a link to the content placed inside the RSS feed. Those who subscribe to theBBC feed can download the news clip and watch infrom the comfort of their home computer.
In the future, podcast feeds may be used for a number of purposes besides simply sharing media files. Some analysts predict that the feed system could also be used to share software updates, or any of a myriad of other file types. For now, however, podcasting is dominated by small audio and video files.
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Finding Free Podcast Videos and Finding Podcast Hosting
Anyone can easily find free podcast videos online.There are numerous podcast directories online that can help you find feeds to subscribe to, or you may find a feed thats available from a site you enjoy. After looking through the directories and finding a feed you want to download, subscribe to it using one of the many free podcast clients available.
The podcast client will automaticall download a small file called an RSS file,which stands for Really Simple Syndication. The RSS file tells your podcast client when there is a new file, inthis case a video, to download. Depending on yourclient, the program will notify you or maybe even download it automatically. Once the file is on your computer, you'll be free to listen to it any time it is convenient.
Soon you'll be on your way to downloading some of thefree podcast videos available online. Feeds are availablethat publish on almost every topic, from independent news shows to experimental videos, to scientific information. Some colleges and universities even podcast their most popular lectures so that students will have a chance to watch and review from the comfort of their computer chair.
The best part is that these free podcast videos, are of course, free. All of these feeds are easy to find, and the publishers, for the most part, do it simply because they enjoy it, and are glad to give it away.
Finding Podcast Hosting
For anyone who wants to begin creating a podcast, podcast hosting is the most important part. Before anyone can begin distributing a podcast, they need aplace to store the files and keep the feed file that will tell their subscribers about the new episodes available.The first thing required is a domain name where the site will be located. Many domain registrars are available who will help one register a domain name for a small fee. Once the domain is registered, hosting is required,and again there are many different companies willing to do the hosting for a small fee. One of those is bluehost.com, but many others are available. When looking for a host, the most important thing is to make sure that a lot bandwidth and storage space is available and cheap.
Since podcasting deals with large media files, a lot of disk space will be taken up storing the files and bandwidth will be eaten quickly when they are downloaded by the subscribers.
After podcast hosting has been acquired, it needs to be used and the site needs to be set up. The DNS addresses of the site need to be set to the addresses that the host provides you so that the servers that underlie the internet will know where your site is. DNS addresses can be set by going to the domain registrar that was used to acquire the domain and inputting the addresses provided by the host. After that is done, it will take a few days before the master list the domain registar updates will be shared throughout the internet and all name servers know where to find your specific domain.You can then go about setting up your own podcast.
Using the podcast hosting you now have, you will need to look at the disk space allocated to the site using something called and FTP browser. The host may provide one as part of their hosting plan, but if not there are many available free to choose from. Using the FTP browser, log on to the host and upload a file called dircaster.php after editing it to fit the specifics of the site. Dircaster.php is an easy to find piece of coding that generates a feed file by looking at the contents of its directory or folder. The individual episodes to be podcasted can then be uploaded to the same folder asdircaster.php for cataloging. Make sure that all the meta data, or information about the mp3 file is correct before doing so.
The podcast hosting you now have will allow you to distribute a podcast. It would be best to upload more to the site, such as an index page that tells visitors about the podcast and provides the address of the filedircaster.php on your site. When they subscribe to that file, the podcast client thy use will access it and recieve information about the latest podcasts available.
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The podcast client will automaticall download a small file called an RSS file,which stands for Really Simple Syndication. The RSS file tells your podcast client when there is a new file, inthis case a video, to download. Depending on yourclient, the program will notify you or maybe even download it automatically. Once the file is on your computer, you'll be free to listen to it any time it is convenient.
Soon you'll be on your way to downloading some of thefree podcast videos available online. Feeds are availablethat publish on almost every topic, from independent news shows to experimental videos, to scientific information. Some colleges and universities even podcast their most popular lectures so that students will have a chance to watch and review from the comfort of their computer chair.
The best part is that these free podcast videos, are of course, free. All of these feeds are easy to find, and the publishers, for the most part, do it simply because they enjoy it, and are glad to give it away.
Finding Podcast Hosting
For anyone who wants to begin creating a podcast, podcast hosting is the most important part. Before anyone can begin distributing a podcast, they need aplace to store the files and keep the feed file that will tell their subscribers about the new episodes available.The first thing required is a domain name where the site will be located. Many domain registrars are available who will help one register a domain name for a small fee. Once the domain is registered, hosting is required,and again there are many different companies willing to do the hosting for a small fee. One of those is bluehost.com, but many others are available. When looking for a host, the most important thing is to make sure that a lot bandwidth and storage space is available and cheap.
Since podcasting deals with large media files, a lot of disk space will be taken up storing the files and bandwidth will be eaten quickly when they are downloaded by the subscribers.
After podcast hosting has been acquired, it needs to be used and the site needs to be set up. The DNS addresses of the site need to be set to the addresses that the host provides you so that the servers that underlie the internet will know where your site is. DNS addresses can be set by going to the domain registrar that was used to acquire the domain and inputting the addresses provided by the host. After that is done, it will take a few days before the master list the domain registar updates will be shared throughout the internet and all name servers know where to find your specific domain.You can then go about setting up your own podcast.
Using the podcast hosting you now have, you will need to look at the disk space allocated to the site using something called and FTP browser. The host may provide one as part of their hosting plan, but if not there are many available free to choose from. Using the FTP browser, log on to the host and upload a file called dircaster.php after editing it to fit the specifics of the site. Dircaster.php is an easy to find piece of coding that generates a feed file by looking at the contents of its directory or folder. The individual episodes to be podcasted can then be uploaded to the same folder asdircaster.php for cataloging. Make sure that all the meta data, or information about the mp3 file is correct before doing so.
The podcast hosting you now have will allow you to distribute a podcast. It would be best to upload more to the site, such as an index page that tells visitors about the podcast and provides the address of the filedircaster.php on your site. When they subscribe to that file, the podcast client thy use will access it and recieve information about the latest podcasts available.
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