The Enigma of Email Efficiency

by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

Email worries getting you down? Are you bogged down in the quagmire of email overload? Is online communication stressing out your offline life? There are ways to curtail this confounding correspondence. You can learn to email better, answer more quickly, and discard your digital doldrums.

We all have email in our lives. It is a necessary evil that we cannot live without. It is a cousin to our other 21st century addictions: The cell phone and the iPod. Sometimes it seems that it is taking over our lives, but the following ways can help you to put email in check and give you much more time during the day.

Only check your email two or three times a day.
Seems simple, doesn’t it? But how many of us sit by the computer like a schoolgirl waiting for that guy from home room to call? Just because the email lands in your inbox doesn’t mean that you have to answer it within seconds. There is no contest to be first to answer. By answering your emails as they arrive, your train of thought is broken and tasks take much longer to accomplish. Set a time to answer your emails while you are at work. A half hour after you arrive, after lunch, and before you leave for the day is plenty of time to get back to people.

Quit feeling the need to include everyone.
Why does the entire company need to be included on every joke, invite, or quip of the day? You wouldn’t invite your entire department to a meeting unless they were all required to be there, don’t put them on every email. And don’t “Reply All” to questions directed to solely you. There is no need to clutter the information highway even further with a “Yes or No” response. If there is a need to include everyone -whether you desire a response or not - then put the intent in the Subject Line.

Every notice does not deserve an answer.
Just because it is said, doesn’t mean that you need to reply. Email is not a telephone conversation or lunch meeting. If someone writes, “Here is the information that you requested and if you have any questions, contact me.” There is no need for a return email with the solitary word of “Thanks!” This is email clutter and you just cost that person time out their schedule to open a meaningless message. They know you are thankful, let them carry on their job.

Is email the right mode of communication?
The answer to this is “Not always.” Email is fast. Email is concise. Email is efficient. Email, however, is not the mode of communication to tell someone their dog just died. Think before you send off an email and remember, you cannot include inflection of the spoken word in the inbox. If there is a chance you can receive an inflammatory response, maybe you should consider calling or speaking with the subject in person.

Email can be very time-saving and time-wasting. Done properly, it can be a vital part of your communication process, allowing you to get your message across concise and efficiently. Ask yourself: “How do I use my email?” If you have any comment or suggestions, please do not hesitate to respond. By email, of course…

Is There a Time to Grow Up?

Is There a Time to Grow Up?
by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com

I was going about my business this weekend and a couple of circumstances made me stop and take notice.

At the Car Wash: I noticed two Hummers in line at the local car wash. Behind them, waiting in line were a series of other expensive ($50,000+) vehicles waiting their turn for a chance at the power spray. One of them had a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror.

At the Super-Mega-"We've got everything" store: Two adult men were having a discussion over whether the new Nintendo Wii or the Playstation3 had the better variety of games. One exclaimed that "sure the kid's like this, but they don't use it as much as my wife and I do!"

At my 30-something friend's home: A brightly colored knife block – shaped like a human being in the throes of death – with various styles of knives, from a paring knife to a bread cutter thrust into it, sitting on the kitchen counter.

This made me realize something. (Other than my friend has a really dark sense of humor) We, as adults, are just kids with an income. While that income varies – most of us haven't broken out of our Peter Pan syndrome and grown up the way we thought all adults were supposed to be - it follows the premise that we buy what we want, not what we need.

We like to have fun!

Market your products the way you would want them to be marketed to you. Everyone likes to smile and be happy. A happy person is going to be more receptive to what you are selling. And let's face it, we are all just big kids at heart.

Top 10 Things to Improve Your Web Site in 2007

Top 10 Things to Improve Your Web Site in 2007
by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com



As 2007 begins, there are some simple things you can do to clean up your web site and help to market your business. As you would with your house or car, it is important to apply regular maintenance to your web site to keep it running in tip-top shape. The following ten tips will help you to upkeep your web site in the New Year.

1. Make sure that all of your links/images are working properly.
While this should seem simple enough, so many web sites do not have all of their internal and external links working properly. While you have no control over external links, it is good to occasionally go back and check upon them, since another company could switch their own web site around and no longer have a valid URL. Within your own site, there is no excuse to have an invalid link. You can either check this manually or run a free program found online to make sure everything is connected properly.

2. Run a spell check over your entire web site.
This is another easy fix when changing text on your web site. Always write what you want to put on your site using a Microsoft Word or other word processing program. This way, you can assure words are spelled correctly before you cut and paste the information into your web site. With the rest of your site, you can do the reverse and copy the information from your web site and paste it into your word processing program to ensure spelling.

3. Add ALT attributes to all of your pictures.
Search engines look for ALT attributes on your pictures. What is an ALT attribute? The ALT attribute is an alternative image tag for non-visual browsers when they come across images. This means that the text – or ALT attribute – will be seen when the image is not visible on the page.

Many browsers will also display the ALT attribute if you hover your mouse over the image. If you embed a link in the image, it is good to write out the link as your ALT attribute. Be brief in the text you write for your ALT attribute. You don’t want the viewer reading a paragraph of text on your web page when they hover over a picture.

4. Add keyword meta tags to each of your major pages.
Keyword and key phrases are essential to your web page. They let the web spiders know what the most important words on your page are and how to find you when searching on the internet. You should think about the words that would best describe the elements of the page you are on when coming up with keywords.

Also, be specific when coming up with your key words and phrases. If you are a bookstore, using the key word “book” is not going to help you very much. “Book” can reference many things in addition to reading materials. It could mean “scheduling a flight or music act”, “an accountant’s spreadsheets”, or “slang for moving very fast”. All of these things would come up if someone typed the word “book” into a search engine. Specific content, such as the book title, or even “paperback book” are better keywords to use when coming up with your keywords on for the page.

5. Set a schedule to add your link to new places each week in 2007.
Your web site’s ranking is partially dependent upon incoming links. These can be obtained by adding your link to other people’s web sites, bulletin boards, message boards, or blogs. Be careful not to add too many links, though, because search engines do not want your link going out to web sites that do not relate to your own site, they view too many links at once as spamming and thus, you get penalized for this. So choose your incoming links wisely and get your name out. By setting your self to a schedule of 5 new links per week, you will have your name all over the web in no time.

6. Submit two articles per month.
Article submission works for you in two ways. First, it is a way of getting links back to your web site. You get this by placing your link to your own web site within the article. The article can be anything that you want to write about, but it should be something that people will want to pick up and use in their own blogs and on their own sites.

The second reason that submitting articles will do for you is by setting you up as an authority in whatever you are writing about. This adds credibility to you and your business and people will come to know you as a resource for their own questions. By placing a goal of twelve articles for a year, you will be considered an expert in your field.

7. Change your home page.
Unlike people, search engines love change. They want to see changes on your pages and when your home page changes they feel the need to do something about it. It is called “re-indexing” your site, which means they will re-examine your web site. You can change your site as often as once a week or once a month, but I would at least recommend at least two or three times a year. Just having the spiders re-indexing your site will make it worth the effort.

8. Add your web site address to all of your printed literature.
What many people forget to do is the hidden benefits of adding their web address to all of their printed literature. Business cards, flyers, invoices, and catalogs are all viable resources that should have your web site address printed on them so that people can find you on the web.

9. Add printed literature to all web orders.
If you are selling products on the web, be it through a traditional online store or through an auction site, such as eBay, you should prepare a flyer or letter with other items that you have for sale and a way to order them. Add this printed flyer in with each and every order. You can cross-sell items this way and you will find that your online sales increase with repeat customers. Remember, the customer that has already had a successful transaction with you is more likely to buy from you again.

Even if you do no accept credit cards or have a merchant account, you can do business online. PayPal is available to use and is a terrific way of doing commerce online. Look into adding this as an additional means of buying from you online, as well. PayPal is quickly becoming one of the largest online transaction companies.

10. Contact those who have shopped at your online store.
Once you have made some sales online (or have gathered clients through your web site), you should contact them from time to time to remind them that you are still open for business. As stated above, people that have shopped through you before and have walked away happy, are more likely to buy from you again and recommend you to others. Just drop them an email about once a month to let them know you see them as a valuable customer.

Please note that this is different than “spamming” since these people have already made purchases from you. A good business practice is to allow them the option to not receive any more messages from you. This is called, “opting out”.

Make these ten ideas part of your web strategy for the new year. You will find that they will help you in your web savvy and also increase your business.

If you find yourself wanting to implement some or all of these ideas, but do not know how to go about doing this, please do not hesitate to contact me and we can work towards getting a jump start on your web site in 2007!

Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year from all of us at www.mywebsource1.com !