Are All Webmail Users The Same?

The big 4 webmail services are Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail and while their users should generally behave in the same manner there are subtle differences that a marketer should be aware of. The most obvious one is that Hotmail is used by more home users and I would think a younger audience versus Gmail which is used by a lot of business people.

MailChimp, an email distribution service studied success metrics for marketing e-mails sent through  these 4 services showed that Gmail users were most likely to open and click on e-mails. Another important metric, open rate, varied from a low of just over 20% for e-mail sent to AOL users to a high over nearly 31% among Gmail users. The click rate, or the number of times users clicked on links on e-mails sent to Gmail accounts was more than 7.4%, compared with rates between 4% and 5% for Yahoo!, AOL and Hotmail users.

Open Rates
Hotmail-23.8 %
Yahoo! Mail -24.5 %
AOL- 20.1%
Gmail- 30.9%

Emails Sent
Hotmail – 63.5 million
Yahoo! Mail – 54.8 million
AOL – 28.8 million
Gmail – 29 million

According to comScore, Gmail is the third-most-popular e-mail property among US Internet users, though it posted the highest growth rate between July 2008 and July 2009. Unique visitors to the service rose 46% to nearly 37 million.

Top  Email Properties (thousands)
Yahoo!Mail – 87,224 (2008) 106,166 (2009) Up 22%
Windows Live Hotmail – 45,886 (2008) 47,115 (2009) Up 3%
Gmail – 25,304 (2008) 36,959 (2009) Up 46%
AOL – 45,111 (2008) 36,407 (2009) Down -19%

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Top 12 Upgrades for Ubertor Websites

This post is specific to users of Ubertor websites, but if you are thinking of a website or upgrading your existing one please visit my demo site at www.mikeblaney.com.

Ubertor websites are the most cost-effective way for small businesses and Realtors to have a professional and effective internet presence….without breaking the bank. Realtors pay as little as $ 37.00 a month with no contract to sign and commercial websites are only $ 9.99 a month.

As an Approved Vendor for Ubertor I am excited to extend a special offer that makes your decision even easier; the first 4 months for $ 1.00. Click here to register your website using my vendor code and let me know when you want to get started. Fantastic websites start at as little as $ 150.00. No really.

For existing Ubertor users I have compiled this list of 12 great enhancements and upgrades to update your website and attract more visitors.

1. Update to the new modern looking, easier to navigate, full screen template like this one you are looking at in the light red theme. Other colors such as blue, green and gold are available) The biggest difference you will see right away is the size of the listing photos. Click here to see the actual size difference. It will impress both the vendor and the buyer.
2. Add the Featured Listings widget to the home page (Click here and look on the right) This is a $ 295.00 value that I can offer as part of my basic package.
3. Activate the Active Listings Map (Click here) This is a great way for people to pinpoint where your listings are.
4. Add a Twitter Widget to the home page (Click here and look on the left) If you are not on Twitter I can explain the pros and cons help you sign up if you are interested.
5. Add the SEO package for anyone at the $ 55.00 or $ 77.00 level (no charge for the option, but there is a fee to optimize your website) This allows you to customize the page title with a keyword phrase and a unique title for each page which appears as a more compelling sentence in the blue link on Google. You can also set your meta keywords, meta description (shows in Google as black text) and page description which is used for the site map.
6. Add flash banners (Click here for a good commercial application of flash banners or go to my website to see samples of exciting new banners you can add to your website) If you are upgrading from an old style Ubertor website we can add new banners or upgrade your existing ones. Click here for a few samples.
7. Add custom Status and Badges (Click here and see the badge that reads “Incredible Investment”) There is a limit to the number of characters, but the font color and background can be customized.
8. Add a custom tab to your listings to highlight features or important information (Click here for a Special Features sample complete with photos)
9. Update your home page with search engine friendly content with outbound links. My home page is an example of one that is informative, is sprinkled with keywords and has links to other websites; all things that search engines look for. You need to write about yourself, the areas you work on, the types of homes  in the area and anything else related to real estate. This is what the search engines look for.
10. Start blogging with relevant content to attract buyers and sellers. Don’t believe me? Type a search on Google with the words “Ambleside open house” and I bet at least 9 out of the 10 results will lead back to an Ubertor blog. Ubertor blogs are MAGNETS for search engines and if you do not have the time or inclination and want to improve your search engine rankings then you can hire us. We have a number of “ghost blogging” options available that will get results. Check out our Guest Blogging Service
11. Add photographs to your website. By adding photographs with descriptive “alt tags” your website will be more interesting and the description gets indexed by search engines for image searches. If someone is looking for an image of your city they might be planning to move there! We have a library of pictures that we can use on your website or we can locate the right ones for you.
12. Add relevant content that search engines can index and will result in the right people finding your website. If you are stumped then let us do it for you. Typically we can add a page of content for as little as $ 45.00 per page. Examples are Important Community Numbers, Top 10 Lists for Buyers, Schedule of Events for your area, Community Information (with lots of outbound links), Checklists etc

Please email me at marketingguy2shaw.ca or call me at 800-568-8338 to discuss your requirements.

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Do You Have a Google Profile?

I have a Google Profile which can be found at http://www.google.com/profiles/mike.blaney.

Why? My first reaction was to make sure no one else took the name just like on Facebook where I registered http://www.facebook.com/mikeblaney as soon as the personalization feature became available. A Google account seems to act as a business card on the internet. One application is if you do not have a website or blog, but you want to introduce yourself to someone, just send them a link to your Google profile where they can learn more about you.

What is a Google Profile? “A Google profile is how you present yourself on Google products to other Google users. It allows you to control how you appear on Google and tell others a bit more about who you are. With a Google profile, you can easily share your web content on one central location. You can include, for example, links to your blog, online photos, and other profiles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. You have control over what others see. Your profile won’t display any private information unless you’ve explicitly added it.”

You can also allow people to find you more easily by enabling your profile to be searched by your name. Simply set your existing profile to show your full name publicly.

If you are interested in creating your own profile you can follow this link http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=97703&hl=en

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Are You Thinking About A Website – or Updating Yours?

For those of you who subscribe to this blog I admit that this is a bit of an ad disguised as a blog post so you are forewarned. But if you or anyone you know wants to learn more about websites then it will be of interest to you. I can’t always blog about marketing because even a marketing guy needs to be marketing.

I  have been helping clients gain an internet presence for the past few years with most of them using a customizable, templated website from a company called Ubertor based in Vancouver, BC.  Coincidentally they were recently awarded the Most Innovative Web Service Award at the Real Estate Connect Conference in San Francisco.

The five main reasons I selected Ubertor as a supplier of websites are:

Click for a larger image

1. The sites are totally optimized for search engines.
2. They have a built in blog which attracts search engines like bees to honey.
3. There are no contracts. It is month to month.
4. They have a Content Management System in the back-end a 5 year old can use.
5. They are affordable. As low as $9.99 a month for a business or service. Real estate specific versions range from $ 37 to $ 77 per month depending on the number of listings etc.

And the number one reason is the new website design they have announced.

Take a look at my sample website using the light red theme which features some of the enhancements including an optional flash banner which really catches the reader’s eye. The first thing you will notice is the full screen width, enhanced menu bar and 3 column layout. There are about 20 different banners that you might find interesting.

The new template is modern looking, easier to navigate, full screen and displays information more effectively. It screams WEB 2.0!

It is a widescreen template with an excellent menu layout, 3 columns, customizable and comes in 14 different color combinations. (click here to see the blue samples)

ARE YOU READY TO TAKE YOUR WEBSITE TO THE NEXT LEVEL?

To kick off this new template I have a special offer for you. The first 4 months for only $ 1.00.  A savings of between $ 40 and $ 300 depending on which service you pick. Click here to register for the service or call me at 800-568-8338.

What if I am an existing Ubertor user?

While an existing Ubertor user can upgrade to the new template just by going to Set-up – Template and choose “Ubertor Top Widescreen Beta” there is one small catch and that is your existing banners are too narrow for the new look. That is where I come in. I have dozens of banners you can choose from, some of which you can see by clicking here or I can modify your existing banner to work with the wider template. Click here for examples.

On a more technical note the home page can now be customized with a number of embedded widgets or small programs such as:

• Search Site
• Agent Info (Business Card)
• Blog Items
• Custom HTML
• Page Content
• Listing Category
• Single Specific Listing
• Fetch content from external URL
• Featured Listings

What does an upgrade cost for an existing user?
My fee for a typical upgrade is in the range of $ 75.00 to $225.00 depending on the number of banners that need to be modified. The low range assumes one banner. It also depends on the number of widgets (see above) you want to add to the home page.  It might be a good time to have me update other things on your website to make it more search engine friendly.

How long does it take?
Typically by the next day the new template is fully operational.

Does everything I have work with the new template?
Yes the template has been fully tested.

How do I get started?
1. Pick a color.
2. Give some consideration to the banner or banners you would like.
3. Call me at 604-618-5512 or 800-568-8338 or send me an email.

What else can I add?
Ubertor has announced custom badges for your listing photos. See an example by clicking here where it says Incredible Investment across the listing picture. I can also offer at no charge the Featured Listing option which is normally a $ 295.00 one-time charge. This alone pays for the new website.

What if this is my first website?
Please call me to discuss the options and I will provide you an estimate. You can see samples of some of my website clients by clicking here. Most of them are Realtors, but with this new template I think this is the best solution of all for an y kind of business.

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Why People Surf the Internet

A recent study offering people  295 reasons why they go on the internet established that 100% of those interviewed surfed the internet to pass time…and I thought it was to read this blog.

The Real Surfing

Ruder Finn, one of the world’s largest public relations agencies has recently published their Intent Index. You can see an interactive index by clicking here.

“Intent is the new demographic,” said Kathy Bloomgarden, Ruder Finn co-CEO.  “Delving deeper into the underlying motivations of online behavior is critical to developing proactive strategies. Just being online is not enough to leverage digital channels to drive business imperatives. Audiences must be targeted based upon their intent.”

Here are some of the main findings:

• 72% of people go online just to become part of a community
• Seniors are going online today for the same reasons younger people are; to have fun (82%) and to socialize (80%)
• More people go online to connect via a social networking site (41%) than to post comments or opinions (34%)
• More people go online to be entertained (82%) than entertain others (48%)
• People seek education and entertainment: most people go online both to learn (88%) and have fun (83%)
• Almost half of people (47%) go online to learn to improve themselves and nearly one-third (31%) to find self-help experts or books
• The desire to learn drives people to the Internet; top areas are new subjects (68%), the world (65%), a disease or condition (61%)
• Three times as many people go online to compare prices (66%) rather than people via dating sites (21%)
• E-commerce isn’t dead — one-third of people (34%) go online to purchase an item
• Top things people go online to buy: household items (49%), electronics (45%); music (35%), movies (29%)
• More men (42%) than women (36%) go online to do business
• Women comment, men read: 55% of women go online to find venues for personal expression compared to only 43% of men
• The age of blogs: 44% of people go online to create or update blogs and 42% of people go online to read other people’s blogs.
• Women (48%) are much more likely than men (39%) to go online to advocate for an issue or position

Reasons Internet Users Go Online

Table courtesy of eMarketer .

Here are the findings displayed by category:

Socialize

• More than twice as many people go online to socialize (81%) than to do business (39%) or shop (31%).
• 72% of people go online just to become part of a community.
• Seniors are going online today for the same reasons younger people are; to have fun (82%) and to socialize (80%).
• More people go online to connect via a social networking site (41%) than to post comments or opinions (34%).

Learn/Have Fun

• More people go online to be entertained (82%) than entertain others (48%).
• People seek education and entertainment: most people go online both to learn (88%) and have fun (83%).
• Almost half of people (47%) go online to learn to improve themselves and nearly one-third (31%) to find self-help experts or books.
• The desire to learn drives people to the Internet; top areas are new subjects (68%), the world (65%), a disease or condition (61%), eating healthier (55%) and managing finances (37%).

Shop/Engage in Commerce

• Three times as many people go online to compare prices (66%) rather than people via dating sites (21%).
• E-commerce isn’t dead — one-third of people (34%) go online to purchase an item; tops are household items (49%), electronics (45%); music (35%), movies (29%), and school/work supplies (29%).
• More men (42%) than women (36%) go online to do business.

Express

• Women comment, men read: 55% of women go online to find venues for personal expression compared to only 43% of men.
• The age of blogs: 44% of people go online to create or update blogs and 42% of people go online to read other people’s blogs.

Escape

• The Internet offers young people the escape through anonymity they seek out: nearly half (48%) go online to be invisible on instant messaging, 29% to create an avatar and 28% to be somewhat different.

Advocate

• Women (48%) are much more likely than men (39%) to go online to advocate for an issue or position.

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New Eye Tracking Study: List Layouts

The Catalyst Group provides a wide range of services that make your website or application as simple and useful as possible so that it performs measurably better.

They recently published the results of a new eye Tracking study of “friends” list layouts on Facebook and Linkedin. I thought the results were interesting as we often have to present information to clients and prospects and it turns out the layout makes a difference.

Facebook uses a one column layout and Linkedin uses a 3 column layout like these:

1 Column Facebook

3 Column Linkedin

Overall, the 1-Column layout was a much more effective and enjoyable way of presenting the tested information. The single column of names was easy to read straight down during the Name Recognition Task, and users were able to “ignore” the adjacent column which contained information that wasn’t relevant to the current task.

Eye Tracking data revealed that virtually all participants scanned the 1-Column layout the same way and there was very little hesitation or exploration at the start of the task – users were able to dive right into scanning without having to experiment with different scanning strategies (a phenomenon which was observed with the 3-Column layout).

The 3-Column layout was thought by most participants to be more cumbersome

1 Column Facebook Initial Few Seconds

and overwhelming in its design – more “tiring” according to one participant. (See image below) Also, participants felt much less confident that they had successfully completed the tasks with the 3-Column layout. In other words, they did not feel sure that they had seen all the names.

The Eye Tracking of the 3-Column layout revealed that the participants did not adopt a consistent scanning strategy for this design. Moreover, most participants had to begin by experimenting with different scanning strategies before “deciding” which one to use. This uncertainty was exacerbated by the need to

3 Column Linkedin Initial Few Sections

scroll the page in order to see the full 3-column list. Many participants found that they had lost their place on the page after scrolling and had to backtrack up the page.

Eye Tracking is a service that literally tells you where website users are looking on a screen as they attempt to complete a specific task or simply explore freely. This information can help you make informed decisions about a variety of key design elements, such as task workflow, site navigation, and advertising placement and formats. Eye Tracking can help by supplementing what users “say” with what their eyes “see.”

The most popular output from the Eye Tracking system is “Heatmaps” that graphically illustrate the intensity of attention that certain areas of a page received.

Sample Heatmap

“Gaze-plots” are another useful graphic report that indicates where users fixated on the page, for how long, and in what order.

For more information you should visit the Catalyst Group website.

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Text Messaging – What Happened to Talking?

According to anew survey by Vlingo titled the Second Annual Vlingo Consumer Mobile Messaging Habits Report, (Click here for a pdf) nearly 60% of mobile phone users are now texting compared to 54% in 2008.

By the way Vlingo is a company that has products that let you control your mobile phone with the

My Cell Phone Bill is What!!!!!

power of voice. With Vlingo, you can simply speak to your phone to send a text or email message. Go figure.

Further to my last post about rearing 6 Millennials between the ages of 18 and 26 I confess I use text messaging and I am in my 50’s (early). I swore I would never resort to such an impersonal form of communication, but call screening by my kids drove me to it.  Apparently I am one of the 46% of people in their 50s that text compared to 94% of teens, 87% of 20-somethings and 64% of people in their 40s that text message.

Back to my story of how texting became a necessity of life. We used to call all 6 kids to invite them for dinner the next Sunday and by the time we got through to them  it was almost Monday. It was a combination of my calls being screened and not being able to answer their phones at work or during class. After overseeing the purchase of the 1.000 text message plan for two of the subjects in question I realized this might be a way of reducing the time lag between the invite and the event. Bingo! I send a atext to the 6 kids and their significant others to prevent double-booking and within seconds I have answers from all of them. Text messaging is the only reliable method of  communicating with these Millennials.

Here are some other interesting results:

• 35% of all respondents use their phones for texting more than for phone calls.
• 41% do not text
• 70% do not browse the Web
• 73% do not use email on their mobile phones
• Almost 50%  of respondents do both in equal numbers.
• Among those who do not text message, 27% cite the difficulty of typing on a tiny keyboard as a barrier, while 37% say it takes too much time to type.

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Top 10 Email Subject Line CatchWords

A recent study released by Mailer Mailer, a leading provider of email marketing services, determined the top 10 words used in email subject lines.

Ten Most Popular Terms
1. news
2. party
3. newsletter
4. free
5. night
6. sale
7. com
8. update
9. holiday
10. week

Based on this I guess this would be the perfect subject line:

Great Holiday News Update on our Week Long Holiday Party Sale With a Free Newsletter

Here is a tag cloud depicting the strength of these and other subject line words.

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It’s a Blog…no it’s a Website…no it’s a Blogsite

Recently I have added a new service to my bag of marketing tricks that has a lot of potential for my clients. While I still set up websites for clients using Ubertor templated sites I have expanded my service to create blogsites for clients.

What is a Blogsite?
Instead of programming a website using html or developing a traditional blog on WordPress or Blogger I use a preprogrammed theme that runs on the WordPress blogging platform. There are thousands of themes to choose from and they are all designed to be plug and play so set-up is fast and my clients can make any on-going changes with only a short training period.

What are the benefits?

The number one benefit is how a blogsite is indexed by search engines compared to a static html website. The architecture of a WordPress blog is designed to be search engine friendly and by following a few simple rules, in my experience you can achieve much higher rankings with a blogsite than a website.

• You have hundreds of designs to choose from
• Most themes are free and the ones that you buy cost under $100.00
• You can change your theme anytime without losing your content
• There are thousands of free widgets and plugins that perform tasks that are almost impossible to recreate with an html site
• A blogsite can be up and running in less than a day
• There are thousands of people who can provide support for any theme so you are not tied to a company or individual for support
• The cost to have a fully functioning blogsite can be as little as $ 250.00 for my time to set it up, (but can range up to $ 2500.00 depending on the degree of complexity and amount of content)

I will expound on blogsites in a later post, but if you want to see some examples of blogsites I have under construction (and they are all in their infancy) please visit the following client sites. I have included a link to the original demo theme so you can compare and see the customization:

Cornerstone Kitchens and Design
Kitchen designers
Theme: Sliding Door

HikeBikeTravel
Publisher of travel itineraries
Theme: Essence Dark (ithemes)

HomeSwat
Referral service for homeowners
Theme: Lifestyle

Coasting Home
Home and vacation rentals in Northern California
Theme: Agent (Studiopress)

Sunroom Retreats
Manufacturer of sunrooms and patio covers
Theme: icompany by ithemes

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Canada Introduces Anti-Spam Bill – More Teeth Than CAN-SPAM

The Conservative government in Canada has introduced anti-spam legislation  to help crack down on those who send unsolicited and potentially harmful emails and cellphone text messages.

The proposed Electronic Commerce Protection Act will deter the most dangerous forms of spam, such as identity theft, phishing and spyware from occurring in Canada and will help drive spammers out of Canada. The anti-spam bill is permission based and would allow individuals to sue suspected spammers.

This new anti-spam bill that has been introduced in the Canadian House of Commons may have significant ramifications for U.S. marketers.

The U.S. Can Spam Act does not require marketers to get permission from recipients before sending commercial email. Also, it allows ISPs to sue spammers but not individuals.

The bill would require U.S. based marketers to get permission from Canadian email address holders before sending commercial messages, it would exempt commercial e-mail sent to people with whom the sender has a business relationship. It would also exempt e-mail from one individual to another inquiring about the second individual’s business.

Marketers would have to honor opt outs within 10 days. However, the law does not specify 10 business days as the Can Spam Act does.

The unsubscribe mechanism would have to allow recipients to opt out electronically by providing either an email address to which they can reply or a hyperlink that takes them to an opt-out mechanism. The unsubscribe function would also have to remain active for at least 60 days after the mailing.

According to internet security firm Symantec’s report published in April, the volume of spam worldwide increased 192 per cent in 2008, from 119.6 billion messages in 2007 to 349.6 billion in 2008.