uBid.com, just like we already said about TechCrunch, is now emerging as another model citizen when it comes to sending a once-a-day e-mail digest. Congratulations, uBid !
We're a little bit more suspect of what they're sending, but maybe that's just our sentiment and not your's -- We know we can't afford to come anywhere close to buying all the items they include in their daily e-mail, but if you're interested in a concise list of auction items (typically just eight promotions), then you'll like what you get.
So far, very reliable and what would appear to be well-safeguarded e-mail list management -- We haven't gotten a single e-mail from anyone other than uBid.com, but we'll be the first to know if that suddenly were to change. We're working on an 'alerts' mechanism and will announce / launch that when it's ready for prime time.
Tracking Page: uBid.com
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Victoria’s Secret, Not Quite So Advanced on E-Mail Marketing
Maybe they're just betting on the effectiveness of their visuals (which, I have to admit are pretty compelling), but Victoria’s Secret seems to be less sophisticated that Playboy.com on the e-mail marketing front.
The evidence we're gathering so far is that there just seems to be one e-mail campaign list. Well, maybe two if they can connect your e-mail account to an actual purchase, but there seems to be only random ebb and flow on e-mail volume over time with no indication of their assessment of effectiveness, i.e. whether their messaging has long since fallen on deaf ears. Other than rendering the e-mail we're not doing anything and yet VictoriasSecret.com would seem inclined to treat us today just as they did months ago when we first registered.
It would seem to me that treating your potential customers all the same all the time would seem a little oversimplified, but then again, their e-mails are occasional to borderline frequent, focused, and nicely presented. A pretty good job overall.
Tracking Page: VictoriasSecret.com
The evidence we're gathering so far is that there just seems to be one e-mail campaign list. Well, maybe two if they can connect your e-mail account to an actual purchase, but there seems to be only random ebb and flow on e-mail volume over time with no indication of their assessment of effectiveness, i.e. whether their messaging has long since fallen on deaf ears. Other than rendering the e-mail we're not doing anything and yet VictoriasSecret.com would seem inclined to treat us today just as they did months ago when we first registered.
It would seem to me that treating your potential customers all the same all the time would seem a little oversimplified, but then again, their e-mails are occasional to borderline frequent, focused, and nicely presented. A pretty good job overall.
Tracking Page: VictoriasSecret.com
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
TechCrunch, a Reliable Technology News Source
We're just making a quick point to share that TechCrunch, as expected, is a reliable source of a singular, daily e-mail digest of their blog posts. We're not seeing any other e-mail arrive on our unique, use-once-only e-mail address that specifically tracks TechCrunch.com. It's just the one-a-day e-mail, and that's it.
There's also no indication that they're even interested in sharing e-mail address lists with anyone. But, if they do, we'll be the first to know (and we'll certainly spread the word if that ever were to happen). How we highlight / show a sudden spike -- and how we get that information out to anyone who might want to be alerted -- has been a topic of discussion the past week, and we're looking into how we might best do this when / if it's needed. Comments, suggestions, ideas are certainly welcome.
We'll just add that -- at the time of this blog post -- TechCrunch is the model citizen so-to-speak with respect to consistent, one-a-day e-mail.
Tracking Page: TechCrunch.com
There's also no indication that they're even interested in sharing e-mail address lists with anyone. But, if they do, we'll be the first to know (and we'll certainly spread the word if that ever were to happen). How we highlight / show a sudden spike -- and how we get that information out to anyone who might want to be alerted -- has been a topic of discussion the past week, and we're looking into how we might best do this when / if it's needed. Comments, suggestions, ideas are certainly welcome.
We'll just add that -- at the time of this blog post -- TechCrunch is the model citizen so-to-speak with respect to consistent, one-a-day e-mail.
Tracking Page: TechCrunch.com
Friday, November 14, 2008
Playboy Using Advanced E-Mail Marketing Practices ?
It's interesting, but we noticed a drop off in arriving e-mail and started to wonder if Playboy might be applying advanced e-mail marketing practices.
Most will simply add your e-mail address to an ever-growing list and leave it as that. They keep pumping out messages to the list and leave it to You to unsubscribe. Why should they go through the hassle of trying to figure out when their messaging has fallen on deaf ears when they can make you do it for them (by unsubscribing) ? It's undoubtedly relatively bad business, but there is a simple logic to it.
But what we're seeing with Playboy is that e-mail arrived en masse shortly after registering, stayed steady for some time, and then somewhat recently dropped off rather abruptly.
What this makes us think is that there's a 'new registrant' e-mail campaign alongside a 'non-responders' e-mail campaign for anyone who doesn't pay for services within a specified period of time. You're simply added to the 'new registrant' campaign for starters (along with the date you joined the campaign), and you're simply switched to the 'non-responders' campaign if you don't convert to a paying account within some number of weeks. (If true, there's obviously a 'paying customers' campaign for those that have actually purchased on-line services.) That all would be pretty advanced, which when you think about it, is pretty much exactly what you would expect of an advanced marketing company like Playboy.
Tracking Page: Playboy.com
Most will simply add your e-mail address to an ever-growing list and leave it as that. They keep pumping out messages to the list and leave it to You to unsubscribe. Why should they go through the hassle of trying to figure out when their messaging has fallen on deaf ears when they can make you do it for them (by unsubscribing) ? It's undoubtedly relatively bad business, but there is a simple logic to it.
But what we're seeing with Playboy is that e-mail arrived en masse shortly after registering, stayed steady for some time, and then somewhat recently dropped off rather abruptly.
What this makes us think is that there's a 'new registrant' e-mail campaign alongside a 'non-responders' e-mail campaign for anyone who doesn't pay for services within a specified period of time. You're simply added to the 'new registrant' campaign for starters (along with the date you joined the campaign), and you're simply switched to the 'non-responders' campaign if you don't convert to a paying account within some number of weeks. (If true, there's obviously a 'paying customers' campaign for those that have actually purchased on-line services.) That all would be pretty advanced, which when you think about it, is pretty much exactly what you would expect of an advanced marketing company like Playboy.
Tracking Page: Playboy.com
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Search Technology More Difficult Than Originally Thought
It's been a few weeks now, and the Google search widget that we deployed has yet to yield even a minimal return. It was exceptionally easy to deploy, but there are a few concerns that I'm itemizing below.
First, the search widget simply isn't generating results. All dynamically-generated .php pages have been specified in the Sitemap, but not all of them have been indexed. It's understandable that it will take some time for Google to index pages, but several weeks is too long to wait. We're not sure why it's taking so long. There's interesting and timely information that we're generating that no one will ever find through Google Search let alone the search widget deployed on the site if the content isn't indexed. (This is actually more of a comment on how quickly Google factors and incorporates available sitemaps into its index.)
Second (and this is an extension of the above point but specifically on the Google search widget deployed on the site), the search widget isn't even reflecting back the Sitemap that Google can freely access. It's one thing for the site to be indexed as part of Google Search, but we're talking something even more simple here . . Just make the pages in the Sitemap available to the search widget. Why does the search widget need to reference back to Google's entire index ? Why can't it simply make use of the site's own sitemap for the Google search widget ? It would seem they have everything they need . . a sitemap and a search widget. That's basically what Google Search is for the entire internet.
Third, there are generally a boatload of ads presented in the search results. This isn't to bicker with the Google search widget being FREE, which is great, but there's typically too many. It varies so, it's impossible to offer a clear cut example. But, nonetheless, they take up too much space, clutter the search result page, and even make it hard to see the search result, which is the whole point of deploying Google's search widget in the first place.
More comments suggestions to come.
First, the search widget simply isn't generating results. All dynamically-generated .php pages have been specified in the Sitemap, but not all of them have been indexed. It's understandable that it will take some time for Google to index pages, but several weeks is too long to wait. We're not sure why it's taking so long. There's interesting and timely information that we're generating that no one will ever find through Google Search let alone the search widget deployed on the site if the content isn't indexed. (This is actually more of a comment on how quickly Google factors and incorporates available sitemaps into its index.)
Second (and this is an extension of the above point but specifically on the Google search widget deployed on the site), the search widget isn't even reflecting back the Sitemap that Google can freely access. It's one thing for the site to be indexed as part of Google Search, but we're talking something even more simple here . . Just make the pages in the Sitemap available to the search widget. Why does the search widget need to reference back to Google's entire index ? Why can't it simply make use of the site's own sitemap for the Google search widget ? It would seem they have everything they need . . a sitemap and a search widget. That's basically what Google Search is for the entire internet.
Third, there are generally a boatload of ads presented in the search results. This isn't to bicker with the Google search widget being FREE, which is great, but there's typically too many. It varies so, it's impossible to offer a clear cut example. But, nonetheless, they take up too much space, clutter the search result page, and even make it hard to see the search result, which is the whole point of deploying Google's search widget in the first place.
More comments suggestions to come.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Early Results . . and Traction
We've actually been getting good response already so, we've been investing a bit more effort into the mechanics of the site – That’s why you haven’t seen more posts here on the blog.
But the good news is that you’ll soon find emailorspam.com easier to find and use, you’ll have access to even more information than originally anticipated, and we’ll be able to do all this for less overhead. That means we’ll be able to spend more time generating more useful data (as opposed to just spending time ‘making the wheels turn’). Think of this as a bit of a Twitter to keep posts updated.
But the good news is that you’ll soon find emailorspam.com easier to find and use, you’ll have access to even more information than originally anticipated, and we’ll be able to do all this for less overhead. That means we’ll be able to spend more time generating more useful data (as opposed to just spending time ‘making the wheels turn’). Think of this as a bit of a Twitter to keep posts updated.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Stopped Using Yahoo! Personal Site Search
This is just a quick post to share that we've stopped using the Yahoo! Personal Site Search. We may give it another shot at some point in the future, but for whatever reason, it simply insisted on scanning the raw .php, skipping the process of actually rendering the dynamically-generated .php content based on the Sitemap and, thereby, 'missing' the actual content that makes the site worth visiting. Not sure why they elected to do it this way, but it's suboptimal to say the least -- After all, it's the content that makes any site worthwhile.
Why is this worth mentioning ? Well, if you're hosting with Yahoo!, publishing dynamic content, and interested in deploying Yahoo! Personal Site Search, then you'll perhaps want to read this and weigh your options and the potential benefits. It didn't work for our .php pages -- Will it work for you ? Also, it's funny how the internet works. I tried contacting Yahoo! with the above question and never received a response . . Maybe this will catch their attention. I'm not saying I'm unhappy with Yahoo! -- I'm just saying I deserved a reply to my e-mail to their customer service.
Why is this worth mentioning ? Well, if you're hosting with Yahoo!, publishing dynamic content, and interested in deploying Yahoo! Personal Site Search, then you'll perhaps want to read this and weigh your options and the potential benefits. It didn't work for our .php pages -- Will it work for you ? Also, it's funny how the internet works. I tried contacting Yahoo! with the above question and never received a response . . Maybe this will catch their attention. I'm not saying I'm unhappy with Yahoo! -- I'm just saying I deserved a reply to my e-mail to their customer service.
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