Prevent your email newsletter from being trashed

In preparation for sending out an email to my clients advising of

• this Blog
• the ability to purchase domain names through our website via credit card
• the start of a quarterly newsletter

… I did a bit of reading about email newsletter ettiquette and ways to ensure your emails are firstly receieved (not deleted by spam filters) and secondly, read (not considered rubbish and manually deleted). I came across this really useful list of ‘Nine great tips to keep YOUR newsletter from falling prey to spam filters and ending up in the trash.’

A few hilights are

• Avoid using the words “remove” (unsubscribe is preferred), “free”, “limited time” and “money”
• Don’t send attachments
• Don’t write all in CAPS
• Don’t send unsolicited emails

I hope this is of some help. It sure is a pain when half your recipients don’t even get the email.

Where do “i.e.” and “e.g” come from?

I stumbled upon this post explaining what i.e. and e.g. stand for which really tickled my fancy as I have often wondered. In case you have too…

Copyblogger says

i.e. vs. e.g.

Ah, Latin… you’ve just gotta love it. As antiquated as they might seem, these two little Latin abbreviations are pretty handy in modern writing, but only if you use them correctly.

The Latin phrase id est means “that is,” so i.e. is a way of saying “in other words.” It’s designed to make something clearer by providing a definition or saying it in a more common way.

Copyblogger has jumped the shark, i.e., gone downhill in quality, because Brian has broken most of his New Year’s resolutions.

The Latin phrase exempli gratia means “for example”, so e.g. is used before giving specific examples that support your assertion.

Copyblogger has jumped the shark because Brian has broken most of his New Year’s resolutions, e.g., promising not to say “Web 2.0,” “linkbait,” or “jumped the shark” on the blog in 2007.

Mistakes to avoid when writing website copy

1. Using so much emphasis that NO ONE knows what you are trying to say.

Try to keep your bold, italic and caps to a minimum and save it for when you really need it.

2. Overuse of exclamation marks!!!!!!!! – One is enough unless you are writing a teenagers skating blog. OMG LMAO!!!!!

3. Underlining anything that isn’t a link – this is confusing for your audience. It’s commonly accepted that if a word or phrase is underlined it’s a hyperlink. So if it aint linking, keep it naked.

4. Try to avoid writing “Please feel free to look around”. No one needs permission to look at your website and it will make you appear amateur.

5. A main heading that says “Welcome to our website” is another overused, unneeded line. Search engines take notice of these H1 headings, so make them useful – use your keywords “Outstanding Real Estate in Christchurch”, make them inticing “Top tips for selling your house” or try some of these collected from CopyBlogger

1. The Secret of [neon lights]
2. Little Known Ways to [lose weight]
3. Get Rid of [viruses] Once and For All
4. What Everybody Ought to Know About [UV rays]
5. Warning: [Two Out of Every Three People in Your Industry Will be Out of Work in 5 Years].
6. How [this product] Made Me [a million bucks].
7. If You’re [a parent], You Can [save money on..].
8. [10] Ways to [gain muscle].
9. Give Me [a week] and I’ll Give You [a better complexion].
10. If You Don’t [eat right] Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later.
11. The Lazy [woman’s] Way to [beautiful skin].
12. Do You Recognize the [15] Early Warning Signs of [meltdown]?
13. See How Easily You Can [increase web traffic].
14. You Don’t Have to Be [superman] to be [good in bed].
15. Do You Make These [accountancy] Mistakes?

6. Pretentious drivel: Company X is dedicated to remaining fully committed to fulfilling your needs as pertaining to every project you summon our marketing assistance with.

7. Too much text – Write for skimmers. Online users scan the page looking for information they may want to read. Break up text into short paragraphs, use clear headings, bullet points and simple to-the-point text.

8. Apostrophe in the wrong place. It’s amazing how often people get these ones wrong.  There are two situations where you use an apostrophe…

• For contractions – it’s is short for it is
• When something belongs to someone – New Media Design’s new blog – means the blog belongs to New Media Design

Copyblogger says

If still in doubt, leave the apostrophe out. It causes more reader confusion to insert an apostrophe where it doesn’t belong than it does to omit one. Plus, you can always plead the typo defense if you leave an apostrophe out, but you look unavoidably dumb when you stick one where it doesn’t belong.

RSS explained in simple simple terms

If you are anything like me, you may have wondered or maybe still are wondering what this RSS thing is all about and how it affects you. Like many other recent new technologies, once I understood it I feel in love and couldn’t keep away. I came across this cute and very easy to understand video that explains what RSS is and how you can harness its fabulousness. These guys at Common Craft make understanding stuff simple!

Now the only thing to figure out is what RSS stands for. I always thought it was “Really Simple Syndication” though half the information online suggests that it’s “Rich Site Summary” or “RDF Site Summary” – (I think using an acronym (RDF) in an acronym (RSS) is taking it a bit far!)

How to get listed in Google

Clients are always asking about how to get their websites well listed in Google. There is no easy answer and as the google techies are constantly changing and updating the way google searches, it’s an ongoing challenge.

Firstly, here’s a very good point from Just Creative Design

Do Not Cheat. Period.

“If you walked into a room full of genius scientists with PHDs, do you think you could outsmart them all? No. Google has hundreds of rooms full of genius scientists with PHDs, and their job is to work 60 hours a week to make sure you can’t fool Google. You can’t outsmart them. Ever. Ignore any advice on trying to cheat the system and focus on making great web sites with great content, and your sites will show up fine in searches.”

Here’s a list I came across of the top 20 factors for Google SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Read the full article here

Keyword Use Factors

The following components relate to the use of the user’s search query terms in determining the rank of a particular page.

1. Keyword use in Title tag – placing the targeted search term or phrase in the title tag of the web page’s HTML header
2. Keyword use in Body text – using the targeted search term in the visible, HTML text of the page
3. Relationship of Body text Content to Keywords – topical relevance of text on the page compared to targeted keywords
4. Keyword use in H1 tag – creating an H1 tag with the targeted search term/phrase
5. Keyword use in domain name & page URL – including the targeted term/phrase in the registered domain name, i.e. keyword.com plus target terms in the webpage URL, i.e. seomoz.org/keyword-phrase.

Page Attributes

The following elements comprise how the Google interprets specific data about a webpage independent of keywords.

6. Link popularity within the site’s internal link structure – refers to the number and importance of internal links pointing to the target page
7. Quality/relevance of links to external sites/pages – do links on the page point to high quality, topically-related pages?
8. Age of document – older pages may be perceived as more authoritative while newer pages may be more temporally relevant
9. Amount of indexable text content – refers to the literal quantity of visible HTML text on a page
10. Quality of the document content (as measured algorithmically) – assuming search engines can use text, visual or other analysis methods to determine the validity and value of content, this metric would provide some level of rating.

Site/Domain Attributes

The factors below contribute to Google’s rankings based on the site/domain on which a page resides.

11. Global link poopularity of site – the overall link weight/authority as measured by links from any and all sites across the web (both link quality and quantity)
12. Age of site – not the date of original registration of the domain, but rather the launch of indexable content seen by the search engines (note that this can change if a domain switches ownership)
13. Topical relevance of inbound links to site – the subject-specific relationship between the sites/pages linking to the target page and the target keyword
14. Link popularity of site in topical community – the link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world
15. Rate of new inbound links to site – the frequency and timing of external sites linking in to the given domain

Inbound Link Attribute

These pieces affect Google’s weighting of links from external websites pointing to a page and ultimately will assist in the ranking of that page.

16. Anchor text of inbound link
17. Global link popularity of linking site
18. Topical relationship of linking page
19. Link popularity of site in topical community – the link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world
20. Age of link