My wife said I didn’t answer the question with the first tutorial, so here’s another way to get your profile page back. Here’s another way to do it:

Paul

So, you have a video that you just want a piece from? Here’s how to cut out that little piece just using QuickTime Player:

Paul

I’ve meant to post this for some time.  Cindy approached me with this idea and I’ve just been slow to get it up.  If you’re a single Christian, take a look at her site.

Paul

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5 Tips for Enhancing your Email Marketing Campaign

If you are trying to drive business, build a brand, and gain the loyalty of a massive customer base, one of the best methods for doing so is through email marketing. Because of the number of people who check their email on a daily basis, you have the opportunity for success in reaching a large number of subscribers and even gaining new ones. Here’s how it’s done:

#1: Grab their attention. The first step to making sure that your message gets read is to reel the recipient in with a killer subject line. The key is to use less than 40 characters to translate that there is valuable material for the recipient if opened. Here are some subject line tips:
What’s in it for the customer? Disclose the benefits upfront and let your customer know what exactly they can expect to get out of the deal.
Ask a question. This is a simple tactic that will entice someone to gain more information.
Don’t give false info. Although you might be tempted to glamorize your subject to ensure it gets opened, you mustn’t trick the reader—if you make a promise, it needs to be something you can actually make happen.
The best words: Giveaway, jobs, monthly, survey, edition, video, e-newsletter and tips.
The worst words: Confirm, rewards, savings, offer, follow-up, Christ, magic, features, upgrade and coupon. Never include dollar signs, exclamation marks or uppercase letters.

#2: Personalize. Even though you are sending out mass messages to a large audience, it’s crucial that you create emails that are as individualized as possible. Address your customers by name in the message. This way, it will feel much less like bulk junk mail and the recipient is more likely to continue reading. To better understand your customers and further personalize emails, do your research to identify their specific needs based off of their past purchases, budgets, interests, etc. Also make sure that you are available to respond and create a dialogue no later than 24 hours after you receive responses.

#3: Short and sweet. Because of busy schedules consuming lives, most people don’t have the time to short through piles upon piles of emails cluttering their inboxes. Make sure that your message is short, sweet and to the point. Begin your message by stating what benefit the recipient has and the action you wish for them to take while making sure not to exclude any pertinent details.

#4: Include links. Success rates with email marketing tend to be higher when links are included in the body of the email. Readers like to have options and the ease of accessing more information directly through a message—so take advantage of both picture and text links through the following:
Desired landing page links. To make things easy, you can link customers to the desired landing page that flows from your message to your desired action.
Social media links. Include links to your social media pages to let readers know you are available for other forms of communication and following.
Unsubscribe links. Be sure to include an “unsubscribe” link in the message—for those who are dissatisfied with your emails, they can opt out of them conveniently. You can’t please everyone, and having subscribers who are unhappy with your emails are worse than having no subscribers at all.

#5: Timing is everything. One important element to take into consideration with your email campaign is the element of time. Follow these rules and your mail is more likely to get read:
A.M.: The most popular time for email-checking is early in the morning around 6:00 a.m. Click-through rates tend to fall as the day progresses but rise again late in the evening. To guarantee the highest amount of readership, your best bet is to schedule your mail to arrive at 6:00 a.m. EST.
Weekends: The highest rates of email-checking take place on Saturdays and Sundays. Because of this, consider sending your campaign at the end of the work week or on the weekend itself.
No holidays: Because most people are busy with their families, traveling and enjoying time off from work over the holidays, avoid sending email at this time for most people aren’t focused on their email accounts. When your subscribers return to their inboxes after a break, there is likely to be a large amount of mail waiting for them which could increase the chances of your message being sent straight to the trash folder without so much as a second thought. The months in which your message is most likely to be deleted are December, January, July and August.

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This guest post is brought to us by Cindy McDonald who offers tips for effective email marketing. Cindy also owns Christian Dating Sites where she shares dating advice for online Christian singles.