Here’s what my guide looks

Here’s what my guide looks like:


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I’ve reprinted another important article from Jim Daniels below giving you some pointers
to making your email look good:

Are Your Email Messages Good Looking?

"Good looks" are very important in an email message. This is often overlooked
by many email users. It is a fact that an email's content is diluted greatly if the
message itself is "not good looking".

Have you ever received an email message that looks something like this...
Thank you for requesting more information about our services! We here at ABC
Company would like to present a special offer to all of our cherished customers.
There are two main reasons why email messages turn out looking like this.

Although the reasons are quite simple, many email users don't understand them.
Reason number one is called line length. When composing email, most people
just type and type without using a hard carriage return. If it looks fine when you're
done, your email program probably automatically wraps the words in a nice
legible format. This word wrap is usually done based on a line length of
anywhere from 70 to 80 characters.

Well, lets say I receive your message, but my email program doesn't have the
capability of automatically wrapping incoming messages. Since you performed
no hard "end of line" carriage returns when typing your message, my email
software thinks it's one long sentence. Now your nice, easy to read message
looks like that example above.

O.K. So how do you avoid this problem? Simple! When composing email
messages, use a hard carriage return before you get to the end of each line. I
have found that a maximum line length of 64 works to alleviate this problem
almost completely! Of course, you'll always run into an instance occasionally,
depending on your recipients settings, but this should do the trick 95% of the
time!
Another reason people encounter "funny looking" email messages is called
proportional character fonts. Like I mentioned earlier, all email programs are
different. Therefore the fonts used by each program varies widely. Basically,
there are fixed pitch fonts like Courier (found on Eudora) and there are
proportional spaced fonts (like AOL and Compuserve email).

With fixed-pitch fonts, all characters in a paragraph will line up directly above
each other. With a proportional-spaced font, CAPS, space bars and other
keystrokes are wider, so each line is a different length. The bottom line is this. If
you create a message using one type of font and send it to an email recipient
using the other, the message will not look the same when they receive it!

Once again, the solution is simple! By using a hard carriage return before the end
of the line you can keep these problems caused by the difference in email
programs to a bare minimum. If you plan on sending the same message to
multiple recipients, or attempt any drawings, consider testing the message with a
friend on another service.

There is a third way for your email messages to look bad. Although it is far less
likely to happen, you should be aware of it. Many word processing or text editor
programs allow you to save a file as another format. (Such as ascii.) It may look
great to you, but when sent via the internet it can become scrambled.

You may have received one of these messages at one time or another. They are
easily recognized by the repeated "U" characters in the text. To avoid this
problem, simply use the cut/paste or copy/paste method to extract text from a
document in other programs.

The last thing you want is an email message with great content, being dismissed
simply because it wasn't "good looking" enough!

Warning: Your Email is Invisible

by Mark Joyner, CEO, Aesop.Com

What I'm about to show you will increase the number of people that read your email
significantly. (I'm talking about legitimate opt-in or one-to-one emails here, not spam.)

Many email clients will allow you to filter out "junk" based on a set of rules. For example,
anything that starts with "ADV:" or includes such text as "this email is sent in compliance
with..." can be filtered out and sent directly to your trash file.

If you're like me and get tons of email every day, this can be quite useful. I just don't
have time to read about every time some South American pharmacy is running a special
on Viagra.

The problem is that these rules are not always accurate. That is, sometimes these "junk
email" rules filter out important email as well.

Surprisingly, these rules are not very forgiving at times. If I were to write such rules I
would do so under the assumption that it is better to let some spam slip through than to
erroneously filter out something important. But, we're not so lucky. Many of the junk
filtering rules are valid, but others are not.

You should comb through any of the automated follow up emails or newsletters you
send out and remove anything that might trigger a spam filter. Since some of these
rules are quite arcane, it is probably best to send the email to yourself and receive
it with a client that has junk-filtering rules turned on. I've found that the Outlook junk
filtering rules are the harshest, so you might try that. If the email is not filtered, you're
probably OK. If it is, play with it until the email is accepted.

Here are some things to look for that you may not expect. The following will trigger junk
email filters in Outlook and keep your email from being read:

"FREE"

When in ALL CAPS anywhere in your email. You shouldn't use ALL CAPS for anything
anyway, though, if you can avoid it.

"sales@anydomain"

If this is in the from address. Believe it or not!

"extra income"

When found anywhere in the message.

"for free?" or "for free!"

When found anywhere in the message. This one is really silly. I can think of quite a few
uses for this phrase outside of junk email...

Of course, there are quite a few other rules that will trigger junk email filters, but these
are ones that could easily trip you up. Just remember to test the mail yourself to make
sure. Doing this will significantly increase the number of people that actually read the
mail you send them.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Article by Mark Joyner, of 1001 Killer Internet Marketing Tactics. Mark
is also the CEO of Aesop Marketing Corporation. 1001 KIMT is an absolute
*must have* for anyone serious about Internet marketing. No other course
out there even comes close. It will dramatically boost the results of any
campaign in a very real and measurable way. They are offering a special right now
where it comes with a bonus database of over 6,000 media contacts (including
email and FAX numbers).

http://www.roibot.com/kt.cgi?R1100

Important Particulars

There are few more important things you need to be aware of when using permission
email without getting in trouble for spamming (sending unsolicited emails).

1. Always give people an option of being removed from your list. Usually the
service provider you use will do this automatically for you. Most services have a
link at the bottom of your email that says:
“To stop additional follow up messages click below:

http://www.aweber.com/?25404r.php?i=affaweber&e=email@isp.com”

This link then automatically removes those people from your database. This is an
important feature.

2. You also want to remind people how they got on your list. Many people are
forgetful and don’t always remember all the places they signed up. So be sure to
add a little line about how they got on your list.
3. Making your links ‘clickable’. In order to make it easy for people to go straight
from your email to your web site you need to make your links ‘clickable’. Here’s
how a link should be written in your email: http://www.yoursite.com
Most email programs will recognize this as a link. And if you want to make an
email link you should write it as: mailto:emailaddress@isp.com
You might also want to use an HTML link like this if you have a lot of AOL users:



Getting Your Emails Opened and Read

According to eMarketer, Americans get an average of 15.2 email messages a day and that
number continues to rise. That means that unless your email is compelling – your
message wind up in the trash faster than you can blink!

Here is a quick email I recently got – do you think it received more than a split-second
look before I trashed it?

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Subject: The future is now!


Hello carlos2576(2)! This message is in reply to your message as sent
to me from your address yanik@surefiremarketing.com (Your message
resides in my archives)


We would like to take this opportunity to make you an offer in
return..
.


This is for National & International Entrepreneurs and Professionals


We Need Elite Leaders Now! Our Hi-Tech and Hi-Touch Strategies
along with our strategic alliances with a Technology and Global
Marketing company, proprietary software, and many other 21st century,
patent pending technologies, have positioned us for the ever expanding
global market.


---snip--
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Disclaimer Your original emails reside in my archives.


Under Bill S.1618 TITLE III passed by the 105th U.S. Congress this
message can't be considered Spam as long as I include a way to be
removed.


To be removed automatically from future mailings, simply click on the
link provided below. Failure to do this will not remove your address.


Do Not incriminate your self by reporting a faulty Spam complaint if
you have not attempted to get removed first.


remove1533@xyz002.com?Subject=Remove_from_126lsp-183107


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I mean come on! This went into my trash folder without a second thought. This kind of
marketing is blatantly spam and will do nothing but get your ISP cancelled and land you
in a heap of trouble.

But, let’s say you are a legitimate marketer there may be a few overlooked things you’re
doing with your emails that aren’t getting them opened, Mark Joyner and master
copywriter, Russ Phelps give you some advice in this area: