Monthly Archives: September 2008
Simple content plan for an email newsletter
This post is related to the September edition of eTips, my free online marketing newsletter (now in its third year.)
A regular newsletter is far easier to produce if you have a content plan. It not only acts as a prompt but also means you can prepare some material ahead of time, knowing what ‘slots’ you have to fill. Here are a couple of examples:
Client A: an accountancy firm
Seasonal intro: include a key piece of (relevant) news if possible
Article teaser: educational/best practice/learning. 100 words with link to rest of article on website, if possible utilising the stock of ‘more info’ articles client already has on site.
Speed networking pros and cons
Last night I went to the Sussex Business Scene networking event at East Grinstead and actually enjoyed myself. As someone who can find it a bit daunting to go into a room where I may not know anyone, and make conversation, I wasn’t sure whether I would. But I needn’t have worried – there were a number of familiar faces there, everyone was very friendly, plus we had what was for many of us our first taste of ‘speed networking’.
I’d heard about speed networking before, but couldn’t really see how it could be classed as networking.
Questioning the value of link building services in a Web 2.0 world
"Dear Webmaster, I have been browsing and came across your great website!"
Aren’t you sick of these automated link requests? They always start the same way, and frankly as soon as I see ‘Dear Webmaster’ I know I don’t need to read any more. Just when I thought we had moved on, there seem to have been a plague of these spammy emails lately. Presumably there are legitimate businesses who actually subscribe to these ‘link building services’.
Although link building remains part of most SEO strategies, reciprocal linking has long since lost its value.
Should businesses care about grammar, spelling or punctuation?
So Tesco has finally bowed to the weight of complaints about its ‘ten items or less’ checkout signs and will be changing them. Some of us will be very happy about that. Others will be in the ‘who cares?’ camp.
At university one of my linguistics tutors instilled in me the idea that language change is inevitable. A truly academic approach to the subject does not involve value judgements about what constitutes correct or incorrect language use.
Not only that, but the grounds upon which we criticise English language (mis-)use are often bogus, thought up by prescriptive Victorians trying to make English fit the Latin mold, much like left-handers used to be forced to write with their right hands.