Think about this... Email Marketing Best Practice

Did a video for my list about...

Email Marketing Best Practices for the Make Money Online Niche 

(Email Marketing Strategy for the 'RICH' ;-) 

Or watch on YouTube ==> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykLyt1Ipma4

Description from the Video

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Join the discussion @ http://www.thinkrium.org/

Get more training videos @ http://bretroyster.com

Hey man!

Thanks for checking out my video on email marketing best practice for the making money online niche. Hope you got a ton of value out of this sucka! I love putting these videos together for my subscribers.

Some of the things I talk about in this video that help you conquer email marketing best practices: bridge videos, leadpages, clickfunnels, income proof videos, pretty emails with banners etc... and then I got on to explain some of my personal email formatting strategies - check it out!

Feel free to go get more videos about email marketing best practices (and making money online) from http://bretroyster.com With that said - much love - my motto is "Dude, I want you to be RICH on the Internet" - so go out there and make it happen -bud!

- Bret

PS - Any of your own tips for email marketing? Share your thoughts or comments in the section below!

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Resources from the video...

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Watch the actual "Income Proof Video":

http://bretroyster.com/

Leadpages (affiliate):

http://bretroyster.com/leadpages

Clickfunnels (non-affiliate - for now...):

http://bretroyster.com/clickfunnels

Kompozer (free): 

http://www.kompozer.net/

Email Formatting "span" tag from video:

Note: Youtube does not allow me to use brackets - so add those yourself where you see [bracket]:

[bracket] span

style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline ! important; float: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" [bracket]

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Tags

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"email marketing best practice" email marketing best practice "best practices for email marketing" "best practices email marketing" "email marketing strategy" "email marketing basics" "for make money online niche" "Internet Marketing Quest!!!" "Email Marketing Tips: Best Practices" "Email Marketing Best Practices- How To Be A Email Marketing Badass!" "Zach Crawford" "email marketing best practices" "Best Practices in Optimizing Email Marketing" "Kutenda Internet Marketing" bretroyster.com-live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykLyt1Ipma4

Increments and time hacking?

Do you rely on a calendar?  Do you log completed tasks?  Set appointments into the future?  I think I know the answer to that.  I know I certainly do all three.  (Google calendar works awesome for this in most ways).  Time is pretty interesting to think about when you slow down to visualize it in different manners... let me crack open this can on ya today:

So we look at time in terms of increments, using the resolution that is "useful" for the context.  The finer the resolution (increment) the harder it is to manage the calculation.  I was going to draw an example here.. but just visualize it's at this moment 8am 9/26/14, and that means we are less than 4 months away from New Years Day.  It's less natural to consider that there is about 2320 hours remaining left in the year, less useful perhaps...

Equally let's say you had a meeting on 1/1/13 at 6am.  First, good for you working on a holiday.  Second, it's probably easier and more useful to think in terms of Month and Year... rather than 54713369 seconds ago when visualizing the time frame.

So where do we draw the line on these useful increments?  I enjoy 15 minute increments when working on small tasks... it seems to be enough time to get going on something with small ramp-up time... It forces me to break down larger tasks in to "sprints" as well.. which provides more flexibility and clarity.  Even so, I don't think in terms of 4 increments in an hour as easy as say the hour increment.  It's more natural to think of 24 hours in a day than 96 incs.  And when I think of dinner on Sunday night, I visualize in terms of days not hours.  [Side note:  I started to think about this a bit more and as I did I realized something, this may be related to age.  How is it that the only clock I see consistently chiming on the 15s is a "grandfather clock"?  So many questions as to why this is haha.  Society?  Pace of life?  Different generation norms?  You paid so much for a clock it needs to do more than just chime on the hour?]

I bring all this up because I'm working on a database system that requires interaction with time.  Time is a line: past-> present-> future->.  I like to serialize the time as 2014/09/26 unlike typical US or World which prefer 09/26/2014 and 26/09/2014.  Apparently the computer likes my way better as well... well until Y10k....prepare for the end now!  Anyways, I got to thinking about this more and realize that current clocks, calendars, and standard increments that everyone go by are just the accepted norms... but maybe not the most effective norms.  Not only that but is it beneficial to think in higher time resolution consistently even if it's only 1 degree higher than normal?  Is it for example better to visualize 30 min incs rather than 1 hour incs WHEN your mind defaults to hours?  Is it useful to consider 24 hours WHEN your mind defaults to day?

Back to the database system:

When considering past events and logging data, the computer can be as precise as we require.  This is awesome because it allows us to interpret the data however we desire at what ever increment is desired.

When planning for the future, we look to our calendar and plan ahead in terms of days, weeks, months, or years.

When visualize present time, I want to touch on a subject we have discussed before.  A lot of this comes from one of my day trading mentors, Elder Alexander, who in his book "Come Into My Trading Room", recommended analyzing your market on 3 different time increments.  He recommended this because of the indications the different perspectives offered.   He liked the powers of 5 because it worked out that looking at 1 month chart bars could be divided by 5 to provide approx weekly increments which divided by 5 again would yield daily increments.  Each increment contained a different key to the message that he was looking for, "is the price going higher or lower?".  It went further than price and deeper into psychology of the group mentality of the other traders, but that is another topic.  So in a similar manner I have began to think about time in a different manner than just one increment, and you know what I found, we all do... look at your watch or a clock: Seconds, Minutes, Hours.

Why stop there, is this the only useful info?  Why not Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, Years?  Why not Seconds, 15 seconds, mins, 15 mins, hours, 4 hours, days.... etc?  I imagine it has to do with norms.  If you wore a watch that presented 15 second incs, 15 min incs, 4 hour incs, and 4 days incs do you think you would be more aware of time or less?  If all your clocks counted down rather than up, would that affect you positively?  Why do all the movies show self destruct sequences counting down... not up like a normal clock???

Stay thoughtful!  Have a great weekend!

Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, Apple Pie!

"Let the dollar be your employee...they work 365 days a year, never ask for a sick day, and will do the task you ask of them without complaint.." is a phrase I have latched onto from years ago during some of my financial studies...though I cannot remember where I found this piece of wisdom.  Now a dollar is really just a unit of energy/work/talent that is exchangeable... ...50 dollars is not as capable as 50 human employees and I don't believe this phrase is supposed to imply that.  What it does do on the other hand is make you consider the dollar in hand and what that dollar can do for you!  If you start down the path of investing in your self/company/enterprise, those dollars begin to make a difference assuming you put those "employees" to work in the right areas.

One area of investment that I can say has my business working in the right direction is the computer.  My laptop is really like a silent partner in this journey.  This guy does the work of sorting my information, scheduling tasks, and the many other tasks I ask it to do (currently playing music, burning Blu-Ray backup discs, word processing).  And it took over 1000 "employees" to bring me the support at this level, but they are still at work to this day!  So with this in mind, let's move on to the subject in the title:

So what do Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, and Apple Pie have in common?  That's right they all sound like food but the first two are actually tiny computers!  If you're not familiar with the Raspberry Pi or Banana Pi, I hope to bring some light to the subject today.  I've been thinking a lot on the subject of automation in the past years and these little guys are a bit of a look into what the future can hold.

First let's go further back in my findings of these micro boards and talk about the "Arduino", a micro-controller.  The Arduino is a very simple design, it's low cost ~$25 on Amazon right now makes it very obtainable, and it's modular so think of it as a lego piece in the larger lego puzzle.  You would use this little guy to control motors, servos, sensors, lights, and even home automation.  What makes this guy even better is the huge community out there that supports/generates/distributes this product and its accessories!  There isn't an operating system, just a simple shell for "c" code and execution of that code.  Needless to say, this tool will make it to my workshop soon!

Next, the "Raspberry Pi"!  This is where things start to get even more exciting.  This tiny board can fit within the an Altoids container and is micro linux/Android computer!  The operating system fits on a Mirco SD card now (Rev B+), and it has many of the same features of the Arduino, just with a few changes.  The cost is about the same, ~$25-$50 depending on model and distributor.  The I/O pins are about the same in number, but this is where they differ a bit as well.  The Arduino is a micro-controller with more muscle than brains where as the Raspberry Pi is a micro-processor able to crunch data but weaker on onboard power to move motors.  As you know, I'm a huge fan of Python, which is built into Linux directly, so if you throw together some quick scripts, or download them from the web from other contributors, you can get this guy off the ground and working for you!  This makes the Raspberry Pi awesome as a stand-alone computer which can be networked and duplicated throughout a project.  Imagine if you tie Arduino and Raspberry Pi together!

Let's talk about "Banana Pi", the latest powerhouse and alternative to Raspberry Pi.  Banana was released several months back and departs from the Raspberry direction slightly giving more features!  This guy runs both Linux/Android ...*cough* Python *cough*... as well and now allows you to use a SATA port for a hard-drive now too...what???  Banana's micro-processor is a Dual Core 1Ghz+ chip with 1Gb DDR3 ram in comparison to the older 700MHZ and 512MB ram on Raspberry.  This guy has more power and more ability at a slighly higher expense ~$50-60.  For the cost and ability this is probably the best of the 3 in terms of all around package!  It really boils down to application...

This is all great, but what application do you have in mind?  That's a great question, and I'm glad you asked!  Have you considered that one of the highest expenses you may experience is your energy usage cost?  Or perhaps your food bill?  Or even your cable/DVR rental?  Whether your micro-processor is running as a home automation system, Aeroponics controller, or simply entertainment media center, if you have a need to put some delegation into action consider a Pi!  If you think about it, those "employees" are way more capable when they are put to use than just sitting around anyway right?

Do you currently delegate tasks to your computer?  Automate your thermostat in your house?  Have your coffee prepared for you when you walk into the kitchen?  Have fun thinking about this, I know I have!

Stay thoughtful! FFAP

Freemium for all!

As active participants in this wild multimedia world we live in, we have all been exposed to the marketing gravity of the Freemium products.  This week I want to open the discussion about this prominent strategy!

Being of frugal software collecting nature, I can say that if a software package exists that will make my life better in some way, and I don't have to exchange dollars from my pocket, I'm interested.  I have other more important tasks for my dollars than to convert them into hard-drive real estate.  Developers know this feeling all too well and have steered the market with making their products available, in many cases for free.  That's not to say they don't make money from giving you a free product...it's just not as apparent on the surface as the old dollar exchange method of traditional commerce.

On the stage today is a quest to scratch the surface to understanding of why this works so well for the consumer:

Let's breakdown the easy elements:
1) The product is either wholly or partially free to use, install it and you're on your way.
2) Access to the software is usually extremely streamlined, not slowing the easy sale of free goods.
3) It lifts the burden of making a good decision from the consumer, no one wants to make a mistake.

To summarize: "It's cheap, easy, and a no-brainer"

4) Users can usually immediately begin using the product to some purpose.
5) The developer now has a user of their products at the cost of their own investment.
6) The user of the product is more likely to share a free product over a paid product when price is the only difference.

Again summarizing: "Hey try this out, I use it, it's free..." * N

7) Once the ownership train has started there is a natural force that keeps it moving.

Newton summarized this best: "Objects in motion tend to stay in motion."


Did I miss anything obvious in this scratch session?

Sleep Hacking

That's right, this week I want to touch briefly on the Sleep Hacking experiment I've been working on.

So here is the situation I want to build in your mind:

We all know that we sleep a large portion of our life, I think the most common quoted percentage I hear is about 1/3.  33.3% of the day is about 8 hours a day average, which leaving the rest of the day to other activities.  Now that means during the waking hours we must do all things not rest related right?  Well that's a psychological discussion for another time, I want to focus on getting more time in the day for activities!

The sleep equation in life is pretty simple, sleeping less trades time for more waking hours... more waking hours translates into more opportunity, in a simple example.  There is a point of dimenishing returns though. You cannot go without sleep at all, your body will eventually tire and sleep.  Not only that, but your body will nearly require more energy to recouperate from the exhaustion.  There are many published case studies and experiments where experimenters attempt to obtain the minimum amount of sleep required to sustain normal everyday life.  Some of these are comical others are more interesting.

My experiment builds on my many years of experience in the field of sleeping.  According to my estimations I've slept about 87016 hours in my lifetime as of the writing of this.  That's a lot of hours.  Malcolm Gladwell states in one of his books, Tipping Point (awesome book), that it takes about 10,000 hours to become an expert in any endeavor...  With that logic, I'm confident I have mastered sleep.

A full nights sleep, as we have been shown by science, is actually a series sleep cycles.  These cycles from my experience are generally 3 hours in length.  Also, the easiest times for me to get out of bed fall on the end of a full sleep cycle... 3 hours, 6 hours, 9 hours...of sleep.  If I get 7 hours of sleep, I am actually waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle and I find it very hard to wake.  The same is true for 8 hours of sleep.  

So 6 hours of sleep is my target each day.  I can operate very well with this amount of sleep without feeling exhausted.  If I can achive this average of sleep for the next 14 years I will add about 10,000 hours of waking hours for more opportunity.  The bigger picture, I see, shows those extra hours could be used to develop a system to generate income while you sleep freeing more waking hours for more activities aside from income generation.  I have been using the word "snowball" to describe the feedback loop described.

So that the stage, here is the experiment:

I have used an alarmclock my whole life and now I'm using a timer (Timely for Android).  I don't know why this has never occured to me in the past.  Are we such creatures of habit that we require daily alarm at the same time each day?  Or are we more dynamic, able to sleep the necessary hours and wake after the cycles are complete?   I realize that many of us are programmed by the environment we live in, but I'm on a mission to find out if it must be this way!

Are you sleeping a consistent amount of sleep each night?  Or are you finding you sleep when you get tired?  Or do you go to sleep at a certain time each night?  Do you sleep when you can? 

Stay Thoughtful! FFAP