The Good:

• Lots of professional-looking, ready-to-go Email templates to choose from.
• Affordable!  Our favorite aspect of VerticalResponse is their flexible payment options.  Monthly plans start at only $10 per month. But what we really like is the Pay-As-You Go option, which starts at only $.015 (yes, that’s a penny and a half) per email.  So you can send 200 emails for just $3!  Since most of our customers are small and seasonal, they do not send emails out year-round.  So no need to pay for months you don’t use with the Pay-As-You Go option.
• We also like the option to start with a template, but them customize it further with a bit of HTML.  It’s a nice middle-ground.
• Easy to segment email lists. For example, you can send your email only to people living in a certain state or only to people who have pets.  The possibilities are endless.  And it really helps to target the message to your recipient, thus resulting in higher conversions.
• Good reporting.  The Dashboard gives an at-a-glance look at how the email performed and compares it to past email campaigns.  Or you can drill down deeper to look at the details.  By downloading results to a spreadsheet, you can slice and dice the data any way you like.
• Easy contact management.  Very simple to add subscribers to the list one at a time, using a bulk upload, or by adding a signup to your website.
• Free Trials. VerticalResponse is very good about letting you try before you buy.  The always offer 100 free email credits to use within 30 days.  And often times, they run specials with even more free email credits.  The functionality is not at all limited, so you can really test drive the product to make sure it meets your needs.  And they don’t require a credit card or any money down.

The Not-So-Good

• VerticalResponse requires a mandatory double opt-in.  While this is good to enforce that people really intended to signup for your list, there are times when we wish we did not have to use it.  But it keeps you walking the straight and narrow.

How To Get Started

It’s very simple to give VerticalResponse a try.  Just Click Here to visit their website. Then:

• Complete the signup form
• They will email you a confirmation.  Click the link in that email to activate your free trial membership.
• Manually enter your contact list, or upload it from a spreadsheet.
• Create your first test email from the many different templates available.
• Proof your email by sending a test to yourself.
• And send it out!

That’s really all there is to it.  Give it a try today.  What have you got to lose?

Top 10 Reasons for Using Email Marketing Software

1. Email Marketing Software keeps you CAN-SPAM compliant
Stay out of trouble and avoid stiff fines by systematically following the rules.

2. Protects the Privacy of Your Subscribers
Email systems make sure that the email is addressed to only a single recipient and does not include the names or email addresses of all the other subscribers on your email list.

3. Automates the Subscribe / Unsubscribe Process
An Email System just makes things easier for you… It automatically subscribes people to your list who sign up from the website. And it automatically unsubscribes people who ask to be removed.

4. Improves Deliverability
With personal email applications, emails sent to long lists of senders often won’t even receive your message because it gets flagged as spam and goes straight into their junk email.  Email systems can’t guarantee that won’t happen; but they constantly work to improve and make sure it is less likely.

5. No Maximum to the Number of People You Can Email
If you have ever tried to email to a whole bunch of people from your personal email account, you probably discovered that there is a maximum number of peopel that can be included in your. So you either have to limit the number of people you send to or send multiple messages (which is a pain).

6. Keeps Your List “Clean”
Email systems automatically remove “bounced” emails from your list – so your list stays “cleaner.”

7. Detailed Reporting & Feedback
Email systems provide a wide variety of reports to help you understand the effectiveness of messages, and help you make informed decisions to improve future mailings.

8. It’s Affordable
Email Marketing Software starts as low as $10 per month for unlimited sending or $.015 (that’s a penny-and-a-half) per email sent. It’s still the most economical form of marketing in existence today.

9. It’s Easy – No Technical Skills Necessary
Many software programs offer pre-designed layouts, so it’s just a matter of uploading your list, plugging in your content and off you go!  No techincal skills necessary…

10. It Just Looks Better
Email Marketing Software lets you create professional-looking messages with the click of a button.  If you are going to go to the toruble, you may as well make your emails look good.

Some highlights of the CAN-SPAM Act include:

• Using accurate “From,” “To,” and routing information
• Prohibits deceptive subject lines
• Using an opt-out / unsubscribe method
• Removing unsubscribers from the list within 10 days
• Including sender’s physical address

Each violation is subject up to $16,000 per offense (yes, that’s for each email address!) So make sure you educate yourself before starting up a mass email marketing campaign.

For detailed information, visit the FTC Website

“I want to build a web site, but how do I get started?”

Following is a step-by-step guide to getting online with a web site…

Define the Website

Before you set out to build your website, take some time to define a scope for your project. Here are some questions to get you started:

• Why do you want a website?
• What are your primary online business goals for this website? (increase sales, marketing/branding awareness, reduce customer service calls….)
• What type of information will your website display?
• Who is your target audience?
• What is the primary “action” you want a visitor to your site to take? (purchase, sign-up for an email club, search for information, call you on the phone, complete a survey…..)
• List some websites you like / dislike and describe what you like or don’t like.
• What is my budget and how much time can I spend building my initial website up?
• What is my budget and how much time can I spend on ongoing maintenance, improvements, and marketing of my website?

Design the Website

In the design phase, you begin to outline what the actual website will look like. There are several steps to take during the design phase.

Create a Site Map

A Site map is an outline of your website. Put together a draft site map for your website. For example, a basic 5-page website might include the following site map:

• Home page
• Our Services
• Request a Brochure
• About Us
• Contact Us

Make a Draft of Your Content

“Content” is any element used to make up your website… text (also called copy), photos, graphics, videos, forms.

What will you say on each of the web pages identified in your site map? What images or photos will you display on each page?  Will you create forms for users to contact you or submit a brochure request?

Create a draft document that contains all the “content” for each page. Do you have photos available to use? Do you need to display a chart or graph to visually balance your text? Are there facts you need to gather or perform additional research?

Insider Tip:

You can use software such as Adobe Fireworks or Photoshop to resize, crop, or enhance your photos. You can also create basic graphics.

As you create your content document, you may decide to revise your site map by adding or removing web pages. That’s fine. It’s all part of the process.

Decide on the Overall Look & Feel

Once you have a solid site map and good working draft of your content document, you can start to establish your visual design requirements.

• Are there particular colors you want to use on your website? (ie pastels, vibrant colors, colors that complement your logo)
• What type of feeling / impression do you want to convey to site visitors? (ie professional, informal, fun, cutting edge, creative)
• What type of graphical assets will you need and how will you get these? (ie rotating flash banner, how-to video, photo galleries)

Finalize the Site navigation

Using your site map as a guideline, start to determine what type of site navigation you will use.  If you only have a few pages, you may want your navigation to be across the top of your site.  If you have a lot of page or several levels of pages, you may want the site navigation to be along the left side of the page. If you want your site to be more creative or non-traditional, you can use a more creative layout for your navigation.

Sketch Out the Pages

Sketch out what you want your web pages to look like. Your pages should be consistent so site visitors can easily navigate your website.

Insider Tip:

Save the home page for last. If you spend time on your lower-level pages first, and finalize what info appears where, your home page will likely come together with greater ease. Just remember… the home page provides visitors with a first impression. So you want to make sure the home page fits within the goals you identified during the define phase.

Name your website

Decide what you want to call your website. The name of your website is called the Domain Name. Once you decide, you will have to check to see if the website name is available. You can search for availability using a site such as GoDaddy.com.

Enter a domain name below to check availability:

www. .com .org .net .us .biz .info

Once you have found a good domain name, register it.  To learn more about domain names, visit our Domain Names section.

Insider Tip: You may want to wait to register your domain name when you select a web hosting provider. Web hosts will often register you domain name for free when you sign up for their service.

Develop the Website

Now that you have a solid design plan for you website, it’s time to start building your website.  At this point, you should ask yourself if you want to build the site yourself or hire someone else to do it for you.

There are several options for building the website yourself.

If your website is fairly simple, you can use a Site Builder Tool that does not require any technical knowledge.  Some choices for Website Builder tools include:

Network Solutions: Image Cafe Website Creator

Yahoo!: Site Solutions

GoDaddy: Website Tonight

All of these Site Builder tools come free with a hosting subscription.  So you can choose your hosting provider based on which Site builder tool you like best. Read more detailed descriptions of each of these Site Builder Tools in the Easy Website Builder Tools section.

If you know (or want to learn) HTML, you can build a website using software such as Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver provides a WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get).  You’ll want to select a web host such as Go Daddy or Network Solutions to host your website.

Learn all about web hosts in the “Web Hosting” section.

Deploy the Website

Once you have built your website, make sure you test it thoroughly before releasing it to the public. Some things to look out for when testing your website include:

• Spelling mistakes
• Broken Links
• Missing images

When your website has been tested, follow the instructions of your web host on how to deploy the website.

Congratulations on building your website!

For more information on how to improve your website, visit our Suggested Reading page.

Web Hosting

Yahoo! makes it easy to get your first website up and running. They offer easy web site builder software to help the non-technical person build a good-looking web site. You can create your own design from scratch or select one of several hundred pre-made templates. Their service is reliable with minimal downtime or disruptions. The user control panel is simple to use. You can monitor basic web statistics. And they are very price competitive with packages starting at just $8.96 / month. You won’t break the bank with those prices, that’s for sure. And if you are interested in starting a blog, they make it easy to set up. Yahoo! Web Hosting is a low-risk way to start a new web site and to continue to maintain throughout the years.

Ready to sign-up? Learn more about Web Hosting from Yahoo! Web Hosting …

Domain Names
Yahoo! is very competitive in the domain name registry market, especially when you package your domain name with other services such as web hosting. Included with the purchase of a domain: the name (of course), 24 hour customer support, easy-to-use control panel for updating things such as the DNS, a starter web page at no additional charge, domain forwarding, and a few other nice-to-have features.

E-commerce
So you’ve been meaning to start an online store to sell that great product. But you get stuck when it comes to making it happen. Don’t wait any longer….. start your online store using Yahoo’s merchant solutions. They take all the pain out of setting up your e-commerce. And packages start at just $39.95 / month. Included with your monthly fee: shopping cart you can customize, shipping tools, a catalog manager, sales reporting tools, online payments (you’ll still have to set up a PayPal or merchant account), an assortment of marketing tools, 24 hour customer support, and just about anything else you will need to start selling on the web.

Wrap-up
When you are ready to take the first step to getting a domain, setting up your hosting service, and / or forging into the world of ecommerce, visit Yahoo! Small Business for simple, affordable, and effective solutions! Learn more…

We have used the services of ICDSoft since 2001. In addition to the several web sites we host with ICDSoft, many of our clients use the service as well. ICDSoft services include web hosting, web mail, and domain name registration. If you want to set up a simple web site that does not require start-up fees or a big monthly price tag, ICD Soft is the way to go. You get a solid, reliable product without spending a lot of money.

Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver is at the heart of the Adobe Web Publishing Suite. Quickly and easily design, develop, and maintain your website with Adobe Dreamweaver software. This software is highly recommended to anyone who wants to learn website development. The easy-to-use visual layout in Dreamweaver makes it easy to build a website with very little HTML or other programming experience.

Adobe offers a fully-functioning 30-day trial of all software products so you can test drive the software before you commit to buying it.

Some key features of Adobe Dreamweaver include:

• Intuitive visual layout that is easy to learn and use
• High quality website design through the use of tools such as the CSS Layout and Browser Compatibility Check
• Easy integration with other Adobe software products
• Solid software that has been around for many years and backed by a reputable company with solid customer and technical support and an active community

Learn more about Adobe Dreamweaver Software

Fireworks
Adobe Fireworks is the ideal software tool for creating and optimizing images for the web and rapidly prototyping websites. Use this tool to design web site layouts, logos, graphic design, and optimizing images and exporting them to GIF or JPEG formats for the web while balancing image quality and file size with precise control.

Some key features of Adobe Fireworks include:

• Create and edit both vector and bitmap images
• Optimize images for the web with preview, cross-platform gamma preview, selective JPEG compression, and a wide range of export controls
• Prototype interactive layouts for websites and rich Internet applications
• Export website prototypes directly to Dreamweaver

You can also use a product such as Adobe Photoshop to create, enhance and optimize your images for the web. Photoshop offers many more features geared toward printed media. But the price tag reflects the additional functionality at around three times the cost of Fireworks. So if you are only interested in working for the web, the Fireworks is the way to go.

Learn more about Adobe Fireworks Software

Dreamweaver and Fireworks are the two software products you need to get started with building your own website. Additional advanced software products are included in the Adobe Creative Suite for Web Publishing. Save money when you purchase the total suite.

Whether you’re new to web design and development or a seasoned pro, the Adobe Creative Suite for Web Publishing will give you the tools to design, develop, and maintain a professional web presence.

Website Builder Tool Reviews

• Network Solutions: Image Cafe Website Creator
• Yahoo!: Site Solution
• GoDaddy: Website Tonight

Yahoo! Web Hosting: Site Solution This tool is great for making a simple 5-page website. But if your website is any bigger than that, this probably isn’t the tool for you. Pricing for the first 3 months is $8.96. After that, the price goes up to $11.95 / month. You will be billed in 3-month increments.
What we like:	What we don’t like:
Yahoo brought website design down to the very basics. There are only a few menu options to get your site up and running. So just about anybody can figure out how to use this tool. Over 250 template designs to choose from organized by type of business Yahoo offers unlimited disk storage and bandwidth, so you never have to worry about running out of room or upgrading to the next service level Comprehensive online help resource Tool is hosted remotely so you can access it form anywhere and there is no software to download	Yahoo’s Site Solution only supports single-level navigation. So you are limited, for instance, if you wanted to create unique pages for each of your service offerings under one main category called “Services.” There is not a hands-on demo. But there is a 30-day money back guarantee. So If you are willing to put down your credit card, you can try the product risk-free for 30 days.
Learn more about Yahoo! Web Hosting

Website Tonight We expected Go Daddy to have one of the top website building tools. Unfortunately, we have found the tool to be so slow that it’s difficult to evaluate the product fairly. The tool is the cheapest one going, with lots of bells and whistles. If you have an enormous amount of patience, this tool offers a lot of bang for the buck. 5-page websites start at just $4.99 / month. Upgrade to 10-page or unlimited-pages for $8.99 / month and $12.99 / month respectively.
What we like:	What we don’t like:
Over 250 template designs to choose from organize by category Thousands of stock images to use Nice advanced functions, including forms, photo albums, and guest book Lowest price available	The tool performs so slow for us that it’s difficult to use. Hopefully, we’ll see improvements in the speed in the near future.
Learn more about Go Daddy

Your website if a good candidate for easy site builder tools if:

• You do not require custom design and can select from a variety of pre-designed templates
• You do not require flash banners in your website
• You only require basic web site statistics tracking

If your website is more complex and does not meet the criteria above, then you can still create your own website. But you will need to invest some time and money into website design and development software.

Or you can hire someone else to do the work for you. Contact Mosaic Web – Effective Online Marketing Solutions for a custom quote to build and / or market your website.