There are several reasons many email marketers prefer to send in text format altogether rather than offer a HTML option. Most spam is sent in HTML so it’s easier for a HTML email to get caught up in the spam filters. Text loads faster and there is no worry about about a third party server preventing the email from displaying correctly due to slow image connections or dead links.

I’m not trying to get you to forget about HTML formats, I’m here to help make your text versions look better, work better and click better. Just because it’s plain text doesn’t mean it needs to be plain. Structure and outline are very important parts of plain text emails. No one will sit and read through a huge paragraph of words running into one another without some kind of structure.

1. Line Breaks - Line breaks are especially important in plain text emails. Most email programs wont or aren’t able to display long lines of text so they force line breaks where necessary.  These forced carriage returns cause the email content to look sloppy and unprofessional. AWeber recommends a line-length of about 60-70 characters (including spaces) in text emails.

The following line length is 65 characters:
{===============================================================}

2. Content List - When sending a newsletter with content an organized subject list (table of contents) can be very helpful. This gives you the ability to ‘sell’ your key points at the beginning of the message. A content list can indirectly increase click though rates by encouraging the subscriber to keep reading.

Taken from Adrian Jock

3. Readable Headers - It’s a mistake to allow headers to blend with the e-mail’s content. Finding ways to highlight your headers (subject lines) makes your message more readable and appealing.

Taken from Fauzi Omar

4. Bulleted Lists - Using bullet points in HTML emails and web content can be a powerful enhancement. It highlights the covered content while making it easier to digest. Text email can not display bulleted lists but we can improvise with the use of spaces and characters such as the asterisk (*).

Taken from Willie Crawford

5. Line breaks - Many marketers and publishers use line breaks to effectively display headers, links and to highlight specific content.

PLUS - Spaces and Indentations – Spaces can clean up email content and make it much more readable. White space is important in email message and web content alike. There are many different and creative line breaks in use, just check your inbox.

So make it a point to take a few extra minutes to improve the text version of your next email. Your list will appreciate and so will your profit margin.

Need a reliable email marketing solution? I use AWeber

With all of that potential, the Government, as usual, is unable to see the value and drops the ball. The last post on the Tech-ade blog was on Wednesday 29 November 2006! I feel bad when a week goes by without an update, it’s a good thing I don’t work for the FTC. What’s going on, doesn’t the FTC have any internet savvy blogging geeks on the payroll?

Hey Jon Leibowitz [Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission], I hereby offer my geeky services and will fill that position of Tech-ade blog administrator. Set me up with remote access to my home office here in Michigan with a decent Government salary and we’re in business and your blog isn’t an embarrassment any more. Have your people get in touch with my people: http://help.csc4u.com/

New Rule Prohibiting Unwanted Robocalls Took Effect September 1st, 2009

American consumers won’t be getting any more deceptive robocalls from the auto “warranty” company that bombarded them with millions of the prerecorded calls earlier this year, under a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

The company, Transcontinental Warranty, Inc., and its owner will be permanently banned from making any prerecorded calls like the ones it used previously to trick consumers into buying vehicle service contracts under the guise that they were extensions of original vehicle warranties.

An end to deceptive and harassing robocalls

“The FTC has taken legal action to put an end to this company’s deceptive and harassing robocalls,” said Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC. “Starting today, the Commission will be going even further, enforcing a new rule adopted a year ago that makes these prerecorded commercial calls illegal.”

Transcontinental Warranty is one of several companies behind the auto warranty scam that the FTC sued in response to a flood of complaints about the robocalls, which used random, prerecorded voice messages to deceive consumers into thinking that their vehicle warranties were about to expire. The agency also has filed a complaint against the telemarketers who made the prerecorded calls, Voice Touch, Inc., Network Foundations, LLC, and Voice Foundations, LLC, as well as their three principals. That case is still pending in federal court. The court has barred the defendants from making any further deceptive robocalls until the litigation is resolved.

Under the proposed settlement, Transcontinental and its owner, Christopher Cowart, will be barred from the deceptive tactics they used to sell its vehicle service contracts. The defendants also will be prohibited from selling Transcontinental’s customer lists or trying to collect money from people who were victimized by the scam. In addition, they will be required to cooperate in the FTC’s ongoing investigation of the related case. The proposed settlement includes a $24 million judgment against the defendants, which is suspended because of their inability to pay. If the defendants have lied about their assets, the order requires them to pay the full judgment.

Violators will face penalties of up to $16,000 per call!

In addition to the legal action the against robocallers, the FTC will begin enforcing a new rule restricting prerecorded calls. This rule, effective September 1, 2009, prohibits telemarketers from making robocalls to consumers unless those consumers have agreed in writing to receive the calls. The new requirement is part of amendments to the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rule that were announced a year ago. Under the new rule, most sellers and telemarketers who transmit prerecorded messages to consumers without their prior written agreement will face penalties of up to $16,000 per call. There are some prerecorded calls that will not be subject to the new rule, such as those that deliver purely “informational” messages, and calls from politicians, banks, telephone carriers, and most charitable organizations.

The Commission vote approving the stipulated court order was 4-0. The order was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

NOTE: Stipulated final orders are for settlement purposes only and do not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation. Stipulated final orders require approval by the court and have the force of law when signed by the judge.

Copies of the complaint and the stipulated final order are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,500 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.

By Menno Spijkstra

For online marketers, writing online magazines serve as a good channel for them to further improve their marketing strategies. With ezine marketing, you are able to send out write-ups related to your niche and in a way promoting your products or services. In this case, you don’t only promote but you also give something valuable to your prospective clients in the form of informative ezines. There are several ezine marketing techniques that you must abide with in order to come up with effective online selling. Your business’ growth will depend on the strategies that you employ. Although this technique is said to be making a lot of success stories, you cannot simply conclude yours will be a happy ending, too.

You need to exert effort and do your home work. To improve ezine marketing you need to take into serious consideration the fact that you have to come up with good content to publish. Quality content is a prerequisite among search engines these days. So, if you want to get better page rankings, come up with rich-content write-ups. In ezine publishing, you have the chance to foster a better relationship among your readers through publishing and distributing your online magazine. Your expertise in your niche will be put to test when you are into this kind of online marketing method.

Not to mention the massive exposure you can get online. Keep in mind that popularity can definitely give your sales a boost so take advantage of this chance. As you stay in this business, you will realize that publishing valuable content for ezines can be your edge over your other competitors. The market may be a bit saturated at this time, so it’s up to you to find ways on how to attract more possible customers through your ezines. Your content must be relevant to whatever it is that you are selling and also, it must be something that tackles the concerns of your target market.

You have to project a good and reputable image to these people. It is one way for you to gain their trust. Continuously educate yourself as the online marketing industry is ever-changing and often full of complexities. You cannot be left behind in terms of knowledge. The latter is the main point why your customers will stick with you. They would often look forward to enriching their knowledge, too. Make sure that your ezines would contain all your information and your product’s information, too. Don’t fail to include your URL within your ezines to ensure that your readers will get to access your page if they want to.

Using the right format in ezine marketing should not be neglected. Your readers would appreciate a comprehensive write-up so don’t leave them with questions hanging in their heads. Furthermore, you would need to submit your articles to popular electronic magazine directories. This will improve your exposure online and you will get to be acquainted to many prospective customers, too. Just make sure that your works get through high ranking directories to ensure maximum exposure. Otherwise, you’d just be wasting your time in submitting but not getting any positive results. Come up with successful ezine marketing by implementing the right techniques.

Eventually, it will pull your business up towards success.

Things to do at the Email Marketer’s Club:

• Join in on forum conversations.
• Join (or start) a group of email marketers.
• Post an item in our library
• Create or attend an event
• Upload and view pictures or videos
• Check out the wiki and/or the job board
• And of course make some friends

Tamara Gielen of BeRelevant! founded the Email Marketer’s Club in May 2007 to give email marketers across the globe a platform to network and share information and experiences with each other.

Email Marketer’s Club gets five stars in my book. If you are passionate about email marketing too, join the Email Marketer’s Club. Don’t forget to add me to your friends list.

ReFormat-It!
> > Need to
> > remove the annoying
> > ‘>’ symbols?
> >
> >
> > Try ReFormat-It!

AWeber’s post: Interview: Talking Email Marketing on the Internet Marketing Radio Show

AWeber recently announced the integration of FeedBurner with their blog broadcast feature and now they have also integrated Twitter. This new feature allows you to create a broadcast that will automatically update your Twitter status with the subject line of your email and a link to an online version of your email. Most of us do this anyway, when we manage to get around to it . This will do it automatically saving us a little time.

NOTE: AWeber is on of the top list management and autoresponder services available. AWeber is, as a matter a fact, the service we use here at eZinePress.com. I highly recommend AWeber and it’s hard to see how anyone could succeed without the email marketing tools and services that companies like AWeber provide. See what they have to offer here: AWeber Communications