The Second Most Important Thing About Designing a Postcard

I am constantly asked that if I had to give just one piece of advice in designing a postcard what would it be? I always answer: KEEP IT SIMPLE! Good designers are like a sculptor who know that they are not done until there is nothing left to take away. The same applies in postcard design, I even wrote an article called "Picture Perfect Postcard" that addresses the fact that less is more. But I always add that while keeping it simple with a clear message is the most important thing, there is a second piece of advice that I give designers.

When you go to your mailbox to check the mail, you and hundreds of millions of other Americans all do the same thing; you look to see who sent the letter (hoping it is not a Bill!) and check to see who the letter is addressed to. You can't help it, it is instinctual. And it always amazes me that graphic designers do not take advantage of this part of human nature.

When you have distilled down your message and/or call to action to a clear and concise phrase of 3 or 4 words, put that message in a place that people are going to look. If you were advertising on a billboard you wouldn't put your key message in small lettering at the bottom of the sign. In the same way, don't hide the core message of what you want your potential customers to see on the front (the non-address side of the card) of the postcard. Instead, in a large BOLD font put your message as close to the address area that you can. Perhaps put it on an offset angle. Take advantage of the fact that people will automatically look there to see who the letter was addressed to - so give them something else to look at. Designers think that the most important side of the card is the front, when in actuality it is the address side of the card that gets the most attention from the addressee.

Help your customers to see what you paid for them to see. Work with them to get noticed.

About the Author:

Bob has been in Printing and Mailing since 1995. He is the President of GagePress.com and has worked with businesses to improve their ROI in the Direct Mail field.

Picture Perfect Postcard

Too many times I see a postcard that has waaaaaaaay too much text on it and I just want to tell the designer to stop the insanity. LESS IS MORE when it comes to text in your postcard design. Instead of letting words tell your story, let your artwork do the trick. You have less than a second to capture the attention of your audience and to do this you need to use a large, full color, gorgeous photo that clearly communicates your message.

If you put too much information on the card you are sending a confusing message to the consumer and they are going to look at the card and think that they don't have time to read it. They may toss a great offer for something they need right into the recycling bin. Narrow down what you are trying to accomplish with your card into one succinct thought. Take that thought and edit it to 3 or 4 words - you can do it! That's right, using no more than 4 words create your offer or your "hook" to get your potential customers to want to buy from you.

For example instead of saying "We are having a great Widget sale", instead say "40% off all Widgets!" And whatever you do, don't make this offer hard to find. Say it LOUD with A HUGE FONT and offsetting color scheme. Just make sure you have an offer worth looking at. Informational cards have a place in direct mail marketing, but not if you are trying to generate new customers. You may have a great new line of Widgets in stock, but no one is going to care unless they are getting a deal. The words "Free" and "Sale" are crucial in getting the attention of a potential customer. Using numbers and symbols (40% instead of Forty Percent) is also a great way to draw the eye to what you are saying.

The purpose of your postcard is threefold:

1. Tell them who you are.
2. Tell them what you are selling.
3. Give them a reason to respond.

You need to accomplish all three with as few words as possible.

So you've got the big, bright, beautiful artwork to get their attention. You have a great offer (in 4 words or less!) to get their interest. Now give them something to do - give the offer worth. Have them bring the card down to your store in order to get an extra 10% off your offer. Put a value on the offer. You can do that by limiting the length of the offer or stating that the offer is only good while supplies last.

The important thing to remember is you have to get their attention and then you have to keep it. And keep in mind, a picture is worth a 1000 words!

About the Author:

Bob has been in Printing and Mailing since 1995. He is the President of GagePress.com and has worked with businesses to improve their ROI in the Direct Mail field.

Everything about the "Paid To Read Emails" method

PTR programs are a great way to make money, because it requires no big knowledge from you. You shouldn?t be a seasoned Internet marketer, or successful affiliate with big list of subscribers, or SEO guru.

You get paid just for reading emails with ads, and this can be your residual profit of $200 to $2,000 (it depends upon how you do that and how you use the tips of this industry).

Advantages of paid emails No blog / website necessary: all you need is a valid email address. Easy: you are supposed to click on each email ad for 10 -30 seconds and you're credited. Fast results: if you read your emails daily and you refer a few friends also, you will reach the minimum payout in less than a month. Payment Methods: most of the good sites accept well - known payment methods (PayPal or so..) Drawbacks of online surveys A lot of those websites DON"T pay ! Do your research first Constant work is needed: that is only until you reach a few referrals that will earn for you ;) List of online surveys programs

200EuroMails is a pretty good site, they send enough emails daily, so you can reach the minimum payout limit in less than a month. They also provide good referral tolls like banners, email templates, text links and so on, so you can promote your referral link and build a downline.

Until now the only one I've joined, the list will be updated soon !

About the Author:

Watch English TV online while abroad with inexpensive software

Introduction of cable televisionand satellitetelevisionhas brought abouta revolutionin the way you watchTV. Peoplearoundthe worldcan now watchany channelbroadcasting fromany nation by payingjusta monthlysubscription.Software for TV on the internethas gonea stepahead by connecting yourPC to the numerous TV channels;.

If you are one of those who are livingabroad and are hookedto yourgameshows or newsor other programmeson thatair on US and UK televisiononly, thiscould be the bestnewsfor you. When you are out of yourcountry you do missthe familiarity of yourhome, peopleand yourway of livingin yourown land.EnglishTV programmescan helpto put you in touch withall thatis goingon at home- the localnewsor the games;or reality shows and of courseall yourbeloved TV series.This is entirelypossible withspecial softwarethatallowsyou to watchTV online. Theyoffer manychannels;fromaroundthe worldand you can chooseyourfavourite channels;to either watchUK TV onlineor US TV onlineor any othersof yourchoice.The coststoo are extremelylow.. Allthatyou needto haveis an internetconnection and a computeranywhere in the world. All the programsfromTV channels;are streameddirectly through yourinternetconnection.You will not needany extra hardwareor TV card. You justneedto downloadthe softwareand makethe payment onlineand you are set to go. Many of these softwarewebsites accepta variety of currencies apartfromthe usualdollar and poundas theytakeyourlocationinto consideration. Theygivea listof channels;thatare available and you justneedto click on the channelof yourchoice and you can begin watchingthe program onlinestreaming live.

If you are on a move fromone place to another oftenor on a foreignholiday yourbestoptionis to watchonlineTV by downloading;internetTV software. The services are not affectedby yourmovement.Onlything is thatyou musthavea laptop and a mobile internetconnection.With somesoftwareyou can watchprogramson demandtoo.Needless to say,these services are completely legal too.

Another huge advantage of onlineTV is thatit servesas another televisionwithminimal investment. Just think how oftenyou havehad a fight withyourfamilyoverwhatto watchon television? The remote control can sometimes;becomeone of the mostsought after articles in the livingroom.As a solutionto this, you may want to havea second television. In fact manyhavedone it in the past to keeptheir marriage intact!

Whataboutthe children?When you want to watchthe news, yourpartnerwatche;s;daily soapswhilekidswant to watchcartoons.Again someone;has to sacrifice for the other. Luckily for the present generation, a second TV set is not the only option. The better solutionis InternetTV.

Every hometodayhas a table top computerand manyof themown a laptop too.So connecting to yourinternetTV softwareshouldnot be difficultat all. Onceyou are connected, you will be able to watchTV onlineno matterwhere you are and havethousands of channels;to choosefrom.About the Author:

For more information related to watching TV online visit the following resources:

Going Postal: Politicians & their Mail

When running a sound, effective and thorough campaign, politicians need the mail system to spread their message.  Word of mouth is good for creating buzz, yard signs only let people know you are running for office and websites only work if people know where to find you.  A good mail piece?palm card or postcard?can accomplish all of this.

So, if you plan to run for office, you should send out mail.  Fortunately, a campaign can create a mailer that voters will read.  There are just a few simple things you need to know.

Postcards, palm cards, and brochures, oh my!

Palm cards, often called rack cards or walking cards, are great for door-to-door easy reading and can be placed in envelopes for mailing.

So, when having a piece, or pieces, created, first decide how you plan to use them.  Also, do your research and check prices for tri-fold brochures, 4?x9? palm cards, and 4?x6? postcards.  Don?t forget to factor in postage and handling, which will run between $.26 and $.33 per mail piece.  Create a budget and a strategy.  You will need to know how many voters you need to reach, how many households you can visit, and how much all of this is going to cost.

Fellow Citizens, Lend Me Your Eyes.

The tricky part is getting voters to read what you have spent your money and time on creating.  You have probably noticed that most political mailers all look like they came from the same designer and printer.  Admittedly, when describing a political platform, it can be difficult to be uniquely shocking and get your message across effectively at the same time.  But, there are ways:

1)      Use images and photos of you with famous or well-known people?the Governor or a local hero

2)      Incorporate a tag line or slogan that creates a double-take:  ?These aren?t your Daddy?s Politics?

3)      Include a call to action??Vote Your Gut, Vote for Gus on November 3rd?

Limit the images to one per side and keep your text to a minimum.  Voters have to be able to read the piece in under 90 seconds, closer to 60 seconds works well.

Go Professional or Go Home

Your kids may think you draw the best farm animals and build the best solar system models, but when it comes to designing political mailers for adults, use a professional.  There are firms out there that do these pieces daily.  Also, look for a political marketing company, like CampaignPros.com, that will design, print and mail your pieces for you.  The best deals will come from places like this.  These places will offer helpful advice and catch things that you may have missed, like leaving space for addressing, image quality and remembering to include your political disclaimer.

Believe it or not, your campaign can be won by the quality of your products and the image you project.  Make smart decisions, choose the right pieces and include the content voters needs to know.  Think fresh and informative, but remember to be brief and concise.

Now that you have gone postal?Good Luck!

About the Author:

Wade Baffa, CEO of CampaignPros.com, has been in the print promotional field for 8 years. He obtained a Bachelor?s Degree n English/Journalism from Western Illinois University in 2000. He has a philosophy that business practice should be built around solid relationships between company and customer.

Popfax.com Internet Fax is developing indirect sales via partnerships

The contractual model is a pay-as-you-grow agreement. It makes advanced and capital intensive resources available to partners with no investment at all from them, thus helping to extend their activity with a professional fax offer which is profitable from day one.

Resellers: the reseller?s extranet allows partners to manage their clients very easily. Resellers may sell the Popfax.com offer ?as is?, or bundle it with other products of their own. Fax mailers: Popfax.com has a web service dedicated to fax broadcasting. This web application allows any partner, whether a provider for direct marketing solutions, a corporation with large newsletter broadcasting volumes, or even a small company or a freelancer, to schedule his mailing campaigns, manage his own contacts lists, receive statistics reports, etc. Integrators: Popfax.com can be incorporated seamlessly into any web interface?s look and feel. A customizable ready-to-use platform can be provided in minutes. All of the resources are accessible via an extranet ?Back-Office? interface that allows partners to assign numbers and accounts to their customers on the fly. For more sophisticated integrations, Popfax.com offers an initial integration at a negligible cost as it employs its experienced offshore teams, saving both time and labor costs.

By partnering with Popfax.com, partners will experience all the advantages of a well-referenced, professional and cost-effective Internet fax service.

About Popfax.com

Popfax.com is a leading global provider of professional fax services. It allows end-users to send and receive faxes using a web interface or an e-mail client. Integrated to front or back office applications, it allows one to carry out transactional tasks via fax.

Popfax.com is an outsourced solution which meets faxing needs of both individual professionals (SMEs and SoHos) and corporate customers. The technology behind Popfax.com is a cloud computing architecture and the business model consists in a subscription to a ?software as a service? (SaaS) platform.

Popfax.com figures speak for themselves: the service has more than 50,000 customers worldwide and provides local numbers in over 500 cities across more than 20 nations. The web service is supplied in more than 20 languages and customer support is available in 7 languages. The service is maintained by the French incorporated company POPESCO, which offers local means of payment in 15 countries and in 10 currencies.

About the Author:

Become IT Consultant Savvy by Building a Great Contacts Database

If you really want to build a profitable, stable IT consulting business and become IT consultant savvy about the way you handle your clients, you need to figure out how to be memorable and stand out from the crowd.

Many trying to become IT consultants neglect one of the most important elements of marketing to clients -- creating a targeted marketing plan that attracts the best steady, long-term clients.

A really important part of this marketing plan is building a great contacts database and nurturing your in-house mailing list.  When you build an in-house mailing list made up of really high-quality prospective clients, you are investing in the future growth of your business and building a tremendously valuable asset.

The following 4 tips can help you become IT consultant savvy so you can build a really strong, stable, profitable and sustainable business.

Use Your Mailing List for Better Direct Mail. Direct mail is definitely an important part of building an effective, diversified IT marketing plan.  And you can use direct mail to keep your name in front of qualified prospects.  For example, let?s say you decide you want to promote your technology assessment program next month, so you name the next month ?Technology Assessment Month? and make all technology assessments half-price during the month.  Now which type of mailing list would be most responsive to a postcard offering half-priced technology assessments?  Certainly not a rented mailing list of 2,500 small business owners that have never heard of your company.  Your in-house mailing list of 250 small business owners that already have a relationship with you as prospects (networking contacts, seminar attendees, trade show booth visitors, etc.) is always a much better option for special offers for services and represents a great chance for you to continue to become IT consultant savvy. Know Why Those that Know You Will Be More Receptive to Your Services ? and Why This is Efficient Marketing. When you have a mailing list made up of those that already know of your company and are not strangers, they will be much more receptive and responsive to any special offers you make.  Also, it will cost about 1/10 as much money to reach this group as it does to reach those that are strangers and just come from a rented mailing list. Or to make things more concrete, if 1 stranger out of the 2,500 signs on for your $250 technology assessment, each name in that mailing was worth... $0.10. Good luck breaking even on that. However if 10 prospects out of the 250 that already know and like your company sign on for your $250 technology assessment ($2,500 in service revenue), each name from that mailing was worth $10 -- much better math! An In-House Mailing List is Typically Under-Utilized by Your Competitors. The asset of an in-house mailing list isn?t often used by the average person that is trying to become IT consultant savvy.  Why? Most competing IT professionals won?t realize how powerful it is.  If you use this knowledge to your advantage, you can really stand out from your competition.  Your in-house mailing list is almost like a money-printing machine.  Any time you want to make more money, you just send out a compelling offer and you will almost always find at least some takers. What's the key? The offer must be targeted appropriately and COMPELLING. An In-House Mailing List is Typically Under-Utilized by Your Competitors. The asset of an in-house mailing list isn?t often used by the average person that is trying to become IT consultant savvy.  Why? Most competing IT professionals won?t realize how powerful it is.  If you use this knowledge to your advantage, you can really stand out from your competition.  Your in-house mailing list is almost like a money-printing machine.  Any time you want to make more money, you just send out a compelling offer and you will almost always find at least some takers. What's the key? The offer must be targeted appropriately and COMPELLING.

Copyright (C) BecomeAnITConsultant.com All Rights Reserved

About the Author:

Joshua Feinberg is the author and editorial director of the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course, which helps computer consultants, VARs, integrators, solution providers, and managed services providers get more of the best, steady, high-paying small business (SMB) clients.

The Different Types of Brochures

For most small businesses, a brochure is a necessity. Brochures have been around for a very long time, but they are still very effective marketing tools. You should always have a variety of brochures on hand to promote your business.

Why should you have several different types of this marketing tool anyway? Well, there are five distinct types of brochures, each of which serves a different purpose. These various types of brochures each have their distinctive style which would serve a particular objective in your marketing campaign. It may be great to have your marketing campaign consider on two or even several of these brochure types. But that's up to you.

Let us discuss the five different types, to guide you as you plan your next brochure printing project.

1. Support Brochures

You can still see these around, even though they are not as common as they used to be. Traditionally, this type of brochure was used by travelling salespeople for use during presentations. They are usually designed to allow presentation viewers to follow along with the salesperson as he is speaking.

2. Direct Mailing Brochures

If you design a brochure in preparation for sending it to customers through snail mail, then it is a direct mailing brochure. These continue to be some of the most effective marketing tools available to small businesses. With this method, you can design the brochures to attract a certain type of recipient, and then send them to those same types of people.

3. Response Brochures

Many businesses do not keep response brochures on hand, but they should. When a prospective customer shows interest in your company and wants to learn more, you hand them a response brochure. These brochures are not meant to excite interest in the customer, because the recipients of these brochures have already shown interest. Instead, these are designed to seal the deal and convince the customer that your business is worth investing in.

4. Check out Brochures

If you have a traditional brick and mortar store, you should invest in some check out brochures. These are the ones that you will place on the checkout register. When a customer is buying products, they will see the brochures and perhaps pick one up. Therefore, these brochures are designed to upsell the customer, and entice him to buy more products or more expensive products. If you have a website, check out brochures can drive traffic to it.

5. Drop Off Brochures

Drop off brochures are very similar to response brochures, but not quite the same. A response brochure is given to a customer that has shown interest in your company. A drop off brochure is also left with a customer that you have spoken to, but has not necessarily showed interest. Because of this, drop off brochures are designed with more of a sales approach, trying to create interest in the buyer. Hand these out to someone you have spoken to briefly, but did not have time to seal a deal.

About the Author:

Think Package First: Stimulating Direct Marketing Creativity

Okay, so it?s time to sit down and design a mailing piece for a direct marketing project. You sit down at your desk with a sharp pencil and a blank sheet of paper, or at your computer, with an empty word processing document. Minutes later, you find yourself twirling your pencil or tapping your fingers, still staring at that vast nothingness, looking for that elusive spark of creativity. Well, in this article we are going to a look at one technique that could help you harness that spark.

Often, the design process starts with content and expands outward from there. It only makes sense; the message is key and most of us will naturally gravitate towards crafting our content first, and then building a framework through which to present that content.

But, what if we did it the other way? It may sound unorthodox, but maybe it?s just orthodox enough to pass for brilliance, or at least to get us thinking from a different creative angle.

Of course, what we?re talking about creating here is not your run of the mill direct mail. We?re not going to decide that we want to use an envelope and then figure out what to put in the envelope. What would that accomplish? Chances are that, if you started with content, it would have ended up in an envelope anyhow. No, what we?re talking about is pushing the envelope, shoving it right off the end of the table, out of sight and out of mind.

Now ask yourself: what would be something really cool to receive in the mail? Or, to put in another way, what would really grab your customer?s attention?

One idea that comes to mind (and there are many more) is a package of trading cards, packaged in a nice shinny wrapper. Now that would be different. It would certainly capture attention, and most people would probably open the package, just to see what?s inside. That would certainly do wonders for your open rates, and, as long as the message is well crafted, for your response rates too.

Alright, so we have an idea for packaging, but what about content? Well this is where the real creativity comes in. Look at the packaging concept and ask yourself how it could be made to relate to your business? Let?s suppose you run a small consulting firm. Take a moment and ask yourself: what is the most valuable part of this business? If you?re like me, chances are your answer would probably be: the consultants themselves. Or, to put it another way, the consulting team.

Well there?s a connection right there.

Think about baseball or hockey trading cards, which feature players from different teams. Picking up on this motif, you could design a unique card for each member of your team, complete with a picture and a brief biography. Package them all together to create a team set, and suddenly you have a unique vehicle for promoting your business. Modify your website (or at least part of it) to match your cards, and you have the beginnings of an entire campaign.

The ideas could go on and on, but the important thing to note is that the ideas emerge by imagining a unique packaging concept and working backwards, allowing the package itself to actively shape the message. Essentially, we have reversed the design process, by starting with what is usually one of the last elements to be considered and/or designed, and using it to inspire the rest of the piece.

Of course, I am by no means suggesting that you should use this method for designing all of your direct marketing pieces. Nor am I suggesting that it will be appropriate for all projects. I am merely outlining one technique that you could potentially use to stimulate your creativity and allow you to explore alternative and innovative concepts for your direct marketing projects. Give it a try. If nothing else, at least you might have some fun.

About the Author:

Matt Ward is the Creative Director for Highland Marketing, a direct marketing company located out of Waterloo, Ontario. His primary responsibilities include graphics design, developing and maintaining the company website, and the writing and editing of many articles and communications. He holds his Master's in English Literature.

The Basics of Custom Postcards

For you to be able to have your business recognized and remembered, you need to provide a totally different kind of marketing campaign. You need to device a marketing strategy that will lend a distinct representation to your kind of business. Direct mail in your postcard printing can definitely do that for you.

Direct mail in your color postcard printing is the way to go if you want to have a promotional strategy the really works. Often, direct mail postcards help you to improve on your chosen medium so that you will have the result you wanted. Direct mail marketing can definitely give you a vast client base without having to spend so much on your promotional costs. Combined with custom postcards, you are definitely on your way to getting the ROIs you need to be successful.

So what is custom postcard printing? How can it help boost your business?

Custom postcard printing is different in the way that they are designed. Unlike regular color postcard printing, for example, you get to custom print your collaterals to fit your own requirements. Hence, you will have print postcards that are unique and reflect your company?s sole image and identity.

Custom postcards allow you to use what you have ? your own stock of photos, design and layout, and your own unique story. The message is distinct because you have created it from your own experiences. Thus, you will never have to expect any kinds of imitations or duplicates anywhere.

It goes without saying then that you would need a printing provider who is an expert in custom printing. Although there are a lot of providers out there, especially color postcard printing companies that are quite proficient enough in handling custom orders, not everyone are created equal, nor equally gifted. Some may offer designing according to your preferences. Still there are those who lets you upload your own personalized design and let you customize to your heart?s content.

Take note though that even if your print provider allows you to upload your own work, only a few would actually agree to work with you to come up with your own requirements. It is either you provide your own design and then apply it to an available template, or you can upload your specifications to an online postcard printing company and custom fit your data to their list of templates and layouts.

Furthermore, those that have custom printing in their list would have you design your own postcard, upload it, and then they will print it. An alternative would be to have their in-house design staff to create your custom design for you. There would be additional costs however should you avail of such service.

No matter what you decide on, the point here is that a direct mail custom postcard still works better than any postcard marketing strategy. You may want to try it out the next time you plan to start your marketing campaign. Even with the added costs, it will be worth your while to try it to help your business.

About the Author:

Wealthy Upline System Builds "Message of the Month" through TEAMWORK! See why You Must Join US!

Don't be misled by how simple this seems. Tom Danley's "Message of the Month"
is a legitimate home-based business because you'll be required to do the work necessary to earn
the hundreds and even thousands of dollars in subscriber commissions.

 What's simple is how the "Wealthy Up-line" group building system works for you.

 - We provide the name list to assure you the best prospects in the market.

 - We provide you with the "Wealthy Up-line" photo copy print for postcards.

 - We provide the follow-up materials at no additional cost to you.

 - We'll answer all your questions asked by phone, mail, or e-mail.

 - We track the progress of all groups as they grow and...

 - We'll keep you updated with our informative monthly newsletter.

Now, this Wealthy Up-line system is totally dependent on YOU and everyone who
joins, doing their fair share of the work as described within this website.
                                                     
So...First thing's first...

         You need to join Tom Danley's "Message of the Month" home-based business.

Once you join...you'll be in Phase #1. All you're required to do is pay the $25 subscription fee
to Tom Danley Co. for the "Message of the Month" self-help and motivational audio message
every month and never quit!
As you do that, your "Wealthy Up-line" members will be working
to build you a 2-wide by 3-deep+1 (15-person) group. It's very important that you do this!

Your "Wealthy Up-line" will earn the commissions they need from your subscription fee to help build your group.

By not paying your fair share or quitting you'll only be hurting yourself!

When your group is built by your "Wealthy Up-line" associates you're earning $43 in MOM
commissions, then and only then will you be guided into Phase #2 and join in on the promotions.

Simply put, you must mail out the 100/400-"Wealthy Up-line" postcards as requested
when you are earning enough in MOM commissions to cover the cost.

If you want to get started Now, visit the link at:

5 Ways Camera Verification Puts You Ahead Of The Mail House Competition

Let's face it... everyone has inkjets, inserters, tabbers, laser printers, offset/web, etc.  As a matter of fact, trying to offer these as an incentive to mailing customers would just get you some funny looks.  Your clients would just say, "Of course you have those... you're a mailhouse."

What NOT everyone has is CAMERA VERIFICATION!  You might ask why you need this, especially if none of your customers have asked about it (believe me, if they aren?t asking for it yet, they will be soon. 

But it's not always the customer requests that should prompt you to get involved with new technologies.  The primary reasons for installing camera verification would be increased production SPEED, ACCURACY, and REDUCED LABOR COST!  These are the back-end qualities that make a mailing company great, but generally aren't directly seen by the clients.  How does camera verification help you accomplish this?

1.Do you ever need to match-up documents, statements or paperwork that has variable personalized information on it?  If so, you can only run production so fast because your operators have to "spot check" to be sure documents match.  Spot checks slow you WAY DOWN, costing additional labor, time and money!  Plus, mis-matches that are not discovered can get you into big trouble!

2.Do you ever take non-window envelopes with personalized information from the inserter straight to the inkjet?  Camera verification can help you inkjet inline with your inserter, and be sure the envelope matches it's contents every time, without spot-checks that kill productivity.

3.Do you have jobs where the paper stock changes throughout the run, to match specific criteria?  Do you ever have cover stock that changes based on variable criteria?  How do you know the correct paper stock is being pulled from the correct printer drawer or collator pocket?  Camera verification can proof this automatically, at full speed, and shut down the system if the wrong stock is used, OR if there is a mismatch of materials.

4.Do you ever spot check to be sure booklet signatures and pages have been collated in the right order?  Camera verification can do this automatically!

5.Has your client ever asked you for PROOF that you correctly processed their order?  If they have, then that's a good thing.  They're asking you to do something not all mailers or printers can do... something you can do with camera verification.  You can read OCR or barcode or even text on documents "in process", then read the finished product on the output conveyor and generate reports that prove everything was done correctly, all variable data matches correctly, and that everything in the customer's file was processed.  No missing pieces, no duplicates, no mis-matched information!

Everyone can do variable data now....but the one thing NOT everyone can do yet is run variable data jobs at the full production speed of their equipment, with 100% accuracy that they can PROVE!  Save labor, save time, get the fastest ROI available for production equipment, and best of all-BEAT YOUR COMPETITORS!

About the Author:

One rank one pension with 70% pension to veterans(PBORs)

I ask my pardon for disclosing the ongoing ethnic crises among the veterans.
As per our country constitution we are having right & laws as mentioned below:

Right of Equality

1. Equality before Law.
2. Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
3. Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.
4. Abolition of Untouchability.
5. Abolition of Titles.

Right to Freedom:

Article 19: Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc. are clearly specified in the Article.
Article 20: This Article states the Protection in respect of conviction for offenses.
Article 21: Protection of life and personal liberty is mentioned in the Article.
Article 22: This Article deals with Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases.

Right against exploitation:

Article 23: The details of Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labor are presented in this Article
Article 24: The Article contains Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc.

(a) Under above all Law & the rights of citizen all veteran are authorised to deserved their minimal benefit from the country against the valuable life span worship for the safety and security of the country.

But the enigmatic 70% sanction of central 6th pay commission is hammered the expaction of some group of pensioners(Person below officer Ranks).

(b) The effecting is with effect from 01 Sep 2009. The questions arise, why the effect is given only the people leaving above period?

(c) Why has been the group (01 Jan 2006 to Aug 2008) categorically entitle only 50%?

(d) As per our right we are all equal before law. It means that the personnal liberty is massacred by the Government rule itself.

(e) The discrimination shown by the government is it justified? Which itself violation the right of prohibition of discrimination.

(f) As per the increasing inflation rate and the less amount pension is putting the veteran in trouble to live in the big dilemma.

(g) I am not getting in answer why government has neglecting & exploiting the veterans' right?

(h) Would you kindly can give good justification to them?
Hope good response will be delivered as acknowledgment. I am optimistic on this issue.

Thank you!
Phuleswari Narzary

About the Author:

Hi! I'm phuleswari Narzary, I am interested to help the helpless without any worth. I am blogger, webmaster, online franchise journalist / reporter and advertiser.

World's Most Popular Xvid MOV to RMVB Converters

World's Most Popular Xvid MOV to RMVB Converters

We here at POPSnail love fancy software, and we'll try anything for our "World's Most Popular Now!" award. The name of the game today is Xvid MOV to RMVB Converter. Of course, some programs work better than others, and we've made it our mission to help you find the best of them, without you having to download and delete six different ones! We give our "World's Most Popular Now!" award to the best of the best and nine runners up in five categories ? UI skin, speed, ease of use, user rating and popularity.
For today, the best of the best in Xvid MOV to RMVB Converter are listed below. They're clearly the winners in all five categories, as you'll be able to tell immediately when you download them.
1. Cucusoft Ultimate DVD + Video Converter Suite

Easy convert almost any audio/video format including Video format(H264, MP4, WMV, AVI, MOV, RM, 3GP, flv, SWF, mpeg-1, mpeg-2, VCD, SVCD, DVD, etc.) and Audio format(AC3, AAC, MP2, MP3, MP4, RA, WMA, etc.).

2. All AVSMedia products in one package Suite !

All AVSMedia products in one package! (AVS Video Tools + AVS Audio Tools + AVS Video Editor + AVS DVD Copy + AVS TV Box)

3. Avex DVD & Video Converter Platinum Pack

Best Video Tools - Avex DVD & Video Converter Platinum Pack combines DVD Ripper Platinum, Video Converter Platinum and all DVD to iPod, PSP, 3GP, Zune Video Suite into one at steep discount.

4. WinAVI Video Converter

WinAVI Video Converter is super cool! is AVI Converter + Mpeg Covnerter + Batch Video Converter + Burn DVD VCD SVCD + Support almost all video formats, Convert all video format to AVI DivX XVid. Convert all video format to WMV, Convert all video format to RM.

5. Apex Video Converter Super

Apex Video Converter Super Convert the formats of your video as you like. It is designed to meet all your needs of convert file between MOV, MPEG,VCD, DVD, WMV, ASF, RM, RMVB, AVI, DIVX, iPod, 3GP, PPC, xBox, PMP, MP4 formats.

6. YASA Video Converter

A powerful video converter and can covnert AVI to 3GP,AVI to DivX, AVI to DVD, AVI to iPod, AVI to MP4, AVI to RM, AVI to WMV, AVI to XviD, DivX to AVI, DVD to PSP, MOV to iPod, MPEG to iPod, MPEG to RM, MPEG to WMV, RM to AVI, RMVB to iPod, WMV to AVI, WMV to iPod, WMV to MPEG, WMV to WMV.

7. Lenogo Video Converter

It can converts almost all formats of video files on your computer (AVI, MPG, MPEG, ASF, WMV, MOV, 3GP, AMR, FLV, FLIC, SWF, RM, RMVB etc.) and you may save videos to your iPod, iPhone, Zune, PSP, 3GP cellphones as well.

8. Wondershare Video Converter Suite

Wondershare Video Converter Suite is an all-in-one DVD ripping software and video conversion tool.

9. Xilisoft Video Converter for Mac

It can convert between almost all video and audio formats including AVI, WMV, MPEG1/2/4, 3GP, MP4, MOV, ASF, MP2, MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, M4A, WAV and AC3 etc. It works excellently for almost all popular video players like Mac, iPod, Apple TV, PSP, PS3, Zune, Archos, iRiver and Creative Zen etc. And besides powerful function.

10. Amor Video Converter

With it, you can easily convert AVI to MPEG / VCD / SVCD / DVD / WMV, RM / RMVB to AVI / MPEG / VCD / SVCD / DVD, ASF / WMV to AVI / MPEG / VCD / SVCD / DVD, AVI / MPEG / ASF / WMV to AVI, AVI / MPEG / ASF / WMV to ASF / WMV

About the Author:

2

Direct Mail Marketing Tips

If you are just starting out on direct mail marketing, you need to read up on a lot of marketing articles so that you can know at least on a conceptual level what direct mail marketing is all about. There are a lot of very informative and detailed marketing articles out there on the Internet that you can learn from. However, there is still no substitute to actually trying it for real. Marketing in real life is the best teacher you can hope for to instruct you in all the little nuances that reading cannot teach.

To help you get started with some real life wisdom from marketing professionals, here are a few simple direct mail marketing tips that most professionals adhere to.Read up and research:More or less, you may already be in this part, but it still merits a mention as part of the overall process of learning about marketing. You need to read up and research. "Knowing is half the battle" as they say. So you need to know the key concepts, the important terms, and the basic strategies in marketing. Besides reading up on marketing articles over the Internet, it is best to try and invest in buying a reference book about a subject. The Internet may be free and it can have a lot of information, but nothing beats an actual reference book with genuine credentials.

So buy at least one "actual" book on direct mail marketing to help you out.Choose a Marketing Weapon:Once you have read up, it is now time to choose a direct mail weapon. There are a lot of printed materials to choose from. There are marketing letters, postcards, catalogs and brochures. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to delivering messages. Letters seem more formal, and it is the easiest to send since most of its materials can be bought at the local stationary store. Postcards on the other hand are a good visual medium for delivering marketing messages. However, you need to print custom postcards to get your message across, which can cost some money. Marketing catalogs are a bit bigger and can be harder to distribute through mail, but it has the potential of "sending the store" directly to your customers home.

Lastly, marketing brochures offer an easy overview of your marketing objective or product, but it can lack some specific details that other direct mail marketing materials can deliver.So choose wisely and choose smart. Your marketing objectives must match your marketing weapon. If you want to maximize exposure, go for the more visual kind of direct mail marketing material. If you want to emphasize on details and easy distribution go for the smaller kind of materials that have more text.Print WiselyThe last tip that we can give you is to print wisely. When finding a printer for your direct mail marketing materials, it always pays to search exhaustively for the best deals out there.

Try search for an appropriate online printing company that can offer the best deals in terms of printing your direct mail marketing materials, and delivering them to your home or office. If possible, search for printing services that also have mailing services for direct mail materials. This can make it easier for you to implement your direct mail marketing campaign.So that's all the basic tips that is fit to print. Good luck with your direct mailing. Once you get around to doing it, you will eventually learn the ropes and become a professional. You'll be teaching others in no time at all.

About the Author:

Direct Mail Marketing Tips

During A Recession, Businesses Take Marketing Lessons From Peers

The Small Business Association reports that 4 out of 5 businesses go out of business within the first 2 years.  During a recession, the mortality rate of a new business is even greater.  The primary deficiency among smaller, newer businesses is that owners simply lack the experience and planning skills necessary to stay solvent.  For many, the only business management experience they possess is their own within those pain first 2 years.  But marketing lessons can be learned from others mistakes.  If you pay attention to the right competition, you?ll grab market share of those businesses wearing blinders.

Take inventory of the competition within your market
Start by making a list of your competition.  Include all the businesses that provide a product or service to your existing customers and prospects, or those who provide something that would cause your customers or prospects to stop using your product all together.

Examine your competitions position within the market.  Ask yourself, how are they differentiating themselves from you and the others?  Which business(s) dominate the market?  What type of marketing mediums do they use consistently?  What message appears to work better than others?  Ask others what they see and recall?  Document not just the market leaders but those businesses which test various mediums and messages.  Try to remain as objective as possible in your assessment and remember that all the competition face the same challenges in growing their businesses.  It?s safe to assume that if a campaign is short lived, it?s likely not generated enough sales to support itself in the long run.  Over time you?ll be able to learn which marketing campaigns produce a positive ROI and which ones are scrapped.  As dynamic and daunting task as this sounds, it?s far less painful than investing blindly into a bad campaigns that ultimately do not produce.

Divide your competitors into 3 segments
For starters, you may want to consider segmenting your competition into 3 categories.  This will help you know where to focus most of your attention.

Established and Well Branded ? These are the businesses which have been around forever, have a loyal following, and strong financial backing.  These businesses have spent a great deal of money and time and growing their business.  Depending on the business you?re in, you may not have the same results in advertisement as they do because their name alone carries more brand recognition and thus drives sales.  What you want to do is pay attention to what they spend their marketing dollars on.  Likely they will not be wasting any of it on the wrong marketing because mature businesses have learned how to market their business years ago.  How does your current marketing compare to theirs?  Are they ever using direct mail to reach their audience?  What about the print space, radio, and television?

Quick Start ? These are the businesses which are attracting new customers by doing the right things out of the gate.  They?ve not only got a solid plan to reach their new prospects, they also have a well oiled system to service them.  These are the businesses you want to focus most of your attention on.  If you are under capitalized, focus on parts of their marketing you can afford that will best resonate with your ideal customer.

Under Capitalized ? These businesses may be new or old.  They?re in business and float along aimlessly without penetrating any new market share.  They will likely not make it through a recessionary downturn as they?re ill prepared for navigating through hardship.  Because they?re poor planners, they?re also unable to convince the bank to lend them money and will likely leave their vendors holding the bag.  These are also important to watch for two reasons; what not to do, and how you might connect with their few remaining customers before they close their doors.

Separating your competitors in this way will help you see which ones threaten your market share from those which neglect their customers and offer opportunity to grow it.

What have you learned?
One important observation you should make is how the bigger players within your market position themselves amongst the rest.  And those who don?t make an effort to differentiate will likely loose customers randomly to other competitors.  In an ideal market, there would be just as many different kinds of businesses as there are different consumers.  In most markets there are fewer businesses all attempting to satisfy the greatest consumer base.  When the marketing budget can afford it, bigger businesses themselves serve multiple segments to satisfy multiple buyers.

You?ll also find that the smartest businesses using multiple mediums, say television, direct mail, and print space, will attempt to deliver a uniform message along all three channels.  To be efficient, the message is projected in the same geographic market.  This uniformity is important to reinforcing your message.  Careful planning is required to ensure that the investment along all three channels has consistent offers and creative copy.  And that the timing of what they offer works with creating the greatest impact.  Some businesses will attempt to test pricing discounts through a radio commercial and unique feature of product through a newspaper print ad.  The inconsistency is confusing to the consumer and the brand gets lost in the mix to better positioned competitors.

So let?s say you?ve got family and friends all keeping an eye out for you.  They?re clipping the competitions coupons, saving email ads, direct mail, flyers and the like.  They?re also taking notes on telemarketing calls coming in, people stopping by their business or front door, and of oversized bus wraps with giant pictures.  You begin amassing your collection and begin drawing conclusions.  You may see that some ?Established and Well Branded? competitors consistently use direct mail and offer lower significant discounted pricing.  You may also find that some of the ?Quick Start? competitors are all in the phone book with quarter page adds all boasting high quality products.  And you may also see that several ?Under Capitalized? competitors confuse their customers with multiple messages over multiple mediums.

Unless you can truly deliver a discounted cost that will compete with the attention of the ?Established and Well Branded?, it?s not wise to place your marketing investment in that area.  Depending on your budget, you many want to mimic some of the ?Quick Start? approaches in running a yellow page add of equal size but differentiated positioning.  It?s difficult to get too specific when talking about all industries in general, but the point here is that your competitors can teach you about what to do and more importantly about what not to do.  The longer you watch the competition in this fashion, the more you will learn from them.  And never assume something will work for you just because the competition is doing it.  Everything you do for the first time should be considered a test.  Carefully give it your very best shot and measure the results.  If yellow pages draw $60,000 in new profit per year at a cost of $15,000, it?s likely you will have the same results the next year.  Increasing the size of the ad space doesn?t guarantee a proportional increase in profits.

During a recession, everything changes
Now that you?re established and you?re well on your way to growing your market share, the economy takes a turn for the worse.  You?ve established your position among the other top competitors in your market, but the market as a whole begins to shrink.  This is where you must keep one eye on the competition, and the other on your existing customers.  Again, depending on the industry you?re in and how well you position yourself, holding onto your customers can be a challenge.

Here are some things you should know people behave differently during a down market.

?    Many people change how they value what they buy.
?    People look for value over abundance.
?    People consider time as a factor.
?    People don?t like gimmicks.
?    People are more sober shoppers.
?    People have a better sense of what they want and what they need.
?    People look to escape, even if only for a little while.
?    People relocate.
?    People price compare.
?    People care what others think about their abundance of spending.
?    People read the contracts.
?    People hesitate and take longer to purchase.

Given the above list, you will find many of your competitors making adjustments to their message.  They may change their traditional, long standing marketing medium to cut costs and fine tune offer.  The first marketing they stop is likely one that?s overpriced and not resulting in new business.

Generally speaking, a recession is a terrible time to stop advertising.  Those who do stop signal they are suffering.  These businesses are the ones that will suffer the largest migration of customers.  And this is where you can position yourself to fill the void.

Again, depending on your budget, you want to be sure you?re communicating to your existing customers first.  These consumers are truly your best spent investment.  Guarding them is the key to surviving the economic ?storm?.  But if you can afford to reach out to the market for new business, now is the time.  The message must be relevant and strong.  If you?re going to offer a discount, make it one worthy of considering.  If you offer exceptional service, focus on that value as a benefit during this economic day and time.  If your product is more expensive but definitely superior, consider the audience and make sure that audience still values your product as they did before.  If not, consider changing the audience to fit the times.

It?s important to have a healthy life-time value mix of customers.  The larger businesses got to where they are by listening to the market and learning from mistakes.  To use a vegetable garden analogy, your marketing mix should be spend nurturing younger seedlings, harvesting the low hanging fruit, and pulling weeds.  All things being equal, the more balanced the mix, the safer your business will be during a recession.

Over time, as you learn what these bigger, more successful business do right, you?ll also start noticing where the others are making mistakes.  This information is invaluable to the smaller, newer business.  Take notice of those with good fortune and those making mistakes, and invest your precious marketing dollars wisely.

About the Author:

Brian Berg heads direct mail marketing company BB Direct based in sunny Ft. Myers, Florida.

Marketing During An Economic Downturn

We're seeing lots of questions on blogs, tweets and mainstream media reports about how the current economic downturn is going to impact marketing. The impact on our daily newspapers in virtually every major market in America has been well documented. (According to eMarketer, US newspaper ad revenues are expected to drop 42.5% in the next seven years.) Marketing budgets are being slashed, yet the pressure to increase revenue is only more intense and marketing executives are feeling the heat.

Marketing Sherpa has put together a great overview that analyzes how marketing departments across the country are dealing with the challenges of marketing during an economic downturn. 30% of those surveyed reported that they plan to increase direct marketing investments as a result of the current economic conditions, including specific increases in direct mail, event marketing and telemarketing. As one survey respondent said, "Heavier investing in direct mail and online is working well since many competitors are reducing marketing investments, and our collective share of voice is increasing our sales".

Traditional media, on the other hand, is not going to fare as well. 59% of respondents reported a planned decrease in budgets for TV and radio while 44% plan a print advertising decrease.

If you are looking for more measurable marketing options, direct mail is a great way to target former customers and those prospects who are most likely to become new customers.

FishDirectMail.com is currently helping our customers explore building lists of new prospects based on analysis of current customer databases. We're also helping customers explore personalized message targeting utilizing variable printing and PURLs to differentiate from the competition and increase ROI tracking and measurement.

About the Author:

VP of Marketing for FishDirectMail.com

Effective Massage Therapy Advertising

What Is Massage Therapy Advertising?

Massage therapists often believe that successful massage therapy advertising is done by word-of-mouth. Also high up on the list in advertising a massage therapy practice are business cards, discount coupons and fliers.

Unfortunately, much to the disappointment of many massage therapists, these massage therapy advertising tactics rarely bring the desired results and the business often ends up being just another statistic.

People Will Pay For What They Desire Instead of following everyone else's idea of what should work, it's time to look at what actually does bring in the clients and how you can change your massage therapy advertising techniques to fill your practice.

Here's a huge hint:

==> "People will ALWAYS pay for what they truly desire."

Knowing that, all you have to do is get your massage therapy advertising to persuade them they really desire a massage from you.

What Is The Basis Of Persuasive Advertising?

Firstly, it is concentrating on the benefits of your massages, instead of the features.

Too often massage therapy advertising is focused on the features, for instance the fact that the Egyptian's used massage, or the technique you use in your practice, and so on.

The first step in designing your massage therapy advertising is to find out what your potential clients desire. The easiest way to do this is to ask your existing clients why they came to you for a massage.

If you stop giving your clients what they desire, they'll stop coming. It's as simple as that! So if you have regular clients, you're obviously giving them what they desire. All you have to do now is ask them what that is and you suddenly have the basis of your massage therapy advertising message.

7 Steps To Instant Clients: Persuading Your Potential Clients... Next all you have to do is write out that desire in a way that speaks to your potential clients and persuades them to come to you for a massage.

To discover how to do that, request the free 7 Steps To Instant Clients program from Massage Marketing Made Easy that makes massage marketing so easy you'll feel like clients are just walking in your door...

About the Author:

Karen Dimmick CHt helps massage therapists get more clients.

Would you like another 10 (or more) clients this week?

Courier Services in India

Indian courier industry had its start some 15-20 years ago. The courier industry was initially limited to the four metros ? New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and to some extent to Bangalore. The reason was the airport connection these metros were. But, the changing economy and technical advancement seen on a daily basis, the industry has grown and extended faster to several cities and even rural areas. And it is still growing.

A courier company anywhere in the world has its primary virtue is its efficiency to render services. The better the quality of service, the more the satisfied customers, better the chances of survival. The industry is booming and market is cut-throat competitive. The advancement of technology and internet has things slight easier and more competitive as well.

Courier services in India can be segregated in few categories. Basically, it begins with intra-city services which are about speedy delivery of mails and goods within the city. Broadening the services, inter-city services are covered. Normally this is termed as surface cargo services where short distance and bulk loads are handled. Surface mode service is performed through two ways: firstly, on road (by bus or vehicle) and secondly on track (by train) services. The products are normally delivered through door to door.

Courier companies work in tandem with the foremost airlines and in sync with their well tuned, well associated set of connections the timely deliverance and protected service is guaranteed. Few other variant of services could be express services, ocean freight, industry solutions, logistic solutions, shipping tools. These particular services are individual of a company's area of specialization and diversification.

As far as Klick Couriers is concerned, it offers online booking of the courier. So, customers have to just sit at home and book the package and the parcel is picked at the specified time and delivered to the recipient. What else, you can even pay online. Business folks can have business accounts. Thus, we see a more advancement in courier business with the advent of internet and new technologies.

About the Author:

Klick Couriers is the first online courier company to make the whole International courier process quick, easy and cost effective. We are offering massive discounts and cheap rates on courier services; this is because we have very large accounts with major UK & Worldwide courier carriers including DHL, DTDC, Aramex, Circle Express, TNT and other Courier Services.

Does Leafleting Work?

What is leafleting?

Leafleting is the distribution by hand of leaflets through letter boxes in residential areas. The basic idea is to take the message of your business direct to potential customers, and literally, put it in their hands.

Most of us see leaflets come through our letter boxes several times a week: from the local pizza delivery outlet to furniture polishers.

Businesses that send out leaflets in this way are, of course, trying to generate more business, and this is a fairly straightforward way of reaching the local population. With towns the size they are, it is quite easy to distribute anything from a thousand leaflets to 20,000 and get the message to people who are within reach of your business.

So, does leafleting work?

Inevitably, opinions vary. Do you define this method of marketing as ?working? if you make more money that you pay out for the service? Remember that in the costs of setting up leafleting you have to pay the delivery company, the printers, and you have your own time to consider too. Depending on the price of your offering, you will need to calculate how many recipients of your leaflets will have to make a purchase before you see a positive return on your investment.

Percentage take up will be small, but it is hard to quantify it because it varies so much. Restaurants and pizza delivery firms fair quite well, but furniture polishers probably not so well. We all have to eat every day; we may not all need furniture polishers very often. It is often difficult to gauge the success of a leafleting campaign, because: how do you know if customers have acted on a leaflet or come to you in some other way?

Prompt action

There is little doubt that a leaflet is going to have a much better chance of being acted upon if there is some sort of offer involved. Some sort of voucher will often make a potential customer keep the leaflet for future use, and keep it until it is needed. Offers have to be worthwhile, of course! Using an offer unique to the leaflet will also give you all the information you need to determine whether you campaign is successful.

Print design is also important. You have about two seconds to make an impression once that leaflet is in someone?s hand! Eye-catching colours and a headline informing the recipient of why they should become a customer are good starting points.

About the Author:

Author
Jack Mack

Top Ten Tool for List Building!

The first thing that you need to be aware of is that blogging is one of the best ways to push your rankings up when it comes to Google's search
As an affiliate marketer, you already know that there are many ways to pump your listing up the ranks, but blogging helps you out in many ways. When it comes to list building, blogging is one of the most powerful tools that you have in your arsenal! If you are an affiliate marketer, you'll already know how important a list that is growing and thriving is, and you'll find that with a little bit research, you can see why list building, blogging and success in affiliate marketing all go together. For more details visit to www.build-own-list.com the first thing that you need to be aware of is that blogging is one of the best ways to push your rankings up when it comes to Google's search results.

As an affiliate marketer, you already know that there are many ways to pump your listing up the ranks, but blogging helps you out in many ways. First, it helps you when it comes to link building. Essentially, the Google search engine checks to see how many sites have linked yours. A blog will give people something to link to, and you'll also find that a blog gives you context for your keywords. Google is sophisticated enough that it will look for related words, and the more related words you have, the more impressive your ranking will be. If you are interested in list building, blogging is one of the best ways to reach out and touch your prospective clients.

You'll find that a blog gives you a good situation and reason where you can talk directly to your customers as well as well as receive feedback from them .For more information logon to www.mailing-list-gold.com this communication allows you maintain a real dialog and it allows them to see that there is a real person behind the words and the product. This is very important when it comes to making your list and keeping people on in! One of the things that might be holding you back when it comes to blogging to build up your list is that you are worried about supplying regular content.

It is true that for a blog to be successful that you need regular content and that it should be daily, ideally. Where are you going to find the time to write the material that you need? Chances are, if you have been in the business for a while, you already have. Take a look at any material that you have put out for your product, whether they were in emails, newsletters or in other forms. Even communications with other representatives can be recycled for this purpose. You'll find that you actually have a great deal of material and that there's no reason that you can't start up a great blog! Take some time to think about the issue, and you'll soon realize that list building, blogging, and success when it comes to affiliate marketing are all connected; make sure that you take advantage of this important fact!

About the Author:

'end of Life Solution'

 

Nearly 100 million pieces of direct mail are sent to the wrong address each year costing more than £80 million.*

Returned, unwanted and undelivered mail is a waste of money, time and effort, which can adversely affect the brand and increase opportunities for identity theft. The ?end of life? solution is often neglected but with new EU directives on waste paper going to landfill there is a ?producer responsibility? to ensure effective ?end of life? solution.

Since 1996 Veridata in Chester has provided a dedicated service to process undelivered and returned mail.

It is inevitable that occasionally companies will send mail to somebody who isn't there, what we do is help to stop it happening over and over again, it?s expensive, environmentally damaging, does little for the image, is irresponsible and avoidable.

Geographical location is not a problem it is simple to arrange for Royal Mail to send all undelivered mail to us, they already do it on a daily basis from anywhere in the UK for all our other clients, at no cost.

We efficiently & effectively, sort, open, scan and electronically capture the details and then send the results back to our clients for deletion from your next mailing......that's it, couldn't be simpler.

Veridata have been providing this service to many blue chip clients since 1996 and know the business inside out. Indeed probably the largest credit card Company in the world has been with us every step of the last 12 years, as a consequence this trust has been rewarded with a 50% reduction in it's undeliverables.

* Source The Scotsman 28th August 2008

 

About the Author:

Owner of Veridata Chester Cheshire established 1996. Returned and undelivered mail processing specialists- 'end of life' solution.
No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom. -Michel de Montaigne

Perk Up Your Café or Restaurant with Designer Postcards

After watching Chef Gordon Ramsay on TV, an idea began to brew in my head. The show, Kitchen Nightmares feature restaurants on the verge of closure, but are saved by detailed remodeling and fine tuning of the staff, set up, menu, food and cooking techniques. One interesting idea that inspired me was marketing the re-launch and sustaining efforts of these restaurants using postcards. Restaurants and Cafes would benefit from a custom postcard print. Using a custom-made postcard design to promote their menu or specials can drastically improve sales and establish an image for their business.

Commuter towns situated near railways, airports and other modes of transportation have the most to gain from designer postcards, because travelers love souvenirs.

Restaurants and cafes in coordination with the city office can develop landmark commemorative postcard prints exclusively their town or city. They can brand their establishment as a landmark in the town and get more foot traffic. Here is a short compilation of other postcard applications fit for cafes and restaurants.

Cool Flyer

Use your postcard prints as flyers and leave a lasting impression. Office employees will flock to your doorsteps for reservations if they see a well made poster design that gives a sense of hometown pride.

Collectable Giveaway

Turn your designer postcards into a collector's item by creating a series with different concepts and themes for every season. Now your customers have another reason to visit your dining establishment regularly.

Souvenir Memento

Make postcard designs that carry the spirit of the city and embody an everlasting touch of prestige by turning them into personalized souvenirs. Use them on special occasions for added glamour.

Stylish Table Top Display

While your patrons bask in your dining space, elevate their experience with a taste of nostalgic history printed on postcards that stand elegantly upon their plate. There is no way they can get bored.

Modern Art Décor

Mount postcards for display and enhance the ambiance of your interior space. Accentuate every part of the room with a signature postcard print and I'm sure they will never forget your café or restaurant.

You can also come up with your own use postcards. A handy 4"x6" postcard serves both as a lovely gift and an awesome giveaway. The choice is all up to you now, but whatever you decide on postcard printing is the way to go. Designer postcards can liven up your business without being a total let down. Postcards are a powerful marketing tool and tasteful promotional materials

About the Author:

Leaflet Distribution - The Best Way To Advertise Your Business in a Recession?

I got a direct call from a customer last week. Not to moan or complain about the service they?d received, but to express surprise (and not a small amount of delight) at the success of a recent campaign we had done for them. It had far outweighed their predictions in terms of a return on investment.

I?m not telling you about this purely to make us look good - although I admit there?s a small amount of that too! - but it did get me thinking about the number of businesses out there that still don?t know just what a targeted leaflet distribution could do in terms of increasing awareness and, ultimately, bringing in more money. Surprise is indeed a regular reaction from our new customers, although the effectiveness of a distribution is no secret to the regulars who come back time and time again.

I thought therefore that I would start out our new blog by spelling out some of the reasons why leaflet distribution is such an effective means of advertising - and particularly so in the hard times we?re all in at the moment.

A leaflet distribution helps you get your product or service in front of more people

Relatively speaking, I firmly believe that a leaflet distribution is the most penetrating form of advertising out there - you?re actually getting your business in people?s hands, and if you?re including a sample, people can actually try out your product. The stats back this up to - industry research has shown that 66% of 15 to 34-year-olds acted positively after receiving a leaflet and 84% of householders claim to at least look at the leaflets they receive.

A leaflet distribution gives you a tangible and extremely cost-effective return on your investment

We work with customers of all sizes, in both the public and private sector, and they?re frequently surprised by how much we can give them for their money. Our distribution rates start at £15 per 1000 leaflets, which is the kind of rate you won?t find anywhere else in the advertising world. If you combine that with our increasingly sophisticated targeting methods, we believe that?s a pretty unbeatable proposition for any business.

A leaflet distribution can be more accountable than ever before

I don?t want to bang on about accountability, but huge strides have been made in the last few years. For certain types of work in the north west, we have devised our own technology that uses GPS to track deliveries. Local advertisers can now receive a complete breakdown of what we?ve done for you on a door-by-door basis - an unprecedented level of accuracy for what is after all a generally large-scale means of advertising. If we?ve missed a street or even a door, you?ll know about it. We are hoping that such standards become the industry norm and we are looking to roll the service out into other areas because accountability for everyone, from the distributors to us back in the office, is what we believe makes our campaigns a notch above the rest.

A leaflet distribution is your way-in to the customer

When your leaflet is delivered, two things might happen: it will either be binned and never seen again, or the recipient will take some kind of action. The latter type is extremely valuable to you. It?s vital that you find out who they are, and the easiest way to do that is to offer something - like a sample, brochure or free gift - in return for their details. From that first exchange, the leaflet recipient can quickly become a long-term customer. A leaflet distribution can be the first act of the relationship.

A leaflet distribution can be as small-scale as you want

Still unconvinced by leaflet distribution? That?s fine. You don?t have to start big. Test your campaign - and your leaflet - on a small area and you?ll soon get an idea of how it would work on a bigger scale. You can then decide whether to make adjustments (and we often find that the slightest change can make a big difference to campaign success), or simply roll it over a larger target area.

Invest in a properly planned leaflet distribution and it could well be the kickstart your business needs at the moment.

About the Author:

How To Write Blockbuster Headlines

 

With today?s economy going to the pits, consumers? grip on their money is getting

excruciatingly tight.

 

In general, after years and years of overspending and living on credit, this is a good thing. But if you're an entrepreneur or business owner who depends heavily on consumer spending to function, this is potentially devastating.

 

That?s why you need to do everything you can to master the art and science of attracting

and selling to customers. (Otherwise known as marketing.)

 

The first part of that equation is writing effective advertising material.

 

Today, I?m going to give you the golden key to writing effective, money-making ads,

sales letters and other advertising media?

 

That golden key is?.

 

A powerful, attention-getting headline.

 

Now what exactly is a headline?

 

The headline is the very first statement in your ad or sales letter that your customers will

see.

 

The headline is in essence, the ad for your ad.

 

Why is the headline so important?

 

Scientific marketing tests reveal that the headline of any ad or sales letter is responsible

for about 80% of your results.

 

In other words, when you spend $1,000 to run an ad, $800 will depend on your headlines

ability to attract the attention of qualified prospects for your product or service. The

remaining 95% of your ad only produces about 20% of the remaining results.

 

With so much on the line, why be so foolish as to use this valuable space for your

company name and logo or any other self-serving message?

 

According to marketing and copywriting giant Ted Nicholas, the headline serves several

important roles?

 

Attracts attention

Communicates a strong benefit

Appeals to the readers self-interest. Answers the question: ?what?s in it for me??

Sets the tone for the offer

Selects the right audience

 

So let?s take a look at a few successful headlines and see why they worked?

 

What Will You Do When All Your Personal Assets--Including Your House, Car and

Cash--Are Seized to Satisfy a Judgment Against Your Corporation?

This headline invokes the fear of loss as it states the disastrous results of the reader being

without the product.

 

Corns Gone In 5 Days or Money Back

This headline makes a bold claim and uses risk reversal to reassure the reader of its

promise.

 

How to Form Your Own Corporation Without a Lawyer for Under $50

 

This headlines shows the main benefit, removes the usual limitation (needing a lawyer to

incorporate) and packages it into a low price.

 

How I Improved My Memory In One Evening

This headline shows the main benefit and adds a time element

 

They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano--But When I Started To Play!

This headline dramatizes the results of the product, and states it in the form of a story.

 

So how do you go about writing your next great headline? Here are a few tips and guidelines?

 

Try starting your headline with the words ?How to?

 

Ex. How to Double Your Advertising Results In 30 Days or Less

 

Use the words ?Announcing, Discover, Revealed, Introducing, New, Breakthrough?? or

other variations of them.

 

Ex. ?Announcing, a new way to fight hearing loss!?

 

Describe the readers pain or problem(s) they will have without the product

 

Ex. ?Lack of Documentation could cost you your home, car, business and even your

marriage.?

 

Use the ?They didn?t think I could, but I did? formula?

 

Ex. ?They didn?t think I could make over $100,000 a year without a college degree, but

when they saw my new Mercedes!?

 

Tell the benefit in a first person story

 

Ex. ?How I became the highest paid salesman in the country in less than 2 years?

 

Offer a free report (The report you prepare and send out should contain at least some

useful information and not be all sales hype)

 

Ex. ?Free Report Reveals How To Settle Your IRS Debt For Pennies On The Dollar no

Matter How Much You Owe?

 

Emphasize your guarantee to reverse the risk.

 

Fresh, Hot Pizza in Thirty Minutes or Less or it?s Free!

 

So how do you go about writing your next blockbuster headline?

 

Try this process?

Make a list of ALL the benefits of your product or service.

Pick out the most important benefit.

Come up with at least 100 different headline variations of the most important benefit

using the formulas and tips listed previously as well as others.

Take the best 3-5 and test them against each other.

 

The very best copywriters in the world will usually write no less than 100 different headlines. Often times anywhere from 150 - 200 or more. Why?

 

Because they know that this is where the biggest return on your marketing dollar is so

they spend days and weeks on writing the headline before settling on one.

 

A word of caution? don?t be lazy and fall into the trap of most people and spending 5

minutes on the headline and days or weeks on the body copy. No matter how good your

body copy is, with a bad headline nobody reads it.

 

With a great headline and average copy, you can still come away with an extremely

lucrative ad or sales letter.

About the Author:

Wayne Brown is a marketing consultant and copywriter based in Marriottsville, Maryland and publisher of the ?10 Part Super-charge Your Marketing and Advertising Course? available at Businessbuildingtechnician.com. He can be reached at Bizmarketing@businessbuildingtechnician.com

How to Choose a Letter Folder that Works for You!

Technology has certainly advanced through the years, especially When it comes to office equipment. Gone are the days when people had to do such repetitive and monotonous tasks as folding letters. Now there are machines that will repeat this function for you as many times as you need. In an age when companies strive to be at their most efficient, it is no longer a luxury but rather a necessity to have technology aid in the efficiency of one?s business, especially for large businesses that send out large volumes of letters each day and don't have the manpower to have one employee manually folding letters all day. A letter folder will add a lot to the efficiency of your office. Efficiency is time which is money.

Small businesses as well as big will benefit from ownership of a letter folder. Many churches, schools and small organizations that send out many flyers, invoices, brochures or letters are choosing to purchase a letter folder to add efficiency and save time in their day. You also don't need to require a lot of folding on a regular basis to own your own letter folder. With the different types of letter folders available (electric, automatic, light or heavy duty), you're sure to find a letter folder that is designed for your use whether they be occasion or for mass mailings.

Shopping for a letter folder can prove to be very frustrating if you don't know what you're looking for or what you need. They have a huge selection of office products that are made for businesses big and small. Following are some very popular and durable letter folders that serve a variety of needs and purposes.

Techko LF283B Automatic Letter Folder is an excellent quality automatic letter folder that will serve your needs regularly as it feeds your documents automatically into the machine and will fold up to 3 sheets at one time. This letter folder uses paper 16-20 pounds plain paper and can do 4 different types of folds and hold 3 sheets of paper at once. The Techko LF283B letter folder is an auto-feed friction and a good quality machine.

Dahle 10540 Desktop Letter Folder is a paper folder that uses a drop in feed system and will only do letter folds. The Dahle letter folder can handle folding up to 3 sheets of either stapled or unstapled paper at the same time. It is best used with A4 and letter size paper 16 to 20 lbs. This machine is a good letter folder for use right in your home.

Martin Yale P6400 Hand-fed letter Folder is a paper folder that's designed for light duty and will fold A4 and plain letter size paper in 16 to 24 pound bond weight. While you may have to manually feed the paper into this letter folder, it can handle and fold up to 3 sheets at once, including stapled paper. The Martin Yale P6400 letter folder is capable of producing tri-fold or ½ fold paper.

Martin Yale P6200 Letter Folder is a great machine at a great price and it's made by Martin Yale, a leader in office products so you know it has to be good. The P6200 is very similar to the Dahle 10540 but candle handle a wider variety of paper. It can use by A4 and 8 ½" X 11" paper and 16 to 24 pound bond paper. Customers that have used this letter folder were very pleased and satisfied with its service and performance.

About the Author:

Are Folding Machines Really Worth It?

Folding a large amount of documents can be a repetitive, time-consuming task. The image of your business depends on the perception of the materials you mail. Many people pay attention to the quality of the printed page they send out, but not as many pay attention to the folding of these pages. A folding machine can make the quality of your folded papers uniform. Making a crisp fold in an efficient manner is the goal of a folding machine. It will save you time and in the long run, money A folding machine is a financial investment for your business of organization, so you?ll want to take some time to identify your folding needs before buying a folding machine.

Folding machines are designed to meet a variety of business needs but are often most popular in businesses that handle advertising, marketing, and direct mail projects. If your folding needs are simple, an inexpensive manual folding machine might be the correct match for you. The DynaFold DE-168 Desktop Paper Folder is a great folding machine for basic folding needs. This folding machine is portable, weighing only ten pounds, and is able to be used on a desktop. Requiring no setup, this is a great folding machine for an organization that has one or two simple folding needs. This folding machine can handle #20 bond 8.5?x11? paper and can fold up to three sheets manually. For many small businesses, this is all they need in a folding machine at a low price.

For an organization that needs a more heavy duty machine, there are more options. The DynaFold DE-262AF Friction Feed Paper Folder is a high performance folding machine with many enticing features. This machine self-adjusts to the thickness of the paper you?re folding, using an automatic friction feeding system to move the paper into the machine. 500 sheets of paper can be stacked at once to feed into this folding machine. An automatic ?stop paper feed? feature stops the movement of paper when this folding machine jams or runs out of paper. The folding machine speed is adjustable. This folding machine is in the mid range price category.

For high volume folding needs, a folding machine such as the MBM 352F Paper Folder is a good place to look. This folding machine is a heavy-duty friction feeder able to fold up to 22,000 sheets per hour. This folding machine can make up to eight different folds and is able to handle a wide variety of sizes and types of paper. Additional specialized tools can be added to this folding machine, such as a slitter or a scoring tool.

A Formax FD-390 Airfeed Document Folder with Stand is a high-end folding machine designed for high volume businesses. This folding machine uses an air feed to suck the papers into the rollers, making this a good folding machine choice for a business using a variety of special papers.

A wide variety of folding machines are available to meet your folding needs. Folding machines can be a substantial investment, so it?s a good idea to research your folding machine options.

About the Author:

Postcard Direct Mail for Small Businesses

Post card direct mail is not as commonly known as flyer printing and distribution but it works in a very similar way and is just as effective. Postcard printing for direct mail can be used for a variety of businesses from landscaping to photography and it is as useful as any other direct mail campaign. Unlike flyer design, postcard printing is all about high detail, high quality images that grab people’s attention. These images are often beautiful, positive or make a profound impact or statement to the observer. Art galleries may use postcard printing to show off select pieces of artwork from very distinct artists to grab your attention. This includes artworks or photographs that were created to shock people, are based on controversial issues or are purely stunning and invigorating images. These images can be simple and bright or highly detailed. Images such as a dirty dilapidated room can pull an observer into the image as they discover new areas of interest in the image and their curiosity builds about the image and what it is. Even if you are not an art gallery you should chose the images on your postcard design just as carefully.

Postcard printing is perfect for small businesses that need to get their foot in the door of their local area. Using direct mail distribution postcard printing can directly access all of your local potential customers with ease and introduce them to your business. Postcards are designed to be small, simple, quick and easily stored away by potential customers or given to friends. It’s important to keep your postcard design as minimal as possible to peak the curiosity of the observer. That means placing a powerful image on one side of your postcard to introduce your business or area of topic and keep the contact details and further information on the opposing side. If your postcard design has done its job properly, the potential customer will be likely turn over the postcard to find out more about the image.

Direct mail is the popular distribution method of choice for postcard printing. That is because direct mail distribution allows your business to get directly in tough with the customer rather than wait for the customer to come to you. It can be especially hard for small businesses to find suitable and economic advertising in order to introduce themselves to potential customers, which is why postcard direct mailing can be so beneficial for smaller businesses. With postcard printing and direct mail distribution you can bring your products and services to the customer and not worry about them finding you.

Direct mail is also one of the cheapest forms of mass distribution so coupled with the economic postcard printing advertising solution you can save money on your advertising while still using one of the most effective offline advertising methods available. With the perfect combination of postcard design, postcard printing and direct mail distribution you can ensure that your small business is as successful as it can possibly be.

About the Author:

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