I was sure Zookoda was a perfect solution for my e-mail marketing purposes. It was a breeze to register with them, the backend is intuitive, but then it took them about two weeks to send me the confirmation that I was allowed to broadcast my newsletters.

Within those two weeks I have discovered that Zookoda was on sale – so there is a high probability that they will go out of business completely – one will need to search for another e-mail marketing solution. Added to that there is some risk to lose your database of subscribers stored with Zookoda.

I also explored online feedback about this service and discovered that their deliverability rate is the lowest among their competitors.

So, once I have got the confirmation about my ability to use their service in full I have explored a few more similar solutions:

- feedburner
- feedblitz
- squeet

They all function in an identical way, but as most webmasters recommend FeedBlitz I made up my mind to follow the crowd. The service is good at deliverability and it is very important now with e-mail marketing.

I have registered, added my feeds and placed e-mail subscription option on my websites within 10-15 minutes. One thing I do not like (but I can easily change that if I opt into a paid subscription plan) is that neither my subscribers nor I can adjust the frequency to get the newsletters. All updates are automatically broadcasted on a daily basis that might annoy your subscribers – I am not quite sure I would like to get daily updates even from my favorite websites.

Another issue that I would like to change is the option to add some ads into your e-mail newsletter.

And finally it would be nice to customize the e-mail newsletter template. All listed drawbacks are easily eliminated if you choose any of a paid plan. As I am not yet sure about the impact of e-mail marketing on development of my websites I would rather keep using a free version of the service for now.

Summary: I am not sure about the effect of this e-mail feature on websites. I do not expect some drastic traffic increase or better search engine rankings, but every bit counts.
Added to that e-mail marketing remains the most popular way to keep in contact with your visitors and customers.

[tags]e-mail marketing, website development, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]

In my previous post I have discussed two features to be added to my websites to make them more attractive to visitors.

No doubt, it is an ongoing process of searching new ways to improve your web projects. Regularly updated content is great, but add a few new features now and then – and you are likely to gain more loyal visitors.

I have a few systems when working on this. I consider any website from five perspectives and think how to improve any of them:

- design
- code
- content
- marketing
- monetization

Another approach is to follow recent trends of the Internet scene development. Two of the most useful resources that help me with that are TechCrunch.com and Trendwatching.com They are an unlimited source of ideas – you need just time and funds to digest and implement at least a few of them.

Webmaster forums are also invaluable – I have discovered so many useful tips and ideas regularly scanning a few of my favorite ones. I have a habit to print out the most interesting threads, re-read them now and then. I do the same with my Bloglines account where at the moment I have 10-12 folders, each has 20-60 subscribed feeds.

One more way is to benchmark your competition. I think it is next to impossible to be number one in any niche at this time when venture capital is back and invested into online projects, but we can see what top performers in our niches (that are largely funded) offer their visitors and modify those features to introduce at our own websites.

Summary: I am sure everyone has his own algo of working at his web projects. In my case I apply the above techniques added to traditional brainstorming.

Next stage is to implement a few of the selected features. Then I move to the next website. Once I am through with the entire circle I start from the beginning. The entire circle can sometimes take a few months as in addition to the development of new features you need to perform daily update of your projects.

Time and money required to make any changes to the websites often limit us in our decisions. It is a hard task to find that balance that the changes and features you are about to introduce will recoup your investments.

[tags]website update, website niches, website ideas, website development, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]

You need new features and new content to keep your regular visitors coming back to your websites. It is obvious. The other side of the story is that you need time and money investments to develop and add these features and update them regularly.

A few things I am about to add to my current web projects are e-mail newsletters (Jacob Nielsen states it is the most efficient way to keep in touch with your customers and website visitors) and polls.

I have checked my options to run an e-mail newsletter.

My requirements are:

- free application, preferable, web based
- automated
- high e-mail deliverability

The only option I have found (I did my research just within 5-10 minutes) – Zookoda. A nice and easy to use online application that takes care of your e-mail marketing. They have a number of requirements – for instance, their service is a viable option just for a number of blogging platforms. They generate automatic feeds for your e-mail broadcasts offering a great option – you can schedule broadcasts. Another great feature about this online application – you can run e-mail newsletters for a number of your websites from one account. A nice feature.

Create an e-mail list, add a subscription form to your website, select a template (can be customized), schedule a broadcast, and track your results. All in one. Easy, fast and free.

I have been registered with the service for about a week, have properly examined all its options and FAQ, but my account is limited, they need to authenticate it as a way to fight against SPAM. Not sure how long it will take and how they are going to authenticate my account, but I would be happy to broadcast e-mails to my opt-in subscribers as soon as possible.

Polls are also a useful interactive feature that takes minimum efforts to run. I have read positive feedback about two WordPress poll plug-ins, checked and liked both – WP-Polls and Democracy. I am about to install it on my websites next week.

Summary: New features are a smart way to preserve a number of regular visitors and make your website more valuable in the eyes of users, but it all takes time. Yes, time is a very important asset that you can’t replenish. You need a sort of balance. So, it is great when you find ways to automate tasks or outsource it at some affordable prices.

[tags]website features, website niches, website ideas, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]