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"6) Mailing lists. I did this 3 years after starting my business. Knowing what I know now makes me sad I waited that long. MailChimp is an easy snap-in." I rem

"6) Mailing lists. I did this 3 years after starting my business. Knowing what I know now makes me sad I waited that long. MailChimp is an easy snap-in." I remember the other day you stressed how much you don't spam your customers. So I'm assuming this is an opt-in thing, but: - Do people really opt-in enough to make this worthwhile? - What do you do with it that makes it worthwhile? New product announcements? "15) Backups for all that stuff that isn't on the database. I let Slicehost handle that." They just back up whole images, and restore them (plonk) to your slice, right? What do you do for data that's not in your database, that was created after the most recent backup? And do you restore to your main slice or a temporary slice?

patio11 17y ago
Mailing lists are worth a post or three. Short version: people opt-in like CRAZY. Greater than 50% off the top of my head. (This is one of those things that I didn't know that I didn't know. Everybody knows you're signing up to get annoyed with email, right? Oh no Mr. You Used To Be A Spam Researcher. Apparently some people like getting commercial email. I have users who will write me and complain if their newsletter does not arrive.) What makes it worthwhile: I use it for seasonal promotions and lifecycle emails. Hey, you signed up for Bingo Card Creator last Halloween. You know what is right around the corner? St. Patrick's Day. You should play St. Patrick's Day bingo with your class. Repeat for Easter, etc. Lifecycle emails are "You signed up yesterday. Here's instructions for how to use the software which I am mailing you mostly because I assume you have probably already forgotten I exist." and "You signed up seven days ago. Here's some advanced things you can do with the software which I am mailing you mostly because I assume you have probably already forgotten I exist." All three of these emails result in enough people transitioning from "has account in database but hasn't logged in in last while" to "active user" enough to justify the penny an email it costs me. (I'll pay between a nickel and a dime to reactivate a user out of the Easter promotion. I pay upwards of a quarter to recruit a new user through Google AdWords. And the reactivated users convert better!)

patio11 17y ago

Mailing lists are worth a post or three. Short version: people opt-in like CRAZY. Greater than 50% off the top of my head. (This is one of those things that I didn't know that I didn't know. Everybody knows you're signing up to get annoyed with email, right? Oh no Mr. You Used To Be A Spam Researcher. Apparently some people like getting commercial email. I have users who will write me and complain if their newsletter does not arrive.) What makes it worthwhile: I use it for seasonal promotions and lifecycle emails. Hey, you signed up for Bingo Card Creator last Halloween. You know what is right around the corner? St. Patrick's Day. You should play St. Patrick's Day bingo with your class. Repeat for Easter, etc. Lifecycle emails are "You signed up yesterday. Here's instructions for how to use the software which I am mailing you mostly because I assume you have probably already forgotten I exist." and "You signed up seven days ago. Here's some advanced things you can do with the software which I am mailing you mostly because I assume you have probably already forgotten I exist." All three of these emails result in enough people transitioning from "has account in database but hasn't logged in in last while" to "active user" enough to justify the penny an email it costs me. (I'll pay between a nickel and a dime to reactivate a user out of the Easter promotion. I pay upwards of a quarter to recruit a new user through Google AdWords. And the reactivated users convert better!)