“I just received a ton of bounced emails that aren’t written by me. The email address is mine, but honestly, I did not send them. Has my email/website I been hacked?”

While hacking is always a possibility and I do not want to discount that at all, the reason is probably not that but rather email hijacking. You see, it is easy to change the “From” address. All you need to do is change it in your email program. Instead of your name and email address, you can change it to just about any email address. That’s what they are doing. They aren’t sending emails via your account or your server. Just using your email address as the “From” address. Because bounces go back to the “From” address, that’s why you are receiving them.

For a long time, there is really little you can do about this. I can send an email pretending to be you and vice versa any time. But if your web host supports DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), you might want to have it turned on. What it does is only allow email to be sent from specified domain. This way, a hijacker who always sends emails from his own or any spoofed/fake domain, is prevented from sending any mail. The thing you need to watch when turning this on is to make sure that any other domain you may be sending email from is in this ‘whitelist’ or your own emails won’t go out either.

Thank you page – this is the page where people will be directed to after they complete the payment process. If you are selling digital access or download, this would a page where you tell people how to access the secured content or where and how they can download the item they just purchased. If you are selling physical goods, this is the place where you tell people what to expect next. E.g. when do you typically ship the product, where do they go for help or if they have questions.

Merchant account – a merchant account allows you to take credit card payments. You don’t always need a merchant account to start selling which I’ll get into a little later under payment processor.

SSL – stands for Secure Sockets Layer – basically, it is technology that allows data passed between a user’s browser and your web host be encrypted and secure. A user knows the page is secured when a lock appears on the bottom right corner of their browser. Something we have all been taught to look out for. To get that lock on your web page, you need to purchase an SSL certificate. They are purchased yearly. Depending on what you use to process the payment, you may not need it. However, because buyers are conditioned to look for the lock symbols, it can help boost confidence.

Payment processor – these are the people who takes the information from the customer, e.g. credit card information, submits and does whatever needs to be done with the credit card companies to deduct the money and deposits it into your bank account. Examples are, PayPal, Clickbank, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, Worldpay. Some of these payment processors do more than others. For example with PayPal, Clickbank and 2Checkout, you don’t need a merchant account to take payments. Basically, they use their merchant connections to process the payment on your behalf. Because of that, they often cost more per transaction.

PCI compliance – this is a guideline set up by the major credit card companies to help business create and maintain more secure payment processes and methods of storing data. The ultimate objective is to protect credit card holders. If you process your payments entirely through 3rd party systems like PayPal, 2Checkout or Clickbank, you are automatically compliant otherwise, you may need to at least complete a self assessment or quarterly scan. For more PCI compliance information…

Now that we’ve clarified that, let’s see what the common questions are.

Do I need a shopping cart to start selling?

No. It depends. If you are selling physical products. If you have a lot of different types of products or you have only one product , say, T-shirts but in varying colors/sizes/designs, then I’d definitely recommend a shopping cart because it makes it easier for people to order, and for both of you to track the items ordered, store order history and so on.

I have PayPal and they have add to cart buttons that work well. Do I still need a shopping cart?

PayPal buttons are so simple and easy to use. I love them. The biggest down side to it is, once the payment is processed, your customer information is trapped in PayPal and PayPal is not the best place to trace the history of what a customer has purchased. It can’t effectively give you insightful reports like how many people purchased a particular item, which item is most popular this month and a myriad of other information. There is also no easy way to contact all your customers at once via PayPal which means if you decide to offer a coupon to customers only you can’t. Also, if you want to start an affiliate program, a shopping cart system with affiliate capabilities is definitely a plus because PayPal does not offer that.

While you don’t need it, but having one means you can do a lot more marketing that ultimately grow your business.

How do I set up my website so someone can pay and download a book instantly?

A lot of this really depends what you are using to process your payments and your shopping cart system. Here is a general overview of the process and what you have to do. First, create a thank you page. You can link to the download directly from this page if you want or, you can create a list just for customers of this product and tell people to sign up to it to receive the download link in an email. If your shopping cart allows you to upload the product directly to their site that’s even better because what happens is, the shopping cart system will create a private thank you page with the download link. This way, those who have not paid for your product, won’t be able to get to that download.

Then, you create a checkout button from within your shopping cart. Tell the cart where the thank you page is OR upload the product to the cart. Complete the information necessary e.g. price, affiliate commissions etc. The cart should then have a button or link ready for you to pick up. This is the link where people will click to start the payment process. You put this link or button on your web site or page where you have more information about the product, like a sales page or product description page.

Some carts are more involved than others because they have more features so you may find gaps in the overview above. However, that should give you a big picture of the steps involved. This concludes the Back to Basics mini series. I hope throughout the week, it has helped clarify a few things for you. Remember, we all started out as newbies so don’t be afraid to ask.

Image by sanja gjenero

How do I build a mailing list?

That is a big, objective question with many different tangents we can go off into, but we will focus on the technical process. The overall big picture is quite simple actually. First, you will need a system (software) or service that lets you send emails out to the masses. Next, you need to create a ‘list’ within that mailing list system you are using. Depending on what you are doing with the list, but it is recommended you then create a welcome email inside that list. This will be the first email people get when they join your list. Finally, you get the code which will give you the sign up form and put it on your website. That’s all in a nutshell.

What can I use to build a mailing list?

There are a lot of email list systems out there. Some well known examples are, Aweber, iContact, Constant Contact and Mailchimp. These are all fully hosted, web based services. Which means you will have a monthly cost involved, but at the same time you won’t have to worry about what percentage of your emails get delivered (also called deliverability), you won’t have to worry about the software or emails slowing down your web site. I highly recommend the post Is Saas For You to get a better understanding why it actually costs you less in the long run to pay someone a monthly fee for mailing lists.

Why can’t I just use my current email account and send through Outlook/Thunderbird/Mail/Gmail?

The answer couldn’t be simpler. Because your Internet Service Provider who gave you the email account, Gmail, Yahoo or any other email account providers often have fine print in their terms of use that restrict you from using your account for mass email purposes. Sure, you can email your group of 20-30 friends and family without problems and they are often OK with that. But surely when building a mailing list for your business, you want as many prospects and possible. Besides, any business, no matter how small, you will find, hitting hundreds if not thousands of subscribers is not difficult to do. Once you start getting numbers, that’s when mailing through any of these accounts will violate the terms of use.

Ultimately, this means you could lose your Internet or email service. That is not what you want.

My web host includes an autoresponder. Why do I need to pay for another autoresponder service?

Because they are different animals altogether. One is simplistic, the other one is a little more intelligent. The one that comes with most web hosting accounts is simplistic. The only thing it can do is kick back a reply automatically when someone sends the address an email. You still see some people asking you to email them at a certain address and you will get a report or download instantly. It cannot capture the name and address of whomever is emailing it and put it in a list and it cannot follow up with the person who emailed at a later date. Autoresponder services often give you what’s called a sequential auto responder. Which means, you can create a series of messages – however many you like and tell it to follow up with the individual who subscribed to the list based on intervals that you set. Maybe you want to email the prospect everyday for a week or once a week for a year, or everyday for a week and 5 day intervals after, you can.

Big difference in features don’t you agree? There are some hosts who are exceptions to the rule because these hosts understand marketing online. Some hosts do give you web hosting accounts with sequential autoresponders so if unsure, always check with your host. Most of the time though they don’t.

What is a broadcast?

A broadcast generally refers to the feature that allows you to send emails to everyone on that list. Some services even let you schedule when the email is to go out.

I already have an Aweber account, do I need another autoresponder service or software?

Nope. Aweber can do both autoresponse and broadcast. In fact, many of the bigger names can do both but if you’re not sure, check with their help desk.

I’m sure you will have more questions as you dive into the process of building your mailing list. If you don’t there’s something wrong! If you find yourself confounded with technical road blocks along the way, feel free to ask me.

Image by T. Al Nakib

Host or Web host – A website is at it’s core, a collection of files and data. These files can reside on your computer but that means it can only be seen by you which won’t do you any good. You need to put them on a computer system where everyone online can access it. A web host is a company who owns computer systems that are configured so that the files you put on their systems can be viewed by everyone on the Internet. So if you want a web site, that’s one of the key things you need. An account with a web host.

Domain – Simply put, a domain is the address of your website. Sparkplugging.com is this site’s domain. TechBasedMarketing.com is the domain of my website. So any .com, .org, .net, .me etc is a domain. This is also essential to having your own website. Sometimes you can create websites without buying a domain. This usually means, you piggyback on someone else’s domain. For example, have you seen sites or blogs like sweetcaroline.blogspot.com? Or myhomeimprovementcenter.typepad.com? These are sub-domains that ride on top of the main domain. Going back to the examples, blogspot.com and typepad.com are the main domains.

Since we are all building this website or blog for our business or to create a business around, I do not recommend you use those domains as your permanent address. Domains are cheap now. Invest $8 or $10 a year on a name that is uniquely you that you can brand and take along with you no matter which web host you go with and no matter what web building tools you use.

Now that we have the two most basic things explained, let’s move on to the methodology. Whether you choose to outsource completely or DIY, you should know the common methods as it will affect what you can or cannot do down the road.

Using Website Builders – These are often all in one packages, where you pay a monthly fee and you receive web hosting and a multitude of tools to build your web site with. Very often, the tools are web based. Which means you can work on your website anytime, anywhere as long as you have an internet connection. Website builders are also very often designed with the newbie in mind so everything is made to be simple, straightforward and easy to use. Many people start with one of these and graduate to other methods as their skills grow. You often don’t need to know HTML but it would help. I often recommend these tools for the complete newcomer. The down side is they are often a little pricier. Also, as you progress and learn new things about web building or business online, there may be things the builder cannot do or can do but not the way you want it to.

Using Desktop Software – These are tools like Dreamweaver and Expression Web. You purchase the software and install it on your computer (not web host). You build the site on your computer and it can connect to your web host to publish the files. In many ways, this can be simple too. These tools often expose you to the underlying architecture of web pages – HTML. While you don’t necessarily need to be a master at HTML to use it, but you can toggle between design and code. I’ve found this the best way to learn HTML which I highly recommend anyone who owns a website to get little bit of knowledge at least. As you can imagine, it may be a little more frustrating than a website builder to get right and understand where all the pieces go, but on the other hand this also helps you build a larger skill set that will serve you well down the road. You may also want to know that sites you build with desktop based software are often static. Which means you won’t be able to add on interactive things like a forum at a click of the button.

Using Web Based Scripts – Scripts are like software you can install on your website. Some of these scripts allow you to install a system resembling a web site builder on your own website. Which means you get much of the convenience, capability and ease of use as a website builder entirely your own, it is cheaper because you only pay for hosting, many of these scripts are free. Here’s the bummer. For a newcomer, it is not always easy to install these scripts. If you can get someone to install it for you, you’re off to a good start. But could quickly and easily find yourself in deep waters when you have to edit the design. If going this route, I highly recommend you have someone build and design it the way you want it and then learn to tweak it at your own pace. Once again, HTML knowledge will be helpful.

There are still a gazillion things I wish I could cover here, but I’ll end up writing a novel. Perhaps we will revisit and build upon this in the future. However, this should give you at the beginning level, an overview of what you can expect and hopefully an idea which way you should go based on how comfortable you are learning technology that is new to you. Meanwhile, if you ever get stuck with jargon, you might want to head on over to InternetMarketingDefinitions.

Image by ivan petrov

One of the things he has to learn to do is to edit websites I created for him in the past, learn to manage his own mailing list, shopping cart and so on. It is a lot. Some of the things that are so common place to me and most of the people I deal with on a daily basis, feels like rocket science to him. He knows it isn’t of course, but it can feel like being in a massive maze. At the same time, as we work together, it amazes me how much knowledge I have accumulated over the years. Thankfully, he’s such a trooper. Which leads me to think, maybe some of you too are brand new, just starting out or have begun and still feel some areas are ‘too much to handle’.

Then, this week is a good one for you as we go back to the basics. I’ll be covering some technical jargon and concepts that you may encounter running your own business online. We will begin with Websites, followed by Autoresponder basics and end the week with an intro to shopping carts.

While I can’t possibly cover every aspect of those topics, I will strive to help you build the foundation so that, at the very least, you will know what people are talking or writing about and be ready to move on. I hope you will join me as we begin this mini-series tomorrow.

Image by gerard79

So what changed? Did I just start making more money and that suddenly meant I had to spend it monthly on software? No. If that is the case then it isn’t very good cash flow management. The sad fact is, it took a big loss for me to re-think and appreciate the value of using hosted third party applications and this is a story I tell people often. Not because I think you should always opt for software as a service solutions but because it really happened to me and I want to help you avoid a similar situation.

What happened?

It was simple. I installed a mailing list script on my web site one day and within an hour, it flooded the web hosts’ email servers to the point it almost crashed. The web host tried contacting me. But of course I had to burn the midnight oil and had went to bed after the install. He unsuccessfully tried to email me for hours and eventually, shut my account down and deleted all my web sites. All in all, the script started sending thousands of emails every hour and I hadn’t even started building my list yet.

Imagine the horror and humiliation when I started work the next morning. Here I was, thinking I was so smart, by hosting it myself and saving a monthly payment. I realized then just how little $20 a month was compared to what was at stake. Many years have passed since but that memory is still fresh and raw at certain periods today.

• If you are in the same boat, considering a hosted software versus one you install on your own web server, consider these points.
• You don’t have to spend valuable time upgrading the software, better spend time marketing.
• You don’t have to worry about people hacking it – and the many hours cleaning up if they did.
• You don’t have to think about the software being compatible with the server or crashing it – a biggie.
• When the system goes down, you have someone in the know to ask and demand for answers – it is a good feeling to be able to let others work out a problem.
• When the system goes down, you don’t have to upset my schedule and delay projects to fix it.
• You also don’t have to hire people to fix it. You know that they have properly qualified developers working on their system, people whom we on our own may not able to afford to pay.

Does that mean you should completely outsource your software? That’s going to be a lot of monthly payments.

Absolutely not. What I recommend is, outsource those that you won’t normally have sufficient technical knowledge to handle yourself or you don’t have someone technical you can hire on a regular basis. If you’re getting started and don’t have much money to invest. I understand you won’t have that option. But at the very barest basics, for your mailing list or autoresponder, sign up with a reputable service. If you don’t spend on anything else, spend the  money on that.

Image by Karl-Erik Bennion

1. Must be able to control access to the video
2. Have a sharp looking player – Youtube is a little unprofessional especially if the video goes on the the sales letter
3. Not be hosted on their own web hosting account

The third requirement can be huge because bandwidth can get very expensive if you have a lot of hits on the video and videos are much, much larger which means one simple video can suck up all your bandwidth for the month in a heartbeat.

If you want to DIY – I’d probably say go with Amazon S3. I host all 50+ videos for the Blogging Starter Pack on Amazon S3. You can purchase a nice video player pretty inexpensively from places like FlashDen. However, this still requires a little bit of technical work. Many small business owners I talk to like and want the convenience of Youtube but with more privacy options and a better player is that really that much to ask?

I personally think no but from my research, there seems to be an unserved market here. Video hosting sites that allow business/commercial for small business use (read budget friendly) is pretty hard to come by.

My first stop was Vimeo because I liked the quality of the videos there but alas – this is what I found in their FAQ’s.

So scratch Vimeo. Next, there is Brightcove. This company has many high profile customers but they do not publish their pricing and while this is not a reliable method, it kinda leads me to think they may be expensive like enterprise level expensive and possibly beyond the reach of small and micro businesses.

Finally, after running through several video hosting sites that do not allow commercial use, I re-visited a system I have been testing out – Easy Video Producer. The people who created this tool made it for network marketers who want to use videos as a method of building their list or lead generation purposes. I’m just giving you fair warning that if the video and copy on the sites looks skewed towards that, it is. Actually, they confused me a lot too but I took a chance to get signed up since it is free to check out the video system. While their user interface could be improved, it looks a bit dated and at times confusing, if you focus on the tools itself, this thing is pretty cool.

Here’s what I liked:

If you want to put your video on a squeeze page or opt-in page, they have pre-made templates, some of them fairly nice looking. All you need to do is record your video – you can do this using your normal video recording tools or if you don’t have one, a web cam will work, EVP has a on site video recorder much like YouTube you can record on the fly. Then upload or save it. They do go through an approval process which can be a drag if you’re in a hurry. Hopefully they will remove this or have quicker methods of approval. Once your video goes live, then all you need to do is copy the link to the video, copy the embed code if you’re posting on to your own web pages. Or, you can push the video to a squeeze page template they provide.

Oh and yes, you can make the video private to their network and still embed the video on your own pages which fulfills part of the requirements.

There is just one caveat – they are right now re-launching their web hosting service – a sister site. So be prepared for emails in your inbox promoting that.

Image by Keenan Milligan

Which means you have to do it yourself. If your database is over 2MB or even 10MB, you will have a hard time restoring it at your new host. That’s where this free tool BigDump comes in. It lets you import very large databases.

I’ve used it several times and each time has been a flawless experience. Just be warned that this is a little more technical than the stuff we cover regularly so if you’re lost that’s OK. However, if you are backed up against the wall with a big database to import, don’t mind reading some simple instructions and get your hands dirty, BigDump is the way to go.

Image files and even PDF’s should be uploaded in Binary format.

Like I said, 99% of the time, you won’t have to mess with this but sometimes when you upload an image and it looks all scrambled or cut off somehow, check the upload mode. Make sure it is in Binary or turn it back to Automatic and re-upload your image again.

That should take care of the problem.

Can’t say what exactly made me shift from IE to Netscape, for a time I stayed with Avant browser and later on SeaMonkey, Phoenix, Firebird and finally Firefox but that’s pretty much the progression. I also tried meddling with Opera but somehow it didn’t ’stick’ with me.

But why Firefox? If I have to give one reason it would probably be for the plugins/add-ons.

One of the things I often hear from people who do not use Firefox is they don’t understand or want a browser they have to find/install add-ons or plugins to make it ‘whole’. They want a browser in a complete package. That was my exact thinking for the longest time. I just couldn’t wrap my head around why I’d use plugins when you could get good browsers that came with everything – like Avant Browser.

Then a light bulb turned on. Today, I understand it perfectly. Because a browser is like a computer or even a car. You know when you get a new computer or buy a new (or new old) car, you begin to fill it with your own things. In your car, you may add an air freshener you like, adjust the rear and side view mirrors to your liking, adjust the seats etc. On your computer, you begin to uninstall things you don’t want, install things you use regularly, change the default settings and all that stuff.

You and I can buy the same computer, same model, on the very same day but at the end of the day I bet your computer and mine will be quite different because we work differently. That’s how it is with a browser. The plugins aren’t meant to make the browser whole – it is already whole. However it is meant to be mixed and matched to my own liking. Dropping the things I don’t need and adding the things I really do.

Anyhow, that’s a quick history of my browser preferences. What is yours?

Jing – works on both Windows and Mac, is free and you can upgrade to Pro for only $14.95 a year. Meant for short videos, 5 mins max so it’s perfect for those who record infrequently and only need to do short videos.

Screencast-O-Matic – Very cool. It’s free and works from your browser which means it should work on any operating system. The only gotcha – the videos are public.

Wink – this has been around for a long time. Windows only. When I first started using it, it would not allow audio but I do believe it does now.

ScreenToaster – Nice. Like a merge of Youtube + social network + screen cast software all in one. Works on your browser, any OS.

CamStudio – a free screen cast software list is not complete without it. Long time screen recording software, Windows only.

Screenjelly – Browser based as well, has Twitter integration.

BBFlashback Express – Windows only. Upgradeable to paid version.

CaptureFox – A Firefox plugin. Looks pretty interesting and it is free.

What if the web site is really down? Usually a call to a good friend or a quick Twitter help message would do the job. Here’s another resource that you could bookmark.

DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com

Enter your domain name and hit Enter. It will tell you instantly if the site is up and running or not.

Moi of course! I’m going for some shameless self promo. I love helping people with their business technology issues. So much that I actually set up a place anyone can submit questions to me and have them answered either here or on my blog – 100% free. If you’d like to have your tech questions answered, all you need to do is submit them. You can submit as many as you want.

Small Business Computing – one of my favorite sites. They do pack in a lot of general and somewhat techy information.

Web Master World – if you don’t mind raising your hand and asking questions publicly. Great resource. I’ve found answers to many of my own questions just by searching.

Image by miki kucevic

edirect mine too. If you don’t know why, read her post. Alice does give a simple way of making redirect links too.

I did that once too but later found it was a huge problem as the list grew longer. Having something that is more centralized with stats in a nicely formatted manner and the ability to search/categorize can be helpful too. There are many link redirect tools out there. These are 3 that you can get started with.

1. Redirection – a WordPress plugin. Which makes sense especially if you are a blogger or using WordPress to manage your site content. It works well enough and is simple/straight forward.
2. Pretty link – another WordPress plugin which I found recently and considering a switch to. It does lay out all the stats nicely, very attractive clean user interface. I like the ability to make links nofollow and the frame on top for special messages.
3. Short URL script – installed on your web site. There are plenty of such stand alone scripts you can find from places like HotScripts.com. They allow you to create, manage and track clicks of each link. Some are free, some are not. May require a little bit of setup.

One thing I do not recommend though is to use third party short URL services. I think they are OK if you need quick stats that you probably don’t have to refer again or check history. But the whole idea is, keep affiliate links on your own site so you are always in control where your visitors end up.

The process is easy. Just paste the video URL, add your text or speech bubbles, add the link and BubblePly will generate a new URL for you to share the video. You don’t have to register, but if you do, you can edit and also delete the projects you’ve done.

My only hesitation is – third party URL. I guess that can’t be helped when it comes to a tool for the masses. Regardless, I’d still use a redirect so I an always control the link. Another big question is, would the video producers be happy about it? Probably not which is why asking for permission is important. But I think affiliate managers would be kinda crazy if they won’t allow their own affiliates to use their videos this way. Personally, I’d encourage my own affiliates to do so.

One of my biggest peeves is the fact I can’t seem to clear my RSS reader of the unread posts. There’s so much coming in daily and I don’t have a huge reading list either. Every time I get in there it’s like 1000+ plus posts. Usually, I end up skimming the headlines – which is why your blog subject line is so important but that’s a post for another time. And then fully reading the ones that catch my eye. Even then, speed reading helps.

Then I stumbled on Zap Reader. Wow! I just made it through a post and had plenty of time to leave a comment. I’m debating right now if I should add the plugin to my blog to help people read my posts faster. At the moment, I use the bookmarklet. On a post that I’d like to read, I select the text then click the bookmark. Hit start and I’m reading at 500 words per minute or more. I think this is fast becoming my favorite free tool. Check out the video below to see how it works.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uw6R3TkRf4[/youtube]

Now, I don’t claim these tools are sufficient to fire your graphic designer. Far from it. Keep your designer at all costs – I know I do mine. Keeping them real close. But sometimes when you want a quick button or graphic just to fill a space or get the task done, these can be helpful.

FreshBadge – I so love this one. One of my first finds in fact. Love the badges. I’ve noticed once in a while it gets flaky on me.

Tabs Generator – very handy for web designers.

My Cool Button – pretty neat.

Quick Web Creations – not free Been quite useful to me.

WP-Invoice – I’ve been wondering when something like this would be developed. Lately, I’ve outgrown my invoicing solution and looking elsewhere but I really don’t want to install another stand alone application on my site – too many software to keep track of. Having the invoicing solution directly on an existing website makes the whole business a lot more centralized and less technical management too. Best of all this is developed by a couple of U.S. Marine Corp Veterans whom I’ll always be partial to. Am definitely trying this one.

Event Registration – We use this at MomMasterminds to organize our MMWeetups (Meetups). Allows us to post which event is upcoming and let’s people register so we know who’s coming and what to prepare. I think it might be useful for arranging meetings too.

WordPress Advanced Ticketing System – so far, this is the only ticket system I see. It’s still quite new so I’ll reserve judgement on it.

Job Board – I’ve always told people that many plugins they use could be unnecessary because with a little bit of simple coding and thinking outside the box, you’ll be able to achieve the same thing without a plugin on WordPress. That’s the beauty of the system. Well this is not a plugin but a good tutorial that shows you how to create a job listing/board.

WP-Project – this plugin is getting old. I’ve talked to Nick the developer, at this point in time he’s not able to devote time to it. But it might be something you could check out in a sandbox to see if it suits you.

Blog Goals Monitor – very interesting indeed! Keeping a blog can be hard work and sometimes you need a little help motivating ourselves or seeing whether we are achieving our goals. This plugin helps you do just that.

Like this post? I blog a lot about WordPress at my blog too. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter for more tech hints and specials while you’re there.

This week we’re Sparking an Idea that about Email

It all starts when you have one web site and one product. Then, when you build another site or another product (or blog) with it’s own domain you think well, maybe we need to create a new address on this new domain for customer support, for you, for the mailing list for… whatever. Then you add a new domain to your empire and you create another email address or *gasp* several addresses. Uh huh. That was me 2 years ago.

You’re probably thinking, it can’t be that bad. You can after all redirect all those different addresses into one. Yes, you are correct but the issue I had was not because I had to log in to different accounts to check the emails. It was the difficulty in keeping them straight when replying to people and most of all, when people ask for an email address, I didn’t know which I should give! Should I give them the real private one? Or the one for this site or maybe that site is more appropriate for this interview. That’s not all, whenever a new email list was created, I struggled to figure out which address would be the most appropriate “From” address for the list.

I decided I had enough. So I spent a whole month consolidating, trimming and re-structuring my email addresses. While I was at it, I also set up a central contact and help center for all products/services. You can call it a help desk I suppose, although I don’t run any help desk software.

The first thing I did was decide which addresses I wanted to keep. Once they were decided, the addresses were assigned a specific purpose. For example, one is strictly private, for personal stuff, staff and clients only. No exceptions. Then another was for mailing lists. Then I have one ‘public’ address and there’s another for support for all products, services, websites.

Just doing this cut down my email confusion considerably but that wasn’t the only thing I did. I hired someone to check, manage and respond to all the other addresses but one. Now, whenever someone asks me for an email address, during an interview or setting up an email list, I use the public one. The contact for all web sites, products and services go directly to the help desk at TechBasedSupport.com. There is no confusion. No setting up new email addresses no matter how many new products or websites I create. It’s all centralized.

If you happen to be a MomMasterminds member, I have a resource in the learning center there that shows step-by-step exactly how I set it all up and give you suggestions to centralize your emails too.

I’m so, so, much happier now and can’t imagine why I hadn’t done it before. At any point in time I know exactly where customers are sent to. This makes it a lot easier when you’re updating pages and giving instructions to people how to get support. It’s all the same and you don’t confuse yourself. Doing this also freed me up to focus on important stuff rather than checking emails.

Sometimes, I’d like to point them to a specific point made in the video. Up until now, I’ve always had to say, wait and watch around 3:30 minutes. Now, I don’t have to. You can annotate a video and link to it so it starts exactly where you want it to.

That’s just one part. You can add speech bubbles or highlights to emphasize a point or add a comment that you may have missed out while recording. You can even link the annotations although the links are limited. At time of writing you can’t link outside of  youtube.com. While somewhat limited, I think these additional tools do help you make your video message clearer and that’s always good.