Blog Archives

Freemium Series - Capture and Share Screenshots with Jing

12/27/2011

To continue with this short series of posts about freemiums for small businesses, I wanted to do a quick post about Jing.

Jing is one of the most helpful (and free) tools I've found this year. If you need to share screenshots or a short video with customers, friends, or other businesses, Jing will help you do just that.

Jing was created by TechSmith — the company that also created Camtasia – and the software helps you create quick videos and snapshots of what you see on your computer screen. You can then save and share these as attachments in an email, or you can upload images and videos online instantly (through Screencast.com) and share the links with others. Jing also allows you to highlight areas of the image if you need to emphasize something to someone, as shown in the example below.

The software is easy to download and use, and TechSmith offers a number of tutorials to help you get started. Essentially, you click and drag a box around the area of your screen that you want to show in your pictures or video, and then you can capture the image or start recording (and adding narration for video if you want).

Have you used Jing? Leave your comments below!

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What's a "Freemium"? One Option for Small Businesses

12/20/2011

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Updated January 2017: YouSendIt, referenced below, is now Hightail

Have you head the term "freemium"? What does it mean -- and how can it help you and your marketing team?

Freemiums are basically online ("cloud-based") software solutions that offer basic services for free and additional versions as part of a paid monthly or annual plan. These online services have become highly popular and are now considered the fastest-growing online business model. In fact, business conferences about freemiums have already started appearing (such as at the Freemium Summit East held in October 2010).

For the next few posts, I'll be highlighting some popular freemium programs that may be beneficial to you and your business or marketing team.

Hightail

One popular online service currently operating on the freemium model is Hightail, which allows you to send, receive and store large files securely online. The platform offers an alternative to sending large file attachments through email, uploading to an FTP, or sending files on a CD.

The basic service is free, and allows you to store up to 2 GB and share files of up to 250 MB, which is much larger than most email clients can handle.

Additional paid options are available and offer perks such as more online storage space, phone support, team collaboration tools and more. Paid plans start at $12 per month (as of January 2017) and custom business packages are available, too.

Have you used Hightail? What other freemiums do you use?

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How to Build an Evergreen Email Sequence by Mike Connolly

12/2/2011

So excited to share this article today by guest blogger Mike Connolly!

Build not only your list, but your relationship with your list and set up a continual stream of sales over a long period of time.

You’ve got a great product or service, and you want more people to sit up, take notice and pull out their credit card or sign a contract.

But with all the other distractions out there, and all the other advertisers competing for your prospect's attention, how in the world can you keep a person’s interest long enough for them to really understand the value you have for them?

Perry Marshall, well-known internet marketing expert and author of The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, the world’s most popular book on Google advertising, said recently, “Email is the center of the universe.”

And here’s the “Holy Grail” he’s referring to: Imagine what it’s like when you send an email broadcast to people who WELCOME your message. When they see your email and eagerly open it up, read it and click on links leading them further down your funnel….

Being in that position gives you real staying power in a “Flash-in-the-Pan” world because it allows you to educate your prospects the way they want to be educated – one small bite at a time, over a period of days or even weeks or months. That gives you a unique position in their awareness so when they are ready to buy, guess who they’re most likely to buy from?

So, how do you get there?

Here’s a five-part formula you can follow to becoming a “welcome guest,” standing out above all the “annoying pests” hitting your prospects’ email inboxes.

Describe a problem your reader may have that you can fix. Enter the conversation going on in their mind. Remember, you are sending the email to them for their reasons, not yours.
“Get Naked” so people emotionally bond with you. Your biggest embarrassment is your biggest asset. Tell an embarrassing story about yourself related to the problem you reader is facing and they will love you for it.
Say, “Here’s what I’ve got for you…” and tease what’s coming up in the next email.
Create a series of emails, each describing a critical part of the solution your reader is interested in, including bits of your personality so they feel like they’re getting to know you, and showing how it’s worked for others you have helped, demonstrating social proof.
On the last email, present a solution (your product) via a link to another page they may be interested in to help them overcome their challenge even more successfully.

Here’s why this works. Remember Steven Covey’s program, “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People”? He describes the “emotional bank account” we have with everybody we have a relationship with, business or personal – customer, vendor, husband or wife, son or daughter, sister, brother, golfing buddy, jogging partner, minister, doctor – you name it.

Once you’ve met, you start building the relationship by making deposits into their emotional bank account. Doing things for them, even little things or gestures, that they can appreciate will make you more and more of a “welcome guest” at the transom to their lives, wherever that may be. Including their email in-box.

And don’t forget: Email Is One Of The Most Intimate Forms Of Communication.

When you are reading an email (unless it’s unsolicited advertising – often a real turnoff) it’s just you and your reader. That’s how your email should read, even if you send it out to thousands – it should read and feel to your reader like a casual conversation you’re having over dinner.

Here’s another tip: The thing about email is, you can cram virtually an infinite amount of information into just one email. But who wants to read a great big long treatise on their computer screen?

No. We have WAY too much email every day! Short and sweet does it. Just enough to be informative … then - BAM! - you’re on your way ‘til tomorrow with your next email. Which of course they’re eager to receive because of how you’ve been treating them, the value you are delivering and the anticipation you’ve built up about what’s next.

Think soap opera, Dickens, “24”…. In other words, don’t try to cram everything into one “episode” – write a series. And at the end, to assuage their sadness that their entertainment and information is coming to an end, give them a way to get more involved with you – a cool product that solves a problem for them.

Quick Example, Dog Training:

Email 1: Have you ever wondered how to get your dog to come back when you call them? Here’s how dumb I used to be. I finally figured it out, though, and here’s the first thing I did. Tomorrow, I’ll show you how I ….

Email 2: Here’s a little secret I’ll share with you, but it’s kind of embarrassing…. And here’s that second trick I promised yesterday. Tomorrow, a very cool trick you can use to….

Email 3-4: Continue with the information and sharing your personal experience.

Email 5: Here’s the best trick of all, and now you have everything you need to get perfect obedience every time you call your dog back to you. Now if you want the real short cut to perfect obedience, plus these five other really cool tricks, here’s what you can do… [link to your product]

Once I have a sequence written, if there’s enough time (which I usually try to build in) before sending it, I like to let it “season” Seems like I always see ways to tweak it before launching that make it really sing.

You can also run it by a sixth grader to see if there’s anything they don’t understand. That’s always a good gauge of readability. Or you can go to http://bit.ly/mc-readability if you don’t have any sixth graders handy.

Final phase: Deploy, test, tweak… And reap the rewards!

by Mike Connolly
For Cool Free Stuff from Mike Connolly, Go To PowerCurveMedia.com

OpenOffice.org – A Great Small Business Resource

12/1/2011

One of the best and most helpful online business tools I've used recently is OpenOffice.org.

OpenOffice.org is a free open source project that allows you to create documents, spreadsheets, databases, presentations and more in software that's very similar to Microsoft Office, but without the cost.

In addition, any files you create in OpenOffice can be saved in a variety of ways, so you can save a file as a pdf or .doc, .html, .xls, and more, either for yourself or to share with others. Plus, OpenOffice has plenty of templates and clip art you can use, as well as online support.

OpenOffice is not new -- the project first got started in 2000 -- but I hadn't had a chance to download or use it until recently, when a client I was working with asked me to create a file using the software. If you're familiar with Microsoft Office (or with Google Docs), I think you'll find it very easy to use.

If anyone else is using OpenOffice, I'd love to hear what you think!

Freemium Series - Capture and Share Screenshots with Jing

What's a "Freemium"? One Option for Small Businesses

How to Build an Evergreen Email Sequence by Mike Connolly

OpenOffice.org – A Great Small Business Resource

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Freemium Series - Capture and Share Screenshots with Jing

What's a "Freemium"? One Option for Small Businesses

How to Build an Evergreen Email Sequence by Mike Connolly

OpenOffice.org – A Great Small Business Resource

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