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I was going to wait to write this as a tip to increase your email open rates to your list, however, having just received over 40 of them today I felt this would be a good time let the cat out of the bag.

Let’s start from the top with a question to suck you right in to the subject matter. Have you ever received an email that had RE: in the subject line? I am sure most of you had at one time or another so I will assume the overwhelming answer is yes.

This is the way the email subject line begins when someone responds to your email. The subject line always starts with RE: and we have been conditioned to recognize this as a response to an email we had sent out.

Recently I was struggling with my email open rate with one of my lists and pretty much came to a dead end. I had tried everything, including praying to the gugu gods of email (it wasn’t pretty let me tell ya -J). Still nothing worked. It didn’t matter what super ninja tactic I tried, my open rate just stunk!

Then one morning while considering my latest email I can up with the idea to start a new email to the list with RE:. I hit “send” and held my breath. Soon I began to check my Aweber open results and Wala! I had struck solid Gold! The email open rate sky rocketed and people were responding to my email as if I had emailed them personally! Perfect!

Being that I had effectively “tricked” my list into opening the email I have used this technique sparingly and only when I really need them to open an email.

So fast forward to today and someone must have beat me to the punch and put it out there that The RE: subject line gets Mega open results when inserted into an email because emails with this attached to them are laying all over my email. OK already, it works….but not from 40 people on the same day.

My point is simple; this is a great technique to use “sparingly” to temporarily boost your results. Use it as a bridge to build more trust with your list and offer them more value (the ultimate fix) and they will be waiting for your email with mouse in hand.

It’s one thing to create great content; it is a totally different thing to create buzz or interaction. If you want to take your business to the next level and “really” drive traffic to your site you need to interact with your customers. Provoke discussion if you have to but make them interact. Once you unveil this super ninja technique its lights out, “bolt the door Katie” cause here comes the flood of traffic!

Seriously, you can really increase the interest level and engagement of your visitors or email list when you ask for their opinions or input and involve them in conversation. This conversation, or feedback, can even be used to guide, tweak, or even create your product or marketing.

It is amazing what people will tell you when you ask them their opinion. It just opens the door to many different areas of information sharing and gathering. Using this information in your marketing can make it seem like shooting fish in a barrel.

Many times we think of the time we take to interact as “wasted”. Nothing could be further from the truth! Interaction does three things, at minimum.

They are:

• Creates Trust
• Builds Credibility
• Makes Price Less Relevant

People trust people they know more about and talk with on a regular basis. The more you have a two way conversation rather than a one way conversation the better off you will be.

Credibility is something you earn and you can’t earn it unless you are engaged. Every email, video, letter, and ad builds your credibility so take it seriously.

Another benefit of interaction is you reduce the relevance of price. People are willing to pay more for a product if they know you and are comfortable with you.

Some of the interactive tools you can use are polls, blogs or a forum. These are the most common but use your imagination to create interactive tools. You can use a whole host of other ideas to get people to interact with you. The key takeaway, interaction creates trust and credibility which in turn boosts sales. People would much rather buy from someone they have talked with (or emailed) and trust than a complete stranger.

Mobile Marketing is being touted as “the next big thing” and the only validation you need is your own quick count of how many people you encounter during the day with mobile devices or a mobile phone. The numbers are staggering.

According to the Mobile Marketing Association a wave of mobile advertising is about to explode, and with good reason. In the past it has been difficult to advertise due to the fragmentation of platforms and carriers. They are finally starting to consolidate and this will make advertising much easier for you and me.

Go anywhere and just admire the mobile community at work. Everyone you pass while driving is talking on a cell phone and look at the numbers while walking through a grocery store or restaurant. Do you think there is potential to reach an audience with your message? Damn right there is.

With all this “hoopla” surrounding mobile marketing and people starting to look for information in earnest  I thought I’d throw together the top 5 blog articles on the subject so you could check them out and see what all the chatter is about.

Here they are as list in Google:

http://www.mobile-marketing-blog.net

http://blog.mobivity.com

http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com

http://www.punchkickinteractive.com/blog

http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/mobile_marketing

I was a member of Traffic Geyser for a year or so and simply loved it for pushing out content quickly and easily (once you were all set up -:)). I am still getting hits to some affiliate products that I promoted and I highly recommend Traffic Geyser if you have the extra $97 each month. But for me it was time for an experiment utilizing my new found knowledge of free products.

Plus, after a while I found some free resources, including Tube Mogul, did the important stuff so I have gone the free route for a while to check it out.

Before leaving Traffic Geyser I wanted to make a list of all the accounts that I signed up for while setting up my account there.

The list is pretty darn good so after breaking it out for review I thought I would share it with you.

The list includes Videos Sites, Podcast Sites, Social Bookmarking Sites, Status Sites and Article Submission Sites,

A total of 81 sites excluding the Blog Sites (which you enter your own).

Here they are broken down by category.

Video Submission Sites:

http://bestonvideo.com

http://bofunk.com

http://ecorptv.com

http://www.esnips.com

http://guba.com

http://www.iviewtube.com

http://www.kewego.com

http://livevideo.com

http://megavideo.com

http://motionbox.com

http://vids.myspace.com

http://photobucket.com

http://revver.com

http://stickam.com

http://spike.com

http://tangle.com

http://ugoto.com

http://veoh.com

http://www.viddler.com

http://video.yahoo.com

http://vidilife.com

http://youtube.com

http://www.zoopy.com

Podcast Sites

http://odeo.com

http://plazoo.com

http://podcast.com

http://podcastalley.com

http://podcastblaster.com

http://podcastexchange.org

http://podcasting-station.com

http://podcastlikethat.com

http://rss-network.com

http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/submit

Social Bookmarking Sites

http://blinklist.com

http://del.icio.us

http://getboo.com

http://google.com/bookmarks

http://socialzooom.com

Status Sites

http://gawkk.com

http://jaiku.com

http://sokule.com/trafficgeyser

Article Sites

http://abcarticledirectory.com

http://acmearticles.com

http://amazines.com

http://www.article-buzz.com

http://articlearmies.com

http://articlebased.net

http://articlebiz.com

http://articlecat.com

http://articlecity.com

http://articleclick.com

http://articlecompilation.com

http://articlecube.com

http://www.articledepot.co.uk

http://articlegarden.com

http://articlepros.com

http://articler.com

http://articlerich.com

http://articlesbase.com

http://articlesnatch.com

http://articlestars.com

http://articlewarehouse.com

http://articlewheel.com

http://blogwidow.com

http://e-calc.net

http://easyarticles.com

http://goarticles.com

http://homebiztools.com

http://look-4it.com

http://marketingarticlelibrary.com

http://premierdirectory.org

http://reprintarticles.com

http://searcharticles.net

http://site-reference.com

http://sooperarticles.com

http://theegarage.com

http://travelarticlelibrary.com

http://ultimatearticledirectory.com

http://upublish.info

http://wisdomextract.com

http://workoninternet.com

If you would like it in PDF form click here

I hope this helps you out. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

I learned the fine art of reciprocation many years ago while in the furniture industry. I had no idea the power it contained yet was amazed by its results. Results that seemed so innocent on the surface but were so complicated at its core.

In its simplest form, reciprocation is the act of you doing something for someone and in return they feel the obligation to do something for you. They feel the “pull” of Mother Nature to reciprocate. This is a natural response in most people and one that can be used to sell more products than you ever thought possible. Let me explain why. But first a little story of how I came across this powerful concept.

While working in sales at a furniture store, a new regional sales manager had started a new process while greeting customers to try shore up sagging sales. This process was very simple, when a customer walked in the store, greet them, give them a rose, and ask them “what can we help you find today?”.

The normal response prior to this initiative was “just looking”. This response was (and I am sure it still is to this day) so common place that it was a joke among us sales people. How many time are we going to hear ” just looking” today? You could bank on the same response yet we struggled to find a way around it.

Then we started the new process of greeting and giving the rose. What followed was astonishing. People were so taken aback by the act of kindness that they immediately started to talk and laugh and tell us exactly what they were looking for. This had a tremendously positive effect on our close rate and sales and left all of us trying to figure out why. The reason was very simple. The natural human response called Reciprocation!

The fine art of reciprocation is on display everywhere. Walk into a store or restaurant with a set of double doors and hold the first set of doors open for someone, nine times out of ten they will hold the second set of doors open for you. Reciprocation. Go out of your way to tell someone how nice they look today, some will say “thank you” and leave it at that but most people will compliment you back. Reciprocation. Do something nice for people and they feel the need to do something nice for you. It is everywhere!

Use reciprocation to increase your sales by giving your prospects something of value for free and watch what happens. I know you will be as amazed as I was trying to make a living selling furniture.