By Jessica Albon
This post is part of the Making it Rain Inspiration series. You can read all the posts if you’ve missed any.
I did something I’m still regretting, but fortunately it’ll be all over tomorrow: I signed up to take the GRE. What on earth was I thinking? It was a combination of a couple things–I didn’t take the SAT, and am curious about what that sort of test is like; and I’m starting to feel more interested in an item from my someday maybe list (“Get an MFA“)… So, on a whim, I signed up to take the test, paid my money, and promptly put off studying for the darn thing.
Until this weekend. So, here I’ve been, studying like a fiend, and very much needing a break from antonyms and math.
Interestingly enough, among the study breaks, I also managed to sketch out a flash …
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By Jessica Albon
Think of the email and RSS subscribers you add weekly as a sort of patch–they come in to plug up the holes left by unsubscribers and by people who haven’t unsubscribed, but who have quit reading. You can see where they come in compared to your other readers–there’s that adjustment period.
Usually it works. The old subscribers leave, the new subscribers come in, and things wind up pretty well level.
But, over time, your list becomes like an over-patched wall. Lumpy. Uneven. And showing definite signs of wear and tear.
And that’s a sign it’s time to undergo a major rehab project.
How do you know it’s time? Look for these five signs:
- You’re working too hard on your list maintenance.
- You’re not getting enough response, respective to your list size (expect to hear from about 2-10% of your readers on any one issue).
- You’ve been getting more emailed
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By Jessica Albon
This post is part of the Making it Rain Inspiration series. You can read all the posts if you’ve missed any.
Here we are, in the middle of winter in North Carolina, and the weather has been gloomy, gloomy, gloomy! Sure, there’s been some rain, but it’s mostly just been cold and cloudy. Every night, I check the weather forecast to see what to expect tomorrow, hoping it won’t be more of the same. Now something you only know about North Carolina if you’ve lived here for awhile is this: the weather is impossible to forecast here.
I’m a Santa Barbara, California girl. I’m used to the forecasters promising sunshine and temps in the 70s all week… And being right. But, even when I lived in Arizona, where the weather was a bit more adventurous, they were pretty accurate much of the time. Here in North Carolina, though, they …
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By Jessica Albon
I don’t hate the E-Myth. In fact, I think it was a groundbreaking book when first published in 1985. However, these days, I think business requires a new paradigm.
It’s not enough to work *in* your business. But, it’s also not enough to spend time *on* your business. All the systems in the world, no matter how well-designed (or justified), won’t give your business a soul, and they won’t create a business that serves your customers well.
So, instead of spending time on your business or in your business, start spending time *with* your business. You spend time with your kids (if you have them). You spend times with your spouse/significant other/favorite people. You spend time with your dog/cat/iguana.
But, I’m willing to bet you don’t really spend time with your business. Perhaps it’s never even entered your mind to spend time with your business. And …
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By Jessica Albon
Are You Ready to Make 2009 Your Year–the Year Your Email List Gets Super-Sized and Generates the Passive Income You Deserve?
Wednesday, March 18, 2008
From: Jessica Albon
(Izzy was of no help writing this letter, tho he did enjoy posing for that photo!)
Dear Small Business Owner,
If 2009 were the year you could finally stop worrying about building your business and just let the business come to you, pre-sold and ready to get started, what kind of difference would that make to you?
Would it give you more peace of mind? More freedom and flexibility? Less cold calling? Less time spent trying to sell yourself to people who are only half-interested in what you’re saying at networking meetings?
You’ve heard “the money’s in the list.” But what I’m here to tell you is that YOUR BUSINESS, YOUR FUTURE, and YOUR ENJOYMENT are all in the list as well.…
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By Jessica Albon
I’ve been working under The Write Exposure name since 2000. Originally, I was doing a lot of ghost writing for client newsletters. Within about 6 months, I’d moved into HTML email newsletter design.
By 2001, the business was more than 50% design, but by then I was attached to the business name. I had business cards, after all 
.
So, I continued building a business called The Write Exposure. But, the name proved hard to spell over the phone, so I registered DesignDoodles.com so that I could give people an alternate, easy-to-spell name.
…
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By Jessica Albon
Wellness Coach Lori Boothroyd had a beautiful site, but there were some drawbacks. It was frustrating to make changes to individual web pages and next to impossible to make changes to the design itself.
She had outgrown the old site’s tag line, but wasn’t able to change it easily. She felt the “Subscribe NOW!!!” language on her banner was too pushy for her audience. It was also important to her to be able to add new features like audio (using Audio Acrobat). All of this was impossible with her old site.
So, we came in, made the changes she wanted, and coded the site for WordPress. This gave her an easy-to-use admin system and updates are now much easier to make. What’s more, the site is search-engine friendly, the navigation is streamlined, and she’s saving herself both time *and* money (the old admin system was a monthly expense; WordPress …
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By Jessica Albon
When King Medical Systems decided they wanted to move beyond the default Constant Contact HTML email newsletter template, they came to us. They needed a newsletter design that their readers would love that could be filled with high-value content. They also wanted to be able to feature several products in each issue so that the newsletter could directly increase their sales.
The final HTML email newsletter template makes use of elements designed to grow their list and sell product. It’s a conversational newsletter that includes Paul’s own personal touches throughout (like shared jokes or YouTube videos) and that helps readers feel apart of the community the company is building for their customers.
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By Jessica Albon
Mortgage Maven Sheira Mackenzie was ready to launch an email newsletter to keep in touch with her clients and referrals. She wanted an HTML email newsletter template design that would appeal to high-end buyers and remind her clients that she’s available as an on-going (and trained) financial strategy consultant.
She uses the HTML email newsletter to connect with current clients and guide them as they make financial decisions. Because Sheira has additional financial planner training, she’s well-poised to guide her clients through the myriad of financial changes they experience throughout their cycle of home ownership, and the HTML email newsletter is a key component of this overall brand.
From the very first issue, her readers have responded really positively–especially appreciating the way she brings her encouraging (but never Polly Anna) approach to letting clients know how financial forecasts are likely to impact their home values.
…
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By Jessica Albon
Karen Field was in the market for a professional website design so she could launch a serious business site. She planned to use this website to provide her clients with new content, promote her products, and grow her newsletter list. She needed the site to be easy-to-update so that she could make updates regularly on her own, and she also wanted the site to help her rank in the search engines.
As a coach, Karen specializes in working with individuals who grapple with anxiety, and so it was important that the site not be cluttered or overwhelming. She wanted it to be made clear from the website design itself that she was easy to work with and took a gentle approach with her clients. She also had a photo that her husband (a professional artist) had taken of a butterfly that she wanted incorporated into the design.
It was important …
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By Jessica Albon
Newsletter archive website, we designed the two-column layout to offer both advertising for sale (directly from the site publisher) and to run Google ads. Site is updated weekly and makes use of several excellent plugins and decorative drop cap functionality.
The site is popular with readers and advertisers alike. Though in many ways the site is a traditional WordPress blog, comments are nearly always closed at this site. That serves two purposes for the publisher–the first is that it routes all comments through email which is easier (for some people) to manage. The second purpose is that it ensures that when comments *are* opened, there are typically more of them which really facilitates conversation among readers. When comments are always open, business blogs sometimes find that community-building impact diluted over the entire blog instead of concentrated on certain posts.
…
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By Jessica Albon
This post is part of the Making it Rain Inspiration series. You can read all the posts if you’ve missed any.
Welcome back to the imperfect series on finding inspiration when you’re out of inspiration. Today’s tip is short and sweet: Let it be imperfect.
All too often, we get caught up in the refinement stage, in the making things right, fixing them, perfecting them. It’s easy to do–after all, we want to do our best work and we want things to be “just so” for other people. We want our readers to think well of us, but more than even that, we want to communicate clearly and not be misunderstood, we want our readers to have an easy time reading our articles, and we want our writing to make a mark on the world–all of which, we believe, only happens when we do “good work.”
Don’t confuse good …
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By Jessica Albon
Helaine Smith came to us when she wanted to start an HTML email newsletter. She needed a sophisticated, straightforward template to represent her high-end dentistry practice.
Helaine leads her field as one of only 2% of dentists in the nation providing full-mouth reconstruction (so, if you’re looking for a dentist in the Boston area, you know where to go…), and it was especially important to her to find a company that would handle her email marketing as professionally as possible. We continue to work with her on each newsletter and also create her regular online archives.
…
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By Jessica Albon
Lisa Evans had purchased a blog theme (from another company) but she wasn’t quite happy with it and wanted some customizations.
She contacted us to make the look of the template her own. One thing she knew was that she wanted to include a photo of herself in the header, so we tried out several different photos she sent us until she decided on the one she liked best. We also created an entire custom header for her, selecting a font that captured the essence of her Yummylicious brand. We created a new color scheme for her, changed the navigation to make it better suit her needs, and integrated her new brand throughout the blog.
Please note, due to a new book title, Lisa is no longer using the Yummylicious name.
…
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By Jessica Albon
The Brand Dame is Lyn Chamberlin’s branding blog built in WordPress. She connects with readers on a regular basis delivering news related to personal and professional branding.
Lyn wanted an unique illustrated header, so we worked with the illustrator of her choice to have something she absolutely loved created. She also wanted to make good use of social networking and bookmarking along with Twitter, and Flickr, all of which found a place on her website through WordPress plugins.
The site isn’t based on a pre-existing WordPress template so Lyn can be assured that her blog and header are both one-of-a-kind. Visit Lyn’s blog at The Brand Dame.
Read what Lyn had to say about working with us. See our work on Lyn’s company site: skyePR.com.
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By Jessica Albon
Brand Dame Lyn Chamberlin needed a new identity. She was ready for a professional website, blog, and email newsletter design–and that’s exactly what we gave her.
The new skyePR.com site makes use of her brown and orange color scheme and provides a fresh, clean showcase for her branding work. Using an event calendar plugin, Lyn’s able to easily deliver an up-to-date speaking event calendar to her website visitors. The site also generates an updated, random list of posts from her blog to ensure there’s up-to-the-minute content for her website visitors.
The site also reinforces the design we developed for both her email newsletter and blog–creating an integrated online identity for Lyn Chamberlin and skyePR.
Read what Lyn had to say about working with us
Like the cobbler children who have no shoes, I realized that I had outgrown my brand. Here I am, being sought after as an expert in …
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By Jessica Albon
One column theme designed in WordPress. Made extensive use of plugins to protect against spam and to facilitate commenting and social bookmarking. Site made several thousand dollars in sales in the 30 days that it was active (with about 100 readers).
The site was very popular with readers and often had 10+ comments per post.
Lessons learned from project include: 50/50 advertising content mix will seem like too much to some readers, but won’t bother others. Daily updates isn’t too frequent as long as you make good use of stories. Having multiple products to sell saves posts from being overly repetitive. Live products (teleclasses, seminars, etc) are an easier sell than pre-existing products (books, reports, class audio recordings).
Site was designed for a 30-day project and is no longer active.
…
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By Jessica Albon
C.J. Hayden wanted to create a hub site for all of her projects. She planned to use WordPress as her CMS as she had for other sites in the past.
She had an illustration for her front page and asked us to complete the WordPress coding and design a layout for the internal pages. She wanted something that made use of layers and had a textured appeal.
The biggest challenge, programming-wise, was that she wanted some internal pages to make use of an additional scroll sidebar. We created a special page template for those pages that would have a scroll, and layered the scroll image over the page template. By attaching the scroll to a widget, C.J. can easily update each scroll’s content.
C.J.’s Feedback
Jessica is a delight to work with. She’s helped me create three WordPress websites. Most recently, she built a customized site for me completely from …
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By Jessica Albon
Jessica is a delight to work with. She’s helped me create three WordPress websites. Most recently, she built a customized site for me completely from scratch.
What I love about working with her is that she is not only technically proficient and has a great eye for design, she is as meticulous as I am about getting things just right. Throughout the process of building my site, she was responsive, patient, and upbeat. The end result is exactly what I wanted. I couldn’t be more pleased.
C.J. Hayden
Author, Get Clients Now! and Get Hired Now!
…
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By Jessica Albon
Thank you, Jessica, for all your help!
About a month ago I decided I needed to concentrate on growing my newsletter list. I am so glad I found Jessica. Through her consulting, I have learned the best way to change my website to attract visitors, strategies to acquire subscribers on and offline, and an easy to implement action plan.
I was especially excited to listen to Jessica’s teleclass on growing your subscriber list. It was extremely informative, packed with great ideas and strategies that work. In addition, I recommend the report, “Getting Permission.” It’s like a blueprint for newsletter creation and gaining subscribers. I expect to double my subscriber base by the end of the year!
Gillian Hood-Gabrielson,
Healthier Outcomes
…
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