The lightbulb of the future?

Luxim's energy efficient plasma lightbulb

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Fill your car for $1.10 a gallon?

Turning wood chips into fuel

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Since I'm in the business of providing ecommerce shopping cart solutions to online stores, one of the questions that invariably comes up is how to get customers to refer more business. Part of the resolution to this problem can be found in how well your web site design manages to give users the options to "forward pages" to friends. One of the under-utilized methods for virally empowering customers though is inside your emails. I subscribe to a newsletter at GasPedal.com and below is a recent email I received that describes 10 ways for email marketers to do awesome word of mouth marketing. Enjoy

1. Ask for a forward:  More people pass along their email when you remind them to. Put a big "Tell a Friend" link in every message. Even if they don't use your form, they'll see the request and do it. 
2. Design unbreakable emails:  Test test test to make sure your email can be passed along infinitely without breaking.  You can't go viral if you don't pass this test. 
3. Make the forwarders feel special:  Include some offer that makes recipients look good when they pass along your message.  Give them an insider deal, advance news, or a secret discount code. 
4. Add a benefit for the friend:  Give people a reason to send something to their friends. You'll get more forwards from people who feel like they are genuinely helping their buddies. "Hi, I wanted to give you this discount code/helpful tip ...." 
5. Add a multiplier: Add a reason why someone would share your message with 10 people instead of one.  A "whole family" discount, 3-for-one coupon, or a deal good for anyone with the same company domain in their email.  
6. Put a Tell-a-Friend form everywhere:  Add a form to every page of your web site. When someone is about to refer a friend (giving you a free, high-quality lead) make it easy and immediate. 
7. Design Tell-a-Friend emails well:  When someone refers a friend, what does the friend get? Probably some generic text email. That message should be exciting--and it should convert almost 100% of recipients to click. (It was a personal recommendation from a friend ... if that doesn't get clicked, nothing will.) If not, keep working on it until it's perfect. 
8. Track revenue from forwarders/talkers:  You probably have thousands of names in your database that you treat like low-quality prospects because they never buy.  But you'll be surprised when you give them credit for orders placed from emails that they forwarded. You have a lot of high-value evangelists on your list generating a ton of business from their friends. 
9. Create campaigns for forwarders: Once you've identified these forwarders, start creating campaigns just for them. Target people who like to forward offers with great offers specifically designed for them to share with friends. 
10. Study viral success to create another: Here's the truth about viral email: You never know what works.  Examine any message that gets unusually high forwards, and try to learn what caused the referrals.  Start building likely-to-get-forwarded content into all your messages.

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Because we do a lot of traveling out of Los Angeles in regard to our web site design projects, it pays to have access to programs online. Ijust picked up this info which includes a 48 hour offer for a $55.00 discount for this online photo editing software. I am going to check the free download before deciding to purchase. It's pretty cool looking so far at http://a.viary.com Online image editing suite Aviary is now open and available to all after serving out a lengthy private beta which lasted about a year and a half. The suite is comprised of four Web-based image editing tools that aim to compete with traditional software solutions like Adobe's Creative Suite by putting all of the applications right in your browser, making them accessible from anywhere. The opening comes with the imminent launch of two new premium levels of service, which offer paying members more control over their creations than free users have. While all four Web applications are available to users at each of the three levels of service, the higher tiered plans let them save more items, remove and customize watermarks, and get access to professionally produced tutorial content. The premium plans, which go live next week (November 3rd to be precise), cost $7.99 per month or $79.90 per year for the "green" plan, and $14.99 per month or $149.90 per year for the top-of-the-line "blue" plan. You can see a full sheet of the differences here, with the key one being both the number of creations you're able to save, and the option of keeping them private. We've got 100 subscription discounts available, which knock $55 off the yearly subscription price of either premium plan. To claim yours go here before signing up. Embedded below is a quick video to show you what you're capable of doing with Aviary's tools.

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I just received my first followup that this may not be accurate. Snopes.Com verifies this check it out:  http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/taxes.asp This is more of the same distortions brought to us by the same people who seek to mis-characterize him as a Muslim.  They circulate these lies and hope you'll do what you just did;  Believe it on first read, not check it out, and then pass the lie along. TRUTH MATTERS TO AMERICANS! If you're actually INTERESTED in reading about the differences in their tax plans, go to the non-partisan TAX POLICY CENTER and read what they say about the plans offered by Senator Obama and John McCain.  The Tax Policy Center is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. The Center is made up of nationally recognized experts in tax, budget, and social policy who have served at the highest levels of government. leave some comments.

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I just received this email today that describes in real terms what are the tangible differences between Obama and McCain. Can someone please help me decipher this. INTERESTING DATA JUST RECEIVED ON TAXES. This is really going to catch a lot of families off guard. It should make you worry. Proposed changes in taxes after 2008 General election: CAPITAL GAINS TAX MCCAIN 0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples) McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax. OBAMA 28% on profit from ALL home sales How does this affect you?  If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes.  If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income. DIVIDEND TAX MCCAIN 15% (no change) OBAMA 39.6% How will this affect you?  If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama become president.  The experts predict that higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit. INCOME TAX  (OBAMA CLAIMS NO INCREASE IN TAXES….. AFTER BUSH CUTS ARE ELIMINATED!) MCCAIN (no changes) Single making 30K - tax $4,500 Single making 50K - tax $12,500 Single making 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 60K- tax $9,000 Married making 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 125K - tax $31,250 OBAMA (Reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts) Single making 30K - tax $8,400 Single making 50K - tax $14,000 Single making 75K - tax $23,250 Married making 60K - tax $16,800 Married making 75K - tax $21,000 Married making 125K - tax $38,750 Under Obama your taxes will more than double!  How does this affect you? No explanation needed. This is pretty straight forward. INHERITANCE TAX MCCAIN 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax) OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax How does this affect you? Many families have lost businesses, farms and ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax.  Those willing their assets to loved ones will not only lose them to these taxes. NEW TAXES BEING PROPOSED BY OBAMA * New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet * New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already) * New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity) * New taxes on retirement accounts and last but not least.... * New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!

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I posted recently about Dani and Eytan's upcoming book The Unincorporated Man (from Tor) Multimedia. Below is a bit more of some tidbits from Dani's resume. I think it's pretty interesting to see how a business executive type is breaking into science fiction. kind of like all the former attorneys writing fictional legal thrillers. Now we can be entertained by an ad copy guy who has figured out a way to transport us to a new dimension of science fiction imagination. Let's see if all these awards below can actually produce compelling copy. if you want to preorder from Amazon the Unincorporated  Man, just click the link.

Here's some highlights from Dani's resume.

4 out of 5 Stars - ComputerWorld: Compton's Home Library - Battles of the World

MacUser Top 50 CD ROM: Artrageous!

PC Computing Top 100 CD ROM: Artrageous!

Technology and Learning Home Education Award: Artrageous!

 

Advertising:

Pioneer Direct Marketing Award – Silver Medal: Ogilvy & Mather Campaign

 

Packaging:

American Graphic Designer Award - for N.S.E.C.T. package design and copy

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We are constantly registering domains for our new ecommerce shopping cart software customers at WebCart.net, but this deal is truly unbeatable for now. I got this domain registration tip from TiffanyDow who covers the Warrior Forum.

In the Warrior Forum today I found a great tip provided by Warrior Imran Naseem - get a dot com domain for just $2.19 at GoDaddy using the code: 199TEST (dot coms are usually around $6.95 to 10 bucks a pop).

 

And Becky (Warrior username R Hagel) provided some additional

insight:

 

"Order your domain name and proceed to the checkout. At some point before paying, you'll see a place where you can enter a "code" -- that's where you put the 199TEST...Up until that point, your domain will sit in your shopping cart at full price (around $10). After you enter the code in the box, it will show for $2.19."

 

I believe it only works for one domain, but if you've been needing one - grab it today!

There are always cool tips popping up in the Warrior Forum.

 

Join here free: http://www.warriorforum.com/index.php?referrerid=35453

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Chrome isn't ready yet for the big leagues because it doesn't integrate with Auto Form Fillers like Google's own SEO friendly toolbar, or Roboform so we still use Firefox and IE when doing web site design projects in our Los Angeles based LaDezign.com. That's why today I'm writing about a new plugin for Firefox called Firebug which puts a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse a web site.

1. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
2. Firebug is always just a keystroke away, but it never gets in your way. You can open Firebug in a separate window, or as a bar at the bottom of your browser. Firebug also gives you fine-grained control over which websites you want to enable it for.
3. Firebug makes it simple to find HTML elements buried deep in the page. Once you've found what you're looking for, Firebug gives you a wealth of information, and lets you edit the HTML live.
4. Firebug's CSS tabs tell you everything you need to know about the styles in your web pages, and if you don't like what it's telling you, you can make changes and see them take effect instantly.
5. When your CSS boxes aren't lining up correctly it can be difficult to understand why. Let Firebug be your eyes and it will measure and illustrate all the offsets, margins, borders, padding, and sizes for you.
6. Your pages are taking a long time to load, but why? Did you go crazy and write too much JavaScript? Did you forget to compress your images? Are your ad partner's servers taking a siesta? Firebug breaks it all down for you file-by-file.
7. Firebug includes a powerful JavaScript debugger that lets you pause execution at any time and have look at the state of the world. If your code is a little sluggish, use the JavaScript profiler to measure performance and find bottlenecks fast. The command line is one of the oldest tools in the programming toolbox. Firebug gives you a good ol' fashioned command line for JavaScript complete with very modern amenities to execute javascript on the fly.

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When reviewing your web site design performance, part of the challenge with evaluating your search marketing performance is analyzing where traffic is coming from to see the results it is producing. With the economy forcing budgets into downward spirals, you need to minimize your PPC spend and maximize revenues from the clicks that come in. When optimizing your PPC ads for maximum performance, sometimes you have to pretend you are driving a car and looking through the windshield of the car in front of you. What this means is that instead of focusing purely on high click through rates so that you have a strong CTR with Google, you may need to focus on your actual conversion rates (this means the people that click through who also fill out a form to take an action on your site). If your conversions are HIGH, then you can be confident your click throughs will be fine too. Remember, without conversions you won't have any money to pay for more clicks. So focus on the scoreboard, not your rushing yardage. An optimal way to make a meaningful impact conversion rates is to use the ad copy - though it is just a few words basically - to let the customer know before they click, what they should expect to see on the other side. Tease them, reveal a few things, but don't pull off a surprise effect which leaves them stumbling and looking for that exit sign. Bottom line is to deliver the message even before they reach your site. What choices are in your arsenal of delivering pre-expectation ad copy? Price, Urgency and Value. With regards to price - ie. discounts - you will likely have more clicks (thus increasing your CTR) but your conversions are at risk if the clickers are not yet in purchase mode. It sucks to pay search engines for research oriented clicks. So what you can do is to focus instead of terminology that is more closely related to a prospect who is in PURCHASING mode. The simplest method is to create urgency by using time or number of openings available. - One example is a sale date. For example, "Sale Ends Nov. 1st, Order now. use code #1234x" - Another example is to use competition in the form of "10 left at this price. sale ends today. Free Shipping!"

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