Edition #119
Last night I had dinner in Washington DC with Tom Kulzer, the CEO of Aweber.
In case you didn’t know, Aweber is the company I use to manage my email lists (such as Eric’s Tips).
We talked about some of Aweber’s new features, several of which I was not even aware of. One of the cool things that I didn’t previously know about is their “geo-targeting” feature.
It allows you to segment your list by geographic location. It’s not perfect, but it gives a good estimate of most locations.
So if you received an email about this edition, please let me know: is the location in the subject line of the email close to where you live? If you’ve got a minute, I’d appreciate if you could post your location in the comments of my blog. I also think it will be neat just to see where everyone is from.
Aweber also has a mapping function. I’ve posted a map below which shows where all of my subscribers are located around the world:
According to Alexa.com, only about 50% of all visitors to the Eric’s Tips blog are from the US, and the map from Aweber seems to coincide with that number.
It’s a little mind-boggling for me to think about all of you reading this all over the world, and very humbling at the same time.
We also talked a lot about email strategies and statistics. Tom is fanatical about that type of stuff, and he gave me a lot of great information. He actually posts a lot of great tips on the Aweber company blog, which is a goldmine of information for their customers.
Since a lot of you have been asking me for “more tips” lately, I’ll share a couple of them with you here.
Best time of day:
Morning is by far and away the best time for emailing your list. Most emails are opened in the 9AM-10AM range. While I don’t always stick to it, I often send my emails just a little earlier than that, to make sure they arrive shortly prior to this hot zone.
Best day of the week:
While it seems that it might be getting a little overly-used in the internet marketing community, Tuesday is often the best day to send an email to your list.
Avoiding spam filters:
While you should avoid spammy keywords in your emails (to stay out of spam filters), you should NOT use special characters and weird spellings in an attempt to get around the spam filters. Doing so will only make you look more like a spammer (I need to go fix that on some of my older autoresponder messages).
I hope you found those helpful, and Aweber has many more helpful materials and tips for their customers. If you’re not already building a list, you NEED to be. And if you don’t already have a company that you’re using, I highly recommend Aweber.
Remember to post your location in the comments so we can see where everyone lives 🙂
Have a great day!
Launching a new site today traffic-diary.com to report on what really works to drive traffic to my main website GreatWebLayouts.com — and I’m in Nokesville, VA.
Dan
I am in Piermaritzburg, Kwazulu Natal and not Midrand in South Africa.
Hi Eric,
it’s right, I’m from Italy and in the Rome area. Terrific!
Andrea
Hi Eric,
Yes I am from Sweden and Tumba is very close, a little less than 5 miles from my present appartment! As a matter of fact I lived there six months ago when I moved to Norsborg, which is the correct postaddress where I live now. It really felt very special when you wrote Tumba in the subject line. You suddenly felt much closer and personal. I am interested in things like that myself, I love to look at Google Maps. I have a sponsor in a health care business who lives in California and I can see her HOUSE ! in Google Maps!
Thanks
Birgitta
Hello Eric
Aweber got it right, I live about 6 miles from Daytona Beach, Florida
Love your tips, they are one of the ones that I really pay attention to.
Vickey
I am in Piermaritzburg, not Midrand
Hi Eric,
The location was almost correct. It said Campbell, I am in Gungahlin ACT, Australia. About 10 miles out.
cheers
Robert
Hi:
I live in Taft, California. For you country music fans, Taft is 30 minutes from Bakersfield, home of Buck Owens.
Hi Eric,
I live in Canada, Cornwall, Ontario. That is between Ottawa and Montreal.
I like your newsletter and special the new program reviews.
Thank you,
Olga
Hi
Yes , I am from around Kuala Lumpur.
I always look up your mails for tips and advices.
Most of them are very good and honest.
Thanks for all your tips.
Bye
Sorry Eric,
This is my subject line: Reimund, are you in the area? (let me know either way)
I’m from Hagen, Germany
Best Regards
Reimund
Eric-
You got my location pretty close (one own over).
Except I’m not there – I’m in DC with you.
Joe
PS. I just woke up late (9:19am) and I feel like I
had a few drinks last night, maybe too many 🙂
Notification of Payment Received.
lol
Hi Eric,
Yup, got it right, Valley Village, CA!! What’s funny, is that it used to be called North Hollywood (I still refer to it as N.H) but they just changed the name to Valley Village about a year ago and I am truly amazed that you were able to get that correct so soon after the name change! That’s pretty cool, oh and so is your Newsletter!!!!! Thanks!
–Eleni
Thanks for all the great advice!
Hey Eric
I am from Austin . thanks for the tips
Keep Austin Weird
doc
Don Holland
Cullman, AL 35057
Hi Eric,
According to your letter, I live near . I am a subscriber from …
So, I guess Fort Collins, Colorado (Your own hometown) doesn’t mean much to Aweber 🙂
I’m not sure why I got the global citizen location, but it was kind of funny.
Eric I am from Littleton, Colorado
Eric,
Just as an FYI, your “subject line” has me pegged in a town 15 miles from the town in which I live. No big deal here but, in a situation where small communities might be more competitive (e.g. rival football schools, etc.), I suppose that could be a perceived insult to some.
I can’t tell you why AWeber might think I live there, unless it is because they have a slightly higher population. While that may be true, we have higher taxes; doesn’t that count for something? – lol 🙂
Cheers,
laserjim
Eric,
you’re within 5 miles of my actual city of residence. Close, but close enough? If this is an email tool, how important is 100% accuracy? Any thoughts on that–can one miss by a few miles and still impress the recipient?
Bill
http://www.layapostles.com
Hi Eric,
No I am not in New Delhi. I am far down south at Chennai, which is nearer to the southern tip of India. New Delhi is way up North.
Are you planning a trip to India? Would love to meet you in person.
Your news letters are informative. Please keep it up.
Regards,
Rangarajan Chakravarthi
You asked for my location and if it was within the Lansing, Michigan area.
It is.
I live in selden which is one town over from centereach.
Hi Eric…Aweber slightly out…..I live in Australia but my location is Sydney, not Canberra 🙂
You got it right Eric.
Thanks for the tips…
Hi Eric,
Well, at least it got the state right. Fargo is the biggest city in North Dakota, but is about 5 1/2 hours away from me. I live closer to a town known as Minot, ND, which is in the upper central part of North Dakota, whereas Fargo is in the southeastern corner of the state. The actual town I live in is Stanley, North Dakota, about an hour’s drive from Minot.
Make it a great day!
Spot on Eric. I’m from Gloucester in the UK. That’s a cool tool aweber has got. I reckon it must use some kind of IP location as that’s about the only way it can be so near perfect.
Robin
You had the country correct. I’m in Malaysia, but the city was wrong. I’m in Kuala Lumpur, not Damansara.
Thanks for the great tips.
http:///www.makemoneystayinghome.net
Hi Eric. I’m in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Dulwich Hill. Your email had me in ‘Glebe’, which is only a few suburbs away.
Your email had it just about right… I am about 15 minutes from Farmington, Michigan where it can’t make up it’s dam mind on the weather!!!!
Cool experiment 😉
Melissa from around Farmington, MI
Hi Eric,
I have never heard of Hurstville Grove although there is a Hurstville in Sydney, Australia. This is about 600km. from where I am from so at any rate you got the country right.
Kay
No address on your email but I will claim the single dot west of Bribane Australia as being Grandchester Queensland.
Great little system.
My location was completely blank. I live in Waukesha, Wisconsin, which is right outside of Milwaukee, WI
Hi Eric,
Your software was correct, I’m from France
Regards
Dan
http://rachat-credit-info-pret.com
Seems I live in which isn’t correct.
I’m not surprised that you’re surprised that only half of your subscribers are in the US.
Sometimes I think there is a USW for you and a WWW for the rest of us.
One marketer was so unaware of the rest of the world that his sign-up form required a USA
telephone number. I was given the number of a local Chinese restaurant by
a US colleague. Hope they phoned and got a ton of beef with black bean sauce
dumped on their doorstep.
As for teleseminars etc. most marketers don’t seem to know that the outside
world doesn’t have the same time as the USA. Who wants to get on a call
at 3am local time?
I live in Lethbridge Alberta Canada.Keep the good info coming I like It a lot.
Denny
Greetings from Dream Big Media in Manhattan
You got it Eric, I’m from Makati, Philippines and it’s scorching hot this time of the year.
Hi eric
I am from Cricklade. WIltshire UK. The first town on the mighty Thames river.
Only 8ft wide and 2 ft deep at this point.
Your an amazing guy – keep up the good work
James
Hi Eric,
I’m in a suburb of Los Angeles, Redondo Beach, CA
Hi Eric
You are right. I am from Singapore which is a small country below Malaysia.
Thanks for all your tips.
Ken Kee
http://www.kennethkee.com
Hi Eric,
I am in the Washington DC suburbs. @11 miles from the White House…Baltimore is in the title, the Inner Harbor is @27 miles away.
Not sure what criteria is used. Comcast my Broadband provider may be based in Baltimore.
Regards,
Yes, Eric. I am in Tallahassee, Fl. home of the FSU Seminoles & Bobby Bowden. Everyone in the U.S. seems to know that. I am not a football fan but this town is football crazy!
Hi Eric, Yes aweber was somewhat close. Considering that Century Telephone only services certain parts of the country, they weren’t far off. Actually we are in the first planned retirement community in the country ( http://www.cherokeevillage.org ) slightly east of north central Arkansas, and 40 miles east of Mountain Home. We started our internet business in 2000 in Mesa, AZ and went through the normal wasted effort that most do, before we found a manufacturer who would sell to us, and now our business has grown by over 500% per year for the last two years, and is projected to do better than 530% in growth for 2007, so far with nothing more than SEO. We moved to Arkansas in 2004, and we are now working on the largest project yet, a 60+ page web site that will be a one-stop shopping experience for beginning marketers everywhere, and yet serve as a home for a local marketers club that were are forming. We have been to two of IMC’s seminars, one of Ken McCarthy’s and several others that should remain nameless, and an Ebay University seminar, in order to help us decide what direction to go, and since we have decided that, our business has grown, and to paraphrase Karen Carpenter, we have only just begun. Joel sent us your article about Ladan, and we thought it was the best piece of inspiration that we have ever heard, and if you don’t mind, we would like to use it as the lead-in article for our “motivation” link on our new site. It was great! If anyone is interested in updates on our new site, you’ll have to email me at our azgrand site until we get the new one online, hopefully by mid-April. Thanks for the great information, and keep up the good work.
Your email didn’t have a location for me. I’m in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Your email subject line was very close. Ponte Vedra Beach U.S.
I actually did live there for years, I’m about 15min away now. Cool feature. I was surprised at the demographics for my newsletter. U.K – Australia – U.S – Singapore took the top spots.
It certainly made sure I opened the mail 🙂 I thought ought oh I need to tidy the office Eric is dropping by lol.
Regards,
Tom
Brooklyn in the house! Thanks for the interesting info. Keep up the good work.
Yes Eric, you are right, I am in Hong Kong.
Hi Eric,
You have me in Nanton (very small town) a hundred miles away, in the same province of Alberta. I live in a rural area 1 mile outside Calgary (Pop. of approx. 1 million). Calgary is between my residence and Nanton, thus, it is more logical to say I am from Calgary.
Hi Eric
Slough is 5minutes away fom Windsor Castle, the Queens “sometimes” residence, and is not far from London, England (UK), my mother lives there actually. I live about 400 miles to the North West in a small village called Arlecdon, it’s pretty impressive technology all the same.
I like the map, the UK seems to be a HOT SPOT for your fans.
I think you have a loyal following because of your honesty and integrity, this shines through in your entertaining and informative writing and reviews, keep up the good work Eric.
Best wishes
Roger
Hi Eric
Mine didn’t say anything.
Im from Larnaca, which is in Sunny Cyprus.
Gill