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!
Eric,
We sell ebooks and informational products and software in this rural South Dakota setting. Aweber nailed the closest post office, 6 miles. Not our ZIP code, but pretty good, none the less.
Thanks for the tips, they’re a good company, that’s why I use them!
The location was close.. It said Vancouver BC, but I’m actually live on Vancouver Island, BC about 35 miles offshore from Vancouver.. Voted one of the most beautiful places on earth… See you at the 2010 Olympics here in Vancouver, Canada
Hi Eric,
I am from Bakersfield
Hi Eric,
There’s only one small (but significant) problem with most geo-location via ip – and that is: it is utterly dependent on the ip address/es of the end-user’s ISP and/or mail server/s (this is true for BOTH browser ip and email ip addresses – and they may well be and often are quite DIFFERENT). This can often show locations to be FAR from the actual end-user’s location, especially these days with ISP’s (especially in the UK) actually taking feeds from ANYWHERE in the country and shipping the data/connections over trunk links to whichever of their servers happens to be most convenient to THEM.
This problem is even worse (i.e. MUCH less accurate) if you try to identify a user from their email ip.
Do it for ANY of my ip addresses for example, and despite being in Reading, UK (neither of which did your email pick up or show BTW) you will find that my browser ip will typically provide you with either a London or a Hull location (about 50 and 250 miles away from Reading respectively). My email ip on the other hand will typically show Virginia USA (I host over 40 domains on US servers as this provides better performance for my main target audience which is US) and I collect & send email from around 20 of those domains into and out of one collection account (inbox) in Outlook and/or Thunderbird depending on whether I am running XP or Linux that particular day.
In addition and for obvious reasons, Hotmail, Gmail, MSN mail, AOL etc. etc. will all likely provide locations from their ip’s that differ wildly from where your clients actually live.
Bottom line is that the browser client ip is probably most accurate but only for a fixed desktop PC, and then typically only to country level (close to 90% plus accurate), with a decreasing accuracy as one tries to narrow down the final location to say a district or local area. ONLY by going through the ISP with a formal request (and usually ONLY with an appropriate court order) can an actual end user location be identified to a specific physical address with any real level of accuracy.
With the number and prevalence of OPEN, private Wifi networks around even THAT cannot be taken for granted. Anyone who uses a Wifi connected laptop, PDA or Smart Phone these days could literally be browsing from ANYWHERE at different times of different days in different cities in different countries. Oh yes! If the end user, like many people I know (myself included), is using a VPN or say VNC to connect to another system on which the browser is ACTUALLY running, then they could physically be right next door to you or even ON THE SAME NETWORK but appear as though they are in Timbuktu. It is perfectly possible to use this to “Time Travel” around the world appearing as though you are jumping from country to country in split seconds.
Given all the above – good luck with your geo-location testing – seriously! Keep up the great reviews and tips.
Best regards, Bob Lewis
Hi, aweber thinks I am somewhere called ‘Farington’, not sure where that is, but I am in Central London, UK, and the weather here is trying to be spring-like. Even better, the clocks went forward today so it is now officially British Summer Time!
Best wishes to all on Eric’sTips newsletter, one of the few in my inbox that is actually worth reading!
I live in beautiful central Pennsylvania, Harrisburg to be exact. And the location was correctly listed.
Best wishes to all!
great newsletter . keep up the good work
Yep, right on – Boca Raton, Fl. Your tips are great – keep em comin’
It seems to lock into the users internet provider location as Rocky Comfort Mo. is where we submit payment.
My 2 questions to you are as follows:
1) how does this compare to Googles in Analytics?
2) how did you get your aweber response to customize to the point that it asked where Rocky Comfort was actually at. By doing this it appeared that you had sat down and personally wrote to each of us. COOL!
On the subject of emailing… whilst, ( I love the way the Brits use this word in their sales pages!)
you have their attention Why not use a form which gives them the ability to fill in a small amount of response text indicating what day and what time would be best to hear from you which will do to things for you:
A) make the relationship instanly seem more trusting, more personal. (as with Eric’s always.)
B) more importanly basically by asking what they prefer, it’s like setting an appointment with them which is what you’d be doing in the non-virtual world if you wanted to solicite someone.
Scotch
No place was mentioned for my location in the Subject of your e-mail.
I am located in S.E. TX, Vidor, TX to be precise.
Hi Eric,
You almost nailed it. Pretty cool – I actually live 10 miles from Corvallis in a town named Philomath.
Dennis
OneMan OneVision YourSuccess
Just down the road.
Fort Collins, Colorado
Hey Eric,
ummm Dallas is a LONG way from where I live lol I’m in Queenstown New Zealand.
Hi Eric!
Yes you are right! I’m from Sintok, Malaysia, about 45km from Alor Star.
Hi Eric, In response to – How’s the weather in Priestdale Lagoons…?
You’re in the general area. I’m from Loganlea, just south of Brisbane, (capital city of Queensland, Australia).
Interesting to see how many people are tuned into your Newsletter. Thanks for this contact, as I’m learning all I can about Internet Marketing to be part of the worldwide revolution of the great communication trend of reaching people everywhere.
Hi Eric,
Yes it was almost right, about one
hours drive north of where I live.
I live on the outskirts of Sydney, Aus.
Thanks for the great newsletters and tips,
very much appreciated.
Cheers!
Helen
Hello Eric, Moama ? no right country though but I’m actually in Talbot , which is in the Central Goldfields Area of Victoria.
Keep up the good work and be lucky!. Derek.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
right on target, pensacola fl
Yes, I am in the Auckland area. North Shore to be exact which is one of the 4 cities that make up Auckland.
Hi Eric,
It’s very close. Alma Michigan is eight miles from the little town of Elwell, Michigan which has a pop. of about 80 people!
Hey there Eric,
Aweber is right.. I’m in Sedona, Arizona, although it would be nice to be in DC with you guys!
All the best,
John
Frank says, i am in ST Petersburg, fL
Hi Eric, I’m in central Florida. I live in Winter Springs and have been a member here for about a month or so. I actuall had an idea for a website where it would be like a product reveiw for everything from web providors to money making opportunities, etc. I was pleasantly suprised to see all of the reveiws you provide on this site for free.
Keep up the good work because it’s really appreciated!
James Redd
Hi Eric,
Tallahassee Florida is close enough.
Great way to get interaction from all your guests.
Love your stuff.
Thanks.
Kimberly Spear
Hi Eric, I’m from Markham Village, Markham, N Greater Toronto Area, ON, Canada.
Much impressed — actually got me to scan through ALL the entries looking for any subscriber from my area. Also saw names of list owners that I subscribe to.
Would appreciate anyone geographically close by to offer expert advice and partner with me in creating a viable Internet business by the end of 2007 /2008.
I am a retired HS teacher (69) and have purchased several domain names, domain hostings, affiliateships, bargain bundles, the works, but realized that quick and personal help (for an Internet illiterate) was non-existent. Many promises were never kept. Some were outright fraudulent. Hence the need for an “eyeball2eyeball” reliable contact physically close at hand.
Thanks for this opportunity.
I do live in York, PA. and the weather was beautiful today. Bill and I took a nice long bike ride. We always ride on the week-ends when the weather is nice…..Have a great week every one……Jude
Well I am close to you…Loveland, Colorado. Also a laugh out loud goes to the user who spent so much time explaining their specific location and city…and the generalizations your program took in finding their location…only to refer to Utah as a city.
Pretty cool Eric…I’m in Charlotte, NC.
That’s what it said on the email!
Jody says:
Eric, your email was correct. Yes, I do live in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.
The temperature at the moment is -8, so spring is a little late getting here as usual. We do not feel too much of a change until the end of April.
I enjoy your tips and find them useful.
Keep up the good work & God bless you and yours.
My email had no address, but you have found me in Venice, Florida, where I seem to be about six months of the year…the rest of the year, I can be found in Roxbury, New York…unless, I am abroad…
Hi Eric,
Well, you got close. I live in Silver City, a small (very small) town, roughly 250 miles (driving miles not air miles) southwest of Albuquerque. There are between 15,000 and 20,000 people in the whole county, the last time I heard. That results in less than 1/3 person per square mile. So we have a lot of elbow room. It results in some nice advantages too, like being able to look out the window of my office and watch one of the resident gray foxes eat the cat food I put out for a stray cat, or at this time of year watch the quail bring in their babies to feed. We call the babies “corks” because that is what they look like, a small cork with legs. Once in a while I set up my camera and snap some shots. I have some nice wildlife photos, taken out my office window. But enough. I wanted to thank you for the tips. I always enjoy your tips ezine. Thanks so much for sharing.
Ken
Tim,
I am only 20 miles from Odessa. Very impressive!
Darrin
Hi Eric
The map is close. I live in Oakland which is about 20 t0 25 miles from Hayward,
I’m located in Olds, Alberta (one hour north of Calgary) – Central Alberta, Canada.
Yup, I’m in Shrewsbury; a small town in PA just 4 miles north of the MD border off I83.
Hello Eric,
Aweber was correct that I am in the United States.
However it decided that I was in Rochester , NY. ( wrong)
No dice.
I am based in Southern Oregon!
I suspect I know why it did this based on my previous career in Email Technology. However no doubt that by examining email header information will tell Aweber quite a bit.
With the volume of mail they process, they probably can pick up pretty quickly when certain parts of the internet backbone are slow or down.
We are spoiled in general how reliable this system has become over the years, but still we do have the occasional outages.
Thanks for sharing a picture of your subscriber distribution!
Regards,
Dexter
http://www.GetDexter.com
Hello, Eric;
I’m actually in Sioux City, IA, which is considerably north of Dallas, TX. But at least the same time zone!
Hi Eric,
There was no location in the subject line but I live in Detroit, Michigan. I actually live about 30 miles north of Detroit in a small town.
Hi Eric,
Your email message certainly made me look twice.
My location is listed as ‘Eumungerie’ (wrong, but we share the same small-town postcode) – which is about an hour’s drive from where I live in Nevertire – ‘Almost the Outback’ NSW Australia. Not far by our standards – we drive our school aged children to Rugby games that are over a 500km round trip!
Very dry, and very flat out here – cotton growing/cattle country. It’s interesting to see the strong percentage of your subscribers who are from the Australia/New Zealand area – I’m a Kiwi by birth.
I like your emails – I’m getting quite jaded by some of the constant sell-sell-sell from some of the big guys, so your articles are a breath of fresh air. Loved the Ladan Lashkari article – it made me have a good hard look at myself!
Michele Hamblin
Wow, all of these exotic places are reading your tips and I just have Phoenix, Arizona to report.
Dear Eric,s !
Yes, I am at Karachi Pakistan.
Seattle is correct
Eric,
I’m from Austin, Tx…actually, Lakeway, Tx. Nothing showed up in the location field for me. This is interesting stuff. I’m not into using mailing lists yet, but I do keep almost all of your notes on file for future reference!
Hi
Thanks for the tips.
Continue to send………..
Hello,
Your email was right. I live in Los Angeles, CA.
Hi EriC,
city : corect (bigest city)
country : corect (unfortunately)
Eric,
To punish me becouse I didn`t manage yet to move in California, Australia or Japan, click on my name.
I whish to all a happy monday morning 🙂
Valentin
Both my email and subject line didn’t contain any geographic information. Anywho, you can put me down for Baltimore, Maryland, “ole chap”!
I am in Utah, USA, a place for skiing, & snowboarding, and also surrounded by beautiful mountains.
Hi Eric,
I’m from Melbourne, Australia. The suburb in the subject line was a suburb about an hours drive from me, across the other side of the city.
P.S. Love your work!