I hired a financial planner yesterday. I wasn’t exactly looking for one, but as you’ll see shortly, he was hard to resist.

First off, you should know that doing this has been on my mind for some time. Here it is the last half of the year already, and I’ve been talking seriously about hiring a professional for… let’s see… July, June, May… about 14 years. More or less since the birth of my first child.

The truth is, I’d probably put it off for another 14 years had I not met Tim. Tim is a financial planner, and a new E-Newsletter client of mine. Read More »

I play basketball every Monday night, in my town’s middle school gym. It’s a great bunch of guys, and with the average age hovering around 40 — and with games that typically involve more braces, bandages, pads and miscellaneous prosthetic equipment than would be required to rebuild the Six Million Dollar Man — it’s very relaxed.

We don’t even pick who plays with whom — we just put our names on a big sheet of paper and when your name comes up, it’s your turn to play. Because it’s completely random however, the teams aren’t always evenly balanced, in size or in skill. Read More »

“People are strange, when you’re a stranger,
Faces look ugly, when you’re alone.”

– The Doors

A few weeks ago, I received the following email:

“My wife heard Mr. Katz speak somewhere and thought he was the cat’s meow. Read More »

Okay, so you’re busy. There’s a financial crisis going on, there’s a mid-term election going on, there’s school ending just a week away and you still have no idea what to do with your kids.

So I understand, you’ve got to prioritize.

And besides, in these hectic times in particular, it would be wasteful – even frivolous – to burden your clients, prospects and others with one more E-Newsletter that they need to read. So you gather your staff (or dog, if like me, you work alone) one Monday morning and announce: “How about we wait until things settle down a bit? Then we’ll start publishing our newsletter again.” Read More »

I wasn’t planning on having knee surgery. And yet there I was, one week ago today, following the anesthesiologist’s instructions to “count backwards from 100 by seven” as he put me under. (I believe I got as far as 93.)

My original injury took place during the Gulf War. Not to say that I was actually in the Gulf War, it’s just that my injury – the result of a misstep while playing basketball – also occurred in 1990. And although I’ve continued to both run and play basketball since then, I’ve been living with a “trick knee” these past 18 years.

The “trick” itself is not as much fun as it sounds, and while it only occurs about once a year, it does so with predictable results: Read More »

Several years ago, the company I worked for was purchased by a telecom giant whose name I won’t mention, other than to say that it kind of rhymed with “Hey Tea & Tea.”

A few weeks after the announcement, we got word that the CEO of our new owner was coming to town to speak on a panel. Hoping to get a first hand look at him, a bunch of us drove into Boston to see the event. Read More »

You wouldn’t try dieting without regularly stepping on the scale or taking out the old tape measure or looking in the mirror once in a while would would you. The same is true with email marketing.

Measuring your results is more important than the results you actually get. With accurate statistics about your email marketing campaigns, you are armed to successfully improve your campaigns. And improvement is the name of the game. Let’s look at what type of things you can track and what each statistic means for your campaigns. Read More »

My wife Linda gave me Steve Martin’s book, Born Standing Up, as a gift last week. I finished it the same day.

I’m fascinated by “behind the scenes” stories, particularly when it comes to hearing about the early years of people who went on to become famous or successful. The book doesn’t disappoint in this regard. Read More »

If you’ve worked hard to build your list of qualified prospects, email is a great way to stay in touch with interested buyers and prompt them to visit your site or call so you can sell your products. Once you’ve built your list, send out a weekly idea, tip or case study and you should instantly see a surge in sales.

Often, though, online businesses that take all the right steps to build a sizable list of prospects suddenly stop seeing results. Read More »

This should be your mantra when email marketing. Measuring your results is more important than the results you actually get. With accurate statistics about your email marketing campaigns, you are armed to successfully improve your campaigns. And improvement is the name of the game. Let’s look at what type of things you can track and what each statistic means for your campaigns. Read More »