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 »

It all began innocently enough. My brother-in-law Holly was over at the house a couple of Sundays ago, when he overheard my wife Linda talking about how much she hated the flowered wallpaper border in our family room – something we inherited when we bought the house four years ago.

Holly pointed out how easy it would be to just pull the whole thing off. Sure enough, the next thing I knew, my entire family was tugging on flowered wallpaper from all directions.

Personally, I had no objection to the death of the flowered wallpaper. Not because I hated it, but because in four years of living here, I’m pretty sure I never noticed it. Read More »

It’s important to learn how frequently you should contact your subscribers. But just what do you talk about with them from the very first encounters all the way up to when they have a lot of knowledge about your company and what you do?

Be Honest and Give Them Useful Information

When you first make contact with them, you should treat it just as if you are meeting a new person for the first time. You wouldn’t Read More »

I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. Last week, in no uncertain terms, my daughter, Emily, told me that I was cut off. Done. Finished…

…No longer would I be permitted to borrow her iPod when I went to the gym.

First of all, according to Emily, I was “getting it all sweaty.” Second, and much less disgustingly, I was “running down the battery life,” a phenomenon which was apparently wreaking havoc on her finely tuned listening schedule. And while I considered pointing out that she had been running down my battery life for the previous 12 years, I had to admit that Emily had a point. Read More »

We’ve all been in a high pressure sales situation as a buyer. And, if you are like me, the only thing you wanted to do was run away!

The most effective salesmen create a relationship with the buyer and give him or her the information necessary to make a smart decision. Salesmen who help in this way usually have buyers pressuring them to sell them the car. Instead of running away, the buyer might say, “I’ve done my research and this is the car for me! I’m ready to buy.” Read More »