Skim through email and you will find bad English. I mean far worse than usual!

SIGNATURE LINE

The signature line doesn’t ring true either. Use your intuition. I have received some that said “Benjamin Smith, Director of Services, blah blah.” Nowhere on PayPal site will you find anyone’s name of position within company … will you? One of feelings we all have about Internet is that anonymity, and it holds true. Who “runs” amazon.com? I mean what person?

Another sure clue is those odd words or letters at bottom. I’ve tried to find out what purpose they serve (to perpetrator, I mean) and haven’t been able to, but if they’re there, there’s your clue.

In this case email is signed:

“Thank you for using PayPal. > > zapzevoe”

At other times there are several lines of letters running across bottom.

FAKE WEBSITE

Other emails will tell you to go to a URL to give information about your account. It will not be www.paypal.com or https://paypal.com but something else. Often it is a site with PayPal listed at end, like www.xxxxxxxxxx.com/paypal.htm .

DON’T GET CURIOUS

Pay attention to when you feel something’s suspicious, but beyond that don’t get curious. What are these people after? I don’t know, and I caution you not to be investigate. Just delete email or forward it on to PayPal (see instructions below). Don’t go to spoof site they list, or open attachment, or reply to email.

If you are in doubt, call business email is allegedly from. In this case, if you go to PayPal site, you will see ample information about fraud and protection of your account. Included is advice that you go to paypal and log in: https://www.paypal.com . Also that you report any possible spoof email or fake websites by forwarding email to spoof@paypal.com . You can go here https://www.paypal.com/ewf/f=sa_fake to report a fake as well. PayPal tells you how they will request information from you, for instance, using your first and last name, and that they will also request you go to https://www.paypal.com and login. If you use a service such as PayPal, be sure and check out their anti-fraud information.

Lastly, here are two numbers where you can reach PayPal: 1-888-221-1161 and 1-402-935-2050 should you wish to talk to someone.

In sum, look for these clues re: fake email and when in doubt, call company, or simply delete email without responding to it:

·Strange subject lines ·Your first and last name are not used ·Grammatical errors, typos and misspellings within body of email ·Letters strung out at bottom of email

When asking for subscriptions, don’t ask them their age, phone number, and other demographic information, or you will frighten them away. Your subscription box is not meant to be marketing research and shouldn’t be used this way. At this point, you are creating an initial contact with potential clients. Simply ask for their email address, and nothing more, and you’ll see more subscribers.

Down road, when they know you better, you can always send out surveys to find out more.

Tip #5: Give Them a Gift

Ever since we were small children, opening Christmas presents underneath tree, we have all found free gifts irresistible. You can offer your site visitors extra incentive for subscribing to your newsletter or email communications: let them know that they will get a free gift when they sign up.

This free gift could be a white paper, a free ebook, or software that they can use. Or, you can give them access to information areas on your web site, that they couldn’t get to otherwise, when they sign up and register.

If you use this technique, you should see response rates to your subscription requests go up tremendously. Don’t know how to write an ebook? This isn’t a problem. There are plenty of sites that offer free content, reports, and ebooks that you can download, and offer to site visitors (example: just try typing in "free content" into Google, and you will be deluged with links from sites begging you to give away their content).

Tip #6: Ask Them to ‘Pass It Along’ (Viral Emailing)

In lingo of online marketing, ‘Viral emarketing’ doesn’t describe teenaged hackers bent over their computer screens, sending viruses to unsuspecting recipients. Instead, it’s a highly accepted and used method of increasing email lists. Basically, you are asking those who receive your newsletter to share it with their friends who might enjoy reading great information in it. Chances are, if they like it enough, they will click on "subscribe" link (you do have one, don’t you, at bottom of your newsletters and/or ezines?), and you will have a new address for your list.

If you really want to get information passed along, offer your readers a good incentive for sharing it with others. Some sites offer product discounts, a free ebook, or points for sharing it with others. The Internet is all about sharing information, and we love to let others know about good places to learn at.

Tip #7: Give Them More Choices

People have different needs when going online, and if you design your site and subscriptions to meet those needs, your response rates will climb. Offer your site visitors different options: some may want to subscribe to a newsletter, others may want to read your white paper, while yet others only want to hear about special product updates. Create your subscription box to offer different choices, then deliver them what they asked for.

This is called ‘market segmentation’: you are meeting needs of different sectors of your market, and is good, sound sales practice that will cause your email list to expand.

Tip #8: Develop a Relationship With Your Clients

Who would you rather interact with and trust, someone you have never heard of, or someone you have had a positive experience with before? This same principle is doubly true online. You should be emailing all of your current customers in response to their questions, to confirm product orders, and other business communications in a polite, friendly manner. They will be more likely to sign up, subscribe, and ask for product updates if they’ve heard from you before, and if you are professional in all of your communications.

If your firm is active offline, be sure to give you customers cards with your web address and email address printed on them, and ask if they would like to be added to your email list for product updates. Chances are good that they will say "yes" and you will have a quickly growing email list.

By following above tips and advice, you should see your email list growing, with highly targeted customers who want to hear from you.