The Bojo Blog

We have a new Twitter account.  Please follow us and we will return the follow.  http://www.twitter.com/GotBojo

We have a new group on LinkedIn.  Log in to www.linkedin.com and search groups for “Bojo”.  Join in on the discussions.

Oh that’s right…you can now use your Bojo on Craigslist.

“What does this mean??”

It means a bunch of things, really. For starters, your Craigslist ad will be far more personalized, professional, specific, and trustworthy. Wouldn’t that make you more likely to respond to it?

Since you can’t link off to external sites from Craigslist, and since you can only upload so many photos to describe your item/ad…your Bojo makes it possible to concentrate your information in a “hub” of sorts. Selling a car? Link off to the Carfax. Renting a room? Link to pictures/floorplans. Posting a job? Link to the company site.

And do it all right from your Bojo.

Craigslist isn’t too picky; all you have to do is paste your Bojo’s HTML in the box when you’re creating your ad, and voila, you’re the classified king/queen. You can grab your Bojo’s HTML code by logging into your Member Center, clicking “Install this Bojo”, and selecting “VREO Mail”. Copy all the code in the box (make sure you get it all!) and paste into your new Craigslist ad.

There’s much more info coming soon…

But for now, if I told you, I’d have to kill you.

I thought about my recent post, What is the Value of a Bojo, and how Email Ideas centric that post was.  As much as anything, it was written to help me organize my thoughts about our product.  OK, that is all well and good.  But how can you judge the value of your Bojo.

The tool below will help you determine the value of a click to your website.  We are all in different businesses and leads and viewers cost more or less depending on the amount of competition we have, the cost of the products we sell and so on.   Google provides a neat little tool that will help you determine the cost of a click for keywords if you were to buy Google Adwords.  

https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox

When you go to this page, you must enter only a few bits of information.  The first field is titled Enter Keywords.  Enter a keyword that is good for you.  I tried a couple like “home owners insurance” and “home mortgage”.  Then the only other required field is step 4, the Targeting field.  I entered the United States for the Country and left everything else as a default.  The report shows you CPC – Cost Per Click.  That is the amount of mony you have to pay Google for each click.

The results are quite interesting.  For my sample keywords, my results were:

home mortgage - Average CPC: $19.91 (and the  maximum CPC was $48.93)

home owners insurance - Average CPC: $17.74 (at a maximum CPC of $50.00) 

atlanta real estate - Average CPC: $3.19 (at a maximum CPC of $5.98)

work at home - Average CPC: $2.18 (at a maximum CPC of $4.76)

What does all this mean?  First, it means it must be really expensive to get leads if you are in the insurance or mortgage business!!  I can’t imagine paying $17 to $50! … just for a click.  It takes a number of people clicking before you get one who will fill in a contact form and become a lead and then even fewer who become customers.  It also shows you how to calculate costs for your industry.

Try this excersize for you business or industry and see what clicks would cost you.  If you’d like to share your results, post a comment.
 

I did some analysis last week. I wanted to see if I could quantify the value of my Bojo.

So, how do you prove the value of a product like a Bojo?

To start, I went to my statistics page. (www.emailideas.com, click on Login, then View Statistics). I noticed my Email Ideas Bojo was viewed about 50,000 times last year. Yes, I send a lot of emails. However, the real surprise was the click total. For the last 12 months, I had just over 2,000 clicks. That is 2,000 visitors to different pages at emailideas.com as a result of me sending emails to people.

I was kind of impressed with that number, but that really does not tell me the value of the Bojo. So I compared those numbers with our Google Adwords campaign. We buy keywords from Google for “email signature” and other keyword phrases, to drive people to our website. Those keywords cost between 75 cents and $1.25 per click. If you allow me to keep the math simple, I’m going to use a $1 per click average.

Now I have something. My Bojo produced $2,000 of traffic to our website in one year!!

Not bad for a product we give away for free.

John

 

 

Is Wikipedia a verb yet? I think it is, or at least really should be. You know, “Hey Cornelius, Facebook me about that raucous party Milton is throwing,” or, “Chauncey, did you Facebook that girl you like?”

Well…folks, come and Wikipedia us. For we are there. On Wikipedia.

Now that that exciting little bit of business is over, here comes the meat and potatoes. Mmm…starch.

Many of our users don’t have a clue what email program they ought to be using. Some use whatever version of Outlook came with their computer; some use whatever webmail corresponds to their Instant Messenger; some use HorridMail for Windows 95 or something–and for them, life is glib. They’re 14 years behind the technology curve and don’t know what to upgrade to.

*Trumpets sound*

Don’t worry, I’ll save you! I may not wear my underpants on the outside, but as you can imagine I work with a lot of different email programs.

So here are the recommendations:

Webmail:

If you’re often on-the-go and need access to your emails from multiple computers, you definitely need a webmail service. But which one? Gmail. Of the lot, Gmail is the easiest, fastest, and offers the best support. Automatically forwarding all your mail into Gmail is a cinch, and it is fully HTML-compliant–which means we very rarely have support issues with Bojos in Gmail. Can’t necessarily say the same for other webmails that change their HTML rules constantly.

Client Email:

If you pretty much read all emails on one computer, and like the security of downloading messages to your hard drive, client email is the one for you. But which one? Thunderbird. Mozilla’s Thunderbird is easy, fast, and FREE, and since it’s open-source, you get a support network of tech geeks the world over. If you’ve switched to the Firefox browser, you already know that Mozilla does it right. Same with email. And again, Bojos work flawlessly in T-bird.

So why have I done this?

Why risk angering the Microsoft and AOL and Yahoo gods? Well, because as long as you don’t have a serious in-the-blood allegiance to your current under-performing email service, why not switch to the best? We want the best for you. It will almost certainly wind up saving you time, energy, and money.

Huzzah!

Hey–I haven’t heard from many of you in a while. I do love your feedback!



Oh, you heard me right.
Check out the new look. You like?
Compliments to Joe at http://thebuckmaker.com/ for the killer design and outstanding support!

But the facelift is only one piece of the puzzle!
We’re integrating the way you interact with the Bojo community.

Instead of blasting out emails every time a new blog post is published, we’ll be automatically updating our RSS subscribers, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers. So if you aren’t a subscriber, fan, or follower yet: get on it, I don’t want you to be left behind!

I think this can all be wrapped up in a delightful limerick.

*ahem*

Oh if you wish to know,
Your source for the Bojo,
With news and fun,
For everyone,
Check out the buttons below!


 

Folks, we’re delighted you survived April Fools, and even more delighted that you’re using your time to soak up useful Bojo blurbs. But, this relationship has left us wanting more…

That’s right, we want to read YOUR blogs! And why not? After all, you steadfast readers are the cream of the crop, the crème de la crème, the…cream of…wheat?

The point is, you guys are on the cutting edge of your own industries, and all of us at Email Ideas are truly curious what you’re writing about. The usual role of a blogroll is to help generate mutual website traffic, and sure, that mission shall be accomplished. But mostly, we want to compile a collection of our users’ blogs so we can learn more about you, your needs, your business, and what we can do to assist all three.

On a personal note, I think this is a pretty cool thing. How often do Google and Microsoft and Apple express specific interest in you and your words? They sure haven’t asked me lately, and since Email Ideas is clearly more than triple the size of those companies combined, this is quite an offer.

On another note, how many times has Microsoft used sarcasm lately…

So that’s all: we’d love for you to add www.emailideas.com/bojoblog to your own blog, and we will graciously do the same. Just post a comment below with your blog’s URL!

 

 

Forgive me! I’ve been so cryptic lately.

I keep hitting the “social networking” buzzword in these blogs, and I’ve neglected to really expound on that.

We all know the online social networking behemoths out there: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Linkedin, Myspace, Bebo. We all know that these networking giants receive billions of visits per month. We all know there’s boatloads of potential in the world of social networking. At this point, I feel safe to assume that you (yes you, devoted reader) are already involved in social networking. Fair? Great!

What I’m here to do is help you start tying your Bojo into the mix.

Feel free to scan this next part until you find your social network of choice.

               Facebook

Well, you’re one of 175 million unique users, and it’s about time you learned how to link directly to your profile. Simply logging in and copying the URL won’t do it! But fear not–we have an ace up our sleeves.

1. Log into Facebook and view your own profile. In the URL you’ll find an 8-or-so-digit number (id=12345678). This is your profile ID. Save it!

2. Now log into your Bojo account and edit your information. Change one of your tabs to “Facebook Me” or something like that, and paste this URL:

http://www.facebook.com/people/@/12345678 (substituting your ID for the numbers, of course)

3. Voila, you’re all set! Check out my example Bojos below for the finished product. Elizabeth Ward Small is a friend of ours, so be a friend of hers!

               Myspace

Linking to your Myspace profile is easy as pie, cake, or any other tasty confection.

1. When you created your Myspace page, you set up a “vanity URL”. For example: www.myspace.com/myspacevanityurl

2. Now log into your Bojo account and edit your information. Change one of your tabs to “Myspace Me” or something like that, and paste this URL:

http://www.myspace.com/myspacevanityurl (substituting in your personal URL, of course)

3. Voila, you’re all set! Check out my example Bojos below for the finished product. The example I use is my musician friend Jeffrey Joslin. Feel free to add him as a friend!

               Twitter

Linking to your Twitter page is walk and/or gallant stroll in the park.

1. When you created your Twitter account, you set up a “vanity URL”. For example: www.twitter.com/twittervanityurl

2. Now log into your Bojo account and edit your information. Change one of your tabs to “My Twitter” or something like that, and paste this URL:

http://www.twitter.com/twittervanityurl (substituting in your personal URL, of course)

3. Voila, you’re all set! Check out my example Bojos below for the finished product. Oh, and feel free to follow for notices when we update the Bojo Blog!

               YouTube

Linking your Bojo to a YouTube video was covered in February 19th’s blog, so let’s focus on linking to a YouTube profile instead.

1. Your YouTube account name is the end of your vanity URL. For example: www.youtube.com/youtubevanityurl

2. Now log into your Bojo account and edit your information. Change one of your tabs to “YouTube It” or something like that, and paste this URL:

http://www.youtube.com/youtubevanityurl (substituting in your personal URL, of course)

3. Voila, you’re all set! Check out my example Bojos below for the finished product. In case you haven’t seen “Evolution of Dance” (YouTube’s most viewed video)…it’s high time anyway!

               LinkedIn

With 35 million business users, there’s a good chance many of you reading have LinkedIn profiles. Link your Bojo to it! LinkedIn is a little bit tricky–like Facebook, they don’t allow vanity URLs, so we must be tricky ourselves and work around it.

1. If you have a LinkedIn profile, make sure you are NOT logged in. Then, search within LinkedIn for your name. The URL on that page will look something like:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/475/138

2. Now log into your Bojo account and edit your information. Change one of your tabs to “Get LinkedIn” or something like that, and paste this URL:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/475/138 (substituting in your personal URL, of course)

3. Voila, you’re all set! Check out my example Bojos below for the finished product. Feel free to add John, our CEO and President, to your network!

               ActiveRain

This is for you real estate folks, because I know you’re out there–lurking–creeping through the electronic annals of the Bojo Blog.

1. ActiveRain allowed you to set up a vanity URL. For example: www.activerain.com/activerainvanityurl

2. Now log into your Bojo account and edit your information. Change one of your tabs to “ActiveRain-or-Shine” or something clever like that, and paste this URL:

http://activerain.com/activebrad (substituting in your personal URL, of course)

3. Voila, you’re all set! Check out my example Bojos below for the finished product. Check out Brad “ActiveBrad” Andersohn’s blog!

I know…that was a little bit of dirty work, but it was necessary. You now know how to get your Bojo involved with your existing social sites, and it’s about time! Why in the world should email be exempt from social networking? As the #1 use of the Internet, you’d think email would have been woven into networking long ago.

We’re curious about other ways our dear Bojo users are utilizing social networking. Well…I am at least, so if you’ve ventured this far, you brave soul, go ahead and leave a comment! How do you connect with clients/peers/friends/colleagues in your industry? What works for you? How do you think your Bojo could assist additionally? Drop a line, share ideas, and get the most out of the Bojo community!

If you don’t, we will find you…

So what is this ePaster thing anyway?

Answer: it’s a tool that lets you paste your Bojo into stuff.

It’s as simple as that. You download the ePaster, add your Bojo to it, and begin pasting. In fact, I’ll be using my own ePaster to add my Bojo at the end of this blog–it’s really just that easy.

But ease and brevity aren’t enough reasons to use something. Those Reebok pump-up shoes were easy, and quick to inflate, but what did they actually do? Correct, friends…they did nothing (though all the kids who had them would insist they made running easier, or something). Allow me to take a few moments to unpack just what sort of “stuff” the ePaster can drop your Bojo into.

Emails. Well, this is the obvious one, isn’t it? Whether you use webmail (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, GoDaddy) or an email client (Outlook, Thunderbird, Macmail), the ePaster can stick your Bojo on the end of a new message. If you use multiple email addresses and multiple mail clients/webmails (as do I), this is the easiest universal solution to using your Bojo in all of them. If you alternate between emailing your personal contacts and your business contacts (as do I), the ePaster lets you cherry-pick which messages contain your Bojo. If you have multiple Bojos for different companies or different job roles (as do I), the ePaster allows you to switch back and forth between them.

Blogs. I hinted at this earlier. All blogging sites worth their salt are HTML-enabled. At the end of your blog, double-click your ePaster, and your Bojo becomes your new, personal, traffic-generating signature (scan on down to the bottom of this impeccably-written blog for an example).

Digital documents. Wow, that sounds hi-tech! Sorry to disappoint you terribly, but MS Word documents are digital documents. So lets picture a scenario in which you, clever soul, shall distinguish yourself. Scenario: you type up a truly inspiring report/paper, use the ePaster to add your Bojo as a signature, and email the document off to the head honcho/big fish/grand poobah of ____ organization. When they open the report on their computer, all those nifty tabs surrounding your Bojo will be live and active, and you’ve just put your personalized stamp on the whole thing.

Websites. Websites are built using HTML; Bojos are built using HTML. It’s a match made in Heaven! The ePaster can drop your Bojo’s HTML straight into your website’s source code, and continue your personal branding on all levels. If that all sounded just a bit too techy, check out exactly what I mean.

Starting to get the big picture? The ePaster takes the “email” OUT of “email signature”. Your online presence exists in blogs, on your website, in your published works: your personalized signature should work there too, shouldn’t it?