Optical Disc Technology

Optical Disc Technology  » Tips & Tricks for More Efficiency

Tips & Tricks for More Efficiency

When running an online business, there are so many important

details to remember to take care of. Between the website

maintenance, answering emails, writing articles, organizing ad

swaps, searching for ezine content, etc., etc., we tend to get a

little overwhelmed sometimes.

I would like to share some of my timesaving tips & tricks that I

use to help me get things done more efficiently.

*Ezine Publishing

Save each issue of your ezine and just change what is necessary

for each issue. When you come across a resource you would like

to share with your readers, you can then just open up the

template and slap the resource in place.

Print out all your ad swaps and write the date that each ad will

run as you finalize each swap. Keep them all in their own file

folder, so each week (or when your ezine is published) when you

go through them, the dates will be easily seen and the ads will

be organized. I find that this way of organizing my swaps is

much easier than searching through email folders and floppies

for the correct ads to run for each issue. I also use this

method with my ad sales.

Keep all your past issues on floppy or CD, so when you reuse

some of your ads or promotions you can just copy and paste into

the current issue.

*Writing & Submitting Articles

You definitely want to have an idea notebook. Each time you get

an idea for an article, write it down in the notebook. I usually

get my ideas as I am getting Web Success ready to send out, but

when I do get an idea between issues, I will write it down.

As you are writing the article, think to yourself, what

information did I need and/or want to know about this subject

when I was first starting. Just start writing as if you were

telling a friend or family member about it. For me, it flows

more naturally that way.

Have all your editor emails and article list addresses saved in

their own email file. Also, save your "Dear Editor" email. When

you finish each article, paste it into the saved email, copy and

paste your editor addresses into the Bcc line and click send.

Next open your saved article list email, paste the current

article into it, paste the list addresses into the Bcc line and

click send. What could take an hour or more now takes about 10

minutes.

*Answering Emails

If you are in affiliate programs, write and save a welcome email

for each program. As you are notified of new members, go to your

saved welcome messages, change the name and email address and

click send. This is much more efficient than writing a new

message for each new member.

Have email folders for organizing your emails. If they do not

require an answer you can then just put each one into it's

proper folder. If they do require an answer, then drag them over

to their folder after you answer each one. Of course, you want

to save them to floppy or CD before distributing in folders. I

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have folders, for ad swaps, ad sales, subscribers, new affiliate

members, affiliate sales, contacts, feedback, resources, sales

made from my website, etc., etc. Each of these folders also has

a floppy or CD backup.

*Website Additions

If your webpages are uniform, it is easy to make a new page. I

just go to an existing page, copy the whole page, paste it into

the new page, change the wording that needs to be changed and

the page is finished.

I also use this method with sections of pages that I need. Copy

the part of the code that you need and just paste it into place.

This saves countless minutes of typing!!

These are just a few of the things that work for me. I realize

that they might not work for everyone. If you have your own

method that works for you, that is great! One method definitely

does not work for all, but if you are looking for ways to get

your business organized, these ideas might work for you!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com

MyOwnEzine.com is a website, ezine and service which

provides the resources, tools, guidance and more to help

you start, publish and promote your own ezine. You can

contact Terri at mailto:ter02@newnorth.net Subscribe

at mailto:subscribe@myownezine.com or visit

http://www.myownezine.com for lots more info.