Why Your Email Campaigns are in Junk Mail?

Junk mailRecently, a friend of mine shared the success rate of printed junk mail which lands in your resident mailbox is only 0.1%. It’s an awfully low rate if you ask me. If you sent out 1,000,000 resident junk mail the probability of you sealing a deal is only, 1000. Not to mention the habitat of Sumatran rhinos Honda and Nuffnang are trying hard to help rebuild.

Big horny animals aside (pun intended), this offline junk mail is online widely known as email spam. As countries like US and Australia too have instilled their CAN-SPAM act, Malaysia as usual is frolicking behind and many businesses are wasting their time spamming ‘customers’. While their outgoing number is very much higher than 1,000,000 their closing is less than 0.1%. Reason is simple, the email are ending up in the junk mail.

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When Your Website Structure (Information Architecture) is Flawed?

Sitemap flawedPart of any website strategy is to plan your web site architecture also known as website information architecture. In short, the information architecture is a blueprint of your information or a website sitemap.

It’s always easy hearing about it and this is deemed one of the easiest because it’s just organization of information in your website itself. However, I have found many who are ignorant of organizing their content in a manner only made sense to them and not the user.

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RM2998 to Own Apple iPhone in Malaysia

Apple iPhone priceA fellow commenter (Global) has recently shared with me there’s a company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia reselling the unlock versions of the Apple iPhone. They are sourcing the Apple iPhone units direct from the USA and utilizing the iphonesimfree software (IPFS) to unlock the devices before shipping them to Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Middle East, and Europe.

Woohoo! Sounds great doesn’t it? Well, to be one of the minority of Apple iPhone users in Malaysia you will need to burn RM2998 or RM3680 for the device. Global has also informed he did place an order and hasn’t found a problem using Maxis, DiGi or Celcom. However, there are a few things you will want to know.

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Maybank2u myzone Removes Web Design Contest Terms and Conditions

maybank2u myzone web design teaserPreviously on March 19, 2007 I shared the news on how Maybank2u is organizing a web design contest for its new myzone website. Then recently, the Surf! magazine also had a maybank2u website review which reminded me I still had to come up with something for the maybank2u myzone contest.

I decided to start on my maybank2u myzone web design entry later because entries were accepted from 12 midnight on 16 March 2007 and ends at 12 midnight on 15 September 2007. During the 6 months, I would have definetely come up with something but I decided to sleep on it and let it flow in.

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Will iPod Touch overule the iPhone in Malaysia?

After a 100% success turnover with the article; Why Malaysia is Not Talking about the iPhone?, I have finally found a suitable and qualified follow up regarding the Apple iPhone in Malaysia.

It’s uncommon for me to blog about gadgets or hardware technology related articles but the Apple iPhone was a given. The #1 reason is besides Jason or Kenny getting their hands on it, I’m anticipating and want to own an Apple iPhone for myself here in Malaysia. It won’t be too long now especially after the hacking of the iPhone.

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When Is a Blog a Blog?

websites made simple blogAt first it was, a blog is a personal journal or space for anyone driven by writing to release their tension or thoughts to the world. But today, because blog publishing engines are crossing the gap between a blog publishing engine and a Content Management System (CMS) by itself…where do we draw the line?

While both are publishing engines per se, CMS are built to be flexible and expandable to do more than publishing. It’s about being able to manage more than webpages. It’s about being able to fit the kitchen sink inside the fridge and the fridge inside your website space. That is the number one reason why many systems become over cluttered in the end but I’ll save that for another time.

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50 Things I Learned in Web Design

Malaysiaku GemilangIt wasn’t easy coming up with a blog entry for this auspicious day. I had several ideas listed down from 50 reasons to start blogging, 50 ways to monetize your blog, 50 tips to improve your website today to 50 things I want to achieve by 50.

There were a couple of other 50s topics but I thought it wouldn’t be suitable for this blog. In the end, after pondering over 5 different topics I decided I should share with everyone the 50 things I learned in web design.

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Word Spelling Affects Search Engine Optimization

alphabet blocksIn the US, they pronounce flour as “fla-ar” but in the UK, they call it “flower”. When it comes to the spelling, there is a close difference between each written language. What’s bad especially is how most software and application set the default language as US.

If you were to type analyze, it is correct based on the US syllabus. However, our English syllabus in Malaysia follows UK, we should be spelling it analyse. Right now as I’m continuing to type, Mozilla Firefox is saying analyse is wrong. When in fact, it is correct if I were to practice the correct spelling I’ve learnt in school.

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10 Easy Ways to Handle Constructive Criticism

No say evilSurveys are a great way to do market research and to understand the preference of your target market. Besides that, in web design and development we have usability testing too. The test is a way to spot not only website usability weaknesses but the effectiveness of a well designed user interface (UI).

Advertising agencies on the other hand have design surveys to help identify if the new loge they may be proposing works with the target audience. With the Internet, many designers now find their feedback from blogs, forums, social networking sites and online portfolios. But I’ve seen many come under the pressure of the harsh comments or sweet compliments. So how do you keep your cool and handle it well?

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Being Selective of Your Blogroll Links

No LinksRecently a friend of mine; goldfries, came up to me in the forum to tell me he’s added me into his Blogroll due to my content. Goldfries blogs about computer related topics from hardware reviews to games and has got some insightful tips on how to buy your next computer.

When he told me that, I assumed he wanted a return link as well because that’s what most bloggers want in return if they link to you. However, goldfries isn’t your average blogger therefore he told me it isn’t necessary to link back as he noticed I don’t even have a Blogroll on my blog. But then we got to talking about the Blogroll and why the need to be selective.

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