As gas prices climb, so does online spending. Online retailers may have high gas prices to thank for the increase in the number of US shoppers making purchases online. We’re all affected by skyrocketing gas prices, which, according to a recent eMarketer article, are resulting in fewer trips to the brick and mortar store and more web surfing for American consumers. 11% of consumers from a recent Nielsen survey said that they are now shopping online (up from 9% in June 2007), and more than half of the respondents from a related study said that high gas prices were an incentive for that choice. Click here to read the full article.

The idea of developing a website is often overwhelming for our clients. The good news is that we’ve ironed out a process that works really well for both us and for our clients.

It all comes down to completing one part of the project before starting the next. It sounds simple, but here’s what it looks like in action.

1. The first step to making it a pain-free process is in the proposal. We do our homework on competitors to gauge how high the bar is and to confirm we’re on the right track with our recommendations. Being specific with examples and ideas in the proposal helps us avoid any he said/she said later.
2. Once the proposal is approved, we build a timeline. I hear so many horror stories from clients about their web development firms overpromising and under-delivering. I think it all stems from not doing a correct specification and from not having a proper timeline.
3. Next, we have a kickoff meeting, usually by phone since we work with clients all over the world. The whole Wright Strategies gang attends to hear your hopes and dreams for your website “straight from the horse’s mouth.”
4. Then we get down to business. We write a content document that will include every word on your website and design and finalize a homepage.
5. Once we have content and a basic design, the rest is generally smooth sailing. We design another key page (or pages) from your website so you can get a feel for how your website will look.
6. Finally, we have a little break while the programming team gets busy making it all tick. We do internal testing, release it to you for testing and then launch!

It is a lot of steps, but they are almost the same for every project. And after doing this for 13 years, we’ve found that this is the most efficient way to build you a fabulous website.

A recent study published by eMarketer shows that Internet users worldwide are becoming more likely to unsubscribe from email lists that they opted into (and even report them as SPAM) based on the content of the email. Among North American respondents of an April 2008 survey, one third said that an email’s content was a deciding factor for making an email legitimate.

Other key factors included requesting to receive an email (72%), as well as the email address and name of the sender (48%). While maintaining a focus on SPAM compliance is important to email marketers, the study suggests that actual email content should also be visited to maintain high email response rates. Click here to read the full article.

If you have a website that’s been live to the public for longer than six months, at some time you’ve likely received a seemingly endless stream of email messages marked as “undeliverable” in your inbox. It looks as if someone has been sending tons of SPAM using your email account, and its one of the more unsettling moments in website ownership.

What happened? Through the magic of server technology, it is possible to send email pretending to be from ANY email address without owning, or having access to, that domain. A random spammer can send out thousands of email messages from anyname@yourdomain.com. If you own the chosen domain, you will receive all of the bounces from those emails. This is a very frustrating situation for all of the recipients receiving the SPAM and also the main domain owner, who gets all the bounced emails.

What can you do? Since spammers aren’t actually using your email or server to send these messages, there’s not much you can do to stop them. However, hosting companies are getting better at quickly blocking mail coming from servers that are sending illegitimate email. Once the initial bounce-back subsides, you generally won’t get many more emails since the sending server will have been shut down.

If you ever encounter this situation and have questions, please don’t hesitate to call us here at Wright Strategies so we can help put your mind at rest.