Lito2380 http://lito2380.com Just another WordPress site Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:51:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Market Right With MailChimp http://lito2380.com/market-right-with-mailchimp http://lito2380.com/market-right-with-mailchimp#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:30:29 +0000 lito2380 http://www.lito2380.com/?p=1146 Email Marketing, in my opinion, is still the smartest way to stay in touch with the majority of your customers. You will always have young adopters that scream social media, but the truth of the matter is that the majority of people still do not engage businesses through the most popular social networks. This is why it is smart to make the connection with your customer on a more personal level. Email provides you with this one-to-one interaction. Every message sent out is an opportunity to connect with your audience in a slightly more profound way where he / she can respond back to you by simply hitting their reply button.

I myself have personally written to several businesses when I have felt that what they are offering is truly exceptional. I get email newsletters all day long from all different types of companies. The ones that stand out to me are those that take the time to write specific messages that are catered to the list that I subscribed for.

So, having this bit of information in your head now, how can Mailchimp help you market right?

Consider this – Mailchimp lets you start your email marketing efforts by letting you have 2,000 FREE subscribers for life. Each month you will have 12,000 free messages. This means you can actively send 6 messages per month for FREE to up to 2,000 subscribers. What better way of starting your email marketing efforts than that?! Second, Mailchimp is one of the only email marketing systems that I have come in contact with that let you plug in a professionally designed template and update it with WYSIWIG ease.

To get your email campaign started – just apply for any account. Once you have the account verified, you will be able to generate a signup link and code. You can either embed this into your email signatures, send out in an email message to your contacts, or plug it into your website.

Alternatively, you can hire someone like me – and I can talk you through your options. I am always available and happy to help you get your email marketing started. Happy Marketing!

 

]]> http://lito2380.com/market-right-with-mailchimp/feed 0 Collect your stacks with Pancake App http://lito2380.com/collect-your-stacks-with-pancake-app http://lito2380.com/collect-your-stacks-with-pancake-app#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:06:18 +0000 lito2380 http://www.lito2380.com/?p=1074 If you’re starting up a new business or if you are looking to streamline your current business and have been searching for a payment management system that WONT cost you an arm and a leg – then consider Pancake App! This application lets you easily and efficiently manage your client invoicing, estimating, proposal writing, and financial reporting all from one simple dashboard.

Pancake App is written using CodeIgnitor, the rapid PHP development framework. I came upon it after I started looking for an alternative to Freshbooks. Now, don’t get me wrong; there is nothing wrong with Freshbooks. It is actually quite nice. However, I did not appreciate the recurring monthly fee for billing only a limited number of clients. Albeit I don’t have more than 25 clients right now, I sure do believe that by this time next year I would have been paying a lot more for the same service. Pancake App let me replace that monthly fee for a single payment of $50 bucks. That’s right, for what it costs me two months of Freshbooks I have a lifetime software that will be constantly upgraded, is extremely easy to customize (with a little bit of PHP code), and is totally ready for some fresh skins.

It was a no brainer making the switch. And best of all it provides me the opportunity to offer a service to any of my current or future clients! Since it is a self hosted service and application, you have to install it on your web server. It can be a subdomain (i.e. http://billing.domain.com) or it can be a sub-directory like I have it (i.e. http://www.lito2380.com/billing). Either way works just as fine. When you create invoices, the system emails a copy to your client and provides them the direct url to their invoice.

Since Pancake App is so easy to install, I can set it up for anyone wanting the base installation for $50 dollars. So think about it, for $100 bucks you get a complete billing solution straight on your server. You collect all your data, you can customize it any way you want, you can skin it any way you want (extra fee for that), and you will always get free updates from the guys over at Pancake. It is definitely time to give systems like Freshbooks a serious thought.

Now, let me make it clear that Pancake App is NOT (you hear me, NOT) a replacement for Quickbooks Pro. In fact, I still have my own copy of Quickbooks Pro installed on my computer and utilize it for everything I do. Pancake App is simple an easy interface for me to communicate back and forth with my clients that they owe me money. They log in, see what is left and can keep track of their payment plans. Yes, Pancake Apps lets you setup payment plans for any invoice! Quickbooks Pro however is still your full accounting solution and should not be overlooked when it comes to tax season.

Anyways, if you have any further questions about Pancake Apps, feel free to call me, email me, chat me, write me, txt me, video me, or anything else. LOL! I will be glad to answer your questions – give you a quick walk through of the system and send you text invoices. For more technical information on Pancake App – visit their website at http://www.pancakeapp.com

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