JBA Central Blog System

On the left column of your homepage, notice the control panel. Here is where you can manage your account and profile. From your control panel you can edit your profile, post to your blog, manage your montages, modify your account settings, and more. Manage photos, genre subscriptions, and your custom player. Compose a message and view sent and received messages.

My favorite part of the control panel is the "Icebreakers" section. Icebreakers provide some questions that will help the world get to know you a little better. Answer casual, personal, and social questions that will let others get a little closer to meeting the real you. You can answer as many or as few as you'd like, but they're fun... everyone loves talking about themselves, right? Express yourself by telling us what instruments you play, where you've traveled, hobbies and interests, and your turn ons/turn offs, among others. You can even inform us of your introduction style (death stare, smile and nod, awkwardly long hug, hardy handshake).

The JukeboxAlive control panel is a convenient way to view and manage all of your profile and account information, all in one place. Usability and the many ways to express your personality and creativity are just a few features that make JukeboxAlive so unique.

Using an email template for your email marketing campaign is a great way to save time and energy and to promote recognition from clients. MyNewsletterBuilder templates feature a wide variety of preformatted designs. All you have to do is add in your own message content and insert images into our image placeholders. You’re free to modify font size and color and add in links. You can even add audio and video to interest your clients with a creative presentation.

Here are some great reasons to use email templates:

• Clients will recognize your newsletter or email quickly so they’ll be more apt to open it and interact with its contents.

• The repetitive use of the same template will promote familiarity to clients. They can now just focus on the message’s information. When needed you can switch out the message content and update images quickly and easily.

• Using a template will help your emails to come together much more quickly, saving time in the writing, designing, and editing process.

Anyone who can send an email can use MyNewsletterBuilder’s templates. They’re user friendly and our skilled designers are constantly creating new, unique templates. Start using an email template for your email campaign today… it’s time and cost effective and a valuable tool in maximizing trust and recognition for your campaign.

Did you know that you can customize your JukeboxAlive profile to make it uniquely your own? When you log in to JukeboxAlive.com, click on the upper right hand icon that reads "My homepage." From this page you can try out the different color schemes and designs for your profile. You can even rearrange the modules on your profile by locating the move icon and dragging the components of your profile into the design that's just right.

While you're on your homepage, check out the recommended tracks from JukeboxAlive based on your currently selected preferences. You can play the tracks right from this page and even add them and save them to a playlist. These recommendations are based upon your genre subscriptions. Not pleased with what you hear? Feel free to update your genre preferences by clicking the "genre subscriptions" link. Genre subscriptions vary from acid punk to polka, techno-industrial to world tunes. Click as many of the options as you'd like... the more genres you choose the more closely we can recommend tracks for you.

If you or your friends have created or plan to attend any upcoming events, you'll be able to see them on the bottom right hand side of your homepage. If you haven't added any friends yet, use the people search tool to find friends by name, email address, location, or interest.

If at any time you're browsing JukeboxAlive and you want to return to your personalized homepage, simply click the "my homepage" button on the upper right corner under your username.

As participation in social networking increases, a good email marketing campaign should take note and strive for increased interaction with their client base. People like to be able to relate to a company or service they patronize... providing them opportunities to connect and interact with your emails can be very beneficial.

1. Add a photo to humanize your company- Use a photo of your company's mascot, a company spokesperson, or even the author of the email. Having a visual identity to attach to an email builds a layer of familiarity that can help build trust. Think about it this way: If someone requests your friendship on Myspace or Facebook, aren't you a little skeptical of them if they haven't uploaded a photo? It makes you wonder why they haven't taken the simple step to further identify themselves. It's the same idea as sending email from your company or a person in your company- clients like to be reminded who they're receiving email from and why. Also include a feedback link in the email (under the person's photo, for example) so that they can respond to the email with positive or negative feedback. This lets the client know you care about their opinions and welcome them.
2. Include audio and video when possible. Audio of someone reading an article, a video feed, or even a JBA Network eVoiceSpot presentation are great ways to engage your email recipients. The more interaction your emails provide, the more clients will identify with your company, its services, and products, an important factor in the success of email marketing.
3. Use surveys. Surveys allow clients to connect with your company in a noninvasive way that is easy for them and cheap for you. Through surveys clients can express their attitudes and preferences, which will help you to refine your email marketing campaign to target it toward your market.

The importance of a connection to your audience has been popular within print media for years. Columns typically include a photograph of the columnist along with a byline with contact information. This establishes identity and encourages interaction, both valuable benefits to your email marketing campaign.

The ByRegion Community Network is a valuable site to find the healing arts, community arts, and other community-minded services and events in your city. It’s the most comprehensive directory on the web for community-focused events and seminars, products, and services, so it’s a great place to post an event.

ByRegion receives over 5,000 unique visitors per day, which means that advertising on our site will place you in the top 1% of daily search engine results and web traffic. Have an upcoming event? On ByRegion you can post an event on our searchable database. Your ad will appear with a bold headline with dates of your event, a photo and event description. On the righthand column of your ad, visitors will view the time, cost, location, URL, and contact information. In addition to the contact information including name and email address, you can also post a link to your ByRegion community profile. All this is done in an easy to fill out form, which takes only minutes to complete.

Visitors to ByRegion search for events based on event type, category, region, and date, so the more information you can provide, the better. Promote your event on ByRegion for maximum exposure to a unique, interested community of web visitors. If you aren't already a ByRegion Community member sign up today to join the largest healing arts and business directory on the web.

Depending on your amount of research on email marketing, you may have heard of the 3 second rule. If you haven't, it can be a valuable tool to quickly determine the effectiveness of your email campaign. Here's how it works:

1. 3 seconds- Client views the email address and the subject line to determine whether or not they want to open your email.
Is your email address from a person or company’s address? This will ensure your email doesn’t look like spam. Your subject line should be less than 45 characters (including spaces). Don’t use capital letters. Do use the company’s name and/or the name of the product- you should be, after all, providing a brief synopsis of what’s in the email.

2. 3 seconds- Client scans the message for something interesting that might make them want to read the entire email message.
Here’s why it’s important to keep it concise and informative.

3. 3 seconds- Client looks for call to action so they know what to do with your email.
This a great reason to include calls to action throughout the email. Calls to action should pop out to the client… don’t make their eyes dig for them.

So there are 9 seconds for your email to be successful (it's opened, read, and the call to action is taken). During the editing process, consider the 3 second rule to maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.

Did you know that on JukeboxAlive you can search for music in a variety of unique ways? JukeboxAlive’s music search feature allows you to search by instrument, style, or any other keyword you think might yield the music you crave. This versatility in search is largely due to JBA’s use of tags. Tags help to describe a track, a musician, or listener.

If you’re going to tag a track, you can tag by genre, instrument, or any other keyword you think is descriptive of the track. For example, you may be listening to a song and tag it as “world music,” “Celtic dance music,” or “bagpipes.”

To tag yourself or other listeners, use terms or phrases that describe them or their interests. For example, “dancer,” “likes M. Ward’s music,” and “practices yoga” are all possibilities.

For tagging musicians, you can either describe an artist specifically or relate the artists and their sound to another act. For example, “wears costumes while performing,” “piano rock,” and “sounds like The Pixies” could all be possibilities.

Using tags yields a creative, descriptive search experience for everyone. You can tag a track, a musician, or a listener as many times as you want, so tag away!

In the last blog we talked about adding double opt-in clients to a special email list since those people obviously care about what your business has to offer. Over time it’s also a good practice to add those to your list that open and click through your emails. Today we’ll talk about other ways to grow your email list to maximize the expanse of your email marketing campaign.

Let’s start with this statistic, courtesy of DoubleClick Research: "69 percent of U.S. email users have made purchases online after receiving permission-based email marketing, 59 percent have purchased in retail stores, 39 percent have purchased through catalogs, 34 percent through call centers and 20 percent through postal mail."

This statistic means that email marketing is EFFECTIVE, and it should make you want to send your emails out to as many people as possible. Have the desire to get that email list growing but need tips to get started? Here are some surefire ways to add to your email list:

• Make sure your employees, particularly those dealing directly with customers, are trained to collect email addresses whenever possible.

• Include email opt-in options throughout your website and a “Join our mailing list” link in the signature of regular email correspondence. This should both bring traffic to your website and add addresses to your email list.

• If your business has a physical location customers visit, have a guestbook they can sign (at the checkout is a great place) and include a space for them to add their email address to join the email list. The same can be done at trade shows or other events.

• Make the email list sign-up form simple- only request a first/last name and email address to start with. Don’t overwhelm potential customers with an opt-in form that is too long or they might get frustrated and not fill it out.

• Make your privacy policy clear at the beginning… let them know what kind and how many emails to expect from you and how often. Assure them their information won’t be sold or traded to a third party and that they may choose to opt out anytime.

Email marketing is effective and affordable... and growing your email list is easy and the payoffs are great, so get started today!

So you're about ready to clean your house and you need some upbeat music to get those clothes off the floor and into the closet? No problem. Ready to do your nightly set of 500 pushups and you need some music to get the adrenaline pumping? JukeBoxAlive can do that. Knitting? We have music for that. Bored while playing around on the internet? We have... well, you get the picture. No matter your music tastes or needs, JukeboxAlive.com has just the sound for you.

For a quick way to get started, click on the genre of your choice under the "Listener Favorites" column on the lefthand side of the homepage. Even though the listener favorites are predetermined, you can still customize the sound by skipping songs or removing songs if you don't like them. If you like a song, you can rate it (by clicking the star and then selecting the number of stars you want to give that song) or by adding it to your favorites (by clicking the heart). Rating songs is great for you and the artist. A positive rating helps determine what songs are generated next on your playlist and also helps the artist climb in search results.

JukeboxAlive offers unique tools on our media player to make your listening experience even more interactive. While you're listening to a song, view the artist's tour information by clicking "tour" on the bottom right hand corner of the player. Create a montage with the song you're listening to by clicking the screen button on the menu bar. The browser will then open a new window where you can start working on your montage while still listening to the media player.

Love the playlist you've been listening to? Save it to listen to again another day by clicking "Save" on the bottom right-hand corner of the player. Remember that you have to be logged in to take advantage of customized playlists, so if you haven't already, join JukeboxAlive.com for free today. Then you'll be ready to start listening, enjoying and sharing!

What good is an email marketing campaign if people aren't receiving your emails? Take note of these tips today to keep the emails you send out of spam folders:

1. Use opt-in form instructions. There are two steps that should provide opt-in form instructions. The first should be taken during the subscription process by providing a redirect to a page that first confirms their desire to subscribe along with a message instructing them to add your email address to their safe sender list. Additionally, include instructions for the major ISPs (AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) so that they're clear on how to do it. The second step is to remind clients of opt-in instructions is at the top of every email. This line reinforces adding your email to their address book so that they receive your emails with all content. This ensures their ISP will deliver and display your text and images without issues that could result in your email address being blacklisted.

2. Run your email through a Spam filter before sending it. If words in your email get caught in the filter, replace them with alternatives. This simple step will make it less likely your email will be delivered straight into a junk or spam folder.

3. Market to those who've requested your emails and services. Choose a service that provides a "double opted-in" to your emails like MyNewsletterBuilder. This means that users subscribed and verified their subscription. If they double opted-in they want to receive your communications. eNews service providers that give you the option of sending out verification emails from time to time also give you added protection from being singled out as a spammer. Over time your email subscriber list will become a highly valuable business tool.

Building a successful email marketing campaign takes time, but simple steps along the way can help move things along.