Newsletters aren’t forever.

91% of all your current subscribers will unsubscribe at some point. This doesn’t mean, however, that the rest of 9% will stay with you forever. They will either delete/not open your emails until you will remove them from your list, or they will just hit the Spam button instead.

Now that we cleared that up, we can start focusing on what newsletters are really all about: creating a pleasant and mutually beneficial relationship with your customer, for as long as possible. And just how long would that be? I’m glad you asked.

In order to satisfy my curiosity on long-living newsletters, I created this survey. The results are not encouraging. Almost half of my respondents unsubscribe in under 1 year, and only 2 of them still read the newsletters 4-5 years after subscribing (only e-newspapers and job related newsletters). The rest of them aren’t as determined, but they still unsubscribe in 4 years at the most. This doesn’t give the usual business a lot of time, so you should make the most of it while you can. Here is how.

This isn’t about you.

It’s all about your customers, and you’ll should give them whatever they want. Concentrate on providing interesting content in an unintrusive way while keeping in mind the latest trends in email marketing.

Your customers will want to know what your newsletter is all about, take MailChimp’s advice and write exactly that in your subject line. Try to avoid lines unnecessarily creative, that look like magazine headlines, or unnecessarily boring (naming each newsletter “Newsletter” might not be best way to go). Instead, adapt the style to your business and the brand’s personality. Also, chances are that more than 30% percent of your customers are already reading your newsletters on their phones, so make certain your email is smartphone friendly.

Don’t give them any reason to leave. The top two reasons of unsubscribing are lack of content relevance and a high email frequency, so be sure to provide interesting content to each of your subscribers, and don’t send newsletters too often. Start by giving them a choice when subscribing: do they want general newsletters, or they mostly like promotions? What subjects are they interested in? How often would they like to receive emails? And then give them exactly what they asked for.

Personalize the content the best you can, make it engaging and valuable. Experiment, to make sure you are choosing the best option: use A/B testing, split test the emails, segment the list. Try using preheaders and check your stats after each newsletter. Analyze them and make the next email even better.

Due to inbox overflowing and the new priority policies applied by email providers (like Gmail’s priority inbox), reaching and maintaining engagement will become increasingly difficult this year. However, this will also mark the difference between the opened-and-read emails and the ones who’ll never make it. Tools like PadiAct and PadiTrack can really help you figure out what works, especially if you have a long term strategy in mind.

Integrate social media into your newsletter. A recent report shows the email/social media competition for attention is getting more serious. Shouldn’t you just dump email altogether and go for the next best thing? The answer is no. Email marketing might be getting old, but it’s more effective than social media when it comes to delivering traffic to your website, as Jesse Noyes showed not long ago.

Besides, social media is perfect for branding and PR, but purchases rarely come from these sources, perhaps with the exception of Pinterest. Furthermore, your customers are social beings and they will appreciate the ease with which they can share the awesome content you created for them. So go beyond email and social media and integrate them with everything else, e-commerce, offline activities and up-to-date technology.

Give them an easy way out. Unsubscribing must be a click away at all times. And don’t worry, no one will hit Unsubscribe just because they see the button. But if they do choose to leave you, you might want to use an exit survey as the unsubscribe page (keep it short, though). In this way you can find out if you can do something to improve the newsletter for the other customers, or it’s more of a “it’s not you, it’s me” situation.

Mind the big picture.

While this article focuses mainly on content, the perfect newsletter might still remain unopened without a good email marketing strategy, so think long term. Moreover, everything else you do has an impact on your customer relations, and implicitly on subscriptions and sales. You cannot afford to overlook anything, from design to the way your employees interact with your customers, everything must consistently reflect your brand’s values.

Why is this the case? Of all the reasons for long term subscription, my respondents said the most important one is the usefulness of the information, with 95% of votes. It makes sense, we know from the reasons for unsubscribing  - this is the newsletter’s most important feature. The second one, with 62% (respondents can tick more than one box), is a general appreciation for the company’s communication style, voice and personality; the third, with 36%, is simply liking the company. And here is where branding, PR, product quality and everything else come into play.

So, what does make for a perfect newsletter? All you have to do is provide smashing content, avoid making any silly mistakes, and be a lovable company. Easy peasy, right? A thing to remember is not to worry if most people stop reading the newsletter after 1 year, a perfect fit is a matter of chemistry. Pay attention to those who stick around for 1 year or more, they are the ones you appeal to. Maybe you should be looking to attract more people like them.

What is your experience on the matter? Do you still read newsletters years after subscribing, and why? I’d love it if you shared your thoughts in the comments below.

Sources: clickz.com, copyblogger.com,  mashable.com, customerthink.com, econsultancy.com, mailchimp.com, getresponse.com and their 2011 Report, digital-results.com, smartinsights.com, campaignmonitor.com.

Exercising regularly is very important for our health. It can be hard at first to get used to a routine but in time, besides the fact that results WILL show if you stick to it, it can become hard to miss out on a “session”.

One of the ways to start getting addicted to any kind of exercise is start jogging. It involves the whole body so every muscle is put to work while running.

Before trying to convince you to start jogging, let’s see what is means first.
When I first started jogging I was in my first year of college. I remember running like there was no tomorrow and after 5 minutes I wanted to cry and call my mommy. Lucky for me I had a great sports teacher who thought us that jogging doesn’t mean actual running like kids do but running at a slow pace.

Jogging means running very slow, landing on the heels and pushing yourself forward with the ball of your foot. Knees have to be raised at every step and also the arms need to relaxed and swinged forward and backwards alternatively with the opposite leg. Breathing is also important, it has to be regular and deep.

Everyone can jog at their own pace. If you can’t jog at first, you can start by doing a fast walk, after a few sessions alternate the walk with a little jogging and after that you’ll get used to jogging the whole time. It’s all in the exercise and of course it depends on how much you want to do this.

The good thing about jogging is that is has these big advantages:

1. It’s free
Since we live in difficult times going to the gym might be a problem for some. In my area a good gym with good service costs a fortune and the ones that are affordable can’t always provide what one needs for a good workout.

2. You can do it whenever you feel like it
Since all you need to do is go out and run, you can do it whenever you can or whenever you want. I see people jog at 6 in the morning or at 11 o’clock at night. You make your own schedule, the streets don’t close at a fixed hour.

3. ALL of your muscles are involved
While running, all the muscles in our body are involved in the process, including our heart. Besides the fact that jogging makes us look great it’s also a great cardio exercise. It makes our heart stronger too, not only our legs.

4. Stress relief and happy fellings
Yes, jogging also contributes to our state of mind. While jogging, our body relieses some endorphines hat contribute to our state of wellbeing. Some say they feel better while they run because of this. Frankly, I don’t, but I feel the sensation of happiness afterwards.

5. It burns calories
Well, that’s why people jog, right?
Running is a great way to burn calories. You don’t just work out the abs or only your feet, you work out everything when jogging. The calories burned in the process differ from person to person (it depends on the sex, age, height and of course weight). A man weighing 190 pounds burns approximately 350 calories in half an hour of jogging, while a woman weighing 160 pounds burns aprox. 250 calories after a half an hour of running.

The one big disadvantage for runners is winter time.
It can be pretty tough to go out for a run when it’s snowing outside, but if you’re carefull and protect yourself from the cold you can continue the routine even when it gets a bit rough.

People who jog have slimmer waists, lower blood pressure and are more optimistic so if you decide to lose weight in a pleasant and very affordable way, jogging is the way to go. It’s not that easy at first but in time it can become one of your favorite activities which is a good thing.

Sadly though, this applies to “grown ups” as well and in this difficult times there are more and more people who find themselves broke at the end of the month.
While the “golden rule” is to save up at least 10% of your income, the truth is that sometimes we forget about that or have no way to do it at all and end up clenching our butts while waiting for the next pay day.

I was actually one of those people who was happy to receive the new paycheck, spent all of it in less than 3 weeks and then wandering what the heck to eat until next month.
It was fun at first because it was a new experience but in time I got tired of not being able to go out, pay the bills in time or even buy food.

The best solution to this problem is, in my opinion, organising the money in such a way that they won’t finish early. I can’t even count the times I thought “finally, a normal month” and then got another bill or forgot to do something that requires spending money.

Organizing money is actually easy (or at least is should be).

The first step in organizing money is to write down all your important expenses: rent, bills (phone bill, gas bill, internet bill, etc.), bank rates (if you have those), insurrance and everything else that is important and can lead to trouble is you don’t pay.
These are the most important expenses. You can’t live without a roof over your head or without electricity…

From your total income, deduct all of these expenses. From now on you work with what is left of your salary.

The second step is to see what other expenses are left. Car fuel, monthly bus passes, magazines and newspapers, cosmetics.. things that are important to you but noone will come after you with a stick if you don’t pay.

Deduct these also and see what you have left.

Third step is to divide the remaining money into periods: divide it by 4 weeks, divide it by 10 days or however you like and allow a certain spending limit for each period. This way, after you buy food and other stuff (toilet paper is important, for instance ) you see what you have left and if you consider you can afford a pair of new shoes or a new coat, go for it. If not, well it’s actually your choice but you can end up with no money at the end of the month again.

These are the 3 steps I actually take when organizing money that “come in” (and are always welcomed).
We have rent, 3 monthly bills and car insurance. That’s it. I think we can manage to live without extra TV chanels or special phone plans that cost a fortune.
After that there are some “transportation expanses”, important but affordable. Then there’s food and as long as we don’t eat lobsters for dinner we can manage to go out from time to time and have a drink or see a movie.

Organizing money is easy but not much fun especialy when you see how much of it you have to give away. That’s reality and it’s tough but you can see this as a wake up call. Maybe after seeing how little money are left after all the bill paying and other stuff you usually spend money on you can see where you could cut back and maybe put some aside for rainy days.

Now, I’m not gonna bore everyone with details about this holiday because we all know what it means. For some it’s a happy ocasion while for others it’s another reason to empty their wallets. It doesn’t need to be this way though. Expensive gifts are not always the best way to say “I love you” so here’s a few tips on how one can save money for Valentine’s Day and still manage to cook up a nice surprise for their significant other. Here are a few ideas:

1. Flowers.
Instead of buying the most expensive bouquet or the biggest one you find, buy a single flower. The most beautiful one you find of course. One means unique, more mean… well, I don’t have to spell it out for you.

2. Chocolates and a card
I think this is the most classic gift for Valentine’s: the favourite chocolates and a Valentine’s Day card. But that’s overrated. Instead of a card, you can write down your feelings on a simple piece of paper and then apply just a little bit of your perfume on it (don’t bathe the paper, just add a few drops). If you put your love letter in an envelope, the smell will ”stay there” and it will make it a lot more special than a card with someone
else’s already printed thoughts. With the chocolates I can’t help, unless you can make your own.

3. Dinner reservations
Instead of going to a restaurant where you’ll spend all of your savings, you could prepare dinner at home. Together, of course, so it’ll be more fun. Light up some candles in the kitchen, pour some wine and begin the cooking. You could cook your favorite meals, bake a Valentine’s cake or even make simple heart-shaped sandwiches. Cook whatever you want, as long as you do it together it will be fun and who knows where it may lead to later?

There are so many ways of showing your love to someone without spending half  your income. These are just alternatives to what we see in movies so if you have other ideas, please share. Surprising your loved one with a nice gesture never gets old so if there’s a way to make someone smile and feel special without being broke the next day I think you can call it a win – win situation and it’s worth taking advantage of.

Here are some of the things that make it difficult for you to go from one month to another without empty pockets

1. You’re always in debt

Most people have a mortgage, car payments and maybe student loans. It’s not ideal, but for some this is the way to get a head start in life. What if you’re still borrowing money from friends and relatives? What if, aside these ‘big’ debt, you’re getting in some small money ‘obligations’? STOP IT NOW! Stop asking for money, learn how to live paycheck to paycheck without getting yourself into bigger debt.

2. Your credit card is your master

I know you have some good deals with your credit card, I know you love shopping even when you actually don’t have the money for this. MANY Americans are now in HUGE debt because they’re doing the same. Get yourself a debit card or set your credit card with ZERO overdraft. Ouch, that will mean you can’t buy a new plasma TV and pay for the next 12 months for it. It will mean you have to be disciplined, because the bank will not release a cent, if it’s not first in your account.

We are not disciplined ‘animals’ and this really helps.

3. You buy to feel better or just because it makes you happy

Deal with your problems in another way. Start yoga, go to a therapist, have more sex. Anything, but shopping sprees. If you know you can’t stop from buying useless junk, just don’t go to the store. We were in Spain, the past 2 months. On January 6th a HUGE sale week started (I assume it’s more than a week, anyway). Amazing prices for everything you can think of.

My sister-in-law went to El Corte Ingles (some sort of a Macy’s for them) and invited me to go along. I know I cannot see those hot prices without buying something and, since I’ve already set myself to save more money, the outcome was clear to me: I wouldn’t get out of there without a huge gap in my finances. So I didn’t go.

If I know I need something, then I visit the store. if not, there’s better ways to relax then visit stores.

4. Trying to outshine your neighbors

I have seen many people almost broke just because they were in a constant ‘contest’ with their neighbors and relatives. Don’t do this. You are YOU. Save money for your FUTURE, don’t squander it for a bigger TV, even if yours is already excellent. Don’t buy 6 cars (as one of my neighbor) only to keep the parking space occupied and lose money on insurance and all other expenses.

I find myself being looked ‘weirdly’ by some of my relatives or neighbors who cannot understand why I don’t dress ‘appropriate’ or drive a huge car. I can afford it, can’t I. Yes, but I like my money to be saved, spent for my business or spent traveling. I’d rather have the experience of seeing a good part of the world and bettering myself, than wear a $500 purse, when my camera (I wouldn’t need a purse for other than carrying my DSLR) easily fits in a $40 second-hand camera rucksack I got from ebay.

Learn the VALUE of your money and try to manage it better. Having money in your accounts means you’re facing ‘tomorrow’ better, no matter how that tomorrow looks like.

What other habits do you think leave us broke?

Fruit smoothies are everywhere, mostly you can buy them at fast foods, but it’s a much better idea to make your own. It’s pretty easy to make and it’s always a good idea to know what you put into your mouth. I always prefer swallowing a big dose of vitamins instead of a big dose of calories…

Let’s see what we need to make a fruit smoothie. I used bananas for this one, but you can use whatever fruit you like (peaches, strawberries, blueberries, etc.)

3 bananas
a medium yogurt
1 glass of milk
3 spoons of honey

Mix everything in a blender.
That’s it.

It’s all made of healthy ingredients that have vitamins and protein that give you a nice energy boost and it’s perfect for those who are in a weight loss process.

Enjoy the smoothie!

It wasn’t easy and it still isn’t (especially when I see so many temptations lying literally next to me, like the best pizzeria in town being close to my home…) but trust me, it’s much better to be and feel healthy.

If you decide to take this step and I hope you do, there are hundreds of ways to lose weight. Ok, maybe not that many but still, a lot more than you can count on your fingers, including your toes… Sadly though, most of them are not efficient.

You can’t lose weight by starving yourself or by eating cabbage soup for a month. What you see everywhere, those “lose 10 pounds in a week” diets are crap. keeping a very strict diet is only a temporary measure. Nobody will ever lose the weight for good that way because those punds will come back after after you stop eating carrots all day..

Weight loss is easy in theory but needs a bit of discipline when you put it in practice. Let’s see a few tips about how one can lose weight without also losing their minds..

1. Stop with the sodas.
Sodas and other juices you buy at the store have hundreds calories. They are mostly made of sugar and aromas. It’s ok to drink some from time to time, but whenever you feel thirsty, water is always better because water has 0 calories. A glass of juice has a minimum of 30-40 calories, multiplied with more glasses – you do the math.

2. Sweets and snacks
Well, this is just obvious.
A tablet of chocolate has at least 300 calories, chips have hundreds of them as well.. needless to say if one want’s to lose weight they have to give up these “treats” for good!

3. Fast food
This tip needs no further explanation. Fast food is like the biggest explosion of calories there is. You can’t lose weight if you keep having fast food, even from time to time. Fast food is the biggest NO in the process of weight loss.

4. Dips and sauces
From now on you have to get used to eating food without dipping sauces or dressings that contain “fat”. No more mayo, no more spicy sauce, all they do is add to the number of calories.

5. Sugars
Now that we have the “fats” out of the picture, it’s time we rennounce sugar as well. Maybe not for good, I could never drink a cup of tea with no sugar, it just has no taste, but there are sugar replacements if you can’t have plain cocoa or sugarless hot chocolate.

There you have it. A small list of tips on how to significantly reduce the number of calories you take in every day. These are great weight loss tips if you are ready to start doing some changes and begin the weight loss process. It’s no fun but it’s worth it and the results will show if you keep up the good work.

After 2-3 years I got to buy my first laptop and never had to worry about a regular desktop computer anymore. Now I have a new one.

What I remember the most all these years is the same backup issue I had. Fortunately NONE of my HDD-s crashed on me, but backups were always a pain. I’d either have to spend a fortune on CDs and then DVDs or on an external drive.

The external HDD is a new addition to the ‘family’. A 2 TB one that I bought when we stayed in NYC last year. It’s pretty heavy and my hand luggage was limited by this. Have a huge external drive, have a huge laptop and a DSLR camera. You can feel my pain. 10 Kilos were nothing and paying extra wasn’t an option I’d accept.

Not to mention that, anytime I had to travel, the same problem came: I have to get even more limited when it comes to the weight I can carry and the HDD, however big and ‘spacy’ would be a ‘dead-weight’. I cannot get rid of my huge laptop, since it’s the tool that earns me money, I can’t put everything on it, since it would ‘kill’ my operating system and honestly I’m sick and tired of carrying that huge HDD with me. Don’t get me started on CDs/DVDs, I have an ‘army’ back home.

This is why I’m more open to any ideas that would mean I can put my files ‘somewhere’ and never care about carrying all those heavy items with me. I don’t have to worry about my HDDs crashing, I don’t have to move files from a computer to another, when I get a new laptop. I can upload all the ‘junk’ and have someone else care about it.

Cloud storage is something new for me too. I’m not always ‘fast’ when it comes to technology, so it took me a while to see how it works and if it’s a good solution for me. I stumbled across a cloud storage reviews page that really details it well and also provides real reviews for various cloud storage providers. It makes my life easier, since I can see what other customers think about it and then make a decision about this.

There’s a top 10 for the cloud storage providers and a lot of useful information for someone like me who’s trying to do things better and take advantage of anything that would make life as a ‘PC addict’ easier.

Have you used cloud storage services? Are you open to this technology? How much do you think this would make your life easier?

The first method is carpooling. Given the high price of fuel, especially for the high-consumption vehicles, carpooling has become the most common and most economical method of transportation for more than two people heading to the same location. It is normally used by co-workers, who commune together, but you can make it more cost efficient by having all your passengers pay a small fee that gets collected and then used to pay for fuel. By having everyone else kick in, you can afford to fill up your gas tank a little more and go a little longer without doing it on your own dime.

If you are more into the party or club scene, you can capitalize further by acting a “Designated Driver”, taking your dunk and otherwise vehicular impaired colleagues and friends from their current location, to a safer location, such as their home, so they could sober up. This way, no one goes to jail or gets injured in an accident. You should charge a set price to be paid in advance.

If you can’t be bothered to drive someone around, and you trust whoever needs to borrow your car, you can rent it out to them so that they can get along with their lives. It’ll be risky if you don’t have insurance that cover others, but if you know they are safe drivers, there shouldn’t be any reason not to. You should take into consideration how long they need the vehicle for, and how far they intend to travel with it, reminding them to refill the gas tank before they return it.

If you have a large, noticeable vehicle, you can try to advertise using the vehicle as a moving billboard. You can get anywhere from two hundred to six hundred extra dollars that can go inside your pocket. Considering the sheer number of people that will see your vehicle on a normal drive, it is a viable method of advertising that is still popular. In fact, some companies will actually give you a car to drive around for a few years under the proper circumstances.

If you have a vehicle that has reached the end of its rope, then you can still get some use from it by stripping it for parts. The individual pieces of a vehicle are worth more than the vehicle itself, and selling the parts will benefit those who need exact replacements at a fair price. You can find people who need the parts using the internet and a website like Craigslist, since they have the greatest chance of arranging a direct sale.

Ways to relax are countless. From taking a nap or watching old photos to bungee jumping. Everyone has different ways to take a break from stress but what works for some might not be adequate for others (I would never ever jump head down from a bridge – cord or no cord).

In my opinion, the best way to relieve stress is to pass the obstacle that induces it. Let me explain: finishing a deadline or a project, passing an exam or accomplishing what you put your mind to would automatically make stress go away (well, that’s logical), but what to do in the meantime?

Being stressed is normal, but not healthy, so here’s a list of 5 tips about how to relax and stop pulling out your hair:

1. Sex
What? It’s totally  normal.
After sex there’s a series of substances the body realeases that makes people happier. I’m not going into details because I have no idea what those substances are or how they work, but it’s enough to know they help.

2. Take a walk, jog, walk your dog
Any phisical activity is ok, really. As long as you concentrate on nature, on not falling of the bike or on how to take some pretty picture you won’t be thinking about the stress cause. That, and of course, other medical reasons that involve other substances our body produce during sport activities that are benefic.

3. Movies, documentaries, books
If you don’t like sports, you could take your mind of problems by concentrating on something else. Read a good book, watch a good movie or something you find interesting and you’ll see after a while you’ll feel better. A break every once in a while didn’t harm anyone, as long as you don’t take a break that doesn’t end.

4. Healthy diet
Besides the things we can do to relieve stress for the moment, there’s another good way to feel better about ourselves and that’s having a healthy diet that we must stick to every day. A healthy meal includes vegetables, light meat and lots of fruit. We must have our daily dose of vitamins or else we will feel tired and unable to think straight.

5. It’s not the end of the world
Last, but not least on my list is changing the way you think every once in a while. Being stressed is not easy but it also shows that you care. On the other hand, if you care to much you might end up doing the oposite of what you should because stress makes us more angry and tends to change the way we should look at things. So, whenever you feel the sky is falling on your head, take a deep breath and remember that… the sky won’t really fall on your head. As long as you have a positive atitude, everything will be ok.

These are, in my opinion, a few ways to relax and get rid of stress. At least for a short period of time.

If you have other tips, please share as I am, in general, a very stressed person.