4 Ways to Keep Your Automated Campaign Personal

If there’s one thing small business owners lack, it’s time. You’d like to reach your audience more effectively, but you don’t have the time. Which is why solutions like autoresponders are attractive solutions for your email marketing.

But isn’t email marketing all about building relationships with your customers? Doesn’t running an automated campaign make your marketing less personal? Not necessarily.

A session on automated email campaigns at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit 2012 presented tactics for automating your campaign to save time without sacrificing the personal connection consumers have come to expect.

Here are four simple ways to save time with an automated campaign that still feels personal.

Build Rapport With a Conversational Tone

The language you use influences the kind of connection you build with your customer base. If your tone is friendly, your readers will feel more personally connected to you.

We ran a case study on an AWeber customer who uses conversational language in her automated follow ups and achieves high open rates and click throughs as a result. Jermaine Griggs – the presenter who discussed these tactics at the Email Summit – uses such a friendly voice in his emails that even his own grandmother doesn’t realize that his whole campaign is automated. Now that’s effective content marketing!

Keep these points in mind to make your follow ups feel more like a conversation:

• Write your emails like a real person. Remember, the addresses on your list belong to real people. When you sound more like a real person and less like a marketer, the people on your list will respond to your messages better.
• Have a real conversation with your customers. Sonia Simone of Copyblogger spoke at the conference about her own autoresponder series, which invites subscribers to reply to her messages with their feedback and other comments. Invite real conversation with your own customers by sending your automated emails from a real address than can accept replies (not a “noreply” address) and answer them as you can.

Harness the Power of Anniversary Emails

Acknowledging the anniversary of when a customer joined your list is an easy way to make an automated campaign feel personal. You probably can’t keep track of the date each customer signed up, but your follow up series can remember for you. Reward your customers for their loyalty with a coupon or free download and a message that feels personal.

• Decide on your time frame – three months, six months, one year? – and set a follow up with the appropriate interval.
• Use a personalization variable to automatically reference the exact date a customer signed up. Your automated anniversary message will send itself to your subscribers on their own anniversary, as the timing of a follow up series is based on when a subscriber signs up. That means limited work for you while still maintaining a personal connection.

Use Evergreen Content

As you create your automated follow ups, focus on content that customers will find useful for a long time to come. Marcus Sheridan – an entrepreneur, small business marketer and AWeber customer – recommends paying attention to the questions your customers frequently ask, along with the search terms that bring the most traffic to your web site. Address these questions in your automated campaign for content that will feel fresh and relevant for customers who sign up now or a year from now.

Think about other helpful content on your site that you can repurpose for your campaign. This doesn’t mean directly copying; rather, it’s reworking what you have readily available. Things like:

• Your web site’s FAQ
• Tutorials for your product or service
• Instructive blog posts
• Print materials re-worked for your email campaign

Repurposing content that doesn’t go stale keeps your conversation with your customers feeling fresh no matter when they join your campaign.

Don’t Always Follow the Crowd

Building a campaign that feels personal means expressing your brand’s personality. Sometimes injecting personality means breaking best marketing practices in your industry.

Personality is easier for businesses that market directly to consumers, but that doesn’t mean business-to-business companies should be left out. Your services might be geared toward other businesses, but your emails still go to people who make the buying decisions. Your business can build rapport by striking a balance between friendly and professional in your emails.

It all comes down to tone and what your readers respond to, which you can tell by how many of your customers open and click through your emails. People who are engaged with your emails will open them and click through to your site more often.

• Experiment with the tone you use in your emails. Split test a broadcast message – one version with a professional tone and one with a friendlier tone. Stick with the version that gets the most response from your readers.
• How can you tell what your customers respond to? Pay attention to your opens and click through rates. When your customers appreciate your content, they’ll open your emails more frequently and click through to your site content.

If you’re getting good results, keep it up, regardless of what other businesses in your sector are doing. Sometimes different can resonate with your customers on a more personal level.

What Have You Tried?

How do you balance saving time with automated emails while keeping a personal connection with your customers? Have you tried any of these techniques successfully? Share your stories in the comments.

Dream A Little Email: How a Non-Profit Markets

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

- Margaret Mead.

It’s a tough economy, ever-present ads are tough to stand out from and online marketing makes global competition tough to beat.

Marketing an organization is tough right now. Marketing a non-profit is even tougher. But we know a little business, Dreams4Kids, that’s even tougher than these challenges.

All the money that they bring in goes to help at-risk and disabled children. That’s also where most of their staff’s time and energy go as well.

But They Had a Dream

Dreams4Kids knows that to help these children, they need to raise support. That means they need to get the word out about their programs to those who might be interested in helping. They also must communicate with previous donors to show what their involvement has accomplished and invite future donations.

So about 10 years ago, they started marketing their organization via email. “People are very email-oriented now,” says Shelly Gonsch, Vice President of Operations. “They just ignore regular mail.”

The original plan was to keep in contact with donors and potential donors by sending a newsletter every two weeks. They felt that was a good timetable for customers to hear from them.

Sometimes Dreams Clash With Reality

As a nonprofit, Dreams4Kids is continually skimming the edge of “just enough.” This means they’re sometimes shorthanded, without someone available to get the email out as often as they planned.

Instead of scrapping their email campaign altogether, they adjusted their dream. They determined that monthly newsletters fit their staffing needs. So, “that’s our goal, now,” Shelly says.

And it’s a good place to be. But for such a limited staff and budget, it’s still a challenge to pull off.

Sometimes You Need Help to Make Your Dreams Come True

Dreams4Kids needed to build an audience for their email newsletters. So they’ve established a presence on major social media networks: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

“You need to get social media going,” Shelly says, “Get awareness going and people will start reaching out to you. Then you can work on getting them into your database.”

Once their accounts were set up, they needed people to manage them. A board member monitors their accounts on HootSuite. An intern helps put content out through their social channels.

As for their email campaign, Tom Tuohy, the president and founder, has actually been putting together many of the newsletters himself. An assistant does the work of getting new subscribers imported into their email list.

Click to enlarge

If It’s a Good Dream, It’s Worth Fighting For

And this is a good dream. Dreams4Kids has an important mission, and they’re trying to market it the best way possible.

“Our email is really a newsletter,” Shelly says, referring to the quality of content they send. “We try to stay away from email ‘blasts.’” The newsletter presents Dreams4Kids’ recent events and initiatives, as well as events by related organizations.

We’re proud that they’re customers; we’re proud of their mission and we’re proud of their emails.

How Do You Make Dreams Come True?

As a marketer, you may have developed some of your own creative ways to manage limited time and resources.

Would you, like Dreams4Kids, share them here for others who are fighting the uphill battle to make a difference?

If you’re inspired by the mission of Dreams4Kids, you are welcome to make a donation, volunteer your time or subscribe their newsletter here.

Quarterly Estimated Taxes: A Breakdown of What You Owe and When

Today’s post is a guest post brought to you by Outright.com, the easiest way to manage your small business finances online for a less taxing tax time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Online selling can be tough enough without throwing in a monkey wrench. But of course those monkey wrenches are bound to come at some point. One wrench you can learn to dodge, though, is the quarterly estimated taxes you owe every few months.

But you can only dodge that wrench if you know what it is!

There is so much to contend with as an online seller, and if you’re new at the game it can even be a nightmare trying to get everything in order – especially your financial house. Make it easier on yourself (at least by a bit) by reading on for Outright’s handy guide to quarterly estimated taxes.

Quarterly “Estimated” Taxes

The important word here (besides quarterly and taxes of course) is “estimated.” This is why these taxes are different from regular taxes someone who works at a “regular job” pays. The United States income tax is a “pay as you go” tax. When a W-2 employee works a set number of hours, they get a set amount of taxes taken out to pay to the state and federal. There’s very minimal work involved for the W-2 employee in this situation. All he really has to do is sigh at the amount he sees taken out of every check.

But for online sellers it’s very different, and way more work. Your taxes aren’t automatically taken out of a paycheck, which means you need to pay them in yourself. And this is where the “estimated” part comes in.

Luckily it’s not the most complicated thing in the world, and if you’ve ever done taxes more complicated than a 1040EZ you should have an idea what to do. Basically you need to figure out how much money you’ve made during the year off of online selling. After that, you take your deductions and such into account to try and lower the payment. Once you’ve figured out what you owe in taxes for the year, divide by four and you’ve got your first installment.  Of course, that’s where the estimated part comes in. If you’re an online seller, you may anticipate a huge holiday season, but how are you to know that here in June? Fortunately, if you pay in the same amount you owed in taxes last year, you won’t find yourself penalized at the end of the year. So if your federal tax liability was $ 1,000 in 2011, if you pay four quarterly installments of $ 2500, you will avoid IRS fees and penalties.

Timing

So how many times a year do you have to do all this mess? Since they’re “quarterly” payments, you’ll have to do these calculations four times a year. The first quarter isn’t in the beginning of the year; it’s actually in April, the same time when you’re filing and paying in your federal taxes. Here are the dates you’ll have to contend with as an online seller:

Quarter 2: June 15^th

Quarter 3: September 17^th

Quarter 4: January 15^th, 2013

Then the whole shebang starts over in April when you pay in your taxes next year.

Sound like a lot of work? If you keep up a good filing system (including Outright to track your invoices and expenses) and make sure your paperwork doesn’t get out of hand. Keeping a constant idea of how much money you’ve made and how much needs to be taxed will make your quarterly estimated tax payments much easier to bear.

Does all this still sound like a humongous pain in the neck? You’re not alone. That’s why Outright estimates your federal quarterly estimated taxes owed. Import your bank accounts, PayPal, and credit cards into your free Outright account, then head over to the Taxes tab to check out what you owe. (Keep in mind we can’t predict your tax credits – such as childcare or the earned income credit – so our estimate will err on the side of paying more and keeping you out of trouble with the IRS.)

If you have more questions, check out this Quarterly Estimated Taxes Q&A or head over to the Outright Community to ask for help from our expert accountants about your specific situation.

Chad Hamzeh + Matt O’Connor – Traffic Blackbook 2012 JV Invite, More.

Welcome To Today’s JVNP 2.0 Update Featuring A JV Offer Courtesy Of
Fellow JVNP 2.0 Partners Chad Hamzeh + Matt O’Connor (Traffic Blackbook
2012 JV Invite), Buzz Builders (Matt + Bryan Green, Ken McArthur + Ken
Lovett – Power SEO Ranker, Chad Mureta – App Empire Launches) + More …
in Today’s Mass Traffic Generation Masterclass Edition.

- Mike Merz Sr

Chad Hamzeh + Matt O’Connor – Traffic Blackbook 2012 JV Invite
Affiliate Program Announced: Thursday, May 31st 2012
Launch Day: Evergreen (Basically Make Money For The Long Haul)

Introducing the biggest most badass traffic course online… upgraded
for 2012 and beyond!

Fellow JVNP 2.0 Partner, have you seen the news?

Google is waging war on FREE traffic.

Honest folks are going out of business in one click of the Google god’s
fingers.

What’s the solution?

I’m excited and proud to announce the relaunch of what has become
known as THE traffic generation bible… Traffic Blackbook.

And it’s never been more needed than right NOW…

http://JV-Invite.Com/Chad_Hamzeh-Mat…Blackbook_2012

Clear your calendars because you do NOT want to miss this.

If you long for the days of high-converting launches where you get to
KEEP your affiliate commissions, I’m here to tell ya…

http://JV-Invite.Com/Chad_Hamzeh-Mat…Blackbook_2012

***THE DETAILS***

DATE: Right Now!
TITLE: Traffic Blackbook
INSIDE: Insider Traffic Generation Secrets From A REAL Six Figure
Affiliate
OFFER: F/E $ 47, O.T.O 1 $ 97, O.T.O 2 $ 197

WHO’S BEHIND THIS?

Hey my name’s Chad Hamzeh and I practice what I preach.

Having earned six figures a year as a CPA veteran and spent well over
a million dollars of my own ad spend, I poured everything I know into
this product.

Maybe that’s why the CPA networks actually use my course themselves!

Top copywriter Matt O’Connor has revamped the sales funnel so it now
converts at an astonishing 5% on organic traffic… and 70% of people
are grabbing the irresistible upsells!

Plus “Master Of Pixels” Farihan Bahron has given the site an awesome
new lick of paint.

***EARN HIGH AND KEEP IT***

Traffic Blackbook has already been tested to perfection.

We’re seeing sky-high conversions with – crucially – super-low refunds.

The reason? This course is a masterclass in mass-traffic generation.

When your prospects lay eyes on the packed-out private members area…
there’s no way on Earth they’ll refund this baby.

***I’VE GOT YOUR BACK***

My list is ultra-responsive.

Help me out on this, my first big CB launch, and I will respond in kind.

Case in point… I recently came no.4 in Justin Elenburg’s Mobile Money
Bandit beating off hardcore competition from the likes of John Reese,
Willie Crawford and many more.

My list is RABID.

I’m looking forward to building a relationship with YOU for future
launches and mutual profits.

Click the link below and I’ll fill you in on all the details, including JV
Partner registration:

http://JV-Invite.Com/Chad_Hamzeh-Mat…Blackbook_2012

Chad Hamzeh + Matt O’Connor – Traffic Blackbook

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Above. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

#####

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Please Make Sure You Are Logged Into www.JVNotifyPro.com
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#####

Editor’s Note: For those JVNP 2.0 Partners that don’t read the
legal stuff at the bottom of every mailing …

This mailing contains (a) JV connection request(s) from (a) fellow
JVNP 2.0 Partner(s) that either by themselves, or working with
a fellow partner that has, earned the spot due to content
contribution +/or support of fellow JVNP 2.0 Partners over time.

The JV request is being made by the merchant(s) (or official
representative(s)), NOT JVNotifyPro.com, to you … the JVNP 2.0
Partner.

It is expected and recommended that you perform due
diligence when getting involved in any venture that may
affect you, your business, it’s prospects and customers.

It’s also assumed that, as an Online Business Owner, you’re
capable of running your own business using common sense,
logic + exercising personal responsibility.

#####

———-

Buzz Builders

Mark Ling – AffiloBlueprint Version 3.0 JV Invite
Launched Just This Past Tuesday, May 29th 2012

AffiloBlueprint v3.0 is a comprehensive step-by-step course that
shows customers exactly how to set up a money-making affiliate
website in only 12 weeks.

You get paid anywhere from $ 35 to $ 229 per sale, there’s over
$ 10k in Launch prizes and during pre-launch I’m putting up $ 2
cash per lead for top promoters.

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Mark_Ling-A…rint_Version_3

Matt + Bryan Green, Ken McArthur + Ken Lovett – Power SEO Ranker JV
Launch Day Is TODAY Thursday, May 31st 2012

Get on board … Powerful Backlinking tool + very profitable Aged
Domain Tool!

This is not another get and forget software for your clients …
No trickery here.

This is one of the few ways left to get your website ranked high
in the search engines today!

Make 50% per sale and recurring income on both up and down sells …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Bryan_Green…wer_SEO_Ranker

Chad Mureta + Jonathan Cronstedt (JV Manager) – App Empire JV Invite
Launch Day Is TOMORROW Friday, June 1st 2012

You may think you have seen app launches, but not like this.

You’re going to finally meet the man that has taught the industry
gurus, and he’s not pulling any punches.

Your people are going to get a ton of immediately actionable training
from the source, while you have the opportunity to earn $ 998.50 for
every sale …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Chad_Mureta…edt-App_Empire

Eric Roberts, Chris Jones + Cindy Battye – The Intervestor JV Invite
Launch Day: Tuesday, June 5th 2012

^^Notice Launch Date Change^^

Huge Payouts $ 475.50 Per Sales + Residuals.

We show customers how to “inter-vest” and buy, sell, and hold
websites and earn instant cash in 30 days or less!

This will be a monster …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Eric_Robert…he_Intervestor

Michael Beeson + Bobby B – Affiliate Overthrow JV Invite
Launch Day: Thursday, June 7th 2012 @ 8AM EST

Win a Bentley Continental GT in the Affiliate Overthrow Launch
June 7th!

Overthrow the Super Affiliate Team of Michael Beeson & Bobby B
and win the Bentley! Sign up and check out the unique team
concept that can have you winning the Bentley or $ 70,000 cash
even if you’re not a Super Affiliate …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Michael_Bee…iate_Overthrow

Steve Olsher – Internet Prophets Live! JV Invite
Affiliate Program Announced Tuesday, May 8th 2012
Date + Location Of Live Event: June 8 – 10 – Chicago, IL USA

Promote this Summer’s largest Internet and Mobile marketing
conference and exhibition focused specifically on teaching small
business owners and solopreneurs how to profit online, Internet
Prophet’s LIVE!, and earn 50% on each ticket sold.

27 leading experts including Jay Conrad Levinson, Larry Winget,
Janet Bray Attwood, Armand Morin, Mike Filsaime and many others.

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Not Available,
As This Is A Live Event … However, Steve Will Provide You With 5 Free
Tickets To The Event As A Bonus For Registering + Mailing.)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Steve_Olshe…_Prophets_Live

Bill McIntosh, Eric Louviere + Stephen Renton – MemberSnap JV Invite
Launch Day: Monday, June 11th 2012

MemberSnap Launch Paying 75% On A Highly Converting Offer!

Affiliates Are Getting Over 15% Front End Conversions!

* Over $ 20,000 in cash and prizes! * Proven & Tested to the tune
of 4,000+ customers already!

* High Quality, Proud To Promote Program People Want & Need!

Sign Up Below …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Bill_McInto…ton-MemberSnap

Paul Clifford – PageOne Curator JV Invite
Pre-Launch Begins: Tuesday, June 5th 2012
Launch Day: Tuesday, June 12th 2012

Make up to $ 441 a sale with a PROVEN affiliate EPC of $ 3.36 across
3,500 front end units sold in just our test WSO week promoting
PageOne Curator – the whitehat Google ranking training and software.

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Paul_Clifford-PageOne_Curator

Mindvalley – Christie Marie – Unlimited Abundance JV Invite
Pre-Launch Begins: Friday, June 22nd 2012
Launch Day: Thursday, June 28th 2012 @ 9PM EST

Stop right there and click right here … you Marketing God, you.

It’s time to meet the company and campaign you’ve been scrolling
down for.

Say Hello to Mindvalley …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Will Be Made
Available To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch No
Later Than 7 Days Prior To Prelaunch/Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Mindvalley-…ited_Abundance

Marc Milburn – List Profit Sniper JV Invite
Launch Day: Monday, July 9th 2012

Six-Figure Marketer Marc Milburn invites you to partner with him
and grab $ 318.60 per sale (60% commissions) and over $ 10,000
in JV prizes! EPCs $ 2+

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Will Be Made
Available To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch No
Later Than 7 Days Prior To Prelaunch/Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Marc_Milbur…_Profit_Sniper

Jacobo Benitez + Michael Carlin – SEO Fight Back JV Invite
Launch Day: Thursday, July 12th 2012

Rake In $ 375 Per Sale With A Revolutionary Penguin & Panda Proof
Google Ranking System – SEO Fight Back by Michael Carlin and
Jacobo Benitez – The untraceable… undefeatable… impenetrable…
linking network to rule them ALL – Launches July 12th @ 12:00 PM EST

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Will Be Made
Available To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch No
Later Than 7 Days Prior To Prelaunch/Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Jacobo_Beni…SEO_Fight_Back

Jimmy D. Brown – Membership To Go JV Invite
Launch Postponed – Please Register To Be Notified Of New Launch Date.

Jimmy D. Brown, the guy who basically started the PLR industry,
has released a “ready-to-go” PLR package to an entire membership
site!

This has never been offered before and it includes EVERYTHING
you need to get started, including PLR to the membership content,
sales letter, presell report, and articles …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Jimmy_D_Brown-Membership_To_Go

———-

Harrison Klein, Pawan Agrawal, Eben Pagan, Greg Jacobs,
and other fellow JVNotifyPro 2.0 partners are waiting in the
wings … keep your eyes on your Inbox, and follow the action
in the JVNP 2.0 Premium VIP JV Announcement archives:

http://jv-forum.com/JVNP-2.0-Premium…-Announcements

Question:

“Hey, Mike … I really appreciate the combination of Fellow
Partner + Popular JV Invites you offer in the JVNP 2.0 Update,
but how can I get on board Popular JV launches that are
available to get on board but didn’t make the latest mailing
like the highly anticipated offerings from Chris R, Steven Lee
Jones + Ben S, Melford and Concetta Bibens + John Hayward,
Andrew X + Steven Johnson, Asher, Ciel + Folusho, John Racine,
Matt + Phil Benwell, Eva Bright, Imran S, Simon W + Salman S,
Raam Anand, Rob Stafford, Bercaru Viktor, Jason Keith + Jason
Zimmerman, Matt Alexander, Brian Koz + Shawn Casey, Pamela
Harper, Andrew Gotti + Josh M, Anthony La Rocca and others?

Answer: The JVNewsWatch JV Product Launch Calendar +
Affiliate Program Directory

http://www.jvnewswatch.com/

———-

Popular JVNotifyPro 2.0 Links

What Is JVNotifyPro 2.0/JVNewsWatch? (Start Here …)

http://jv-forum.com/START-HERE-Welco….0-JVNewsWatch

JVNP 2.0 Featured Announcements

http://jv-forum.com/JVNP-2.0-Featured-Announcements

JVNP 2.0 VIP Partner Private Area

http://jv-forum.com/JVNP-2.0-VIP-Partner-Private-Area

New JV Product Launch Announcements

http://jv-forum.com/New-JV-Product-Launch-Announcements

JVNP 2.0 Joint Venture Marketing Discussion Forums

http://jv-forum.com/JVNotifyPro-2.0-…cussion-Forums

JVNP 2.0 Job Board – Need/Provide JV Related Services

http://jv-forum.com/JVNP-2.0-Job-Boa…lated-Services

JVNP 2.0 My JV Circle Social Network – My JV Buzz

http://v3.jvnotifypro.com/my_jv_buzz

JVNP 2.0 Affiliate Program

http://v3.jvnotifypro.com/account/affiliate/

JVNewsWatch JV Product Launch Calendar + Affiliate Program Directory

http://www.jvnewswatch.com/

———-

That’s All, Folks!

To OUR Success,

Mike Merz
http://www.JVNotifyPro.Com
http://www.JVNewsWatch.com
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Isolation – Cover – Ebook

Check out these product market images:

Isolation – Cover – Ebook

Image by Alatryste
More info at: www.alatryste.com/isolation

Product Information for IRCAM Signal Processing workstation

Image by gctwnl
Product Information for IRCAM Signal Processing workstation (4 i860 CPU card for NeXT)

Carrots are a diversification product on Lusaka market = Les carottes sont des produits de diversification sur le marché de Lusaka

Image by GlobalHort Image Library/ Imagetheque
Soweto market in Lusaka, Zambia. Photo taken by Rémi Kahane, GlobalHort, June 2010

Announcing the Winners of Our Template Design Contest!

We gave you new drag-and-drop message editors for broadcast and follow up messages. Then we invited graphic designers to create new templates to use in our new editor.

We received several submissions to our email template design contest and we’re ready to reveal the winners! All three winning templates are available both in AWeber accounts (in the email template library) and as HTML code that you can download to use anywhere you’d like.

Without further ado, let’s meet our winning designers and their templates!

Third Place: Scott Braun

Download the HTML

Our third place design comes from Scott Braun of Krazed Kat Creative.

Scott says that this “soothing yet playful” theme “would make a quite attractive newsletter” for a small business to send to their subscribers.

According to Scott, this template’s best feature is “the sense of well being it exhibits” to “invite business with the power of positive.” Give your newsletters a positive spin by downloading the template from the link on the right.

Second Place: Keni Thomas

Download the HTML

Keni Thomas, a graphic designer from Philadelphia, is our second place winner. His template is perfect for a “quick snippet broadcast” with the most vital information up top and links to past content readers may have missed at the bottom.

“The thought process behind this template was to create something that could house many offers or articles in one bite-sized email,” Keni says. A business could announce their current sale at the top, and link to past sales with the buttons included at the bottom.

Grand Prize Winner: Alex Henken

Download the HTML

And the grand prize goes to (drumroll, please…) Alex Henken, who has been coding and designing emails for about 14 years.

Alex’s approach to this template was to keep things simple, modern and versatile. “When I approach a new template design,” he says, “simplicity is always key.” That’s because not all email clients will display a template the same way. The simpler the template and the simpler its coding, the better your message will look across the board. “It was my goal to design the template around very basic HTML principles that I absolutely know will work cross-client, while still boasting a clean and modern aesthetic.”

Alex designed the winning template to fit any business’s content needs, and makes it easy to organize any offers, articles or other content you have. “Regardless of who you are or what your business aims to achieve,” Alex says, “this template is ready to go, requiring very little customization from the end user.” It’s built for fresh, easy design that showcases your important information.

You can find Alex’s template in our template library if you’re using the new message editor. Not an AWeber customer? Don’t worry, you can still get your hands on this template by clicking the download link on the right.

Which One Will You Use?

Which winning template is your favorite? How do you see your own business using these templates? Don’t forget to check out all the other templates available in the new drag-and-drop message editor!

MUD: Minimum Usable Design

There is a paradox that fits my life. Doesn’t matter what aspect of my life I am talking about because it always seems to apply. Even more so when I think about this paradox and the design of this website and other websites. I really hate this paradox.

“To walk through the woods, you first need to walk halfway through. Then, once you’re in the middle of it, you still need to walk half of the remaining distance, then half of the distance again, and then another half, and you can never successfully make it through the woods.”

This example is based off of Zeno’s paradoxes, which are even more mind-boggling than the one above.

No matter what stage of a design I am in, I am always halfway there. This is why you might find yourself always saying that you need two more weeks to finish up all the details. It will always be two more weeks no matter what, because all you did was get halfway from where you were to where you are trying to go. Using this mentality can wear you down, but if you twist it around a bit, it can be used as motivation to achieve a successful design.

A Totally Made Up Theory

Let’s use our good ol’ sparring partner Google as an example. You are about to sit down and create the first home page in Google’s history. If you had an infinite amount of time you could tackle any part of the design that you wanted without any worries. But unfortunately life doesn’t give us non-deadlined projects. Because of this, you know the goal that you are striving to achieve—you know what it looks like once you leave the woods, so first, you just have to get halfway there.

If the very first half makes the design at least 50% usable then what would you design first? The logo? The footer? The obvious choice would be the search box and button. In fact, if you design that, then you are probably over 50% of the way through with the design because the website is now usable. It’s good to get that first 50% out of the way, and now you are halfway to your end goal. Some people like to call this working from the inside out.

Next step is to get halfway from where we are now to where we need to be. I think it’s important that we have some kind of branding on the page so people know where to come back to next time they want to search. That means I put the logo on the page. Once I am done with that I’m 75% of the way to my goal. 75% of the way through and how many people in the world would be satisfied with using Google if it had nothing but a logo, search bar and one button on it? I’m betting more than 75%. But if getting 75% of the way towards our goal can please even 75% of our audience, we might be doing a good job.

If you continue on with this process of knocking out half of what you need to do, eventually you will get close enough to your goal where good enough is as good as you are going to get. I know people argue about what good enough means, but if you are 99% of the way to where you are trying to go, then good enough is good enough.

MUD

In the startup community there is a term called minimum viable product.

“A Minimum Viable Product has just those features (and no more) that allows the product to be deployed.”

Minimum Viable Product, from Wikipedia

I’m coining the term Minimum Usable Design, and that is when you reach your 50% mark for your design. If you can’t use your design after you have reached 50% (or a person can’t understand at least 50% of what is going on) then you haven’t reached the 50% mark yet.

By no means does this imply that you should show your design to the public at the 50% mark, but you can use it as a way to gauge your progress. Sometimes you need to wait untill you are 99% done before showing your work to a larger audience. There is nothing wrong with striving for perfection, but it depends on your design and audience. Apple does minimum viable product with the limited features on their products, but make up for it with maximum viable design (a new term, crown me king).

An Example

Blog design is a very simplistic example, but lets run with it. On my website, Drawar, the main goal is to get people to read the content. If I can do that, I have achieved my number one goal, and it just so happens that this goal will keep the majority of my audience happy. Because of this, I want to make the content easy to get to, and so I need to know what design will help me get there.

The 50% mark. Not much, but it achieves the #1 goal.

With this design, anyone that comes to my website can read the content. That is 50% of my journey, but now I need to go the other half to reach another subset of people coming to my design. I decide next that there should be some branding on the website so that people can know where they are at and remember the website if they visit it again.

Now the design is 75% there.

Now when you visit the website you know where you are at, but notice that the additions didn’t take away from the original MUD that I created. From here I can take another halfway point journey by adding links to other sections of the website, and also provide a bit of context about the website they are on.

87.5% of the way…

Again, the additions do not take away from the original 50%, so that is a good thing. Time for one more halfway journey before I push the website out, and that would be adding some revenue.

93.75% complete (well, at least to me).

Basically the design is finished, but there are additional things I could add to the design to make it more complete to some people. For example, search, social media widgets, and possibly a blogroll. I’ve set the goals of the design though, so I understand the milestones that I want to achieve.

Design Is Never Finished

Although I’m happy with the end result of the design, it doesn’t mean it will work for everyone that visits. Someone will always want to get more out of a design, and that is why a design will never be able to leave the forest. Fortunately, the more halfway points you knock out in a design, the smaller the subset of people that are still wanting more out of it. Be careful though, because adding too much will take away from the original 50%, which was the main purpose of the design from the beginning.

And don’t think that this only applies to “minimalistic” websites—that is just my style of design, but it applies just as much to the designs that add a lot of flare to their aesthetic. Tweetbot, for example, isn’t any less of a usable design than other Twitter clients in my mind, because it adds a bit more flash to its design elements.

Always aim for the next halfway point and you will get closer and closer to the edge of the forest—but remember that you will never reach the end. Designs can always be improved upon, and therefore will always be unfinished.

Image on frontpage created by Libby Levi.

(jvb) (jc)

© Paul Scrivens for Smashing Magazine, 2012.

How Selling Insurance Helped Me Sell SEO Services

Bill McIntosh, Eric Louviere + Stephen Renton – MemberSnap JV Invite, More.

Welcome To Today’s JVNP 2.0 Update Featuring A JV Offer Courtesy Of
Fellow JVNP 2.0 Partners Bill McIntosh, Eric Louviere + Stephen Renton
(MemberSnap JV Invite), Buzz Builders (Mark Ling – AffiloBlueprint Version
3.0 Launch) + More … in Today’s Money Making Membership Sites In A
Snap Edition.

- Mike Merz Sr

Bill McIntosh, Eric Louviere + Stephen Renton – MemberSnap JV Invite
Launch Day: Monday, June 11th 2012

Howdy, Fellow JVNP 2.0 Partner!

It’s Bill McIntosh here and together with my partner Eric Louviere,
we are the Crusher Crew from Job Crusher fame. Over the years,
we have launched countless products and have generated millions
dollars online

Well today, I want to tell you about a launch that is second to none!

It’s called:

“MemberSnap!”

This humongous program is ALREADY Massively PROVEN… Has
Record-High Conversions… Sky-High “Sticky” Rates… Over *500*
Raving Testimonials… and most importantly has helped thousands
of people get their very first sites, membership sites and income
coming in!

In other words, it’s a slam-dunk, proven, automatic cash generator
for you to promote! This is one of the *RARE OPPORTUNITIES* to
promote a program that is both massively proven already, yet a
program you can feel incredibly proud to deliver to your list.

Be Sure And Go Here Now To Get On Board As A JV Promoter:

http://JV-Invite.Com/Bill_McIntosh-E…ton-MemberSnap

Now, here are FIVE REASONS You Want To Promote MemberSnap!

(ONE) We have a very unique launch strategy you have probably
never seen before. I’ll explain it all to you and reveal this unique
launch strategy

(TWO) This is no flash in the pan, unproven, overnight, latest
greatest gizmo… No Way! MemberSnap Is proven to the tune of
over 4,000 customers already. We have tested it to a wide variety
of different lists and traffic avenues and it continues to defy the
odds and convert like wildfire.

* Some of our pre-launch JVers have seen conversions over 15%!!
* Some have seen EPC’s at over $ 4.00 per click!!
* Our average EPC was $ 2.84 and that’s not us cherry-picking
promoters or high quality lists either. This is a very WIDE variety
of traffic sources!!

(THREE) Copywriting Superstar Kevin Rodgers has been all over
this sales funnel, helping us bust out record-breaking sales copy
from top to bottom. He has a long string of #1′s on ClickBank
already and is seen as “The Man” for producing HUGE launch copy!

(FOUR) Did I mention we already have over **500 RAVING
TESTIMONIALS**

(FIVE) CASH! I’m talking over $ 20,000 in cash & prizes for
promoting MemberSnap!

Heck, go here and check out the video and see what other JVers
are saying about this launch:

http://JV-Invite.Com/Bill_McIntosh-E…ton-MemberSnap

Here’s what you get:

*Earn up to $ 5 EPC
* Earn 75% Commissions on the front end!
* Earn 50% Commissions on the up-sells!
* Earn cash and prizes (over $ 20,000 in cash and prizes!)
* Proven & Tested to the tune of 4,000+ customers already!
* High Quality, Proud To Promote Program People Want & Need!
* Residual Commissions Ongoing (huge stick rate already)

MemberSnap! Is already a game changer for thousands of people
and the PROOF FACTORS are out of this world. Get on board and
earn sky-high commissions & Cash Right Now:

http://JV-Invite.Com/Bill_McIntosh-E…ton-MemberSnap

What are you waiting for… this is as good as it gets!!

Respectfully,

Bill McIntosh
Eric Louviere
Stephen Renton

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Above. *VIP Review Access Will Be Made
Available To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch No
Later Than 7 Days Prior To Prelaunch/Launch)

#####

*** If You Have Trouble Accessing Any Link On This Page,
Please Make Sure You Are Logged Into www.JVNotifyPro.com
+ www.JVNewsWatch.com … First. If The Problems Persist,
Please Reply Directly To The Newsletter With The Issue, And
We’ll Do Our Best To Respond + Resolve The Problem … ASAP.***

*** If You’re Having Trouble Logging In, Please Use The Account
Management Center***

http://v3.jvnotifypro.com/account/management_center/

***All Other Issues, Please Use The Support Helpdesk***

http://support.jvnotifypro.com/

#####

Editor’s Note: For those JVNP 2.0 Partners that don’t read the
legal stuff at the bottom of every mailing …

This mailing contains (a) JV connection request(s) from (a) fellow
JVNP 2.0 Partner(s) that either by themselves, or working with
a fellow partner that has, earned the spot due to content
contribution +/or support of fellow JVNP 2.0 Partners over time.

The JV request is being made by the merchant(s) (or official
representative(s)), NOT JVNotifyPro.com, to you … the JVNP 2.0
Partner.

It is expected and recommended that you perform due
diligence when getting involved in any venture that may
affect you, your business, it’s prospects and customers.

It’s also assumed that, as an Online Business Owner, you’re
capable of running your own business using common sense,
logic + exercising personal responsibility.

#####

———-

Buzz Builders

Mark Ling – AffiloBlueprint Version 3.0 JV Invite
Launch Day Is TODAY Tuesday, May 29th 2012

AffiloBlueprint v3.0 is a comprehensive step-by-step course that
shows customers exactly how to set up a money-making affiliate
website in only 12 weeks.

You get paid anywhere from $ 35 to $ 229 per sale, there’s over
$ 10k in Launch prizes and during pre-launch I’m putting up $ 2
cash per lead for top promoters.

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Mark_Ling-A…rint_Version_3

Chad Mureta + Jonathan Cronstedt (JV Manager) – App Empire JV Invite
Pre-Launch Commenced Thursday, May 24th 2012
Launch Day: Friday, June 1st 2012

You may think you have seen app launches, but not like this.

You’re going to finally meet the man that has taught the industry
gurus, and he’s not pulling any punches.

Your people are going to get a ton of immediately actionable training
from the source, while you have the opportunity to earn $ 998.50 for
every sale …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Chad_Mureta…edt-App_Empire

Matt + Bryan Green, Ken McArthur + Ken Lovett – Power SEO Ranker JV
Pre-Launch Commenced Thursday, May 24th 2012
Launch Day: Thursday, May 31st 2012

Get on board … Powerful Backlinking tool + very profitable Aged
Domain Tool!

This is not another get and forget software for your clients …
No trickery here.

This is one of the few ways left to get your website ranked high
in the search engines today!

Make 50% per sale and recurring income on both up and down sells …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Bryan_Green…wer_SEO_Ranker

Eric Roberts, Chris Jones + Cindy Battye – The Intervestor JV Invite
Launch Day: Tuesday, June 5th 2012

^^Notice Launch Date Change^^

Huge Payouts $ 475.50 Per Sales + Residuals.

We show customers how to “inter-vest” and buy, sell, and hold
websites and earn instant cash in 30 days or less!

This will be a monster …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Eric_Robert…he_Intervestor

Michael Beeson + Bobby B – Affiliate Overthrow JV Invite
Launch Day: Thursday, June 7th 2012 @ 8AM EST

Win a Bentley Continental GT in the Affiliate Overthrow Launch
June 7th!

Overthrow the Super Affiliate Team of Michael Beeson & Bobby B
and win the Bentley! Sign up and check out the unique team
concept that can have you winning the Bentley or $ 70,000 cash
even if you’re not a Super Affiliate …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Michael_Bee…iate_Overthrow

Steve Olsher – Internet Prophets Live! JV Invite
Affiliate Program Announced Tuesday, May 8th 2012
Date + Location Of Live Event: June 8 – 10 – Chicago, IL USA

Promote this Summer’s largest Internet and Mobile marketing
conference and exhibition focused specifically on teaching small
business owners and solopreneurs how to profit online, Internet
Prophet’s LIVE!, and earn 50% on each ticket sold.

27 leading experts including Jay Conrad Levinson, Larry Winget,
Janet Bray Attwood, Armand Morin, Mike Filsaime and many others.

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Not Available,
As This Is A Live Event … However, Steve Will Provide You With 5 Free
Tickets To The Event As A Bonus For Registering + Mailing.)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Steve_Olshe…_Prophets_Live

Paul Clifford – PageOne Curator JV Invite
Pre-Launch Begins: Tuesday, June 5th 2012
Launch Day: Tuesday, June 12th 2012

Make up to $ 441 a sale with a PROVEN affiliate EPC of $ 3.36 across
3,500 front end units sold in just our test WSO week promoting
PageOne Curator – the whitehat Google ranking training and software.

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Paul_Clifford-PageOne_Curator

Mindvalley – Christie Marie – Unlimited Abundance JV Invite
Pre-Launch Begins: Friday, June 22nd 2012
Launch Day: Thursday, June 28th 2012 @ 9PM EST

Stop right there and click right here … you Marketing God, you.

It’s time to meet the company and campaign you’ve been scrolling
down for.

Say Hello to Mindvalley …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Will Be Made
Available To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch No
Later Than 7 Days Prior To Prelaunch/Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Mindvalley-…ited_Abundance

Marc Milburn – List Profit Sniper JV Invite
Launch Day: Monday, July 9th 2012

Six-Figure Marketer Marc Milburn invites you to partner with him
and grab $ 318.60 per sale (60% commissions) and over $ 10,000
in JV prizes! EPCs $ 2+

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Will Be Made
Available To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch No
Later Than 7 Days Prior To Prelaunch/Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Marc_Milbur…_Profit_Sniper

Jacobo Benitez + Michael Carlin – SEO Fight Back JV Invite
Launch Day: Thursday, July 12th 2012

Rake In $ 375 Per Sale With A Revolutionary Penguin & Panda Proof
Google Ranking System – SEO Fight Back by Michael Carlin and
Jacobo Benitez – The untraceable… undefeatable… impenetrable…
linking network to rule them ALL – Launches July 12th @ 12:00 PM EST

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Will Be Made
Available To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch No
Later Than 7 Days Prior To Prelaunch/Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Jacobo_Beni…SEO_Fight_Back

Jimmy D. Brown – Membership To Go JV Invite
Launch Postponed – Please Register To Be Notified Of New Launch Date.

Jimmy D. Brown, the guy who basically started the PLR industry,
has released a “ready-to-go” PLR package to an entire membership
site!

This has never been offered before and it includes EVERYTHING
you need to get started, including PLR to the membership content,
sales letter, presell report, and articles …

(To Access The Merchant’s JV Page, A Link To The Forum Archive
Of The Mailing For Discussion, VIP Review Access (When Available*)
+ More … Click The Link Below. *VIP Review Access Is Available
To VIP Partners That Register To Support This Launch)

http://Buzz-Builders.Net/Jimmy_D_Brown-Membership_To_Go

———-

Chad Hamzeh + Matt O’Connor, Harrison Klein, Pawan Agrawal,
Greg Jacobs, and other fellow JVNotifyPro 2.0 partners are waiting
in the wings … keep your eyes on your Inbox, and follow the action
in the JVNP 2.0 Premium VIP JV Announcement archives:

http://jv-forum.com/JVNP-2.0-Premium…-Announcements

Question:

“Hey, Mike … I really appreciate the combination of Fellow
Partner + Popular JV Invites you offer in the JVNP 2.0 Update,
but how can I get on board Popular JV launches that are
available to get on board but didn’t make the latest mailing
like the highly anticipated offerings from Chris R, Steven Lee
Jones + Ben S, Melford and Concetta Bibens + John Hayward,
Andrew X + Steven Johnson, Asher, Ciel + Folusho, John Racine,
Matt + Phil Benwell, Eva Bright, Imran S, Simon W + Salman S,
Raam Anand, Rob Stafford, Bercaru Viktor, Jason Keith + Jason
Zimmerman, Matt Alexander, Brian Koz + Shawn Casey, Andrew
Gotti + Josh M, Anthony La Rocca and others?

Answer: The JVNewsWatch JV Product Launch Calendar +
Affiliate Program Directory

http://www.jvnewswatch.com/

———-

Popular JVNotifyPro 2.0 Links

What Is JVNotifyPro 2.0/JVNewsWatch? (Start Here …)

http://jv-forum.com/START-HERE-Welco….0-JVNewsWatch

JVNP 2.0 Featured Announcements

http://jv-forum.com/JVNP-2.0-Featured-Announcements

JVNP 2.0 VIP Partner Private Area

http://jv-forum.com/JVNP-2.0-VIP-Partner-Private-Area

New JV Product Launch Announcements

http://jv-forum.com/New-JV-Product-Launch-Announcements

JVNP 2.0 Joint Venture Marketing Discussion Forums

http://jv-forum.com/JVNotifyPro-2.0-…cussion-Forums

JVNP 2.0 Job Board – Need/Provide JV Related Services

http://jv-forum.com/JVNP-2.0-Job-Boa…lated-Services

JVNP 2.0 My JV Circle Social Network – My JV Buzz

http://v3.jvnotifypro.com/my_jv_buzz

JVNP 2.0 Affiliate Program

http://v3.jvnotifypro.com/account/affiliate/

JVNewsWatch JV Product Launch Calendar + Affiliate Program Directory

http://www.jvnewswatch.com/

———-

That’s All, Folks!

To OUR Success,

Mike Merz
http://www.JVNotifyPro.Com
http://www.JVNewsWatch.com
http://www.JVListPro.Com
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Develop A One-Of-A-Kind CSS/JS-Based Game Portfolio

A portfolio is a must-have for any designer or developer who wants to stake their claim on the Web. It should be as unique as possible, and with a bit of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you could have a one-of-a-kind portfolio that capably represents you to potential clients. In this article, I’ll show you how I created my 2-D Web-based game portfolio.

The 2-D Web-based game portfolio of Daniel Sternlicht.

Before getting down to business, let’s talk about portfolios.

A portfolio is a great tool for Web designers and developers to show off their skills. As with any project, spend some time learning to develop a portfolio and doing a little research on what’s going on in the Web design industry, so that the portfolio presents you as an up to date, innovative and inspiring person. All the while, keep in mind that going with the flow isn’t necessarily the best way to stand out from the crowd.

One last thing before we dive into the mystery of my Web-based game portfolio. I use jQuery which has made my life much easier by speeding up development and keeping my code clean and simple.

Now, let’s get our hands dirty with some code.

The HTML

Let’s warm up with a quick overview of some very basic HTML code. It’s a bit long, I know, but let’s take it step by step.

The HTML is not very complicated, and I could have used an HTML5 canvas element for this game, but I felt more comfortable using simple HTML DOM elements.

Basically, we have the main #wrapper div, which contains the game’s elements, most of which are represented as div elements (I chose divs because they are easy to manipulate).

Have a quick look at my game. Can you detect what makes up the game view?

The game view

We have roads, trees, fences, water, caves, houses and so on.

Back to our HTML. You’ll find an element for each of these items, with the relevant class and ID. Which brings us to the CSS.

The CSS

First of all, note that I prepared the HTML to follow the principles of object-oriented CSS by determining global classes for styling, and not using IDs as styling hooks. For example, I used the class .road on each element that should look like a road. The CSS for the .road class would be:

.road {
   position: absolute;
   background: url(images/road.png) repeat;
}

Take trees as another example:

.trees {
   position: absolute;
   background: url(images/tree.png) repeat 0 0;
}

Note that almost all of the elements are absolutely positioned on the game’s canvas. Positioning the elements relatively would be impossible for our purposes, especially because we want the game to be as responsive as possible (within limits, of course — the minimum width that I deal with is 640 pixels). We can write a general rule giving all of the DOM elements in the game an absolute position:

#wrapper * {
   position: absolute;
}

This snippet will handle all of the child elements inside the #wrapper div, and it frees us from having to repeat code.

One more word about the CSS. The animations in the game are done with CSS3 transitions and animations, excluding certain features such the lightboxes and player “teleporting.” There are two reasons for this.

The first is that one of the purposes of this portfolio is to demonstrate innovation and up-to-date development, and what’s more innovative than using the power of CSS3?

The second reason is performance. Upon reading Richard Bradshaw’s very interesting article “Using CSS3 Transitions, Transforms and Animation,” I came to the overwhelming conclusion: use CSS3 when you can.

A great example of the power of CSS3 animations in my portfolio is the pattern of movement of the water. The CSS looks like this:

.sea {
   left: 0;
   width: 100%;
   height: 800px;
   background: url(images/sea.png) repeat 0 0;
   -webkit-animation: seamove 6s linear infinite;   /* Webkit support */
   -moz-animation: seamove 6s linear infinite;      /* Firefox support */
   animation: seamove 6s linear infinite;          /* Future browsers support */
}

And here is the code for the animation itself:

/* Webkit support */
@-webkit-keyframes seamove {
   0% {
      background-position: 0 0;
   }
   100% {
      background-position: 65px 0;
   }
}

@-moz-keyframes seamove {…}   /* Firefox support */
@-keyframes seamove {…}       /* Future browsers support */

The sea PNG is marked out.

The repeating sea.png image is 65 pixels wide, so to give the sea a waving effect, we should move it by the same number of pixels. Because the background is repeating, it gives us the effect we want.

Another cool example of CSS3 animations happens when the player steps into the boat and sails off the screen.

The boat sails off the screen, revealing the “Contact” section.

If the player gets back onto the road, you’ll notice that the boat moves in “reverse,” back to its original position. It sounds complicated, but you have no idea how easy it is with CSS3 transitions. All I did was capture the event with JavaScript to determine whether the user is “on board.” If the user is, then we add the class .sail to the boat element, which make it sail off; otherwise, we withhold this class. At the same time, we add a .show class to the #contact wrapper, which smoothly reveals the contact form in the water. The CSS of the boat looks like this:

#boat {
   position: absolute;
   bottom: 500px;
   left: 50%;
   margin-left: -210px;
   width: 420px;
   height: 194px;
   background: url(images/boat.png) no-repeat center;
   -webkit-transition: all 5s linear 1.5s;
   -moz-transition: all 5s linear 1.5s;
   transition: all 5s linear 1.5s;
}

When we add the class .sail to it, all I’m doing is changing its left property.

#boat.sail {
   left: -20%;
}

The same goes for the #contact wrapper with the class .show. Except here, I’m playing with the opacity property:

#contact.show {
   opacity: 1;
}

CSS3 transitions do the rest of the work.

The JavaScript

Because we are dealing with a 2-D game, we might want to base it on a JavaScript game engine, perhaps an existing framework. But the thing about frameworks (excluding jQuery, which I’m using as a base) is that they are usually good for a head start, but they probably won’t fit your needs in the long run.

A good example is the lightboxes in my portfolio, which provide information about me and are activated when the user enters a house.

An example of a lightbox in the game. (Large image)

This kind of functionality doesn’t exist in a regular JavaScript game engine. You could always improve an existing framework with your own code, but diving into someone else’s code sometimes takes longer than writing your own. Moreover, if you rewrite someone else’s code, it could become a problem when a new version is released.

After passing over libraries such as Crafty, LimeJS and Impact, which really are great game engine frameworks, I felt I had no choice but to build my own engine to fit my needs.

Let’s quickly review the main methods that I’m running in the game.

To handle the keyboard arrow events, I use the following code:

$  (window).unbind('keydown').bind('keydown', function(event) {
    switch (event.keyCode) {
        event.preventDefault();
        case 37: // Move Left
            me.moveX(me.leftPos - 5, 'left');
        break;

        case 39: // Move Right
            me.moveX(me.leftPos + 5, 'right');
        break;

        case 38: // Move Up
            me.moveY(me.topPos - 5, 'up');
        break;

        case 40: // Move Down
            me.moveY(me.topPos + 5, 'down');
        break;
    }
});

As you can see, the code is very simple. When the user presses the up or down arrow, I call the moveY() function, and when they press right or left, I call moveX().

A quick peek at one of them reveals all the magic:

moveX: function(x, dir) {
    var player = this.player;
    var canMove = this.canImove(x, null);
    if(canMove){
        this.leftPos = x;
        player.animate({'left': x + 'px'}, 10);
    }
    if(dir == 'left') {
        this.startMoving('left', 2);
    }
    else {
        this.startMoving('right', 3);
    }
}

At each step the player takes, I check with a special method named canImove() (i.e. “Can I move?”) to determine whether the character may move over the game canvas. This method include screen boundaries, house positions, road limits and so on, and it gets two variables, including the x and y coordinates of where I want the player to move to. In our example, if I wanted the player to move left, I’d pass to the method their current left position plus 5 pixels. If I wanted them to move right, I’d pass its current position minus 5 pixels.

If the character “can move,” I return true, and the character keeps moving; or else, I return false, and the character remains in their current position.

Note that in the moveX() method, I’m also checking the direction in which the user wants to go, and then I call a method named startMoving():

if(dir == 'left') {
   this.startMoving('left', 2);
}
else {
   this.startMoving('right', 3);
}

You’re probably wondering how the walking effect on the character is achieved. You might have noticed that I’m using CSS sprites. But how do I activate them? It’s actually quite simple, with the help of a jQuery plugin called Spritely. This amazing plugin enables you to animate CSS sprites simply by calling the method on the relevant element and passing it your properties (such as the number of frames).

Back to our startMoving() method:

startMoving: function(dir, state) {
   player.addClass(dir);
   player.sprite({fps: 9, no_of_frames: 3}).spState(state);
}

I simply add a direction class to the player element (which sets the relevant sprite image), and then call the sprite() method from Spritely’s API.

Because we are dealing with the Web, I figured that being able to move with the keyboard arrows would not be enough. You always have to think of the user, your client, who might not have time to hang out in your world. That is why I added both a navigation bar and an option to “teleport” the character to a given point in the game — again, using the canImove() method to check whether the player may move to this point.

Next we’ve got the lightboxes. Recall what the HTML looks like for each house:

Did you notice the .lightbox class in the house div? We will use it later. What I basically did was define a “hot spot” for each house. When the player gets to one of those hot spots, the JavaScript activates the lightboxInit(elm) method, which also gets the relevant house’s ID. This method is very simple:

lightboxInit:  function(elm) {
   // Get the relevant content
   var content = $  (elm).find('.lightbox').html();

   // Create the lightbox
   $  ('

').appendTo('body').fadeIn();
   $  ('

').insertAfter("#dark").delay(1000).fadeIn();
}

First, I get the relevant content by finding the div.lightbox child of the house element. Then, I create and fade in a blank div, named dark, which gives me the dark background. Finally, I create another div, fill it up with the content (which I had already stored in a variable), and insert it right after the dark background. Clicking the “x” will call another method that fades out the lightbox and removes it from the DOM.

One good practice that I unfortunately learned the hard way is to keep the code as dynamic as possible. Write your code in such a way that if you add more content to the portfolio in future, the code will support it.

Conclusion

As you can see, developing a 2-D Web-based game is fun and not too complicated a task at all. But before rushing to develop your own game portfolio, consider that it doesn’t suit everyone. If your users don’t have any idea what HTML5 is or why IE 5.5 isn’t the “best browser ever,” then your effort will be a waste of time, and perhaps this kind of portfolio would alienate them. Which is bad.

Nevertheless, I learned a lot from this development process and I highly recommend, whatever kind of portfolio you choose, that you invest a few days in developing your own one of a kind portfolio.

(al)

© Daniel Sternlicht for Smashing Magazine, 2012.