If you’re embarking on an email campaign, it’s important to consider the effect of the Preview Pane.

Consider two emails we received today: one was from the NY Times, the other was from Ad Age. One email was designed to take advantage of the Preview Pane. The other failed miserably.

Before we reveal the results (it’s pretty obvious), let’s explain:

The Preview Pane gives you a chance to see a little bit of an email from your Inbox view so you can decide whether or not you want to open the message.

Lots of email programs (email clients, in technical parlance) have this capability.

The Problem

Many email clients also sport a feature which blocks incoming images unless you click “get entire message,” “download pictures,” or some such verbiage.

Solution

1. To make proper use of the Preview Pane, your emails should put the important words and links in plain text - not image text.
2. You should compose your email so the most important info is displayed toward the top left (the area most likely seen in the Preview Pane).

And the Winner is

Decide for yourself:

Bottom Line

Effective use of the Preview Pane lifts open rates. Ad Age does itself a disservice by ignoring this aspect of email marketing.

LinkedIn is social networking with your past business colleagues. You build your profile (kind of like an online resume) and connect to people you know.

Boomers aren’t all that comfortable with Web 2.0 social networking. They’re not on MySpace or YouTube. But LinkedIn, by nature of it’s focus on past business connections, skews heavily toward the Woodstock generation.

All of a sudden, all my pals from long ago are popping up - people like Norm Sherman and Lyman Casey from D’Arcy, uber-networker Perry Schaeffer and DraftFCB Group CD Pat McGuire. Hi everybody!

Does LinkedIn have real merits as a business tool?

Don’t know yet. But as more people join, the network becomes more and more interesting. Sign up for free and find out for yourself.

Let’s start here: which do you hate more:

• Junk Mail, or
• Spam Phone Calls?

Well, get this: Limited Too is now spam-calling people to tell them about the junk they’re about to receive in the mail:

“Hi! This is Jessica from Limited Too! Watch your mail for our exciting new fall catazine …

I kid you not. Catazine.

Catazine is not even close to a word. It is a faux-clever term dreamed up by a marketing wonk.

Here’s why catazine doesn’t work - as I’m listening to the spam phone call, I get distracted by a word I don’t know. I suspect that most people lose the message at this point. Why create a friction-point by being overly clever?

One more note to Limited Too (Much): I’m on the Do Not Call list.

As reported in the FlickrBlog, over 7,800 photos were submitted.

Just another example of how Web 2.0 is creating new opportunities for business.

“The State of Things” on WUNC chose this photo as the Picture of the Week.

Thanks to Dave DeWitt and everyone at SOT!

Here’s a permalink to the picture in flickrspace:

Old Blue School Bus

There are two main rules:

1. Don’t use all caps (FREE)
2. Don’t use multiple exclamation points (FREE!!!)

Anecdotal evidence suggests that exclamation points in general trigger some filters. As well, using “Free” as the first word in the subject line may also be vulnerable.

Thanks to Nick Usborne and others for sharing their wisdom.

See also: Great email subject line!

It’s called ColourLovers. CL brings a soupcon of science to the anarchy of developing a color palette.

See what’s hot in the design community right now. Check out the most popular palettes for the web and for print. Build you own color palette or hobnob with the experts in the discussion forum.

Besides all the fun interactivty, ColourLovers will change the way you think about color. Hw many websites can say that?

Let’s start with WSJ. They use WordPress to fire up All Things Digital, news, analysis and opinion about the digital revolution featuring heavy hitters like Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.

Harvard has created a portal using WordPress-MU for students to create their own blogs. WordPress-MU allows you to run thousands of blogs or websites with just one software installation.

Let’s say your blog-powered website gets really popular. Consider Anousheh Ansari, the first blogger from space. Or CNN. For sites that experience more than 500,000 views a month or spikes in the millions, there’s WordPress-VIP.

Guess what: blogging’s not so niche anymore. It’s not just personal rants and self-promotion. In fact, many of the most popular destinations on the web are powered by WordPress.

Why are big corporations and news portals adopting WordPress and other blog engines for major audience sites?

• Simple to install and customize
• Effortless content creation
• Lots of free and low-cost software, plugins, themes and widgets

Evidence is building that WordPress is poised to become the next software empire to roll across the world’s laptops, changing the way businesses think about websites, commerce and communication.

Thanks again to Dougal for researching this important topic. See his list here.

Themes are designs you can download that alter the look (but not the functionality) of your blog. You can install a new theme anytime you like - all your content stays intact.

1. Browse some themes online

WordPress is open source and a lot of free or shareware themes exist. Start by browsing some of these sites:

• WP Themes
• WordPress Theme Viewer
• Smashing Magazine’s 83 Themes

2. Download a couple of themes you like

Just look for the download button (or link) next to any theme you like. We fancy themes with two or three columns that are widget ready (widgets are handy plugins that addd functionality to your blog).

3. Upload the theme to your server

Most themes download to your computer compressed and expand themselves once they hit your desktop. Upload the uncompressed folder to your server into the directory:

/wp-content/themes/

4. Activate the theme

From the admin panel, selection Presentation from the menu across the top. You’ll see your available themes displayed. Double click on the theme you’d like to make active.

Your done! Click on “View Site” to see your new theme in action.

We’ve installed a new theme - it’s Micfo Web 2.0 Green by Cory Miller.

Today, we’re pleased to welcome ProBlogger, a site packed with helpful tips for expanding your readership and making money with blogs.