Greening Your Online Efforts

Of all your online marketing efforts, e-mail seemingly has the least environmental impact.

But sending e-messages hasn’t led to a completely paperless office. The more we use computers and printers, the more paper and energy we consume. Most of us assume global warming is caused by burning oil and gas. Truth is, between 25 and 30 percent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year — 1.6 billion tons — are caused by deforestation.

When you add the gas and oil we use by running computers to read e-mail — and to check it constantly on our Blackberry devices — you can see that e-mail isn’t completely environmentally benign.

With Earth Day upon us, we wanted to offer a few ways to make your e-mail a little more green.

1. Print less with GreenPrint: When you print e-mail and Web pages, there’s usually one useless sheet at the end, the one with the unsubscribe message, your e-mail provider’s logo, legal disclaimers, etc. You can eliminate printing unnecessary pages by installing GreenPrint. The software previews the document and highlights potentially unnecessary pages for removal. If you agree a page isn’t needed, it won’t be printed. It works with Word or any other program.

2. Unplug Your Blackberry: Checking e-mail from a Blackberry seems environmentally neutral, as no paper’s involved. But did you know chargers for Blackberry, cell phone and handheld games can consume 10 percent of the electricity in your house?

3. Recycle Old Electronics: Consumer electronics products contain thousands of substances, some of which are hazardous to human and environmental health. If old equipment isn’t properly recycled, these can seep into air, soil, and water. Everyone should make an effort to learn more about how to recycle your devices.

4. Use Earth Friendly Products and Recycle: At Namaste, we’ve been scrutinizing all of areas of our business. From implementing an in-house recycling program, to using recycled paper, to sustainable hosting for our web designs, we are committed to lessening all of our online marketing footprints.

Let’s work together to make every day Earth Day!

** Adapted from a recent Click Z article.

Want to Increase your Revenues?

Here at Namaste we’ve been busy creating a way for our partners to raise their revenues, while simultaneously raising awareness for wonderful and conscious products. This is the purpose behind our most recent announcement, the Namaste Affiliate Program. Staying true to our mission, delivering the most sophisticated online solutions and support available to the conscious business markets, Namaste recently partnered with premier affiliate marketing company ShareASale to offer the exciting new program.

For companies who sell products, this program offers a unique opportunity to leverage a network of web sites who would love to help sell your products. For those of you who’d like to offer products at your site, the Namaste Affiliate Network offers you the opportunity to select from great companies and products to easily post and sell at your site…and we’ve selected some great companies for you to choose from.

Our Namaste Affiliate Network launch partners inlcude The Y Catalog, Find Bliss Music Store, Yoga Tribe and Culture, Energy Muse and Organic India.

Imagine…supporting these great companies at your site and getting paid every time your web visitors purchase at product. No inventory, no shipping…just a simple referral to a great product. It’s as easy as that!

76% of Companies Say Blogs having an Impact on Business

A recent Cymphony/Porter study reports that 76% of companies surveyed shared they have noticed an increase in media attention and/or web site traffic. Several of you have been asking us why you should consider a blog and what type of content should you include in it. With this in mind, our team has developed our top 5 ideas for your blog:

(1) Musings – How many times have you wanted to journal about an experience or received an inspiration that you wanted to share with your community? A blog is a great way to pass along this information.
(2) New Product Offerings – Blogs are a great way to announce a new product, event or happening in your business.
(3) Industry Related News – If you read an interesting article or story that relates to yoga, sustainability or eco-consciousness, then share it in your blog. If you found it intriguing, chances are so will those reading your blog.
(4) Video – With emerging platforms such a You Tube and Google Video, your blog is the perfect medium to launch videos of recent events, trailers or inspiring clips.
(5) Promotions and Specials – Your blog is the perfect location to announce a product special, discount or contest. Your loyal readers will not only respond but they will come back often to see what other little surprises you have for them!

Have fun bloggers!

Heatmap: More than Just a Hot Air

As many of you are just beginning to surface from your giddiness with the Namaste reporting tools, a new technology is lurking around the corner that is bound to propel you right back into cyber delerium – it’s called Heatmapping. What is it? Are you ready for this? Heatmapping is an eyetracking technology for web pages. Yes, you heard that correctly, this technology will actually detect where your customers eyes are focusing on your emails. With one image, you will soon be able to learn what copy and creative your recipients are looking at and reading. According to Click Z, about 60 percent of people who read an email only see or read 50 percent of the message.

So, you’re probably asking, does this really provide me with valuable insights or is it just another fancy tool in the rapidly evolving realm interactive relations building. Well, the answer is that there is quite a bit to be gained from this technology for both you and the customer… but maybe for now we best allow you to warm up to the idea first

The Importance of Net Neutrality

Imagine, wanting to donate money to a charity and not being able to open the non-profit’s web page because of the charity’s inability to afford the dominant Internet provider’s fees required to make the page efficient? Imagine the millions of life saving dollars these charities will lose if lobbyists get their way? What if your child is sick and you can’t gain access to a support group’s page because the support group can’t afford the fees? Or even scarier, imagine not gaining speedy access to a politician’s views because the specific provider is against his or her ideology? Don’t think it could happen? WalMart refuses to fill certain prescriptions because they are ethically against them. Why couldn’t the corporations limit our access to information they are against? They could, especially if large Internet providers like AT&T are successful in their current behind-the-scenes campaign to get Congress to gut Network Neutrality—the Internet’s First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Network Neutrality is the idea that all information online is treated equally, so Internet companies have to make the smallest blog just as accessible as the largest corporate website.

A major communications law is moving through Congress right now and will likely pass—it will either have a section bolstering Network Neutrality or hurting it. The big companies want to defeat the “Markey Amendment” which will preserve Internet freedom. It comes up for a vote starting this week in a House committee, and will come up later in the full House and Senate as well. The only way the “Markey Amendment” will pass is if we speak up.

If we are silent and these companies win, say goodbye to small and start up businesses. If we don’t stand up for Internet freedom, big business will pay for dominant placing, making it impossible for young entrepreneurs to compete. Corporations will have the ability to steer you to the services they are partial to. If your Internet provider is Comcast do you think they will allow quick access to iTunes if they have financial stakes in a different music service? These corporations will take away our right to choose. They will impede innovation, stifle consumer choices, and block information and content that you may need or just want. It’s up to us to make our voices heard. Please take a moment and empower yourself on this issue by clicking on the links bellow. I implore you to sign the petition and contact your representatives. Together we can make a difference.

Sign the petition: http://civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/

Take action: http://action.freepress.net/campaign/savethenet

Learn more about how this affects you: http://www.savetheinternet.com/=threat

Top 10 Cluetrain Thesis: Imperatives for Presenters

One of my favorite lines from the movie Jerry Maguire is when Bob Sugar says to Jerry in the beginning “Finally, somebody said it”. Kind of unfortunate that it turned out to be an inauthentic comment.

Seems todays marketers and presenters have removed authenticity from the formula of connecting with people. I loved when I found The Cluetrain Manifesto, which shares a philosophy on authenticity and transparency, simplicity, and a real human, emotion-without-the-BS approach to communicating. A real conversation…for a change. Finally, somebody said it…

Below are a the first two of the top 10 theses summarized wonderfully by one of our favorite blogs, Presentation Zen..

(1) “Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.”

Markets are not abstractions, and neither are our audiences. They’re people worthy of our full attention and respect. If we can remember that it’s about them and not about us…we’re on the right path.

(2) “Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.”

I don’t hate politicians and I don’t hate marketers…but I hate the way they talk. “Mission-critical, forward-looking value propositions….” People do not talk that way! Many corporate speakers have a special gift for the “blah-blah-blah.” Is anyone listening? Speeches and presentation do not have to be be stuffy and dull, but neither do they need to be hyped-up and shallow — your audience is praying you’ll be different.

Read more

Was it a Successful Holiday for Online Retailers?

Though most holiday shoppers made their purchases by December 16th, it turned out to be a big year for online shopping. Here are some of the breakdowns from Click Z.

80% of Shoppers to Shop Online?

More than eight out of ten holiday shoppers (83 percent) said they would shop for holiday gifts online, and a similar number, 80 percent, said they are likely to purchase gifts online from small businesses, according to a new survey commissioned by Yahoo! Small Business.

Asked how they might change, many shoppers indicated they would be on the road less and on the Web more. Here are a few of the trends uncovered:

Fewer shopping outings, better planning to reduce unnecessary use of gas – 45%
Shop online more – 43%
Make fewer shopping trips and spend less in general – 42%

Time to get your holiday emails out!!

Curious How Information gets Passed Around the Web?

We have been evangelizing web press for some time now, as it has been effective medium for Namaste Interactive and YogaConnect, however we had yet to see any tangible research on its effectiveness… until now. A recent experiment by MarketingExperiments.com may just confirm our intuition on Web PR. It also says lot about how people learn new stuff on the Web. Check it out.

Thinking about a Blog?

Good thinking. According to Technorati a blog is born every second… that’s 80,000 a day! But don’t just do it because it’s a hot new trend. You also want to be considering your blogs purpose. For instance, blogs are great marketing platform for announcing promotions and new products, or you can utilize your blog to keep your customers informed of your industry’s latest happenings. Get creative and have fun with it. It’s a great environment to feature your company’s unique brand image. One of our favorite blogs on, you guessed it, blog marketing is called Buzz Marketing with Blogs. Be sure to check out the Ten Things to Consider Before You Blog… and blog away!