EMAILRULES List

The Mailys: Who will win April voting? Nominate today to compete in May

Susan Brown Faghani — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:41:05 +0200

Dear EmailRules Community,

The Mailys 2012 are off to a fantastic start, with more LISTSERV(R) lists nominated in the first month than ever before -- 16 to be exact.

See the amazing array of topics covered by the nominated lists and cast your votes before the April voting contest closes tonight and the vote counters are reset.

Vote:
http://www.lsoft.com/news/choicevote.asp

If your favorite list isn't among the nominations, be sure to nominate by Tuesday, May 1st, so that your list will be posted from the very beginning for the May voting contest.

Nominate:
http://www.lsoft.com/news/choiceform.asp

Looking forward to your participation in the LISTSERV Choice Awards -- The Mailys.

Best Regards,
Susan Brown Faghani, on behalf of L-Soft Awards Team

Call for Email List Stars: Nominate Today to The Mailys 2012

Susan Brown Faghani — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:43:41 +0200

Dear EmailRules Community,

Do you manage or know of a great email list or email marketing campaign run on L-Soft’s LISTSERV(R) or LISTSERV Maestro software? Then here's a chance for email list communication stars to shine. As an EmailRules subscriber, you are encouraged to submit nominations to L-Soft's LISTSERV Choice Awards, also known as "The Mailys".

Nominate here:
http://www.lsoft.com/news/choiceform.asp

Launched in 2004, the competition is the only recognition program honoring the most interesting, creative, innovative or exemplary usage of LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro email list solutions.

Here's a quick rundown of what you need to know:

- All LISTSERV email lists and LISTSERV Maestro email marketing campaigns (including email newsletters, announcement lists and discussion groups) are eligible. Self nominations from email list owners and email marketing campaign directors are welcome.

- Polls open April 1 and close August 31, 2012 – so be sure to get your nomination in by this Friday so that it's included from the start and has the most chances at winning a monthly voting contest to qualify as one of the five finalists for grand prize consideration.

- In any given month, the nominated list that receives the highest number of votes and has not already qualified as a finalist will become that month's finalist. Five different finalists will be selected, one per month of voting, and will advance to the jury for grand prize consideration.

- Nominating a list is easy and takes just a couple of minutes. Nominators will receive an L-Soft promotional item of their choice, with options including t-shirts and tote bags, and the first person to nominate a particular list will receive a limited-edition LISTSERV 25th Anniversary commemorative pin. Each nominated list will also receive a special "Nominated" star web logo. Remember, voting opens April 1st, so nominate now! [...]

Email communities as life-changers and life-savers

Susan Brown Faghani — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:05:56 +0100

Dear EmailRules Subscribers,

Delivering life-changing and even life-saving information to thousands of people is all in a day's work for the LISTSERV® email communities that won L-Soft's 2011 LISTSERV Choice Awards – The Mailys.

L-Soft honored the powerful efforts and profound results of The Kidney Cancer Online Support Group (KIDNEY-ONC) and BELG-L, a community of Belgian Shepherd owners, naming each email list as a grand prize winner in its global competition.

Regardless of their topics – whether serious or fun or somewhere in between -- and despite the growth of newer social media, email communities are going strong. KIDNEY-ONC List Owner Robin K. Martinez shares an insight as to why:

"The information on the 'talk-based' social media is ephemeral; it can be valuable but may not be easy to locate again if you need it because it's not archived. Email also offers the immediacy of social media, so to me it's the best of both worlds."

On Tuesday, we published full coverage of the award-winning email communities, and we invite you to learn more and be inspired by their work:

View KIDNEY-ONC and BELG-L case studies:
http://www.lsoft.com/news/choicewinners.asp

View tips from the award-winning list owners:
http://www.lsoft.com/news/choicewinners-tips.asp

Learn more and nominate to The Mailys 2012:
http://www.lsoft.com/news/choiceawards.asp

Best Regards,
Susan Brown Faghani, L-Soft Marketing

The Code of Email Marketing for 2012

Jani Kumpula — Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:09:29 +0100

Dear EmailRules Community,

With the first month of 2012 behind us, it's an ideal time to make sure that we, as email marketers, are doing everything we can to respect, protect and engage our subscribers. We encourage you to take a look at a set of simple, yet essential email marketing best practices to use as a road map going forward.

The Code of Email Marketing:
http://www.lsoft.com/resources/emailmarketingcode.asp

Best Regards,

Jani Kumpula
L-Soft

12 Tips for Stellar Email in 2012

Susan Brown Faghani — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:26:04 +0100

Dear EmailRules Community,

We wish you a happy new year and thank you for being an EmailRules subscriber. Please enjoy our annual greeting, featuring 12 tips for stellar email list communication in 2012.

http://www.lsoft.com/happy2012.html

Kind Regards,
Susan Brown Faghani, on behalf of L-Soft Marketing Team

IT Talk, Without the Hype

Susan Brown Faghani — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 01:03:00 +0100

Dear EmailRules Community,

We invite you to watch the inaugural video in our brand new video series, "ET on IT = No-Hype Insights from the Guy Who Wrote LISTSERV(R)."

In this video Eric Thomas, LISTSERV Inventor and L-Soft Founder and CEO, discusses cloud computing.

Watch video:
http://youtu.be/l5caGqoVoLo

Enjoy the video, and please feel free to share your comments and suggestions for future topics on the YouTube page.

Best Regards,
Susan Brown Faghani, on behalf of the L-Soft Marketing Team

Code of Email Marketing

Outi Tuomaala — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:02:57 +0100

Dear EmailRules Community,

In Europe we moved the clocks back this past weekend, and the United

States is following suit now on Sunday. The end of the year is certainly

near and gives us the opportunity to reflect back and ahead. As email

marketers, following best email practices as the industry evolves is

always important. So what are the most essential pieces in a "code of

conduct" for email marketers? For inspiration, see the classic points below.

What would you add, change or remove?

Did you miss the LISTSERV 25th anniversary live chat and videocast?

Jani Kumpula — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:44:40 +0200

Dear EmailRules Community,

Eric Thomas, inventor of LISTSERV® software, which launched the email list industry in 1986, hosted a live chat and videocast on September 15th. The event was part of a worldwide online party celebrating the 25th anniversary of LISTSERV, which Thomas developed as a university student.

You can view the chat transcript here and watch a new video, in which you'll hear Eric reflect on 25 years of LISTSERV software and give a sneak peek of the next version.

View Chat Transcript:
http://www.lsoft.com/chat/livechat.asp

Watch Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dDIIDEKsw0

Best Regards,

Jani Kumpula
L-Soft

LISTSERV 25th Anniversary - Ask the Inventor

Jani Kumpula — Thu, 8 Sep 2011 23:25:40 +0200

Dear EmailRules Community,

To celebrate a quarter-century of the software that pioneered permission email list communication, L-Soft would like to invite you as EmailRules subscribers to pre-submit questions for LISTSERV® inventor and L-Soft Founder and CEO Eric Thomas to answer during a live chat to be held Thursday, September 15.

Here is your chance to ask all the questions you ever wanted to know about LISTSERV and email lists but were afraid to ask. Have you ever wondered why Eric invented LISTSERV? Are you curious how LISTSERV has changed over the years? Do you want to know what some of the very first LISTSERV lists were? Are you interested to hear Eric's vision of the next quarter-century of LISTSERV and the permission email industry? Just Ask!

By pre-submitting questions, you will be placed in the priority queue, which will increase the odds that your question will be answered during the live event.

To submit questions, visit:
http://www.lsoft.com/news/livechat.asp

Best Regards,

Jani Kumpula
Senior Webmaster/User Interface Designer
L-Soft

The Five Finalists in The Mailys 2011 are ...

Susan Brown Faghani — Thu, 1 Sep 2011 01:24:53 +0200

Dear EmailRules Community,

Polls closed August 31st and all five finalists in the LISTSERV® Choice Awards – The Mailys – 2011 are now determined. The following LISTSERV email lists, each of which won one of the monthly public voting contests, have qualified for grand prize consideration:

April Finalist: IWETEL
May Finalist: BELG-L
June Finalist: SHOWDOGS-L
July Finalist: KIDNEY-ONC
August Finalist: WORDS-L

LISTSERV email list subscribers and enthusiasts cast a total of 39,159 votes during the five months the polls were open.

Learn more about The Mailys and see vote totals here: http://www.lsoft.com/news/choiceawards.asp

The L-Soft jury and Founder and CEO and LISTSERV® inventor Eric Thomas will select the grand prize winner based on information provided by the nominators as well as the award jury's research. Judges will analyze content, email list activity, subscriber involvement, functionality, overall concept and innovative and effective use of LISTSERV technology with an eye to the overall success and benefit of the list. The grand prize winner will be announced in the fall of 2011.

Congratulations to all the finalists and to all nominated email lists! Thank you to everyone who nominated and voted in this year's contest.

Meanwhile, the LISTSERV 25th Anniversary online party, featuring the Ask the Inventor live chat and videocast with Eric, is right around the corner on September 15th!

Be sure to submit your live chat questions for Eric:

http://www.lsoft.com/news/livechat.asp

And visit the LISTSERV 25th Anniversary disco-tech party room to find out online party time for your area, enjoy a visual tour of a quarter century of LISTSERV and more (including a few surprises):

http://www.lsoft.com/listserv25years

Best Regards,
Susan Brown Faghani, L-Soft

Opt-In Best Practices for Every Email, Every Day

Susan Brown Faghani — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:02:46 +0200

Dear EmailRules Community,

With email communication best practices as important as ever, here are some timely resources on the daily business of email:

New video from US Federal Trade Commission on complying with the CAN-SPAM Act:
http://business.ftc.gov/multimedia/videos/complying-can-spam-act

Table with US and EU basic legal requirements and email marketing best practice checklists:
http://www.lsoft.com/resources/optinlaws.asp

L-Soft is a proponent of explicit prior recipient permission, also known as opt-in, and strongly recommends double opt-in, even if this is not required by legislation. Double opt-in made its industry debut with the 1993 version of L-Soft's LISTSERV(R) software. The first spam filter followed in the 1995 LISTSERV software release.

As always, we welcome you to share your experiences and insights as opt-in email list communicators.

Best Regards,
Susan Brown Faghani, L-Soft Marketing

Invitation to Party: LISTSERV(R) is 25

Susan Brown Faghani — Fri, 1 Jul 2011 02:16:54 +0200

Dear EmailRules Community,

The 25th Anniversary of LISTSERV® is in full swing, and we invite you to celebrate with L-Soft.

The date is now set for the videocast and live chat with Eric Thomas, L-Soft Founder and CEO, who developed LISTSERV software in 1986. The live chat will be on September 15, 2011, at 12 noon U.S. Eastern Time, with people tuning in online from anniversary parties around the world.

Please visit the LISTSERV 25 disco-tech party room on the newly designed L-Soft website to:
• View a one-minute video welcome by Eric
• Register for the online party: Deadline August 25
• Submit your live chat questions for Eric
• Experience The Story of LISTSERV
• Share your LISTSERV story and get a special commemorative item
• Check out special offers
… and more – with a few surprises to be found!

Check out the party room: http://www.lsoft.com/news/listserv25years.asp

We warmly welcome all of you, as EmailRules community members, and your colleagues to join the celebration of a quarter-century of the software that pioneered opt-in email list communication. Thank you!

Best Regards,
Susan Brown Faghani, L-Soft

What's Your LISTSERV Story?

Susan Brown Faghani — Fri, 3 Jun 2011 18:29:48 +0200

Dear EmailRules Community,

Did you know that 2011 marks a quarter-century of LISTSERV(R) software?

We invite all EmailRules Community members to share your LISTSERV stories with us.

What’s your LISTSERV story? Were you there since the beginning when LISTSERV was invented by Eric Thomas in 1986? Are you new to LISTSERV? Is there a particular LISTSERV list that is beneficial to you or your work?

We welcome all perspectives and submissions – you can share quotes or even longer testimonials, photos, video or audio files, anecdotes, email messages from long ago – just about anything that tells your LISTSERV story. We're leaving it open-ended, so you can submit whatever you would like to commemorate the 25th anniversary. Selected stories will be featured in a special LISTSERV at Work newsletter edition this month. And as a thank-you gift, you will receive a commemorative LISTSERV 25th anniversary collectible.

Submit LISTSERV Story: http://www.lsoft.com/news/listserv25years.asp

Thank you and we look forward to your participation!

Kind Regards,
Susan Brown Faghani, L-Soft