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New blogs + 37Signals yoink

I got an email today from MailChimp, which is a web-based mass emailing app. I use their stuff and it has been a good experience so far. Today they sent a newsletter which has a study of open rates and subject lines. Highly interesting. Also from it, I discovered a new blog, bly.com, which is the blog of a professional copywriter. Good stuff. I'm going thru a marketing phase right now because I've figured that's what I need to be doing in my current position.

I sent a message out to the ASAE listserv asking about how to do my marketing plan in an association environment since obviously pretty much every resource is out there to sell "stuff." So it's helpful to a point, but you always have to adapt it. A delightful woman from the American Chemical Society wrote me a couple of lengthy emails explaining her process and it seems just fantastic. So back to work for yours truly.

Also, I wanted to point out today's post from 37Signals, which has loads of great links and observations. You know, the more experience I get the more I agree with their premise that every blessed thing is just waaaaaaay toooooo complicated. They link to a paper that talks about Toyota's business processes adapted to web design. It doesn't sound terribly applicable to associations, however, I believe anything called "lean thinking" is something we could use lots more of.

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