But I know from experience that getting a subscriber to double opt in is no guarantee that they’ll get to see my email messages. Aggressive anti spam filters often give off false positives and automatically junk emails that should be considered safe.

There’s no silver bullet, but what I’ll do is provide my subscribers with instructions on how to “whitelist” my address so they’ll be more likely to receive my messages. I found a resource on the web that I want to share.

http://www.cleanmymailbox.com/whitelist.html

This simple tool makes it very easy to create instructions for some very popular email services and spam screeners.

Depending on which reviews you read, you could think that Vonage was either the best thing since sliced bread, or the worst service ever launched.

Here’s my experience with Vonage:

Vonage is damn good.

• Call quality: great
• Cost: excellent
• Options and services: more than I need (no complaints)
• Reliability: fantastic
• Setup: a snap

A Few Gripes

When you call in to Vonage, whether it’s the first time, or to place an order, or get support you’re talking to someone in India. Nothing against India, but it’s friggin’ hard to understand them at times.

And then there’s the hard sell, as if you stepped onto the used car lot.

It’s almost humorous to hear a hard sell from someone overseas reading from a script. You just have to interrupt them and get them back on track. They’re very quick to apologize, over and over again. I think it’s a cultural thing.

The hard sell isn’t relentless. But they try to upsell you into extra phone lines with one time offers, etc etc. Just be firm and tell them all you want is what you want, or heck, listen to the pitch and decide if you need some extra phone lines.

Also, you have to hear a long winded disclaimer read to you about 911 service and how it’s not quite the same as regular 911. In short, Vonage runs through your high speed modem. If your internet connection is down, off, or incapacitated, you better have another way of calling 911.

Quick Tip For Saving Some Dough

First, if you contact me with your email address, I’ll send you a referral, and you’ll get some discounts and freebies right off the bat. I’ll also get a free month or two, but it’s no skin off your back… your cost is actually less.

And I’m going to tell you how to avoid some extra charges.

When the guy or gal in India is adding up your costs, they’ll tell you the first month is free but that there’s a “one time connection charge” of $30+ some odd dollars and “please confirm your shipping address” (assumptive sales close technique).

At that point I said something like, “Oh, I thought this first month was completely free. Hmm… I need to talk to my wife about this, let me call you back.”

Just like a car salesman knows you never let the prospect walk off the lot, the guy suddenly came up with a special offer where I wouldn’t have to pay that connection fee, so long as we could proceed with the order right now.

Fair enough, buddy. Free is free.

In a few days, I got my box from DHL. I’ll show you what came in the box in the next article and you’ll see how easy it was to setup.

It’s wrong. And I’m convinced whoever said it was not a business owner.

A business owner knows that saving a penny is better than earning a penny, all else being equal. That’s because it takes more than a penny of sales to generate a penny of pure net profit. Every penny in sales gets whittled down by taxes, marketing costs, backoffice admin, and other expenses.

Switching to Low Cost Vendors

One way to save some extra pennies is to re-evaluate vendors from time to time and switch to new ones if it makes sense.

My wife has been dying to call up BellSouth and tell them to cram it. We pay out the nose for service, plus taxes on top of taxes on top of extraneous fees.

We have high speed internet through the cable company (love it) and we each have a cell phone.

So our plan is to:

• Set up Vonage at my new office
• Use our cell phones at home
• Use free (or nearly free) software for sending and receiving faxes

Whether you’re a startup entrepreneur or you’ve been successful for years, trimming the fat every once in a while is a great idea. I look at my automated charges and shake my head at some of the stuff I’m still paying for, like old unused hosting accounts.

Closing the door on the phone company is a big cost savings, but it’s not worth it if I end up with a horrible connection and a patchwork of second rate solutions that only frustrate my clients (and me).

Vonage Review

Whenever I contemplate a big purchase or important vendor decision, I see what real customers have to say. So I went to Cnet.com and found a ton of reviews.

Let me save you the time of reading through the reviews. I’ll sum it up for you:

Vonage is like Hillary Clinton, people either love it or hate it.

Pros:

• Cheap
• Some people report crystal clear service
• Low cost to start

Cons

• Tech support outsourced to India
• “Support” personnel are very pushy
• Some report horrible service

There were tones of reviews, and they were all over the map. But with the free month offer, I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.

What I’ll share in my next post is exactly what I found out, and I’ll also share with you how I saved myself $34 right off the top.