About A. M.

Teacher and Poet.

Experiences with the IELTS-Test and its Preparation

A. Introduction

Some time ago, I wrote about my experiences with the TOEFL. Today, I can write about my experience with the (academic) IELTS-Test, which I took about three weeks ago.

After a brief introduction, I will give some hints for preparation and point to a few aspects of the test, which should be improved. I would like to encourage everyone who had or will have to take the test to write to those responsible for this.

This time, I even had two weeks time to prepare for the test (albeit I could not work full-time on that every day). I would recommend to take more weeks, if you can, although with the right approach and help, it may still work out, for, fortunately, I have got enough points for my purpose. I received the letter with the results already one day after their having been published online.

I am  really thankful to all those angelic and higher powers, to the Beings of Light, to the Saints, the Prophets, the Divine and the entire Company of Heaven whom I had asked, and to whoever else helped me, for the results. I appreciate that in my most important examinations ever since university, their hand could be felt or seen.

B. Preparation

I. Do take the test seriously, even if you know English. While not having lived yet in an English-speaking country when taking the test beyond a few weeks of student exchange, I had English as one of my “Leistungskurse” in high school with 15 points continuously, travelled a lot, read a lot of English books and even published articles in English, watched a lot of films and talked to a lot of English-speaking people. (And, of course, I am writing in English just now.) Oh, I also taught English in Japan for a little while. So I do believe to have a certain competency in this language, and still I did right in trying to prepare as much as I could.

You should start as early as you can.

If, now, my words should cause fear: just take them as an opinion and advice – I got all the points I needed, so you may, too – just do what you can, and pray for the rest.

Having read words before taking the test which made me worried myself, I would like to point out that there also were people who told me the test was not as bad as I had heard, and that – on the basis of my education and knowledge – I would be able to do it when preparing adequately.

Also, you may need a lesser (or higher…) result than I did – it really depends on the institution for which or the reason because of which you are taking the test.) Nevertheless, if your English is really insufficient (or if you would like to do everything you can): there seem to be special preparation courses.

II. Have a look at what the test will bring. Here is a good overview (also see e.g. here), so I will just give additional information and opinions here (do not overlook the link in commentary No. 8 of Thomas’ blog, you may have to check the vocabulary, but I found it quite helpful on a whole).

III.

1. Following those who had advised similarly and following recommendations on a mailing list of which I am a member,  I concentrated on the free 30 or so hours of access to “Road to IELTS (you can download pdf-files; if it should not work in your browser, try another one) and on other sample tests. Someone told me that the online sample tests should be enough, if time would be an issue. This may or may not be true for you, I still would recommend also working through the books, for the test itself will be on paper, and you get a good feeling for how it will be by using the books. Also, it is good to work through the sample tests because more training will certainly help.

a. For these, I bought the following books:

Official IELTS Practice Materials 1 and 2 with Audio CD, Cambridge University Press.

These, I recommend, too. The sample tests are like the test, so they have been quite worth the money. Maybe you can find them on Ebay or get them from friends, too.

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b. I also bought

Rawdon Wyatt: Check Your English Vocabulary for IELTS: All You Need to Pass Your Exams: Essential Words and Phrases to Help You Maximise Your IELTS Score. A & C Black 3rd edition, 2012.

and

Julie Moore: Common mistakes at IELTS… and how to avoid them: Instant IELTS. Common Mistakes. Advanced. Klett: 2007.

These books contained helpful words for me here and there, nevertheless, I did not have the time for much more than a rather short glance a day – it will depend on your level of English whether you will make using them a priority. Have a look inside at amazon or a bookstore or a library, if you feel you might need them.

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Someone told me he had taken part in a preparation course, which used this book.

c. There are other books I might have bought if I would have had more time. I suggest looking through amazon or your local book store. I found it valuable to look into some of the books where it was possible at amazon (this, this, this, this and this – just also look for yourself and follow your intuition as to what you may need), and even save a few information taken from there to remember them.

2. You do need to get to know the type of tasks you will have to fulfill, and a feeling of and practice in how to do it. The books above (1.a.) and the sample online tests will help. I really would like to emphasise this: do your exercises!

a. Here are a few points I found important:

• You have always to be very alert during the listening exercises. You should practice to find the right attitude and level of consciousness for that. You should not start loosing yourself in thoughts about one question while listening, because then you may miss the answer for the next one.

• Do learn manifold words to describe diagrams! (The online exercises from Road to IELTS can be helpful here, too.)

• Do learn or recall and then remember “connectors” (and use them, even if you are so fascinated by the subject you are talking about or your own words, still: USE THEM!).

b. Here, besides the ones already linked above, int. al. the following websites may be a help for you:

http://writefix.com/ (Quite helpful, I memorised the list of words for graphs, for example, e. g. here and here.)

http://www.goodluckielts.com/

c. Here are details on a few points with which I noted I had to be careful:

aa) Sometimes, when accessing Roads to IELTS online, the videos with advice on how to tackle the test confused me sometimes a little bit: While one teacher recommends to make it easy to understand, the other points out it is [also (– well, that was how I tried to solve the dilemma, but… I do think there is something to improve with the advice there…)] important to show that one commands complex sentence structures, relative clauses etc. – Oh, how I would have loved to be able to just write in a natural way… (Well, fortunately, in the test, the subject was favourable to me.)

bb) With listening, I had to make sure to be alert and awake – and not to rethink something that had been said, because, then, I might have missed the next answer.

cc) As for reading, especially when I was unable to find a satisfying answer, it was important for me to look for synonyms or something related, to broaden my awareness.

Also, sometimes, a word is not being given as a whole, but only the second part. So if you “scan” for a certain word, be careful not to set your “limits” too narrow!

dd) As to writing, as someone who rather feels creatively and for whom contents is important, I was also quite unhappy with the strict “system” in which one has to write texts. Introduction, such and such a number of middle paragraphs, conclusion…

Art arises from the depth, the form is just a tool.

I wish the test would take that into account. They ought not look for robots, they ought to look for Masters of life and language!

I really went back to making lists of words which would impress the corrector, as I had done at school with much success (e.g. of connectors like thus, so; for, as, since, because; therefore, because of that, etc.). This might also be helpful for the speaking part. Here, someone else provided an example.

One thing you should do: Find out how many pages / lines, in your handwriting, 250 and 500 words are, and also, maybe, a recommendation I received, to guess how much time you need to write how many words.

Do keep an eye on time, make sure to have a text with adequate parts, including a conclusion, in the end.

ee) The speaking part was more relaxing. It may be a few hours after the written part, depending on how they decide when your turn will be. We had the impression that those with an address farther away from the test center were those being called in early.

You are being asked certain questions. Initially, you will be asked about your home town and / or your family (I was not asked, but be prepared for describing e.g. your hobbies) etc (just look into the preparation materials what could be asked – experiences from your childhood, favourite colours then, travelling, the films or music you like… The questions I got made sense, if you should find them stupid, just do not let yourself be thrown out of track because you as someone accustomed to solving deep philosophical problems with important implications think they are silly – as the conversation makes progress, you will probably or hopefully get more meaningful questions to answer.). Be prepared, but do not make it appear as if it was memorized – that might be detrimental, I think.

I was also asked, I think, for the most difficult challenge I have had (or something into this direction) and for something related to education or the growing-up of young people.

I probably could have used more connectors or complicated words (would have not been a problem, but in my dedication to the subject, I may have spoken normally – and it seems my teaching languages as foreign languages may have made me express myself in a less complex way then I used to, when speaking) – so do remember to do that.

Also, but this may not be your problem, I have a tendency to lead everything back to the ONE cause – I believe it may be valuable to at least show that you are able to see many facets before doing that in order not to appear to give a reply that might appear “one-sided” to some. Also, I wonder whether a stricter structure of my replies (one sentence as introduction, conclusion, i.e. similar to the written part) would have been expected (an idea I take from an email written by someone who took the test some time ago, but did not necessarily remember everything).

When the lady who executed the test announced that time was over, her energy suddenly changed, and become sort of “stricter”, so to speak, whereas before I had the impression of a lighter kindness. I was wondering and a bit worried, what that may mean, but maybe it was unrelated to me, as I still managed to get 8.5 points.

So, if, normally, you have no problem communicating in English, the oral test is nothing to be feared. Just take into account my hints.

3. By the way, as you will be allowed to bring a (clear) bottle of drinking water, what about “preparing” it with some Bach Flower Remedies? I took both the Rescue Essences and a special bland I take, both in the morning and then in my water and found it quite helpful and balancing.

4. If you would like to make sure and have enough money and time, consider taking the test as early as possible (but please make sure it will be still valid when you will actually need it), so that you could repeat it, if you would like to or the need should arise.

C. What I would recommend to change about the test and the official preparation materials

I. Possibilities for improvement start with the advice given in Roads to IELTS online, appeared slightly contradictive to me, sometimes (see already above, B. III. 2. c. aa), also as to the question whether to write more than the minimum number of words would be detrimental; I finally demanded to be told by email and on the phone and got a response [to write less will definitely be detrimental, so make sure to write at least one word more than the minimum number of words; writing a bit more should be no problem, writing much more, well… just ask them – I deem it quite dubious, if an organisation like the British Council cannot or will not give clear / accurate information about things like these from the start.]).

II. Also, I was not amused about certain type of questions and tasks.

While it may be an individual preference whether one likes describing diagrams or not, I have made the following observations.

1. The answer, whether something in the text is true, false, or not given is quite often a gamble (I tried finding out how the people creating the tasks think – when I thought I got it, it was just the other way round in the next sample test)

2. It is not necessarily easy to match the right headline with the right paragraph, although you may understand perfectly both the meaning of the headline and the paragraph

In short, while I have passed, rather with higher marks, I do not believe that the test can measure one’s English abilities accurately. It may be correct that whoever passes the test with a good result will speak English well enough, but I do not believe that anybody who speaks and writes English well will necessarily get the marks he needs.

And this is a scandal, for this test decides about the course of lives: Will one be able to study at the university one has selected? Will one be able to do the work one is called to do? Can one emigrate to the country one loves, or one belongs into?

The criterion for all these should be whether one is able to cope there. It should not be whether one is able to cope with a test.

A test that does not guarantee to accurately reflect the abilities of a person should neither be obligatory nor cost 200 Euro and many Euros more for preparation materials.

The IELTS test is not alone with the problems I described. I know from my preparing high school students in Japan for their university entrance examinations in English and for other tests in German that other tests provide similar problems. The tasks are not always thought through well, the answers expected sometimes are simply illogical, or the person who created them did not think about alternatives or alternative interpretations and therefore may put those with a deeper insight into a disadvantage.

This has to change.

D. Call

[It seems I had my poetic-polemic day when writing this.]

I would like to call all those who know about the test and agree with me to send letters of protest with suggestions what to change to the British Council. We may have passed, but there are others behind us whom we can help.

Let us use our good marks as a sign that we are not frustrated losers, but that we are those who prevailed despite the injustice such a system may offer. From this point of strength, we can help making the world of education a better place.

Let us start now.

For those of my readers who will still have to take the test: Good Luck!

This is version 1.1 of this article. There is a slight chance I may revise it, which might be reflected in the version number. If there should be any comments below appearing to be inconsistent with the text, the reasons might lie here.

Joy and Dance

In the context of reading this article and a question here, I wrote:

Dance the dance of Joy,

dance the Freedom of your Love.

Dance the dance, no fear be nigh;

dance the dance, and from above

Heaven will its blessings bring. Heaven be thy Star;

dance the dance, infinity

brings the Light – no dark

shall rise again.

 

In you, there is but Freedom.

In you does Love prevail.

In you is precious Freedom;

in you does Love prevail.

On Finding and Choosing the right Autoresponder- and Newsletterservice

A. Preliminary Remarks

Recently I have been looking into autoresponder- and newsletter tools. There is a plethora of possibilities to experience and compare. I will try and give a short overview. My own research lasted for a week or so, and at some point I just more or less stopped and signed up with a service I liked. So my article is not exhausting.

Yet, maybe a brief introduction may be of service, both to me, if anyone ever asks me about it, and to my potential readers. Even if offers may change, I believe some principal considerations will still be of value even later in the future.

If I should happen to find further information, I may (or may not…) include them, so come back whenever you wish, and have a look.

B. Experiences, Hints, Advice and Decision

I. Things to become clear about

There are a few lead questions you will want to ask yourself and then check the offers you can find on whether they provide what you need:

1. Which language should be the backend in? And in which language(s) do you wish to post your newsletters? And in which countries?

2. Are you ready to self-host, setting up things for yourself, or would you prefer and external service?

3. Would you accept the logo of the service in your newsletter or advertisements by others  or as a part of the sign-up process for your customers?

4. Do you intend to do affiliate-marketing or can you definitely exclude that you for the future?

5. The price, of course.

6. Are you thinking about becoming a reseller or how important is customization of the interface for you?

7. Do you need an autoresponder?

 II. Some Services named

The following overview only selects a few services. This does by no means imply that there are not equal worthy or maybe even worthier ones out there… It is jus those I encountered and decided I wanted to name here. Do look further if you feel called to do that.

1. Self Hosted

Quite a few of them are fee.

a. Scripts

While you can try using general mailinglist scripts or programmes (e.g. Mailman),  if you adapt the settings, there are also special newsletter and autoresponder tools available.

Many people use phpList . It may be quite functional. There is even a hosted version , which may address deliverability (see III.) concerns.

I have installed poMMo  in this version and like the interface. Unfortunately it does not seem to have integrated an autoresponder.

I have also installed Infinite Responder (hint to myself: here, lest I forget). The look appears to be a bit… retro… , but offers a variety of autoresponder options.

I have only read about Dada Mail .

There are a lot of others, if you shop around. I found some of them via WarriorForum or maybe by just googling. Some actually quite expensive (and probably quite good), as e.g. http://www.interspire.com. I also noticed http://www.openemm.org.

If you are looking for solutions from Germany, to these belong e.g. IMT PHP Autoresponder Pro Mailresponder  or the Superwebmailer.

A general overview can be found e.g. here.

You may also find interesting plugin solutions for WordPress blogs, if you look for the terms “newsletter” and “autoresponder” here.

As additional tools, programmes like Mega List Cleaner may be helpful.

b. To Observe

If you think you might ever change to not self-hosted services, enable only double-opt-in sign up forms. Even in that case, though, make sure you see a realistic road to import your list with a commercial provider without having to make your users resubscribe, which could mean a considerable loss of subscribers.

For more hints, please see III.

2. Non-Self-Hosted

The order in which I name some solutions constitutes no ranking. That I will be using affiliate links in this section will have no influence on my selection or description. Only after deciding which ones to select, I was looking for an affiliate programme.

Of course, there are many more services not named here which may be right for you.

Also, by the time you read this, features may have been added or changed, and points I may have criticized may have been improved. Always check for yourself.

AWeber

Maybe one of the most well known a lot of professional marketers and people offering online shows use. Offers a lot of options, a lot of templates.

Yet, a few remarks:

I read about one incident where I am not sure whether they refused a German to continue to use their service (cf. http://www.internetmarketingportal.de/internet-marketing/spielt-aweber-jetzt-schon-gott.htm) for reasons that may or may not be acceptable.

There exists the possibility that they cannot deal with German (or other?) Umlaute, it seems, and, as far as I know, have not shown any interest to change it. But I may be wrong there, just check.

If it was not for their starting price, I might have considered choosing them for my English language newsletters, although the Umlaute-issue might have made me think again.

Also, when choosing them, make sure to delete the entries of former, now unsubscribed, recipients. Otherwise you might have to pay for them.

You can receive further information from themselves (please note: “free” does still mean they would like to have 1$ at least temporarily, the reasons for which they explain on their site, I believe):

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MailChimp

I might have liked the service, it looked attractive, but I severeley dislike the TOS (read it and see below III. 4.). If you do not mind, they may be a great choice with a good free deal for beginners. I do not like to be told what I can advertise in my newsletter, though, and so I  did not even try them.

Listwire

Quite an intriguing free offer, although you will have to check whether you like their way of advertising on pages shown in the subscription process (on which your newsletter may also be advertised, though, under certain conditions).

I did not like that they will, from time to time, prune the list without asking you, deleting customers they consider inactive for the sake of deliverability (they may allow to export these prospects in the future). The problem has been discussed in their forum, and they are quite decisive in that matter. Their reasons, a connection between “engagement” and deliverability may be sound, but I have no interest in sending mails “because I have to” instead of when I feel it appropriate, and I believe my audience will value that.

Thus, if you do not like this or know you will only send occasional newsletters, you may wish to look elsewhere. It may be a  pity, for, as such, the service seems to be a great offer.

CampaignMonitor

Great. One of my definite favourites and my current choice. For details see V.

GetResponse

Nice, well designed.

Really, really beautiful interface with the possibility to choose a couple of languages. Beautiful archive. Beautiful sign-up form and newsletter templates. Even includes the possibility of creating web-surveys.

As it is the case with many other services, though, the TOS does not make me happy – it puts certain restrictions to content, in certain cases they charge for deactivating one’s account, albeit only after giving a warning.

But do indeed have a look.

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Graphic Mail

Could be worth having a look at. (Their autoresponder function is called “TriggerMail”, if you are looking for it, by the way.)

They also offer services in German and other languages.

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ExpressPigeon

ExpressPIgeon looks quite beautiful, nice and interesting. Although currently I am using Campaign Monitor, I could well imagine having a deeper look at ExpressPigeon.

Follow your intuition.

NamasteLight

As someone esoterically inclined, I felt attracted by it, but I did not check it –  make sure how quick there customer service is before deciding.

Das Leadsystem

This is a German service I would have liked to use it, but I disliked that one had to give one’s real name, which would be reflected in a certain URL and the forum profile, both of which would have been publically accessible, as far as I understand. As I try to keep a certain control about in which context my name appears, I cancelled my account for that reason. But if you do not mind, do have a look, if it speaks to you.

CleverReach

CleverReach offers services in German and English. It appears to be quite a good service, but do compare prices if you expect to have a lot of subscribers.

And read the TOS, especially the Affiliate-TOS, if you intend to put out affiliate links for them. I do not, because I sincerely dislike contractual penalties and contracts incorporating them.

Clever Elements

CE is offering services both in German and English. They offer a Whiltelabel solution and do seem promissing. As far as I know, an autoresponder function is being planned.

Klick-Tipp

Interesting, but not cheap (at least not for people with only a few subscribers) appears to be the German Klick-Tipp service. It is totally in German (check whether you can use it for other languages, if you would like to).

There has been some criticism in the initial phase. Do check. And do read the TOS and be aware what it means. I also find their Anti-Spam-Policy too strict, e.g. it does not allow to send out mailings which do not have a connection with your website. If you do, they may even sue you!

• Others

Among others, I also came accross iContact, Contactology, Constant  Contact, VerticalResponse, MyEmma, DirectIQ (multi language according to their FAQ), 12SecondCommute and 123Response, Interspire and SimplyCast (in the letter case, for example, check here and here – you should always check all the services online before deciding, google for experiences etc.).

There are some resellers around, be it of Aweber, be it of CampaignMonitor, or of others. They may offer you a better (or a worse) price, or just good (or not so good) service. Have a look, and, if you want to know, check for the name plus “White Label” or “Reseller” etc. That may be interesting.

3. Other Creative Solutions

There are also email programmes for your computer available which do allow mass emailing, as far as I know. I have not further researched them, though (But see III.2., which you may have to consider, then, too.).

Whether, by the way, to creatively use Google Groups in a newsletter function, an idea I read about, is a good or feasable idea, I have not further researched.

III. Comments as to I. and interrelations between I. and II.

1. Which language should be the backend in? And in which language(s) do you wish to post your newsletters? And in which countries?

a. Language

aa) Languages other than English

If you wish to address an audience in another language than English, you will have to find out whether there are certain functions in the newsletters you will send which are named in English, will display in the recipients emailbox and the names of which cannot be altered.

bb)   Make sure all characters in your language work

And you will want to make especially sure the encoding allows to have all letters of your alphabet readable, especially in the newsletters you send . This may be a problem with, for example, AWeber and quite a few languages other than English.

Do enquire, do try it out with various standard email services.

In some cases, the only problem may be when someone with a name containing a foreign character signs up for your newsletter. His name might not be displayed correctly. You might be able to change that by setting the page with the webform to UTF-8.

b. The Country

The country question is relevant in so far as internet and privacy law is concerned (which customer data will be collected via the service and in how far you can control that, can you include social media buttons without including special privacy information etc.; the reader’s data crossing certain legal borders) and whether the service allows to comply with other legal norms (U.S. providers, for example, may have constructed their service or policies in such a way that it conforms or needs to conform with the CAN-SPAM-law).

Also, some may require double opt in, but I do not know. Just consider, though.

In these cases, choosing a provider from the region you aim at can be helpful. If your reasons are legal ones, do not rely solely on trusting that your provider will get it right. Look into the local rules yourself.

Of course, you can use different services for different purposes or countries.

2. Self-Hosting and Deliverability (also some general notes on Deliverability)

Are you ready to self-host, or would you prefer and external service?

If you are ready to self host (or choose a programme running on your computer), you may get away for free, or get quite an impressive piece of software for a one-time price.

Yet, you will have to set it up and then, you will have to look deeper into questions of deliverability. You will have to make very sure that your server (which may be more difficult if hosting on a shared server, although, on the other hand, you may profit from the “credibility” of your “neighbours” on the server – provided they are good ones) will not be blacklisted for SPAM and also check how the services used by email providers to filter out spam work.

To do this, it may be helpful to browse through the blogs of the various newsletter providers, but to make sure you do not get any biassed opinion.

You can also try and combine these self-hosted programmes or scripts with services like http://www.smtp.com or http://dyn.com/keepsending/ to ensure deliverability. Some of these may not accept being used in such a way, though. Check their TOS, before even considering it.

Even when signing up for an external service: DO ALWAYS EXPERIMENT with different email providers and see where mailings sent out through these services end: In SPAM-Folders or your inbox? And google for the experiences of others (name of the service and keyword “deliverability”, “deliver” etc.).

Only then decide.

(Of course, results may change again and again, depending on e.g. the other people on the server your account is on and other factors. Maybe do check from time to time.)

Tools and sites which may be helpful in the context of deliverability are, for example:

http://senderscore.org, and http://deliverywatch.com

By the way: do change the standard response email texts in the sign up process, it may help; I made it appear like a normal email, including a postal address and afterwards got it in my inbox instead of in my SPAM-folder.

Recently, by the way, a change in DMARC-policy lead to some problems.

3. Free services may advertise

Would you accept advertisements by the newsletter company or other companies in your newsletter or as a part of the sign-up process (as does Listwire) for your customers?

If not, free services or free offers of otherwise paid services may not always be your choice.

4. Traps in TOS: Do you intend to do affiliate-marketing or can you definitely exclude that you will do so in the future? Have you read the TOS and Acceptible Use Policy and other Policies?

a. Contents

Quite a few services exclude a wide range of content from being used with their service, reaching from MLM, drugs and pharmacy over lotteries to affiliate marketing in general and [edited 2022] advertising of ICOs or even the topic of crypto currencies altogether.

Do read the TOS and the other policies in advance. And do not just believe and hope it will be fine. Analyse it and understand which risks you will take.

If you cannot exclude that you will want to do affiliate marketing in the future, you may not want to use e. g. MailChimp. Read the TOS, it is far too limiting, according to my opinion, and leaves a lot of potential points where you could find yourself suddenly locked out of your list.

But to move a list is no fun (see IV. 2.)

Some services (e.g. Klick-Tipp) even threaten to sue the user if he breaches certain aspects of the TOS.

b. Other traps in the TOS

Some services (e.g. CleverReach, but others will do that equally, I believe I have seen it, so I do not wish to single them out) will not allow mailings to be sent to certain addresses. To these may belong addresses beginning with “sales@”, “webmaster@”, “abuse@” etc.

As a reason you may hear that behind those addresses are normally no persons using them for subscribing to such newsletters, but that they are used by enterprises, and the owner may change.

My comments:

(1) So what? Maybe even people acting for enterprises wish to subscribe to a newsletter with such an address.

(2) It is not even true in my eyes. I would use an “info” address (which is also one sometimes named in this context) to subscribe without the blink of an eye, unless I knew this practice.

CleverReach at least openly talks about it (kudos for that). I suspect there may be other services which do not allow them and do not so openly talk about it. And then you may wonder why people signing up with these never seem to respond… Do check the TOS, do check the policies, and do ask whether any addresses like these will be automatically excluded. It may not be such an issue – you would have to look how many of your subscribers use these addresses, and what happens if someone signs up using such an address. But I would want to have a definite list of excluded addresses at the very least.

5. The Price

Well… quite obviously something to consider. But do put the other needs you may have in relation to it. And you may wish to support a good service, after all.

Take into account that some offers are cheap for people with a low number of subscribers, but may get more expensive than others once a certain threshold is reached. That also sheds a better light on the pricing of e.g. AWeber. Yet, there may be discounts available, if you ask.

If you find a service attractive, why not talk to them?

Some of the services listed in II. offer free basic accounts enabling sending out mailings to e.g. 100, 500 or maybe even more recipients. Quite enticing.

If you would like to avoid changing to another provider later, though (for reasons I have already mentioned), take into consideration how many subscribers you expect to have and how many you ultimately aim at – in the long run, another service may be cheaper.

6. Are you thinking about becoming a reseller or how important is customization of the interface for you?

If yes, do have a look at CampaignMonitor.

AWeber, GraphicMail, GetResponse and others may also offer Whitelabel-Solutions. But then make sure that it is really totally cutomisable, if you want to make sure you cannot be exposted as a reseller (unless you choose do disclose it, that is).

7. Research the Autoresponder Features

The autoresponder may not be included in some free trial versions, but do get informed about which functions they offer and which you may need. There are simpler ones and ones where you can determine when to send an email much more precisely (e.g. “not on Mondays” etc.), which might be helpful considering research concerning when people will open their email most likely.

IV. Some Keywords to Research and other Advice

• Check for integrations with social networks and commercial services, if you would like to have them.

• Some services allow for easily choosing a singup checkmark box for other newsletters one offers for the sign up form (e.g. CampaignMonitor).

• Be careful with a certain kind of sign-up form, lest they be blocked by web browser plugins; possibly provide alternatives.

• You can always have a self-hosted solution installed as something to fall back onto if something does not work with your newsletter service provider as wished. Just remember to export your lists once in a while so they cannot be held captive or deleted. Into your own tools, you can always import…

• If you are considering using a service which offers its services for free first (or a self-hosted service), and potentially to change later, think twice:

Some providers will not accept lists from others without making your customers sign up again (you might lose some – or more… – of them then), if at all (some will, though). At least make sure to have set a double-opt-in process from the beginning,  that might make it easier later.

But, if you can, maybe just avoid changing and make the “right” choice from the beginning.

 V. My own Decision and an Outlook

1. My Decision

I decided for CampaignMonitor. I love how I can integrate it into my website, branding it and customizing it in a lot of ways, also concerning the URLs where you sign up for my newsletter – I prefer keeping people on my own domains, which they know and can trust (I hope they do…).

It has beautiful statistics.

I also liked their TOS. Honest, and without a lot of the – in my eyes – inadequate limitations some other providers have in order to protect themselves, but severely limiting the usefulness of the service for those who actually wish to abide with the terms of a service they use and have the (relative, of course) security not to be “kicked” just because of a breach of some strange and unexpected clause in the TOS or policies (cf. above, III. 4.).

Also, it appears I can, de facto, collect addresses for free, until I decide to really use the service to send. Then, I will have to pay. As long as there are only a very few members, I can still use my webmail to reach them, and yet have got their addresses in a double-opt-in process.

But I can still decide whether to opt for a monthly plan or a plan based on the number of campaigns and emails to be sent.

(When writing this, I had not seen this yet, but for the moment, I am using Campaign Monitor.)

[Edit (August 2020 and March 2022):] Due to the GDPR, I am currently not using Campaign Monitor, I would have to make sure first that it is or that I would act according to the GDPR. The main problem I see would be the tools provided by Google in Campaign Monitor’s backend, but maybe they have taken measures to make them compatible. One would also need to have a processing agreement, and, furthermore, consider the most recent rulings of the ECJ. Perhaps it would still work, if standard clauses are used, and they would be in compliance. I would have to look into it. In any case, one would need to get consent for transmission of IP addresses to third countries, unless EU servers would be used. Whether this would be enough, with the owner still being a US company under US law, is still the question. However, this is equally valid for all other solutions discussed and not discussed here: One would need to check for conformity with the GDPR and the most recent court rulings.

 2. To Learn

Many newsletter service providers have blogs. Some of them, e.g. those of GetResponse, AWeber, CampaignMonitor, can be quite instructive to read even if you have opted for another service.

Version Information

I may update this article, if I find additional information I would like to include. The current version is version 1.5, mainly of April13th, 2014 with additions from 2020 and 2022, although not generally updated, so information may be out of date and companies named not exist any longer. Furthermore, the selection from when the article was posted does not reflect or consider the GDPR, which means you need to be very careful in regards to any recommendation I gave in this article as far as the compliance with EU and German law is concerned. Please do check the current situation for yourself, or, if you are friends with me, ask me for my perspective, if you like.

A few problems one might encounter when installing, reinstalling or moving a WordPress blog with plugins

I. Preliminary Remark

There are a couple of problems one can encounter when installing, reinstalling or moving a WordPress blog. I have documented some I have met here and in a follow-up article here in German.

But as I had drafted some aspects of the second article in English, too, I will publish them here also in English. The German articles are much more extensive, though, and I suggest rather reading them.

II. Problems and Solutions

1. Strange Signs, Strange Words, Strange Numbers at the end of my URLs

1. E.g. “#.”, followed by other signs

The solution lies in disabling the track address bar shares-function of AddThis, cf. here.

2. E. g. ?doing_wp_cron=1351935560.6119229793548583984375

The reason is described here: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/doing_wp_cron or here: http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/12777/what-is-this-doing-wp-cron. Also see http://wordpress.org/support/topic/scheduled-posts-still-not-working-in-282?replies=13.

I thought it had vanished (in my case) after disabling Wassup, which was obviously running a lot of cronjobs.

But the phenomenon occurred again when I used Ajax Edit Comments, persisting while someone had posted a comment during the period in which it could be edited. That would mean if you have a lot of commentators, that might show a lot on that post. It may have been a coincidence, though as It may also occur with other plugins, see e.g. here.

So I had to speak to my web host, but loopbacks is enabled.

Finally, I found out here, that, although I could not find a trace of ALTERNATE_WP_CRON n the wp-config.php, it was set in the code-pages of the plugin. Apparently, the All in One Event Calendar plugin defines ALTERNATE_WP_CRON in a place I did not expect it to be. So I  add to my wp-config.php the following line:

define(‘ALTERNATE_WP_CRON’, false);

And the URLs look nice and clean again . Smile

2. Visual Editor and Ultimate TinyMCE and TinyMCE Advanced Editors not showing

Although I activated Ultimate TinyMCE and then TinyMCE Advanced, I got no more buttons, nor (as I realised when comparing with my old setup) the visual editor.
I could resolve the latter by enabling again the visual editor in the user preferences (I might not have gotten there without a chain of hints here and here, then I would also have found the solution here).

3. Ultimate TinyMCE-bar “too wide”?

Just change the number of rows or open your browser wider (I really did not realise I could do that… done too much on the net, then?) – or choose the 1-column-view in WP (slider on top of the page). You could also add rows in the code, maybe.

4. Page Title Doubled

I checkmarked “fin Yoast. For quite a different advice see http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/dont-show-page-title-in-page-body?replies=9#post-606411, http://www.prasannasp.net/fix-seo-by-yoast-prints-site-title-twice, http://wordpress.org/support/topic/site-title-showing-double, http://voodoopress.com/modify-header-php-to-get-the-most-out-of-yoasts-seo-plugin-in-a-twentyten-child-theme.

5. AddToAny-Button on Search Results Page doubled

I am still looking for a solution. I hope that someone will reply here.

Moved to a New Web Hosting Provider

When about two months ago my hitherto web space provider (I was so lucky to have a reseller account for free) returned his server, I had to seek a new home for my websites.

After a long quest, inter alia using Hostjury and Webhostingtalk to find a good new one, I decided in favour of MadGenius [Disclosure: Affiliate-Link]. And, indeed, as I had read, they provide quite a good service, even enabled a certain option, the possibility to switch off statistics for my German websites, especially for me, and the support is friendly, polite and helpful.

So I decided to move my blog, too.

I had hosted it with Hostingsociety before, a fully functional German free space provider without advertising on one’s site, and I still do like them, but for security reasons they had disabled a certain option (fsockopen() ) I prefer using.

After my move I finally could connect to Jetpack and use a couple of other (also: plugin) functionalities I could not before.

When reestablishing my blog, I encountered a few problems the solution of which I was glad to have documented before here. In addition, I will document solutions to a few further challenges in a follow-up article here.

 

Den Weg mit Herz gehen

DatenschutzImpressum

Diese Nacht habe ich einen interessanten Film gesehen – das koreanische Original [auf Deutsch, man kann ihn übrigens auf Deutsch online finden, etwa auf myvideo.de, soweit das am Abrufort legal ist oder bei amazon erwerben] – : My Sassy Girl (kor. 엽기적인 그녀 bzw. 獵奇的인 그女; Yeopgijeogin geunyeo).

In den letzten Monaten habe ich mich beim Anschauen asiatischer Filme etwas zurückgehalten, da ich dachte, das täte ich besser in Asien; und bei japanischen Filmen war ich mir nicht immer sicher, inwieweit es gut sei, das jetzt zu aktualisieren.

Dieser Film aber hat sich emotional gesehen und vielleicht auch spirituell gelohnt, jedenfalls enthält er eine tiefe Lehre am Ende.

Auf Grund der potentiellen Gesetzeslage zitiere ich die Worte dort lieber gerade nicht, aber die Essenz ist diese, die ich hier in einem Gedicht ausdrucken möchte… Dachte ich, nun habe ich vielleicht auch anderes gesagt. Der Film ist auf jedenfall sehr schön und kann zu Vertrauen führen. Ich erinnere mich auch wieder an Gespräche mit einem Freund in Japan über “縁”.

Follow your heart, wherever it leads you,

thou shalt be fine. For fate cannot hinder

what needs to blossom

within and without

fate is the servant

of Heart.

Thus, it shall be.

 

Der Titel meines Eintrages verrät, worauf es hinausläuft. Wenn man auf die Worte am Ende des Filmes hört, kann man besser und glücklicher durch das Leben gehen, denke ich.

“Gedichte für die Nacht”: Reading in Esslingen am Neckar

I will be 1 of 10 poets taking part in Rosen‘s Sommer-Salon in a reading organised by the Stadtbücherei [Municipal Library] Esslingen in cooperation with Rosen’s Lyrik-Salon. A singer-songwriter will perform a few songs in between the individual contributions.

The event will take place in the context of the Bouquinist Festival on Saturday, September 22nd at 22 h in the library, either in the courtyard or the caféteria, depending on the weather.

Entry will be free.

For more information also see here.