You know about Podiobooks.com, right? Pushing around 80,000 episodes of close to 400 serialized free audiobooks out to thousands of listeners every single day. Some listeners opt to make a donation to a book, and the author gets 75% of that. Yeah, I’m a hell of a guy.
I use PayPal in a very non-automated system to handle both the collection of donations from donors and distribution of funds to authors/producers. I’ve got a pretty good system going, but there’s one spot I constantly fall down on — thanking those who have donated.
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I simply can’t thank each of these people one at a time. It takes me the better part of 2 days to do it when they pile up, and I simply don’t have the bandwidth to do it daily. It’s hundreds of people that donate per quarter, but thanking them individually takes time.
And I really don’t like the thought of an auto “thanks” to be sent out as soon as the donation is received. Yes, I could set up PayPal or something else to do this. But I don’t want to. What I’d rather do is wait — maybe a month — and then send out a big “thanks” email to everyone who donated during that time. I’d include some quick stats on growth, new books coming… that sort of thing. Something of more value than just a “thanks”, but something that doesn’t have to be customized for each donor.
And that’s why I’m turning to you. I need personal recommendations on good, solid and inexpensive contact management services. I’m perfectly capable of searching Google on my own and doing research on my own, so spare me the links to LMGTFY. I want to hear from those of you who know of a system that will accommodate my needs.
Here’s the weekly/monthly/quarterly workflow as I see it:
Export week/month/quarter of donations from PayPal
Import that list — just names and email addresses, probably — into CMS
Write up a nifty little letter of thanks and tells the list a bit about what happened to PB.com. Would like this to be pretty-fiable.
Send.
That’s it. Of course, I know I’m building up a list — possibly a big list, though we have many repeat donors — of donors. I may opt to, though I never yet have, send them important updates from time to time. Things like the new site launch, and when we start selling versions of some of our books, too. Those will be one-off and certainly few and far between.
I have the names and email addresses of everyone who has donated in the past, so I’d like to start with a big import of those (no sending of anything), then import a list of donors since October 2009 that have yet to be thanked… and thank them.
So… what do you think? More importantly, what do you use? Spread this around if you know someone who uses email/contact management software and may be of assistance.
There are probably better, more productive ways to spend a Friday evening, but fuck it. I like to get together and have a few beers with friends.
More often than not, I’m doing that at #evfn, or East Valley Friday Nights. #evfn is shorter. And yes, dammit, you need the hashtag. And yes, dammit, it’s lower-cased. Don’t make me get all typographical on your ass.
It’s a lot of fun. See the title of this website. Fun means a lot to me. And the people who make up #evfn are fun people. That’s the one underlying factor — if you’re not fun, stay home. You won’t like hanging out with us. Or you’ll sit off in the corner and never come back. That sucks, because we’re a damned inclusive group. So get out of the corner and introduce yourself to me. I’ll do my damnedest to make sure you have fun and meet these cool people.
It has no deeper meaning. I heard someone once call it a networking group. I almost coughed up my beer. Which really would have pissed me off, because I like good beer. Leave the business cards at home, please. Yeah, more than one person has met another person that wound up becoming a client or co-worker, but that’s not what this is about. If you walk in with a stack of cards and start passing them out like fliers, you probably won’t come back. Not because we’ll call you out, but because you’ll quickly get that our event and your goals aren’t aligned. Oh, and we’ll make fun of you after you leave. Early.
I don’t do it alone. Often times — this week, for instance — I put the word out for others to handle the organization. They do. Thanks, Derek. This isn’t my event. I don’t own it. Sure, I have a lot of say in where it happens and not everyone always agrees. Hi again, Derek. But that’s OK. If you don’t like where it is one week, don’t go. Hell, there are only a few of us that go almost each and every time. That’s completely OK. In fact, it’s by design. And if you have a place you want us to go to, I’ll happily give you the reigns for an evening.
It gets me out. I work too hard. Or at least too much. You probably do, too. I come home from work and get on the lappy. So does Sheila. I work on the lappy most weekends. So does Sheila. If it weren’t for #evfn, I’d become a true hermit. So in effect, you’re all helping me say sane. And allowing me to pretend I’m really social in front of my wife.
Tonight’s Social Media Club Phoenix will be doing a deep-dive into the world of Facebook. The session is all about tips, trends, and tactics for winning Facebook marketing. Some really smart friends of mind are on the panel. If you’re in Phoenix and are free tonight at 6:30, you should go.
Prior to that, I’ll be once again hosting a Social Media 101 talk for those who are new to the field. It’s a safe place to ask what you think might be silly questions. I try and keep the old-school pundits away from the meeting, as I want all you noobs to have your chance to get up to speed. Get a few “experts” in the room and it quickly devolves to an inside-baseball conversation that few beyond the inner circle cares about.
My topic tonight dovetails nicely with what you’ll learn in the big room later. I’ll be addressing Facebook privacy settings. They’ve been through some revisions recently. You should know what your sharing, to whom your sharing it with, and how to change things to better suit your needs. Facebook is a growing microcosm of activity. Knowing what is happening with the data you provide — or maybe don’t provide — the service is a Good Thing.
My talk begins promptly at 5:30. We only have about 45 minutes before the troop starts to show up, so be there a little early so you don’t miss anything. It’s at the Jobing.com corporate offices near the Biltmore.
If you feel like staying for the full SMC meetup, go ahead. Or go home afterward. It’s your choice. Both events are free. They are also highly attended, so come get a good seat!
Ask a dozen social media experts to define social media and you’ll get a score of different answers. I don’t understand this. The concept just isn’t that hard.
It’s simple. It’s elegant. It’s completey accessible. It’s the type of advice anyone can quickly and easily implement immediately. Social media doesn’t need to be hard.*
Last year, over 100 people came together for a common cause: the cause of taking off our pants and riding on the Light Rail.
OK, so we didn’t try and cure cancer. But we sure had a lot of fun! We got great local, national and even international news coverage. Rumor has [...]
Over the last 45 days or so, I’ve used this blog to see if I could change my focus. Specifically, I wanted to know if I could write posts tailored to entrepreneurs, organizations and businesses. I’ve been encouraged by those entities, whether at speaking engagements or as a consultant, to talk more on business topics. [...]
It’s hard to become the biggest at something. For companies, it often means understanding market opportunities, what the masses want and beating the hell out of the competition in price. It’s not a field in which individuals can play without being a part of — or leading — an organization.
It’s [...]
What if you threw a revolution and no one came?
Contenture is shutting down. No, you probably never heard of them and probably won’t miss them. And since I didn’t even know of the company until I saw notice of their demise, I won’t presume to offer cogent reasons why their [...]
There’s been a lot of talk lately about tribes. Much of if focused on how to build them. If fact, we operate within tribes on a daily basis. As this video from TEDx USC points out, everyone is in some stage of tribalization. Even those on the outside looking in.
No new insightful blog post today, though I’ll return to that shortly.
Instead, here’s something for the media producers out there. Let it act as a reminder that what you see as the final product likely is not a true representation of what the camera captured. It’s short, but I laughed until I nearly peed [...]
This post inspired by a nice soak in the steam room, my little reward for breaking my 1+ year sabbatical from working out.
None of us have it figured out. No one has achieved perfection. Supreme enlightenment is at best unattainable and at worst a scam.
There always remains a stone unturned. [...]
The future is almost here. No, really. In a few days it will be 2010. That’s the future.
As of late, I’ve been writing a lot about business. Specifically, how the digital world changes what it means to be “in business”. A catch phrase I’ve been using over the last year [...]
Given the choice, I think every business would choose to be remarkable. Certainly no one in business wants to provide a bad business experience. But I’m more troubled by those in business satisfied to deliver a staple experience.
Staples are things you have to have, or need on a regular basis. The [...]
For the past year or so, an idea for a new book has been rolling about in my brain. I registered a new domain for it today and want to start formalizing my thoughts. Much of that will come out in this blog. That may spill over to the other domain. And I’ll [...]
My inner math geek squirms a bit each time I pass along this equation:
CwF + RtB = $$
That’s inspired by Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails and simplified to the above by Mike Masnick of TechDirt. It describes the approach Nine Inch Nails is taking to marketing and business [...]
Tonight at Social Media Club the topic is a deep dive into blogging, a panel discussion lead by Chris Conrey. Prior to the main event, I’m once again hosting Social Media 101.
The Phoenix chapter of SMC has grown significantly in the last six months, and it’s great to see people [...]
I’m not a very patient man. My sense of time has always been a few clicks faster than those around me. This helped me in academics as a kid — but to a point. Impatience breeds boredom. And that leads to a host of issues with less-than-desirable outcomes.
But impatience can be — over [...]
Don’t underestimate the value of connections. While we (and by we I mean I) sometimes get caught up looking for ROI and hard, measurable facts, some things are more esoteric. Yet just as valuable.
When Google bought YouTube, they thought the asset was the impressions the videos would deliver. What they found [...]
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There was a huge stink about these proposed changes a few months back. Mob mentality won [...]
There are only two types of “visitors” to your website, blog, profile, or account page1: Those who’ve never seen any of your stuff before, and everyone else. Converting the new visitor to a repeat visitor is a key goal for anyone in business. The definition of conversion varies, and we’ll [...]
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More often than not, I’m doing that at 
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