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I Left My Out-of-Office on Permanently and I’ve Never Been Happier
Twenty reasons why you should never be instantly available. Every hard worker knows the sheer ecstasy of logging onto one’s work email and switching on the “out-of-office” alert system before a big trip. (Honestly, is there any better feeling?) But when you travel as much as I do—as a self-employed writer, I spend practically half my life at 30,000 feet and on foreign soil—you learn a dirty little secret: you should never, ever, ever, turn that alert off. Seriously. I don’t. My out-of-office alert is activated regardless of whether I’m in China or I’m sitting at my desk in my New York apartment. Yes, it’s activated right now, thank you…
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Ad Blockers are breaking the Internet
Ad blockers don’t just block ads on the internet – they actually break websites such as British Airways and Vodafone, a new study has found. According to tests conducted on the UK’s 100 most popular websites, ad blockers didn’t just block pop-ups, but accidentally corrupted useful parts of a website, such as an airline check-in screens or retail order tracking pages. If you were browsing, all you would see is an error message or simply a chunk missing on screen, but no explanation for what was behind it. In the study by London ad-tech company Oriel, the researchers tested 24 common ad blockers, including Adblock, Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin,…
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The 4 Words That Will Get Your Email Opened
“You Are Not Alone” In two and a half years of sending all kinds of emails to all kinds of lists, the simple phrase “You Are Not Alone” is the most-opened subject line I’ve ever seen – by far. In statistical analysis which counts each email that’s been opened, even if they’re from the same user, that single subject line has had an average open rate of 90%, and has surpassed the 100% mark several times. I’ve seen this subject line used successfully on emails ranging from content marketing to personal development to potty training, with a dozen verticals in between. The results are always the same. I don’t want…
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