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Paul Jarvis loves llamas and storytelling
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"I'm not some corporation or even some author holed away in a fortress of solitude," web designer and writer Paul Jarvis told us recently. "I'm just a guy who writes a lot, and is always available to my readers."
Those readers mean a lot to him, which is why he calls them on the phone, gives them (virtual) llamas, and asks them to tell him stories. He explained to us how trying out new things has affected his writing (and actually made him more money).
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This is a test. This is only a MonkeyWrench test.
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Remember what we said up there about purposeful experimenting? We did some on the last issue of this very newsletter. Brad explains on the blog how we cleaned up our list, A/B tested our content, and got some surprising results.
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Experimentation is Really Good
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Really Good Emails is a website about really good emails. We love really good emails, which is why we support Really Good Emails. "I built this site on a WordPress theme in about 30 hours," Really Good Emails creator Matthew Smith says. "It was an experiment in making a site as fast as humanly possible and getting value out of it."
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Yahoo and AOL make DMARC changes
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In early April, Yahoo changed its DMARC authentication policy in a way that could affect delivery rates for senders with yahoo.com From addresses. In late April, AOL followed suit. Van from our delivery team thinks similar changes could come from other ISPs in the future. He advises MailChimp customers to use custom domain From addresses whenever possible. He further explains the situation on the MailChimp blog.
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Record label redefines street teams
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Leave it to a slightly weird, independent record label to transform an antiquated idea. Asthmatic Kitty's taken their street teams beyond telephone-pole flyers—they send rewarding emails that deliver exclusive content to superfans. Palmer has the lowdown.
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Inbox Inspector and 50% more ROI
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As a scientist, Steve Spangler is no stranger to experiments. He's done them in labs, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and in a major league baseball stadium. But when he and his co-workers started trying out Inbox Inspector and optimizing their emails for mobile, they saw a 50% increase in revenue. Not bad!
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Unexpected paths to creative solutions
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MonkeyWrench isn't our only newsletter. It's not even our only newsletter to cover experimentation. Our UX team explored the topic recently, learning that "keeping our minds open can take us down unexpected paths to creatives solutions."
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You Won't Believe What Happens When You Unsubscribe From Upworthy's Newsletter
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You should make it as easy as possible for your readers to unsubscribe from your newsletter—that's Email Best Practices 101. But what if you also give them some options on the way out? While blogging about Upworthy's interesting method, we offered some suggestions for customizing your MailChimp unsubscribe page.
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Using Goal to delight our customers
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We like giving stuff away: Hats, t-shirts, plushies, comic books, foam fingers, tank tops, thousands upon thousands of popsicles. Recently, we decided to try out one of our newer features, Goal, while giving away a bunch of vinyl Freddies to engaged customers. Mark tells the story.
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