Wednesday 28 March 2012

Onions

About six weeks ago I was whining in the general direction of my Ma about my lack of garden. I am sure that I was whining about lots of things that day. She was pointing out the new plot that my step father had worked on to put the potatoes in. She was excitably telling me about the strawberry plant, the over zealous appearance of garlic and the new shoots of real rhubarb appearing beneath the old tin bath that is their home. 


Assuming that there wouldn't be any hybrid cross flavours developing in the plot below I quickly accepted the armful of fresh leeks she'd pulled for me to take home. I might not have a garden but I eat freely from those that do.


I was giving up on the whining. In the face of my mother skipping around her veg plot in a long swishy skirt and expensive wellies I couldn't battle with her positivity. However, never underestimate a mother's ability to be listening whilst appearing to be silly. I was sent home with a plant pot containing some soil and four onion bulbs.


Every couple of days I peer into the pot to see what is happening. Now the tall green shoots are watching the highstreet below and basking in this unseasonal summer weather.


It would seem you can grow onions indoors. However, I suppose I'll have to wait until I pull them to see if the bulbs have formed into real onions.


Onions, cress, tomatoes. It isn't a bad start, though I still long for a garden of my own.



Tuesday 6 March 2012

How to create great HTML email


Keep your template clean and concise and your content to the point. People are being bombarded with “stuff” – white noise that they filter out – so you want your message to be clear and focused.

1 – Subject line. You wouldn’t open an email if you thought it was spam, so be honest in your subject field. Give your customer an indication that this email is relevant to them.

2 – Unsubscribe. Don’t be afraid to give your audience the option to unsubscribe if they want to. By hiding it in obscure font in a footer you aren’t achieving anything, in fact, your run the risk of being marked as junk.

3 – Clutter. If you have to include a lot of images why not offer the customer the chance to view the email online to give them the full effect? Though, in my opinion, you should steer of anything that cluttered. Your email is a targeted message, not a website condensed into someone’s mailbox. Lead your audience to you through clever and savvy content and design.

4 – Think webmail. Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail are still the three biggest so check your email is displaying as you’d expect. Don’t forget about Outlook users either, sometimes a plain text version of your email might be a helpful addition.

5 – Environment. Think tablets, smart phones and any new technology. You want people to be able to navigate freely – avoid putting links too close together and concentrate on putting your important content in the area that is seen without scrolling through the email.