The first proto-post I wrote for this series (which was only posted to our internal company blog) was titled “Four Fives”, and included a list of links to posts giving five “top tips” on a range of different subjects related to email marketing. In the same vein, I present this week a similar series of series:

• Three Keys to Effective Email Marketing – the basics
• Email Never Goes on Strike – “4 Tips Guaranteed to Stuff Your Stocking”
• Five Lessons Email Marketers Can Learn From @Sh*tMyDadSays – lessons from Justin Halpern’s Twitter account
• User-Generated Video Contest – “6 Steps to Promote Brand and Generate New Marketing Content”
• Stay Safe from Online Email, Phishing, Social Media, Malware and Other Scams this Holiday Season – Proofpoint’s “Seven Simple Rules”
• 8 Email Marketing Tips – a good overview
• Nine Strategies for Smart Email Marketing – About.com’s email guide, Heinz Tschabitscher, gives his take
• Top Ten Ways to Accelerate Your Email Marketing Strategies in 2010 – some great tips from Joanna Lawson-Matthew

(Also, Joanna, I love the intro “Let the Wild Rompus Begin!” – great stuff!)

Interesting — and good — to note one common theme amongst nearly all of the posts above: the most important point, ah, pointed out, is that you need permission to properly engage in email marketing. Shortcuts like buying lists just don’t work.

Couple of special mentions this week, firstly to the wrap-up of Mark Brownlow‘s excellent five part series of posts on the Future of Deliverability. There are actually six parts, as he’s also put up a list of 192 deliverability resources. Nicely done.

Secondly, I wanted to link to author steve (not sure about what the proper capitalisation should be here!) of Word to the Wise fame on his two posts on ICANN’s recent announcement about support for proper domain name Internationalisation (part 2 is here). The posts do an excellent job of explaining the subject and how it relates to email marketing. Again, great stuff – cheers steve!

As always the blogosphere has been a mixed bag covering a range of subjects, with the usual posts on general advice, discussions about specific issues, press releases, technical updates, and non-stories. This week however there seemed to be a prevalence of Hints and Tips-type posts; so here’s a few choice posts, all with great advice:

• Gaining and retaining subscribers – 10 essential points everyone should live by
• This Week’s Tips – “Getting Customers Involved” (continued)
• 5 Tips to Lower Your Unsubscribe Rates – how to keep customers from switching off
• Tips for Email Marketing Success On Any Given Sunday – American Football as an analogy
• 5 MORE Things All Email Marketers Need to Know – general hints and advice

In the same vein, there’s also been a number of “How-tos” posted covering such topics as simply how email marketing can be successful, how to keep your mail from getting unblocked, and how to merge email, microsites, and social media together for fun and profit (well, profit, at least).

Special mention this week to a post on Proofpoint’s Email Security Blog titled Email Horror Stories… Just in Time for Halloween that introduces 10 articles about situations you’ll be glad haven’t happened to you.

An inconsistent week of posts in the email marketing blog world this week, meaning a lack of highlights that can be easily be grouped together. However, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t plenty of useful, interesting, and amusing subjects discussed:

• How often can you send to your email base – before they unsubscribe or disengage?
• 8 email statistics to use at parties – guaranteed to break the ice
• Email as a PR problem – clear, concise advice on what to do when you mess up
• Consistent Facebook, Twitter and YouTube branding – from our very own Gareth Langston
• How to Conduct Email Surveys – Marketing Sherpa’s special report
• Stop Sending So Many Emails! – more is not always better
• Music for Mailing – an email-related playlist to get you in the mood

In what has become a regular note about goings-on in the good ol’ US of A, one of the more discussed items this week has been the recent news that the state of Maine has introduced legislation prohibiting the collection of information from under-18s without parental consent… which was promptly reversed after practically everyone pointed out how badly written it was.

Special mention this week to to a post by the always-excellent Mark Brownlow (of Email Marketing Reports fame) Beware the wisdom of the minority, where he discusses some subtle ways that raw stats and vocal minorities can be misleading.

Embedding video into emails is a topic you’ll see discussed on a semi-regular basis, so first up this week I’d like to share three great articles about embedding video:

• How to Embed Video in Email
• More On The Video Boom: Choosing The Best Content For Video In Email
• Video email: when to use it

Yahoo! has been in the news this week, with much discussion about its suggested penny-per-email system where the proceeds go to charity. Of course, this is just in research at the moment, but it’s an intriguing concept nonetheless. Check out CentMail.net to sign up for more information about this when (and if) it launches.

Over the pond, one of the big stories was the news that The White House may have been buying lists and sending spam, after the Press Secretary was questioned about an email sent out by the President’s Senior Adviser, David Axelrod. As ReturnPath points out, this is great press for the permission-based marketing model.

Also as a special mention I’d like to link to a site I came across recently called Which Test Won? by Anne Holland, where she reviews various different split tests and their results. The format of the site is great — you have to vote on which result you think won before you get to see the winner and accompanying discussion — and the topics covered are a fascinating insight into the kinds of things that can make a huge difference to the effectiveness of any marketing campaign – even though you would never have suspected they might.