We want to thank everyone that has tried the beta version of GoldMail. Your feedback is invaluable and very much appreciated by the GoldMail development team.

Today we are pleased to announce the final preview version of GoldMail Beta, providing the ability to record your voice slide by slide.

Play a 2 minute message from Michael and Rob.

Since this is the #1 product enhancement based on our user community feedback, we want to make sure we do it right. We intend to make this release of GoldMail generally available in the next few weeks, but first we would be delighted to hear any final thoughts you may have (praise, criticism, or just drop us a note and say “hello”).

GoldMail Beta is still available to download, and will update when you next login. We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback at The GoldMail Beta Feedback Forum or by e-mail to gmsuggestions@goldmail.com (add GoldMail Beta Feedback to the subject line).

Your email marketing just got more powerful.

The GoldMail team are delighted to announce our partnership with email marketing leader Constant Contact. Just click on the player below for a 2 minute message.

With Constant Contact email marketing for GoldMail you’ll benefit from:

• Significantly above average (97%) Inbox delivery.
• 400+ email marketing templates.
• Email open rate & click through tracking.
• List management & autoresponders.
• Email coaching and support.

This latest GoldMail release is out now. To increase your click-through rate and speak to your audience with impact just look for the automatic update when you next login, it’s that simple.

What do you think? leave us a comment, or add a suggestion on Our Uservoice Forum and don’t forget you can always keep up to date with the latest from GoldMail by following us on Twitter and  Facebook.

Are you an NGO looking for an innovative and compelling way to tell your organization’s story? From September 30 to October 21, GoldMail is proud to partner with TechSoup Global (one of the most comprehensive technology resources for NGOs in the world) for their Digital Storytelling Event. To find out more play this GoldMail.

This online event includes expert roundtable discussions, nonprofit case studies, online discussions, live chat and a Digital Storytelling Challenge with great prizes (including a video camera, mp3 players and a GoldMail Synergy account). For a chance to win you are invited to submit a 60 second GoldMail that demonstrates your organizational mission/goals/needs in a thoughtful and creative way.  

Learn how to maximize the impact of your organization’s message with online audio, video, and images. To find out more visit the event website, register to receive email announcements about the event, and follow the action on Twitter #tsdigs.

Do you know someone who would be interested in this event? Click this button  to let them know.

The GoldMail team are pleased to announce the release of a new version of GoldMail (2009 08). It’s simplest to show you around with a quick GoldMail, so click on this link or the image below and take a look.

This release introduces…

• A Welcome Screen: which provides access to tutorials and guides, and incorporates a live feed of the latest product developments from our blog, so you can see what’s new at a glance.

• Clearer “View Notes” Button: we’ve added some text to make sure you don’t miss our slide notes feature (thanks for the feedback).

• Links to our uservoice Feedback Forum: where you can share, discuss and vote on your favorite product ideas.

• Recommend GoldMail Link: so you can share the Free GoldMail Trial with your friends and associates.

• GoldMail Community Widgets: keep in touch with us right from within GoldMail. The widgets include our Facebook Fan Page,  Blog,  Feedback Forum, Twitter Feed, GoldMail Learning Zone, and the new GoldMail Gallery.

Of course you don’t have to do anything, just look out for the automatic update when you login to GoldMail. What do you think of these new features? leave us a comment above, or over on the Feedback Forum.

GoldMail had a great time at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, showcasing our newest tools for Real Estate agents.  The show traffic was surprisingly good considering the beleaguered economy and down real estate market and everyone seem to be optimistic and looking forward to brighter days ahead.  Representatives from ReMax, Keller Williams, Buffini Group, and Realtor.com were all perusing the halls of the show, looking at productivity solutions for their agents.  It goes to show this group of professionals have resolve and  are rolling up their sleeves looking for the latest and greatest technology to assist in their sales and marketing efforts.

10 Ways to Work Smarter and Faster…

GoldMail’s solution for real estate agents to create personalised “virtual tours” that not only show off their properties, but also allow their  personal connections with clients to flourish, was very well received.

On the Friday we won a glowing review from Matt Brezina, the Co-Founder of hot technology company Xobni, when GoldMail was chosen as one of his ten top tips to work smarter and faster (thanks Matt).

GoldMail is “another really powerful thing… a great way to go beyond an email on a different channel than a phonecall” Matt Brezina

You can watch all of Matt’s ten tips to work smater and faster in this short video. (GoldMail is discussed at 03:20)

It’s always great to get out with our peers and hear the success from our current users and the great ideas for new solutions.  Thanks to everyone that stopped by our booth!

Mark Pierce (VP Business Development)

Being the leading social networking site, Facebook has long since surpassed its tag of “just for college students”. As this article explains, with tools like Facebook Pages and Groups you can gain new clients, stay in touch with current clients, and promote new products and sales offers. You can also use it to create buzz and PR that is specific about your business.

Of course GoldMail is the perfect way to make all these connections more personal and powerful. If you are already involved in professional networking on Facebook you’ll know just how easy it is to post your GoldMails.

Today we are pleased to release GoldMail 2009 07, and with it, the introduction of dynamic thumbnails. Now each GoldMail you share will include a thumbnail image of it’s first slide that makes posting your audio slideshow messages on Facebook an even richer experience.

When you next share a GoldMail on Facebook you’ll notice the difference straight away, but in the meantime just play the GoldMail below for a 2 minute review of this release.

Is this feature useful to you? do you share your GoldMails on Facebook?
leave us a comment above.

Perhaps the most efficient way of creating professional looking audio slideshow messages is to remember how simply you can recycle the digital assets you already have available to you.

There are numerous advantages to this approach, not least that it will save you even more time, expense and effort.

You may already have a library of powerpoint slides you can leverage of course, but lets think beyond powerpoint. If you have a website, or do any other kind of promotions, then the chances are you already have the essential ingredients to make a GoldMail in minutes.

Here are two examples of very effective GoldMails that have simply repurposed existing content.

1. The launch of the Lee Westwood Golf Acadamy. This GoldMail, which is embedded over at LeeWestwood.com simply married audio from the press release radio interview, with a couple of photos, and screenshots taken from the Lee Westwood Golf Acadamy Website.

2. The DEMO ‘08 Global Tour. This GoldMail was recorded as a podcast style interview with the DEMO technology conference founder Chris Shipley, it used photos already taken on their trip, and was included in their email newsletter “the DEMOletter”.

Remember, with GoldMail all you need to get your message out are:

Images…

-  Your website is the first place to look. Most likely you already have a great library of images that you can use in your messages. If you can’t find the original, then it really is a simple job to just grab a screenshot from your site and crop it to size (click here to see how).

Think how easy it is to tell your story with a picture of you and your team, a couple of product shots, a page highlighting the monthly special, and perhaps a screenshot of your website. Presto, a quick voiceover and you have a GoldMail ready to share.

Beyond your website you may have other assets for offline marketing purposes, but these too are often available to you digitally. So think how you can get creative with those publicity shots you’ve had taken, or the PDF’s and .JPGs of the brochures and flyers you’ve had printed.

…and Audio

If your business either advertises on the radio, or produces podcasts then you have a feast of audio snips just waiting to be used. Perhaps someone at your company has been interviewed, and you have a copy of the audio, or how about simply including some music and letting your images tell the story (for music licenced for commercial purposes Search Creative Commons).

So,what are you waiting for?

Was this blog article useful to you? How are you recycling your content? Leave us a comment above.

Many of our customers have expressed an interest in becoming an affiliate of GoldMail.  I am very pleased to announce that today we have publicly unveiled our GoldMail affiliate program – a way to make recurring income by sharing and recommending the GoldMail service with others.

http://play.goldmail.com/u2camaqc2xse

Above is a 5 minute message – when it is convenient and you have the time, please view by clicking on the image or pasting the link into your browser.  The GoldMail is a bit longer than we normally recommend as a “best practice”, but we also wanted to also share with you some or our recent product features. We value our relationship with you and look forward to continuing to provide a service that truly improves your communications, customer relationships and profitability.

Tom Hakel, CEO

Add that personal touch everytime with GoldMail Beta

Over the past year one of our most requested features has been the ability to Edit Audio Slide by Slide.

Do you want to: reuse a GoldMail you’ve recorded and saved, just changing your first slide greeting for a different client or prospect?

Have you ever: played your message back, then wished you could change the audio on a slide without re-recording the rest of the message?

…well now you can.

As a reader of The GoldMail Blog we’re giving you exclusive access to GoldMail Release 200906Beta – Edit Audio “Slide by Slide” which, we are excited to announce,  is available NOW for download.

So, if you want to see how it feels to truly leverage your messages click the button below and watch a 3 minute GoldMail overview, see what this powerful beta release can do for you, then take it for a test drive.

We’re looking forward to hearing what you think.

Don’t forget, you can always get the very latest from The GoldMail Blog  Delivered by EMail, and by following us on Twitter and  Facebook.

Is the GoldMail Blog useful to you?

We are often asked where is the best place to get creative content for GoldMails, so I thought it about time to compile a definitive list. There are some tremendous sources of free photos, images, illustrations, and clip art avaliable if you know where to look. Of course (quite rightly) in most cases “free” comes with the caveat that you should attribute the content to the photographer or creator of the work. So, whether you use GoldMail for Sales, Marketing, Training or Internal Communications read on to discover where to find great content in seconds.

My first port of call when looking for free content is always to Search Creative Commons, the nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. They provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.

Searching Creative Commons enables you to find images and photos from Google, Yahoo! and Flikr, and you quickly find authors whose work is marked as free to use with only “some rights reserved.” If you respect the rights they have reserved (which will be clearly marked, as you’ll see) then you can use the work without having to contact them and ask. In some cases, you may even find work in the public domain — that is, free for any use with “no rights reserved.” To learn more about Creative Commons licensing click HERE

Creative Commons also hosts an enormous Content Directory which lists all the organizations and projects powered by Creative Commons. This really is a treasure trove, and lists not only free images, but text, audio and video too.

PhotoXpress.com a Free stock photography and premier-quality image bank (with more than 350,000 images ready for download for personal or professional use) has just been launched by its parent compant Fotolia.com.  Signup and you can download up to 10 images a day from 22 catagories, including a great selection of business images. Proper attribution is required.

Stock.xchange is a Hungarian site with close to 400,000 images to choose from. Join their community and you may use images free of charge in multimedia presentations, don’t forget to read their terms of use.

Other great sources of FREE images include:

MorgueFile.com Free images for your inspiration, reference and use in your creative work, be it commercial or not!

ImageAfter.com is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net is a good quality site that carries thousands of royalty free photos for corporate and personal use in presentations. You must attribute their website.

Paid for photo sites: – with access to even a small budget you can get hold of superb stock photos in seconds at:

Stockxpert.com – over 3,300,000 images for download

Fotolia.com – has nearly 6,000,000 photos and illustrations

istockphoto.com – over 4,000,000 royalty photos and images

bigstockphoto.com – over 3,000,000 stock photos as low as 1$ each

dreamstime.com – nearly 6,000,000 images as low as $0.20 each

Snapvillage.com - High quality images from $1

gettyimages.com - The leading provider of digital media worldwide, but watch out, these are pricy.

Have we missed anything? where do you get your images from? leave us a comment, or better still, leave us a GoldMail. 

Need a free soundtrack for your GoldMail Audio Slideshow? We’ll let you know where to get one next time. Don’t forget to Subscribe to this blog to keep up to date with all the latest hints and tips about how to use GoldMail for your business.

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