Tag Archives: services

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Easily Send Video Emails

Getting your message through to clients and prospects takes creativity. Anything you can do to make your message stand out in overloaded Outlook inboxes is a good thing. Eyejot is a Web-based service that allows you to quickly and easily send video e-mail (v-mail) to anyone. All you need is a Webcam and an Eyejot account. The best part is that the basic service is free (at least for now).

Once you have a Webcam and an Eyejot account, creating and sending a v-mail is as easy as clicking “record” and speaking to the camera. The actual video is stored on Eyejot servers and an e-mail is sent to the recipient. The recipient clicks on a link in the e-mail to play the video message. The sender is then alerted when his or her video message has been viewed.

Consider using Eyejot in your agency to communicate with clients. If you like it, the PRO Plus version is worth the $100 per year price. With the PRO version, messages can be five minutes in length, you can upload pre-recorded video, you get extended message storage time, the video won’t contain advertising, and you have the ability to attach and send documents. You can also brand several Eyejot notification elements with your agency logo and color scheme.

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Does Your Web Site Look Good?

Traditionally, Web developers only needed to worry about how your Web site displayed in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). No longer. Multiple Web browsers are commonly used by your prospects and clients. A bad looking page on a non-IE browser (e.g. Firefox, Safari, Opera) could make a prospect abandon your site.

Browsershots.org is a complimentary service that lets you test your Web design in 55 different combinations of Web browsers and operating systems. It’s a handy tool to make sure you know how your Web site will look on different systems—which sometimes mangle sites using nonstandard code.

It’s simple to use. Put your Web site address into the input bar, select the different browsers and operation systems you want to test, and click submit. Browsershots proceeds to make screenshots of your Web design in different browsers.

Here’s how it works. When you submit your Web address, it is added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers open your Web site in their browser. Then, they make screenshots and upload them to a central server. This process can take a while, depending on how many combinations you selected. The screenshots are then displayed on the site and you can download them to view in more detail.

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New Web Site Makes Individual Health Insurance Easy to Understand

Clients who have been confused or intimidated by the complexity of health insurance now have an easy way to take the first step towards getting the individual medical coverage they need. A new Web site, SimpleCoverage.org, provides information and guidance to help consumers quickly understand the basics of health insurance and how to find and select a health plan that’s right for them.

The site was developed by Consumers for Competitive Choice (C4CC) Education Fund Inc., a non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide consumers with information and tools to make informed choices in the marketplace. More than 44 million Americans do not have health insurance and another 25 million have less health insurance than they need.

SimpleCoverage.org explains in easy to understand language, the different types of coverage available and how to find insurance, evaluate plans, and what to expect during the application process. For example, the Web site gives consumers suggested questions to ask when choosing individual medical coverage. In addition to the online information, SimpleCoverage.org offers consumers a downloadable brochure: Health Coverage Made Simple. The site was developed and is maintained with a grant from Assurant Health Foundation.

Check the site out. You may want to include a link on your agency Web site to direct clients and prospects to this information resource.

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Broadband in the Sky

American Airlines has announced the launch of a new mobile broadband service, Gogo,™ provided by Aircell. Customers traveling on American’s Boeing 767-200 aircraft can access complete coast-to-coast coverage on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami.

Aircell’s Gogo service will be available to customers as a fee-based service in all cabins. Aircell will charge $12.95 on flights that are longer than three hours, which include American’s Boeing 767-200 flights. Each paid Gogo session includes full Internet access. Cell phone and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services are not available. Gogo turns an American Airlines flight into a Wi-Fi hotspot. Once the aircraft has reached 10,000 feet, users can simply turn on their Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops, smartphones, and PDAs, open their browsers and be directed to the Gogo portal page where they can sign up and begin surfing. Gogo is powered by the Aircell air-to-ground (ATG) Broadband System, which runs over Aircell’s exclusive nationwide network.

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FlyDoc: Streamlining Snail Mail

Although the delivery of electronic documents is growing rapidly, agencies continue to send many standard letters. Flydoc.com is a Web-based service that allows you to streamline the process of sending printed letters.

To use the service, you simply install a new printer driver that you’ll use to “print” documents. You can print in black and white or color, on a single side or on both sides of the paper. You can choose from three standard double-window envelope sizes, but there’s only one paper option for your sheets: letter-size, 24 pound white.

When you select Print, the document is submitted through the Internet to FlyDoc’s service center. FlyDoc promises to print, stamp, address, and send your documents via first-class mail within 24 hours. The first page costs as little as $.36 per copy for black-and-white printing and $.48 for color; subsequent pages cost $.18 for black and white or $.30 for color. The largest envelope available can hold up to 70 pages.

One nice aspect of the service is that it does not require a minimum number of letters. Being able to pay for individual pieces means you can use the service to send customer invoices or the personalized letters you’ve created using the mail merge feature in your word processor.