• Our Email Experiment is Over

We found out that a higher percentage of our readers than expected actually open up our emails. This percentage is actually higher than Oklahoma students who can name the first President of the United States.

Somehow these facts are pretty valuable to your business as you'll see later.

One of the reasons that we send out a weekly newsletter is that it is good for business. We try to have content that is interesting to small business owners who use computers, especially retailers and restaurant owners. We try to make this an educational type of newsletter and stay away from trying to sell our customers items within the newsletter.

We try to offer information that will help your business grow and to remind you of our name on a weekly basis. We want you to think about pcAmerica when you think about computerizing your business or expanding your present computer setup. We also want you to remember pcAmerica when it is time to renew your tech support contacts which also includes all Cash Register Express and Restaurant Pro Express upgrades.

Well, you all knew this. It's not a secret. We do our best to send you an interesting newsletter with information that will help your business so that you buy more from us in the future. It's been working for us since 1976 (originally via U.S. Mail, later via email).

As a retailer, you should also be in contact with your customers. Cash Register Express and Restaurant Pro Express both have a component within the program that will allow you to acquire emails from your customers and send emails to your customers through Microsoft Outlook (or via other methods).

How often should you send out your emails? pcAmerica chooses to send out emails on a weekly basis. It's a good frequency for our company. I believe that most businesses should be sending out a weekly email to all customers and potential customers. Once a month makes it too easy for your customers to forget you. Once per day can be over the top for many businesses. Once a week appears to be just right in most cases.

Always allow people to be removed from your list. Every email that you send out should include a link for customers who want to be removed. Your removal link only needs to be an email address that receivers can click on with their removal request. pcAmerica has an extremely low removal request rate of about .0012 (about 1 recipient in a thousand). That's about a fourth of the normal removal request rate.

Should you try to sell something within your newsletter? That all depends on your crowd. We have found that pcAmerica customers are not too fond of being pitched to. A couple of years ago, we made a great offer on barcode scanners. We grabbed a bunch of brand new ones at half price and wanted to make them available to our customers. It turned out that few of our customers were interested. Lots of our customers were offended by our overbearing attempt to sell an item through the newsletter, and our removal request rate soared. So for pcAmerica, we try to remain low-keyed on the selling aspect within our newsletter. We try to stick to educational items and keep our company name in your minds.

I have done email campaigns for many retailers and restaurants. They have all been extremely successful with response rates in excess of 10% and a significant increase in sales and profits.

• Hasta La Vista Vista

I'm sorry. I had to say it.

Microsoft Windows 7 has been released. Microsoft Vista is gone.

Microsoft Vista's present market share is 18.62% compared to 71.51% using Windows XP. That was not so great compared to the number of years that it was available. Although I believe that Vista was superior to XP, it just never took off the way Microsoft had hoped it would. It required more resources. New computer users found it easier to use. Experienced computer uses didn't like it so much. The experts in their reviews believe that Microsoft Vista was probably superior, but also had too many negatives. It used up lots of computer resources, required more RAM, and had too many incompatibility problems.

Microsoft Windows 7 was released on October 22. It really should have been called Windows Vista Minus. It has all the great things available in Windows Vista. It is faster. It looks nice. It has a lot of nice new features. It has none of the negatives. It uses fewer resources, it is substantially faster, it boots faster, it turns off faster, it has some really nice new bells and whistles.

The computer press has been very positive. It gets my thumbs up. For those of you who remember, it took me a year before I endorsed Microsoft Vista. I said it was about 10% better than XP, but not worth the grief of upgrading unless you really needed to or wanted to.

Microsoft 7 appears to be great right from the start. It will help the economy. Many corporations and businesses have already endorsed it and will be upgrading to Microsoft 7.

If you are buying a new computer for your home or a student, I highly recommend Microsoft 7.

If you are currently using Microsoft XP, there is no real reason to upgrade. Don't switch until you get a new computer.

If you are using Cash Register Express or Restaurant Pro Express, ask your account representative about Microsoft 7. It works fine with pcAmerica software. It may or may not work with all peripherals used with our software. Ask your account representative before using Microsoft 7.

If you have an XP computer and want to upgrade to Windows 7, it is rather difficult and tedious. I recommend that you wait until you buy a new computer. If you have a Vista computer, you may want to upgrade. It is fairly automatic. Make sure you have a full backup in case something goes wrong.

Microsoft Windows 7 is really great with a touch screen. You will see more and more applications that will take advantage of the new touch screen features. This is going to make Windows 7 a big, big winner.

So, Hasta La Vista and in with Windows 7 (or Vista Minus). Microsoft fixed all the bad things in Vista, removed others, and then added some really great features.

To see the latest Windows market share data, go to:

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10

• Is It Time To Buy An Apple?

No.

Last year, I was thinking about it.

Apple stock is doing really well. It is really a great company.

Almost everyone in the world has an iPhone (except for me). It's a great device, but I am loyal to Verizon Wireless. It has a reputation of having the best reception and the best odds of completing a phone call. The iPhone uses AT&T whose reputation is kind of tarnished. Why would I pay $1,000 plus per year to talk on a phone that doesn't always work. In all fairness though, people who have an iPhone really love it, especially with all those the additional features offer with the phone. I am jealous of all iPhone owners.

Apple stock has soared to over $200. Many people still think it is a good buy.

The Apple Macintosh is a really great computer. I love using it inside of the Apple store. I keep telling myself to buy one, but I just can't do it. Buying an Apple computer may be like marrying a new wife, trading in my Harley for a Honda, throwing out my Sony TV for a new LCD or LED model (by the way, I have been married for 37 years plus and will not be switching).

I do really like using the Apple Macintosh - both their desktops and laptops. When I make a list of those things that I do on my PC desktop, I find lots of things that I can't do on a Mac. You can't run Cash Register Express or Restaurant Pro Express on a Mac (or at least in the Apple mode). There are lots of other software programs that I use that are incompatible with the Apple. It's just different. It's not bad. It's just different.

Apple's Macintosh market share is somewhere between 5% and 7%. Many people believe that Apple needs a 10% share to become a real computer.

Look at it this way. Your kid is ready to go to college. He or she really wants a Mac. It is very artsy and preferred by lots of free thinkers and non-conformists. There is nothing wrong with that. However, once in college, it becomes much more difficult for your kids to share solutions, software, and files with other students. An Apple owner will have to seek out another Apple owner to get a solution to a problem. Many schools have lots of help centers. Most of them know nothing about an Apple. Your free thinking, non-conformist artist graduates from college and gets a job as an accountant or at a bank. Day one on the job and they are placed in front of a Windows PC computer. What do you do with this? Don't you have an Apple?

The Apple is a really great computer. Buying it would not be a mistake. It is great for anything artistic, photography, music, word processing and all types of writing and spreadsheets. It may be lacking when used to access business and scientific tools within a college and many businesses. Think about it and do some research before switching.

...and yes. If you go to the Apple store, they will tell you that you can do anything on the Apple using the Windows compatible mode. Yes. This is true, but not quite that true. You need to purchase a very costly Apple that has enough resources, you need to switch between screens, you need to learn lots of techniques to switch between operating systems, and it is possible that not all peripherals that work on your PC will work on your Apple.