WHAT'S HAPPENING:

If you want to be briefed on news concerning direct marketing, there are three free e-letters you should be getting -

• DM News DAILY.
  Sign up on www.dmnews.com
  
  
• Direct Newsline.
  This is also a daily. Subscribe on www.directmag.com
  
  
• TM Tipline.
  This is a weekly from Target Marketing - www.targetonline.com

PRINTING AND DIRECT MAIL PRODUCTION:

We rely on Canterbury Graphics Strategic Marketing to produce our mailings, inserts and collateral. (Disclosure: I work closely with this group as Chief Creative Strategist and Copywriter).

POSTAL QUESTIONS:

You can go to the Post Office site. You can get postage calculators more quickly at the Talon Mailing site.

OTHER MARKETING SITES WITH SUBSTANCE:

• Marketing Sherpa lets you sign up free marketing specific email letters.


• Marketing Profs has frequently changing articles and tutorials on a variety of marketing topics. Much of the content goes considerably beyond Marketing 101.


• Marketing Experiments reports on the results all kinds of testing, particularly of online efforts.


• The Direct Marketing Association has listings of direct marketing research available, local associations, and more.

LIST RESEARCH:

If you are looking for smart List Brokerage and List Consulting, get in touch with the people at Rickard List Marketing. It's a useful site (okay, we helped create the content).

Most Mailing List Managers now have data cards available online. You can get an idea of what's available by clicking onto the sites of these major players -

• American List Counsel
• List Services Corporation
• Millard Lists
• Direct Media
• Merit Direct
• 21st Century Marketing

For counts on compiled lists, it's easy to use the InfoUSA site. For b-t-b, this is currently the best source. you can specify by type and size of business, geo area, etc.

OTHER BUSINESS SERVICES:

Looking to improve your company's sales effectiveness? Need a great Keynote for your sales conference? My brother Dave Stein is a leading sales consultant and internationally-known speaker. and author of How Winners Sell, now in its second edition. Evidently the ability to create high-value eletters runs in the family, so take a look.

For marketing research, talk to Ann Middleman at ADM Marketing.

For management of both paid and natural search engine optimization, take a look at PrimeVisibility.

BEYOND BUSINESS SITES:

Arts & Letters Daily culls hundreds of magazines, newspapers and newsletters for articles, essays and reviews on philosophy, literature, aesthetics, language trends, politics, history, and art.

Unless you're an ardent supporter of the current administration, The Huffington Post will keep you up-to-the-minute on politics, the media, and the culture wars.