Unsightly Whining About Camtasia - Great Program BUT Not Dumbed Down Enough

My husband would like to get an old Land Rover for our summer shack deep in the Croatian hinterlands. This makes perfect sense - it would be able to go up roads normal cars can't handle, we could carry plenty of supplies and people, and it's not bad looking either. Fabulous... until I peered in the front window. Have you ever seen all the buttons, knobs, indicators and gizmos on a Land Rover's control panel? Apparently owners can actually go to a school to learn how to work their vehicle. NO WAY. Life is too short.

Well, today struggling with Camtasia, I feel the same way as I did at that dealership. It's wonderful software. Fabulous stuff. You can do all sorts of things with it. And they have gorgeous help videos for every step of the way. But, you know, when the "intro to editing" video for Camtasia newbies started talking about laying down second and third audio tracks about a 60 seconds in, they lost me completely.

Sure I might like some cool background music on my videos someday. But, not enough to learn how to use it. Not now. Not at the beginning. The more whizz bang stuff you show me at the very start, the greater my aversion becomes to learning anything at all. It's just too much stuff!

I bet that just like most software - and Web sites as well, and yes, even Land Rovers- that 90% of the people who use Camtasia only use a tiny slice of its capabilities. In fact, they all probably use the exact same slice. They turn the key, they slip into drive, they steer a little, they brake, they turn the engine off. That's it.

All the additional capabilities are just bells and whistles. Wonderful for the 10% who rely on them, who live and breathe for them. Annoying distractions for the rest of us mere mortals.

To sum up - Camtasia rocks. But I really really wish they would offer a "Dummies" view screen and tutorials, plus lots of handy pre-set defaults, featuring ONLY the capabilities 90% of us will ever use. Don't even let me see the other stuff. Stick an advanced tab somewhere for that and let that 10% click it.

The Danger of Delays for New Email Opt-Ins: Confirmation Data From WhichTestWon.com

We're in the midst of a new email subscriber drive for our WhichTestWon email weekly for marketers who love A/B testing. So, I was thrilled when our sponsors at the Online Marketing Summit agreed to add a special check-box on their registration forms so attendees could also request our newsletter.

The only problem, their registration form doesn't use software that enables it to zap email opt-ins automatically to us the moment they occur. (Most registration forms have this drawback, but I've been spoiled by the form-building software we use for our own sites from Formstack.) Instead, the folks at Online Marketing Summit send us a spreadsheet every once and a while when they have a bunch of names together, and then we add them to the email list.

To prevent being labeled as a spammer, I insist that all our email lists are double opt-in. This means, all new names are sent an automatic letter asking them to confirm their subscription *before* it can start. If they don't click on the confirm link in the letter, we never, ever email them again and their name is dropped from the list.

I just ran a report to see what percent of new opt-ins click on that confirmation link and stay on the list. The data shows a huge drop-off for names that have to wait a few days for their welcome-please-confirm letter.

74.8% = confirmation rate of email opt-ins from our site who get a confirm message within seconds of opting in.

47.4% = confirmation rate of email opt-ins from the Online Marketing Summit checkbox who get a confirm message from us roughly a week after opting in.

24.8% = confirmation rate of email opt-ins from the Online Marketing Summit checkbox who got their confirm message from us roughly two-four weeks after opting in.

Clearly if you're building a list with a partner, it pays to see how quickly you can get the names from them!