Would you be interested in a training blog?

[Michael]

Ok, so everyone that wanted to be subscribed by email to the training blog, you may do so now. I added a box in the left hand panel and all you have to provide is your name/email.

http://trainedparrot.com

For everyone else that is a member of the forum, I will try to keep you aware of new articles by posting a new topic in the TrainedParrot Blog section of the forum for comments and the link for the article will be available from there. I'm not sure yet of the pace I will be able to keep but there will definitely be at least a few posts a week if not daily. So subscribe or just stay tuned for update about the new Cape.

[Michael]

I just saw that several of you subscribed so I sent out a test message with a previously posted blog post you've probably already seen.

I'm just curious if:

A) The email came through
B) The message didn't end up in spam box
C) The formatting came through
D) The link worked
E) The email is presentable enough and readable
F) The email compels you to click the link and see the full post

Thanks, your feedback will help me guarantee the best quality subscription system possible.

[lzver]

I just saw that several of you subscribed so I sent out a test message with a previously posted blog post you've probably already seen.

I'm just curious if:

A) The email came through
B) The message didn't end up in spam box
C) The formatting came through
D) The link worked
E) The email is presentable enough and readable
F) The email compels you to click the link and see the full post

Thanks, your feedback will help me guarantee the best quality subscription system possible.

A) I received the email
B) The message went to my inbox, not my spam folder
C) Formatting looked fine
D) Link worked
E) Email is readable
F) No issue here

[Michael]

BTW, does the lack of an unsubscribe button bother anyone? Basically if you want to stop the emails, please don't report it as spam cause others will stop getting it but rather just reply to the email or let me know here that you would like to be unsubscribed.

Basically, I can make an unsubscribe button of some sort built into the email but I'm trying to keep the message short and not cluttered. Do you think it's obvious enough to just reply saying "please unsubscribe me" or is it really important to make some feature in the email to do that?

[MandyG]

A) I recieved the e-mail
B) It ended up in my Junk Mail folder (I use hotmail if that makes a difference, the majority of my mail goes to Junk Mail until I mark the sender as being safe).
C) The formatting came through fine
D) The link worked
E) The e-mail is readable
F) Having the subject of the new entry makes it compelling to click the link.

I prefer having details of how to unsubscribe, even if it's just a single line in small font that says "If you wish to unsubscribe please reply to this message stating "Please unsubscribe me". I don't think an actual button is necessary though.

[Michael]

I did build in functionality to create a subscription management system in the future if I choose, but it's just a lot of work to make it right now. Basically the system could allow people not only to unsubscribe but also change the subscription to receiving weekly or monthly summaries of new articles rather than every time a post comes up. For now, I can only handle this manually and will probably keep it that way until there are enough subscribers that such a system is warranted.

BTW, who does it list as the sender? "Trained Parrot" or an email address (please don't say it here or it will automatically get inducted by spam crawlers online and ruin my address).

[Kim S]

Yes the email came through. It didnt end up in my spambox, but all the images, links ect are blocked 'for my safety' so I have to click to show the content. But after that the link works.

That said, the email is clear, easy to read, no unnesesary information. Maybe even too clean to be inviting, if you know what I mean.

About the unsubscribe button. Could you make an unsubscribe-button underneath the subscribe box on the blog?
Or if you subscribe, sent a first email: thank you for joining, if you wish to unsubscribe or if this message is not ment for you, click here?

In my inbox the email address is shown as sender. In the email it says "Trained Parrot (emailaddress)".

[MandyG]

The sender comes up as the e-mail address.

[TheNzJessie]

michael im finding it extremely hard to even target train my baby lorikeet. i think it would be best to target train first before recall without target. i tried recalling him to my hand. he lands on my head but every time he landed on my hand he would get a little lick of honey (nectar eater) but after he knew there was honey he was flying to my hand not on cue and when i put him back and called him again he would ignore me and then fly to me (i think hes playing with me) and then run all over me to find the honey stick.

so im going to attempt to target train him to fly to my hand and touch the target stick and stay there for the treat. proving difficult right now because he is so hyperactive.

i have never worked with a cape parrot before so it might be different with them.

[Michael]

I'm curious what people think of the new banner on http://trainedparrot.com?

One of these days I hope to get something more fancy going but I'll need more photos of the birds. But at least for now, I'd like your thoughts on what I threw together. And I'm not fishing for compliments by any means. If you don't like it, I'd like to know why and what I can do about it.

Also any comments/suggestions about the blog are welcome.