One of the strongest psychological signal for everyone is his or her name. Calling someone by name is a good way to attract his/her attention and to make the conversation more confidential and trustworthy.
So, when you answer support e-mails start and finish your message with a name of the person. This will increase the positive effect of your message. If the message is relatively long then you may address your customer by name in the middle of the text also.
What a simple trick!
I have an idea which I would share. It’s a raw concept but I’m sure that you can polish it and use somehow in your business.
Remember the installers that show slides with software features and benefits during the installation process. I’m sure that some of your applications also have such processes when a long operation performs and user simply has to be watching the progress bar for several minutes.
Why not to show a user something else during this period of time? E.g. you may show a tip of the day, news (e.g. RSS feed), link to your site/blog, a marketing slogan, or even a banner.
How it differs from adware:
1. You don’t bother your user while he actually works.
2. You display the a plug only while the user is bored and awaiting for the end of long process.
3. You may display not only ad, but also something interesting and valuable for user.
Installers have been using this technique for a long time and I wonder if other types of applications can use this trick also. I think this technique may be used in applications that deal with huge data processing, conversion routines, model rendering, compilation, etc., i.e. where there are routines taking up to several minutes. Why to waste those minutes?
Some time ago I heard the gossips that Google doesn’t “like” web sites with newly registered domain names. Google likes old domain names with long history.
But … the domain history is not the only important factor. The future of domain is also important for Google ranking. If your domain registration expires in a couple of months then Google may have doubts if you are serious about your domain name and may slightly lower your web site rank. If your domain’s expiration date is far enough then Google thinks that you have serious long run intentions regarding your business and your web site. So, it may slightly increase your rank.
Most likely it’s just another urban legend. But who knows … This time I’ve renewed my domain names for two years, not for just one year as previously 
Bob Walsh has recently written “Email one customer a day” post in his 47hats blog.
Here is the post’s summary:
Try emailing one customer a day. Pick a customer who bought your product or who signed up for your Web 2.0 service some time back and send them a friendly, short email:
“Dear Bill,
Just a quick email to see how you are doing with MasterList Professional. Any issues or sticking points or suggestions?
Regards,
Bob Walsh”
This is really simple and may be very effective for gathering feedback from your software users. I know many ISVs who use this approach and I use it too for some products.
But if you use this method why to e-mail only ONE customer?
Automate it! Write a simple script\app that once a day will pick all customers who bought from you e.g. 7 or 14 days ago and will send them the personalized messages “Dear [name], … ”.
Everything will remain the same but you will save your valuable time and you will cover all your user database, not only one customer.
