I have written several articles on how to publish an ezine, so this time I thought it might be interesting to write an article on how NOT to publish an ezine.
Sometimes it helps to learn things when you can look at both sides of the prices - the right way and the wrong way. So here goes - what NOT to do when publishing an ezine.
1. Leave out your name and contact info - Who would want to get in touch with you anyway. Your readers don't care if there is a real live dependable person writing the ezine. NOT!
Your readers definitely want to know that there is a real person there that they can contact if they want or need to. This helps establish trust.
2. Put as many squiggles and decorations in your ezine as possible - So, your readers get a headache while trying to read your ezine, deal with it. NOT!
Squiggles may look cute, but they could make it hard for many people to read your ezine. Keep the design neat and clean for easy reading.
3. Load the ezine with ads - I mean after all, isn't that why you are publishing your ezine. NOT!
No, you are not publishing an ezine to run tons of ads, you are publishing an ezine to build that important relationship of trust and respect with your readers. This helps build your business and your reputation.
4. Don't bother sending it out regularly - After all, most people can't read it every time anyway. NOT!
How can people trust and believe what you say when they can't even depend on you to send your ezine on schedule.
5. Don't add any original material - Just use all the same material other publishers are using. It works for them, why not for you. NOT!
Always have original material in your ezine, even if it is just an editorial or some tips.
6. Why bother with a disclaimer or privacy policy - Readers know their email is safe with you. They also figure if it is in your ezine, you recommend it. NOT!
Never assume anything. Your readers want to be assured that their email is not being handed out for profit or promotion. Also, you want your readers to know that they should check out all offers, opportunities and ads. Just because it is in your ezine, does not mean you are recommending it.
7. Content is content, right - As long as your ezine is full of "stuff", it is helpful. NOT!
Try to give your readers basic, straightforward, helpful information that they can actually use to benefit them. Don't use hyped up ads disguised as tips or articles. Quality content is key.
8. Don't let your readers get to know you - They are interested in your ezine, not you. NOT!
Your readers need to know you so they can trust you and know that they can depend on you to publish a consistent, quality ezine.
9. Don't bother formatting the ezine correctly - Who cares how many characters are in each line, it all reads the same. NOT!
Definitely format your ezine uniformly and evenly. You want to produce a clean, sharp, professional ezine.
10. Don't waste time proofreading. Everybody makes mistakes, right? What is a mistake or two - nobody is perfect. NOT!
Take the time to make sure all spelling and grammar is correct in your ezine before you send it out. After all, you are a professional, right?
I hope these tips have given you a good idea on how NOT to publish an ezine and a fresh perspective on how to correctly publish an ezine. Producing a quality ezine that your readers can depend on will be a very big business booster!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
How to Make Your eZine Work for You Long After It's Published
If you publish an email newsletter, do you convert the issues to HTML and archive them on your website? If you haven't been doing so, you should start now, today.
"But the free mailing service I use already archives them." you say.
That's great! That means the search engines will find that many more links to your site online. But it is worth the effort to put them on your website also. You can do it simply and quickly.
First, here are three good reasons why you should take the time out of your busy schedule:
1) It shows your subscribers and potential subscribers that your newsletter is a vital part of your service to them. Isn't it worth preserving for posterity?
2) Your newsletter will contain many keywords -- those subjects for which people and consequently search engines often search. If you submit them to the search engines, they'll draw traffic to your website. You can create an index page for them and put them all in their own directory, or even put them on their own domain, and submit it to the search engines and directories as a stand-alone online business resource.
3) Advertisers love the fact that their ads will live on. Statistics show that website visitors read archived newsletters fairly regularly. That is especially true if you add a search function to your site so that your archives may be searched by subject.
Here's how to do it:
It should take you at the most about 15 minutes to convert your newsletter from text to HTML. Most of that time is spent in coding the many URLs to make them clickable.
There are many text editing software programs that will convert text to HTML quickly. Some HTML editing software programs will do it also, with a single copy/paste action. One great and free text editor is NoteTab Light. If you don't have it, you are missing a great resource. It works with text and HTML both, does almost everything but slice bread, and it's free! No ads and no nags. (There is a low-priced Pro version that does even more!) Here's where to get it: www.notetab.com
We'll use NoteTab Light for our illustration. Got it installed now? Okay, open up your newsletter in NoteTab Light.
On the toolbar at the top, click on "Modify."
On the drop-down menu, choose "Document to HTML," and on the menu that pops out, choose "With Paragraph Tags."
Save the resulting document with a .htm or .html extension. If you want the page width to conform to the reader's web browser size, click search and remove all the BREAK tags. Add a title, meta tag description and keywords, and upload it.
Now you have a resource for your visitors and a draw for the search engines, and all for only a few minutes' work. Stick some Google Adsense or your own ads on the page, and you also have a money maker!
"But the free mailing service I use already archives them." you say.
That's great! That means the search engines will find that many more links to your site online. But it is worth the effort to put them on your website also. You can do it simply and quickly.
First, here are three good reasons why you should take the time out of your busy schedule:
1) It shows your subscribers and potential subscribers that your newsletter is a vital part of your service to them. Isn't it worth preserving for posterity?
2) Your newsletter will contain many keywords -- those subjects for which people and consequently search engines often search. If you submit them to the search engines, they'll draw traffic to your website. You can create an index page for them and put them all in their own directory, or even put them on their own domain, and submit it to the search engines and directories as a stand-alone online business resource.
3) Advertisers love the fact that their ads will live on. Statistics show that website visitors read archived newsletters fairly regularly. That is especially true if you add a search function to your site so that your archives may be searched by subject.
Here's how to do it:
It should take you at the most about 15 minutes to convert your newsletter from text to HTML. Most of that time is spent in coding the many URLs to make them clickable.
There are many text editing software programs that will convert text to HTML quickly. Some HTML editing software programs will do it also, with a single copy/paste action. One great and free text editor is NoteTab Light. If you don't have it, you are missing a great resource. It works with text and HTML both, does almost everything but slice bread, and it's free! No ads and no nags. (There is a low-priced Pro version that does even more!) Here's where to get it: www.notetab.com
We'll use NoteTab Light for our illustration. Got it installed now? Okay, open up your newsletter in NoteTab Light.
On the toolbar at the top, click on "Modify."
On the drop-down menu, choose "Document to HTML," and on the menu that pops out, choose "With Paragraph Tags."
Save the resulting document with a .htm or .html extension. If you want the page width to conform to the reader's web browser size, click search and remove all the BREAK tags. Add a title, meta tag description and keywords, and upload it.
Now you have a resource for your visitors and a draw for the search engines, and all for only a few minutes' work. Stick some Google Adsense or your own ads on the page, and you also have a money maker!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
12 Golden Ezine Publishing Tips
1. Post testimonials for your ezine on your site.
You'll be able to increase your ezine's credibility by sharing how your ezine has benefited your readers.
2. Include a few testimonials for your business in each issue.
In addition, to using testimonials for your ezine, use testimonials for your products within your ezine that share your customers' favorable feedback.
3. Write articles.
Your articles can help you to share your expertise with your readers and add your voice to your ezine.
They can also help you to increase your subscriptions by building up more targeted traffic to your site.
4. Swap ads.
You'll create a win-win situation as both you and the other ezine publisher will get valuable free promotion of each other's ezines.
When possible, swap for multiple issues as repetition will increase your ad's response.
5. Swap a recommendation within your ezine.
Simply plug another publisher's ezine in your ezine (i.e., in your editor's or publisher's note) in exchange for that publisher doing the same for you.
6. Swap "thank you" page ads or recommendations.
You'll be able to get valuable ongoing promotion of your ezine as everyone that fills out your swapper's subscription form or box will see your ezine's ad or recommendation.
7. Offer a bonus.
For example, you could offer ebooks, an email course, or access to your "subscriber only" membership site as a bonus for joining you.
8. Run subscriber only deals on your products and on advertising in your ezine.
You'll get more first time buyers and also repeat business.
You'll also be able to show your readers that you value them by providing them with sales and promotions that are just for them.
9. Write product reviews.
You'll be able to benefit your readers by giving them the lowdown on products you use or have tried.
You'll also be able to increase your commissions by publishing your positive reviews with your affiliate links.
10. Recommend affiliate programs.
After you've gained your readers' trust, a powerful way to increase your commissions is to endorse products in your ezine that you've found to be valuable and you believe will help your readers.
11. Promote your ezine in your sig file.
Use your signature file that promotes your ezine in your day to day emails and also, when appropriate, in your posts to forums that you've joined and participate in.
12. Have your readers forward your issues.
Get valuable word of mouth promotion for your ezine by asking your readers to forward your issues in their entirety to their friends and colleagues that might be interested in it.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
How to create and run an ezine for profit
Maybe it shouldn't come as a big surprise, but most people on the internet and some self-possessed ezine distributors do not know what the word EZINE really means.
Ezines are electronic publications distributed by email or posted on a website. Ezines are typically focused on a certain subject matter. Ezines are just like your typical magazine format of monthly or weekly topical publications in an electronic format.
The title EZINE does not come from the phrase Electronic Magazine, cause you might be thinking that the E in electronic and the Zine in magazine are joined to form this word.
Actually Ezine came from the word FanZine which was a publication with a small subscriber base back then. FanZines were targeted publications that were usually geared towards specific topics like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Football clubs.
Those printed publications were called 'FanZines', but were frequently referred to as 'Zines' instead.
Back to modern days, most Ezines are focused around specific topics and interest groups, just like the way the Zines once were.
Adding an 'E' onto the beginning of the much coveted publication name "Zines" brings us to the word Ezines. This offers a much more logical explanation of where the word "ezines" came from.
Now that we know what ezines are, lets now discuss the basics of creating and doing business with ezines.
Ezine publishing is a very important factor towards a business' success for many reasons. Basically, it keeps you in contact with your potential customers. The relationship between your clients is formed and that is what is needed for trust and respect.
You can also profit by selling advertisements through your own ezine publication. Ezines can be used both as an advertising platform for your business as well as an income-generating endeavor.
When starting out with your ezine publication, keep in mind the basic and most important elements of a good ezine.
1. Keep your ezines clean, short, and full.
Don't add too many unrelated decorations or pictures to your ezines. Ezine page decoration sometimes makes it hard for readers to read your content.
People are more drawn to reading short ezines than those long ones that keep on making discussions that go on and on.
2. Minimal advertisement is a must.
It is a good point that publishers must advertise in their ezines, but always keep it to a reasonable number of about seven or less, depending on the length of your ezines.
3. Make it personal.
When creating your ezines, add your personality to it. Talk to your subscribers. Make it warm and inviting. Let them get into you as you get to know them better.
4. Put in some interactivity.
Make your ezines fun as we can all use a bit of fun. Put a form in there, some survey questions, a bit of trivia, and other forms of interaction.
5. Put in quality content.
If your ezines talk about something that deals with paper crafts, then make sure it provides information about how to make paper crafts. Tips, articles, links, resources, products, tools, news, etc. - these are all the things you can and should give your readers.
6. Be on time and consistent.
If you posted that you will be sending out ezines once a week every Monday, then do it that way. If ever something happens that is beyond your control that might prevent this, just explain to your subscribers in your next release and they will surely understand.
7. Make it a priority to have original content.
If you are not sure about articles, then just write editorials or short scripts with news updates, interesting tips, and product reviews.
8. Always proofread your content.
You don't want your ezine to look like a 10-year old child has done it.
But most importantly, Enjoy your ezine, have fun with it, be yourself, and wonderful things will start to happen. At least they did for so many success stories - they met great new people and their businesses flourished. This can all happen for you as well with your very own quality ezine!
Ezines are electronic publications distributed by email or posted on a website. Ezines are typically focused on a certain subject matter. Ezines are just like your typical magazine format of monthly or weekly topical publications in an electronic format.
The title EZINE does not come from the phrase Electronic Magazine, cause you might be thinking that the E in electronic and the Zine in magazine are joined to form this word.
Actually Ezine came from the word FanZine which was a publication with a small subscriber base back then. FanZines were targeted publications that were usually geared towards specific topics like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Football clubs.
Those printed publications were called 'FanZines', but were frequently referred to as 'Zines' instead.
Back to modern days, most Ezines are focused around specific topics and interest groups, just like the way the Zines once were.
Adding an 'E' onto the beginning of the much coveted publication name "Zines" brings us to the word Ezines. This offers a much more logical explanation of where the word "ezines" came from.
Now that we know what ezines are, lets now discuss the basics of creating and doing business with ezines.
Ezine publishing is a very important factor towards a business' success for many reasons. Basically, it keeps you in contact with your potential customers. The relationship between your clients is formed and that is what is needed for trust and respect.
You can also profit by selling advertisements through your own ezine publication. Ezines can be used both as an advertising platform for your business as well as an income-generating endeavor.
When starting out with your ezine publication, keep in mind the basic and most important elements of a good ezine.
1. Keep your ezines clean, short, and full.
Don't add too many unrelated decorations or pictures to your ezines. Ezine page decoration sometimes makes it hard for readers to read your content.
People are more drawn to reading short ezines than those long ones that keep on making discussions that go on and on.
2. Minimal advertisement is a must.
It is a good point that publishers must advertise in their ezines, but always keep it to a reasonable number of about seven or less, depending on the length of your ezines.
3. Make it personal.
When creating your ezines, add your personality to it. Talk to your subscribers. Make it warm and inviting. Let them get into you as you get to know them better.
4. Put in some interactivity.
Make your ezines fun as we can all use a bit of fun. Put a form in there, some survey questions, a bit of trivia, and other forms of interaction.
5. Put in quality content.
If your ezines talk about something that deals with paper crafts, then make sure it provides information about how to make paper crafts. Tips, articles, links, resources, products, tools, news, etc. - these are all the things you can and should give your readers.
6. Be on time and consistent.
If you posted that you will be sending out ezines once a week every Monday, then do it that way. If ever something happens that is beyond your control that might prevent this, just explain to your subscribers in your next release and they will surely understand.
7. Make it a priority to have original content.
If you are not sure about articles, then just write editorials or short scripts with news updates, interesting tips, and product reviews.
8. Always proofread your content.
You don't want your ezine to look like a 10-year old child has done it.
But most importantly, Enjoy your ezine, have fun with it, be yourself, and wonderful things will start to happen. At least they did for so many success stories - they met great new people and their businesses flourished. This can all happen for you as well with your very own quality ezine!
Monday, February 7, 2011
5 Good Reasons For Using Yahoogroups To Start Your Own Ezine
List servers and list serving software can be a TOTAL NIGHTMARE. Trust me, I know ...
If you are new to Internet Marketing, or just new to the way of web business, and there's all these other things to learn and think about, there are five VERY good reasons to leave commercial list serving software systems alone for now and simply use a Yahoogroup to do all the work for you.
1. EVERYBODY Knows ...
... what a Yahoogroup is, and even if they don't, they'll soon pick it up. By using Yahoogroups, you are tapping into a long, long established institution that is globally known and trusted; this will make it much easier to get people who don't really know you yet to subscribe to your ezine or newsletter.
2. Yahoogroups are very easy.
Even for absolute beginners, Yahoogroups are easy to set up and easy to manage. You don't have to worry about the vagaries of AOL emails, double opt in procedures, anti-spam declarations, unsubscription features or any of it, it's all taken care of for you. They also come with little sign up boxes and buttons, and the admin interface, although not exactly intuitive, can soon be worked out by trial and error.
3. Yahoogroups messages don't get caught in spam filters.
Spam filters are the SCOURGE of ezines and email delivery. When you send your messages via the Yahoogroups delivery system, this is not a problem; as Yahoo is such a mega beast, it has its own exceptions in mostly all spam filters known to mankind and your messages WILL at least reach their intended recipients.
4. Yahoogroups have useful extra features.
You can do a lot with a Yahoogroup if you are willing to spent some time on it. Weblinks, an attractive group page, bookmarks, file downloads and more are all available for the beginner web entrepreneur to optimise and use, easily at that.
5. Yahoogroups are FREE.
Alright, so the group messages carry third party advertising, but that is a very small price to pay for access to a system that can easily and very elegantly serve hundreds of thousands of messages, that is reliable and steady and so well known. Other than that, there are no set up fees, no ongoing charges, and it's there for you whenever you want it.
Once you are ready to do so, you can export your list and put it on your own personal commercial list server systems, complete with technicians who take care of everything behind the scenes - until then, and if you haven't done this before, to simply use Yahoogroups for ezine delivery is a really good way to get started with your ezine and to build up your subscriber base.
If you are new to Internet Marketing, or just new to the way of web business, and there's all these other things to learn and think about, there are five VERY good reasons to leave commercial list serving software systems alone for now and simply use a Yahoogroup to do all the work for you.
1. EVERYBODY Knows ...
... what a Yahoogroup is, and even if they don't, they'll soon pick it up. By using Yahoogroups, you are tapping into a long, long established institution that is globally known and trusted; this will make it much easier to get people who don't really know you yet to subscribe to your ezine or newsletter.
2. Yahoogroups are very easy.
Even for absolute beginners, Yahoogroups are easy to set up and easy to manage. You don't have to worry about the vagaries of AOL emails, double opt in procedures, anti-spam declarations, unsubscription features or any of it, it's all taken care of for you. They also come with little sign up boxes and buttons, and the admin interface, although not exactly intuitive, can soon be worked out by trial and error.
3. Yahoogroups messages don't get caught in spam filters.
Spam filters are the SCOURGE of ezines and email delivery. When you send your messages via the Yahoogroups delivery system, this is not a problem; as Yahoo is such a mega beast, it has its own exceptions in mostly all spam filters known to mankind and your messages WILL at least reach their intended recipients.
4. Yahoogroups have useful extra features.
You can do a lot with a Yahoogroup if you are willing to spent some time on it. Weblinks, an attractive group page, bookmarks, file downloads and more are all available for the beginner web entrepreneur to optimise and use, easily at that.
5. Yahoogroups are FREE.
Alright, so the group messages carry third party advertising, but that is a very small price to pay for access to a system that can easily and very elegantly serve hundreds of thousands of messages, that is reliable and steady and so well known. Other than that, there are no set up fees, no ongoing charges, and it's there for you whenever you want it.
Once you are ready to do so, you can export your list and put it on your own personal commercial list server systems, complete with technicians who take care of everything behind the scenes - until then, and if you haven't done this before, to simply use Yahoogroups for ezine delivery is a really good way to get started with your ezine and to build up your subscriber base.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Ezine Advertising - Smart Ezine Publishing
Ezines are one of the best-kept secrets apropos announcement on the Internet. Area abroad can you tap into such targeted readership for so little outlay? If you're cerebration of application Ezines as allotment of your business mix, afresh actuality are some pointers on the types of ads that you can run, as able-bodied as what to put in them.
Editors for Ezines will generally accord you the best amid three types of ad. They do altered things and crave altered budgets. The aboriginal blazon and the cheapest is the classified ad. Similar to what you can acquisition in bounded newspapers, it's a awful abridged adaptation of why readers should acquisition your alms attractive. Making a classified ad that works able-bodied for you is a amount of a little assignment and apparently some balloon and error. Check out added ads in the Ezine that interests you to see how they rose to the occasion.
Next in band is the sponsored ad. Instead of actuality at the basal of the Ezine page, jostling for absorption with the added classified ads, the sponsored ad gets abundant added favorable positioning. Yes, the editor is allotment your ad by putting it area you'll get added amplitude and added attention. And that happens because you pay more.
The third best is the abandoned ad. The abandoned ad is back the editor sends out a appropriate copy of the newsletter, which alone contains your ad, annihilation more. As you ability imagine, amount goes up afresh for the abandoned ad. For abounding web marketers, it's the band-aid of choice.
However, whatever best you accomplish for your ads, you additionally charge to accomplish abiding that bodies are activity to apprehend it. And if you're application the abandoned ad format, afresh you additionally accept to ensure that bodies accessible the email. Now is a acceptable time for a admonition about the accent of the banderole in your ad. It ability alone be 10% of the words, but you'll apparently absorb 50% of the time aloof on the headline. It's that important. Accumulate it fresh, pertinent and use the appropriate alternative of absorption avaricious words. "New", "Solve" and "How to" accept about anniversary gotten acceptable results.
And now to the content. Announcement about revolves about the "three K" model. Aboriginal you "katch" them (that's your banderole accomplishing its work). Afresh you "keep" them and "konvince" them. It's the job of the agreeable to do these added two parts. Short or long, you accept to accumulate your reader's absorption and adviser them to an action, whether it's abrogation their email abode or affairs online.
And aloof to accord you addition announcement choice, try this: barter acceptable and absorbing agreeable with the ezine editor for a chargeless announcement in their ezine. Editors are on the anchor for good, non-sales angle accessories that will absorption their readers. You get to put a articulation at the end of your commodity for readers to appear through to your website. It's one of the best forms of announcement because you're not pitching, you're advancing beyond as an agog expert. So it's win-win and no amount - can annihilation be bigger than that?
Editors for Ezines will generally accord you the best amid three types of ad. They do altered things and crave altered budgets. The aboriginal blazon and the cheapest is the classified ad. Similar to what you can acquisition in bounded newspapers, it's a awful abridged adaptation of why readers should acquisition your alms attractive. Making a classified ad that works able-bodied for you is a amount of a little assignment and apparently some balloon and error. Check out added ads in the Ezine that interests you to see how they rose to the occasion.
Next in band is the sponsored ad. Instead of actuality at the basal of the Ezine page, jostling for absorption with the added classified ads, the sponsored ad gets abundant added favorable positioning. Yes, the editor is allotment your ad by putting it area you'll get added amplitude and added attention. And that happens because you pay more.
The third best is the abandoned ad. The abandoned ad is back the editor sends out a appropriate copy of the newsletter, which alone contains your ad, annihilation more. As you ability imagine, amount goes up afresh for the abandoned ad. For abounding web marketers, it's the band-aid of choice.
However, whatever best you accomplish for your ads, you additionally charge to accomplish abiding that bodies are activity to apprehend it. And if you're application the abandoned ad format, afresh you additionally accept to ensure that bodies accessible the email. Now is a acceptable time for a admonition about the accent of the banderole in your ad. It ability alone be 10% of the words, but you'll apparently absorb 50% of the time aloof on the headline. It's that important. Accumulate it fresh, pertinent and use the appropriate alternative of absorption avaricious words. "New", "Solve" and "How to" accept about anniversary gotten acceptable results.
And now to the content. Announcement about revolves about the "three K" model. Aboriginal you "katch" them (that's your banderole accomplishing its work). Afresh you "keep" them and "konvince" them. It's the job of the agreeable to do these added two parts. Short or long, you accept to accumulate your reader's absorption and adviser them to an action, whether it's abrogation their email abode or affairs online.
And aloof to accord you addition announcement choice, try this: barter acceptable and absorbing agreeable with the ezine editor for a chargeless announcement in their ezine. Editors are on the anchor for good, non-sales angle accessories that will absorption their readers. You get to put a articulation at the end of your commodity for readers to appear through to your website. It's one of the best forms of announcement because you're not pitching, you're advancing beyond as an agog expert. So it's win-win and no amount - can annihilation be bigger than that?
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Publishing A Newsletter
Today, many websites offer a free newsletter. Newsletters, from the receiving end, can be a great source for information that is delivered to your in-box. You can simply save the newsletter for future reference, something many people do. From the publisher's standpoint, though, a newsletter is a fantastic idea as it gives you a database of people who are interested in what you have to offer. Marketers know the value of this. But, aside from the potential financial benefit of such a mailing list, a newsletter is also a great way to keep in touch with users who may have only surfed across your website once. They may, on a whim, sign up for your newsletter and, thus, you have a way to keep in touch with them at a later date. You can also use your mailing list as a source for demographics information or opinions. Want to start a new feature on your site and want to know whether it will work or not? Survey the members of your mailing list.
So, let's take a look at what needs to be looked at to start your newsletter.
Length
It would be easy to send your users a long, winding email that requires them to scroll a long way to read the whole thing. However, in practice, this doesn't work very well. You want to keep your newsletter as brief as you can. If you include an article in your mailing, keep it brief and to the point. If the article is long, you could publish a portion of it and direct them to your website to read the rest of it.
Size
Newsletter size goes hand-in-hand with length, but with HTML newsletters being the norm today, it is possible to have very bloated HTML that does something that could be done otherwise with much less code. In short, then, keep your HTML efficient so that the size of the newsletter in kilobytes does not become too large. Remember, you're sending a lot of them (stress on the server) to people who may still have dial-up (slow download speeds).
Frequency
You need to decide how often you will publish your newsletter. Most are published weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. If anything is published more often than that, be sure to make that very clear to new subscribers because mailings that are sent too often will cause some to unsubscribe because they find it annoying. Also, once you commit to a frequency, stick to it. If a newsletter is sent irregularly, people will find it useless or will not respect it. However, if it comes at the same time with constant frequency, they will come to expect it and you will gain the respect of having done what you said you would do.
Format
Most newsletters are offered in both HTML and Text formats and this is your best bet. Most users prefer HTML and HTML provides you with more flexibility to get your message across. Text emails are very plain looking, however they are smaller in size and readable in any email client (some email clients still have a hard time with HTML). It is best to publish in both formats and give subscribers a choice.
Method of Sending
You need to research and find a way to send your newsletter. Sending mass email is fairly server intensive, depending on the size of your mailing list. For very large lists, it is usual to go to an outside newsletter hosting company to publish the newsletter. These companies have dedicated servers and powerful mass email software in order to send your newsletter without a burp. If you send the newsletter in-house and your list is large, you will want to pay attention to how the mail is sent. We use a PHP-based system designed in house which throttles out-going email depending on site traffic - our way of placing a governor on the rate of sending and not drag our sites to a crawl.
Promotion
When you start your newsletter, you will need to promote for subscribers. If your site is already pretty well trafficked, your job just got a lot easier. Put the subscription form up on your website and begin to collect addresses. You will find that the rate of sign-ups will be very dependent on your site traffic. This action will result in sign-ups, however you may find that the rate of new sign-ups is still rather slow. You need to get their attention. A popup window is a popular and very workable way to do this. While many users don't like pop ups, this is a use of the popup which makes a lot of sense because it is so workable. Your subscription rate can easily double with this alone. When setting up the popup, use a cookie to ensure that a user does not see the ad more than once for a certain timeframe. You might even want to mention this in the popup itself so that people who are more easily annoyed by them may calm down a bit. Set the popup to appear on their first page view or some other interval. When your code opens the popup, set the cookie. In subsequent page views, your code will detect the cookie and not open the window again.
Aside from the popup, make your subscription form prominent on your website. If you have a forum, see about putting an option into the registration process which will add them to your mailing list when they sign up. Also, invite people to invite friends to your mailing list.
Opt in and Double Opt In
An opt-in mailing list means that a person can visit your site, enter an email address and that address is subscribed. Double opt-in means that when they enter the email address, the system sends them an email which contains a link which they need to click to confirm their subscription. This two-stage setup provides more security because you know the address is valid and that the person signing up is indeed subscribing their own email and not somebody else. The opt-in method will result in much higher subscription rates because you do not need to get the user to do anything else once they enter their address. Double opt-in is more secure, however you will have people who simply do not confirm, therefore the subscription rate will be slower. IF you are after sheer numbers, opt-in is you best method of address collection. However, this method is more open to fraudulent emails. If you use double opt-in, you may want to have a system which will send them a few reminders over time if they do not confirm. In using opt-in, at least send them an email confirming their subscription, with an option to unsubscribe right then and there if they are not the ones who subscribed the address. You might even want to include the IP address of the person who signed them up.
A newsletter is an excellent marketing resource for your website and, if you have not begun one, you should strongly consider it.
So, let's take a look at what needs to be looked at to start your newsletter.
Length
It would be easy to send your users a long, winding email that requires them to scroll a long way to read the whole thing. However, in practice, this doesn't work very well. You want to keep your newsletter as brief as you can. If you include an article in your mailing, keep it brief and to the point. If the article is long, you could publish a portion of it and direct them to your website to read the rest of it.
Size
Newsletter size goes hand-in-hand with length, but with HTML newsletters being the norm today, it is possible to have very bloated HTML that does something that could be done otherwise with much less code. In short, then, keep your HTML efficient so that the size of the newsletter in kilobytes does not become too large. Remember, you're sending a lot of them (stress on the server) to people who may still have dial-up (slow download speeds).
Frequency
You need to decide how often you will publish your newsletter. Most are published weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. If anything is published more often than that, be sure to make that very clear to new subscribers because mailings that are sent too often will cause some to unsubscribe because they find it annoying. Also, once you commit to a frequency, stick to it. If a newsletter is sent irregularly, people will find it useless or will not respect it. However, if it comes at the same time with constant frequency, they will come to expect it and you will gain the respect of having done what you said you would do.
Format
Most newsletters are offered in both HTML and Text formats and this is your best bet. Most users prefer HTML and HTML provides you with more flexibility to get your message across. Text emails are very plain looking, however they are smaller in size and readable in any email client (some email clients still have a hard time with HTML). It is best to publish in both formats and give subscribers a choice.
Method of Sending
You need to research and find a way to send your newsletter. Sending mass email is fairly server intensive, depending on the size of your mailing list. For very large lists, it is usual to go to an outside newsletter hosting company to publish the newsletter. These companies have dedicated servers and powerful mass email software in order to send your newsletter without a burp. If you send the newsletter in-house and your list is large, you will want to pay attention to how the mail is sent. We use a PHP-based system designed in house which throttles out-going email depending on site traffic - our way of placing a governor on the rate of sending and not drag our sites to a crawl.
Promotion
When you start your newsletter, you will need to promote for subscribers. If your site is already pretty well trafficked, your job just got a lot easier. Put the subscription form up on your website and begin to collect addresses. You will find that the rate of sign-ups will be very dependent on your site traffic. This action will result in sign-ups, however you may find that the rate of new sign-ups is still rather slow. You need to get their attention. A popup window is a popular and very workable way to do this. While many users don't like pop ups, this is a use of the popup which makes a lot of sense because it is so workable. Your subscription rate can easily double with this alone. When setting up the popup, use a cookie to ensure that a user does not see the ad more than once for a certain timeframe. You might even want to mention this in the popup itself so that people who are more easily annoyed by them may calm down a bit. Set the popup to appear on their first page view or some other interval. When your code opens the popup, set the cookie. In subsequent page views, your code will detect the cookie and not open the window again.
Aside from the popup, make your subscription form prominent on your website. If you have a forum, see about putting an option into the registration process which will add them to your mailing list when they sign up. Also, invite people to invite friends to your mailing list.
Opt in and Double Opt In
An opt-in mailing list means that a person can visit your site, enter an email address and that address is subscribed. Double opt-in means that when they enter the email address, the system sends them an email which contains a link which they need to click to confirm their subscription. This two-stage setup provides more security because you know the address is valid and that the person signing up is indeed subscribing their own email and not somebody else. The opt-in method will result in much higher subscription rates because you do not need to get the user to do anything else once they enter their address. Double opt-in is more secure, however you will have people who simply do not confirm, therefore the subscription rate will be slower. IF you are after sheer numbers, opt-in is you best method of address collection. However, this method is more open to fraudulent emails. If you use double opt-in, you may want to have a system which will send them a few reminders over time if they do not confirm. In using opt-in, at least send them an email confirming their subscription, with an option to unsubscribe right then and there if they are not the ones who subscribed the address. You might even want to include the IP address of the person who signed them up.
A newsletter is an excellent marketing resource for your website and, if you have not begun one, you should strongly consider it.
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