How to Make Email Newsletters
First we are going to look at the basics of how to make email
newsletters--of the free variety. Then we will look at the differences
between what I call a "true newsletter" as opposed
to an autoresponder series. I've created several of each kind,
and there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to each that
you need to understand before deciding which to make.
Now, some of you are probably way beyond me in your technical
skills, and so you will be creating and mailing your newsletters
using your own website server. I choose to use Aweber to handle
my mailings. There are probably many other good services available,
but Aweber is one of the more popular ones, and though it is
not simple (no such thing), if I can figure out how to use it
you can too.
Whether you use Aweber or another service--or your own website
emailing program, you need a subscription form to collect (at
a minimum) the first names and email addresses of those who want
to receive your mailings. I don't have much to say about creating
your own--another task that is way beyond my abilities. I use
the form maker provided by Aweber. Once you have a form you will
naturally put it on your website or blog and invite people to
sign up.
When they do subscribe, they are typically sent a confirmation
link, which must be clicked in order to activate the subscription.
This is to keep others from signing people up who don't really
want to receive your newsletter. The process is called "double
opt-in" (because they fill out the form and have the second
step of confirming), and it is the industry standard now. You
may be seen as a spammer if you use single opt-in.
When a visitor to does sign up and confirm, their information
is added to the database. This is done automatically if you use
one of the email services like Aweber. At that point every time
you create a new issue and hit the "send" or "send
to all subscribers" button, that person will get your email.
As for how to make email newsletters on the writing side of
the equation, there are a number of ways. You can write everything
yourself on whatever the topic of your publication is. You can
introduce pages of your website and provide links to those. You
can use articles written by others (usually purchased or in exchange
for a link to that author's website. If you arrived here from
my own newsletter, Internet Income (the form should be
to the right), you know that I use a variety of content that's
both in the newsletter itself and/or linked to on this website
and others.
In general, you want make email newsletters that provide valuable
content, and not just sales pitches. Of course you'll promote
your products, your websites, or products for which you make
a commission. The point is to make money. But to develop and
maintain a following you have to also offer something of real
value in the newsletter. Ideally a subscriber will be motivated
by your recommendations and get good value from anything they
buy through your links, but--in my opinion--he or she should
also benefit from the mailings even if nothing is ever purchased.
Now, this is a very basic look at how to make email newsletters.
In future issues of Internet Income, and on the pages of this
site, I'll have more to say about how to create content efficiently,
how to do research, and how to automate parts of this process.
But for now we will look at the differences between a true email
newsletter and an autoresponder series. I like both types, and...
Continues here... What
are Autoresponders
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