|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
A Newsletter Publishers Main Task: Packaging Value Content
The main task of a newsletter publisher is to select and package quality content of direct, practical relevance to its specific readership audience. This might sound quick and easy, but it is not. Publishing a quality newsletter is more than just cutting and pasting quality content into your newsletter. A quality newsletter is more than just the sum of its parts. The more the different sections in a newsletter support each other, the more benefits subscribers can get from it. A quality newsletter makes sense out of the Internet chaos. A good newsletter editor understands the Internet big picture and is able to pick out relevant information which is packaged into one newsletter issue in a way that makes sense for its readers. A poor quality newsletter is easily produced in less than 15 minutes of cutting and pasting quality content text. One issue of a good quality newsletter takes one day to produce - it might also select from the same content pool as the poor quality newsletter - but it takes more time in selecting the right combination of available free content for each issue. Extremely high quality content, randomly aggregated into a newsletter makes a poor quality newsletter. Somewhat lower quality content, expertly packaged and organized make a high quality newsletter. Your editorial note (that introduces each newsletter issue), shows how much understanding and effort you put into this critically important step. Publishing a quality newsletter is a creative process. It does not involve following three easy steps. Good editors will find this article packed with value, others will consider this article as utterly useless. Quality newsletters gets edited by the most senior, experienced people in an organization, not on a rotational basis by anyone with some free time on their hands. The following are some concepts that help a good newsletter editor in his or her task: Integration: combine the value content of several experts in their fields into one newsletter issue. Each of these experts can only contribute expertise on their topics. However, when these standalone expert contributions are combined into one newsletter issue, all their contributions grow in value because it is part of a larger solution. Your newsletter subscribers can possibly get all your newsletter content easily elsewhere, but come to you because of the way you package and present it to them. Position: by publishing a newsletter, you position yourself as the central point where they go to get quality Internet content, nicely packaged to address their exact needs. Team: your newsletter will be more valuable if its content is produced by a team of people. This team of people consists of: guest article authors, contributors of tips, subscribers that provide questions and software products authors that ask you to review their software. Benefits: your newsletter is only about providing benefits to its subscribers. The more value content you have the more benefits your subscribers get from you. Value content like: feature articles, guest articles, questions and answers, link to value resources, product reviews, your editorial comments, tips. To summarize: you, as newsletter editor and publisher, use your newsletter to combine the content of your team of contributors into a logically-arranged, benefit-rich newsletter for your subscribers. Your newsletter is benefit-rich when it is packed with useful, practical content that is directly relevant to the needs of your readers. A newsletter is not benefit-rich only if it contains detailed, step-by-step articles. A newsletter that helps its readers understand the bigger-picture meanings and implications of the Internet on a more philosophical level also has benefits. Such a newsletter should focus on educating its readership on how to apply their insight practically and on a daily basis to their business. A newsletter that focus exclusively on step-by-step articles makes its readers work harder. A newsletter that focus exclusively on philosophical, Internet bigger-picture visions make its readers think harder. In my opinion, a combination of these approaches is best. Such a combination will make your readers work hard - smarter. There are two main (opposite) approaches to packaging a quality content newsletter: Your write all the content yourself ... very time-consuming. You select and package content created by others ... the more practical and realistic approach. Most editors choose a middle road where they contribute some original content and get the remainder of their content from other contributors. If a good newsletter editor's main task is packaging value content, a good newsletter subscriber's task is to read, understand and ACT based on the insight the gain from this content. A good newsletter is your personalized to-do list for the week. About The Author Alwyn Botha, the author of this article, is also the author of a free, 10-day autoresponder course ... Your Beginner's Guide to Maximum Internet Success, available from http://www.leveragedsuccess.com
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Publish Articles Online: Start With Your Own ezine So, you want to publish articles online? It's really quite simple, and it's a great way to promote yourself or your product. But where do you begin? This is actually quite simple too. I started in the online publishing business about a year and a half ago. I read about how a person could make pretty good money by selling information on the Internet, and I had some good information to share. Ezines, Ezines Everywhere! There are literally thousands of ezines being published online these days. Sometimes it is hard to know which ones are best for advertising in, reading, subscribing to and so on. 7 Ways You Can Make a Huge Impression With Your Ezine Welcome Message Many times I receive a Welcome Message from someone after I subscribe to their ezine that leaves me wondering what I just jumped into. A welcome message is one of your first contacts with your subscriber, and it should say something that sets you apart from everyone else right at the get-go. It is, after all, one of your first impressions with prospective customers ? and first impressions absolutely do count on the internet. Not only is your welcome message a natural opportunity for you to connect with your subscribers, it's also your chance to make sure they remember you with positive anticipation so that they will be eager to open up your next message when it arrives. Medium and the Message A debate is raging in e-publishing circles: should content be encrypted and protected (the Barnes and Noble or Digital goods model) - or should it be distributed freely and thus serve as a form of viral marketing (Seth Godin's "ideavirus")? Publishers fear that freely distributed and cost-free "cracked" e-books will cannibalize print books to oblivion. The Biggest Mistakes That Can Spell Doom For You As A Newsletter Publisher And How To Avoid Them A lot of newsletter publishers spend a great deal of time wondering why they are not making money with their newsletters. Most of them expect to make so much money on getting started but they become disappointed with poor results. Top 10 Tips to Give Your Newsletter Impact! There are thousands of email newsletters or "ezines" produced every week, and most of them have great material and are written by passionate people who want to share valuable information. Unfortunately, very few of them have many subscribers. How To Publish Your Own Highly Demand Ezine Ezine is an electronic newsletter that is published through internet. As a home based business owner, it is important for you to have your own ezine. 7 Steps to Successful Publishing The decision to publish a book is very exciting! It causes the creative juices to flow and the eyes to light up. But wait ? before you begin the publishing process, know about the seven most important steps you need to know before publishing your book. Make sure that you take every step into careful consideration so that your road to success is an easy one: Does Your Business Need a Newsletter? Have you ever thought about it? What Every Ezine Owner Should Know About Unsold Ad Space The deadline approaches and your ad STILL has not sold. What are you going to do? Many publishers would leave the ad unsold, but some publishers have found "insider" ways to make money with their hard-to-sell ads. The Quick Ways To Increase Your E-zines Subscriber Base 1. Give Incentives Give people an incentive to subscribe to your e-zine. Offer them a freebie if they subscribe. It could be a free e-book, free report, free advertising, etc. Make sure the freebie will attract your target audience. 2. Joint Venture Joint venture with a similar e-zine. Combine your subscriber bases together and publish one e-zine. Edit and publish each issue together. You both will be promoting the e-zine which means more subscribers. 3. Allow Archiving Allow your subscribers to archive back issues of your e-zine on their web site. They may need content for their web site. If people visit their web site and like your e-zine, they will subscribe. Email Newsletter Format: HTML or Text An email newsletter is probably the most effective way to communicate with your target audience. One of the main considerations before you create and deliver an email newsletter is what format to use: HTML or Text. Publishing Your Own Newsletter - Is It Worth Your Time? Is publishing your own newsletter worth your time and effort? Most publishers will tell you the rewards are well worth the investment. By publishing your own newsletter you can build recognition and be looked at as an expert in your field of expertise. Your First Newsletter: 5 Sure-Fire Ways to Annoy People I read a lot of newsletters. Some are great and some are not so great. I put together this article to highlight the five mistakes I see most often in people's first newsletter. The Sticky Issue of E-zine Schedules While many new e-zine publishers are anxious about developing good content for their e-zines, many of them seem to have more trouble simply deciding on a schedule and sticking to it! 10 Winning Ezine Publishing Tips 1. Share your personality with your subscribers. Your subscribers are more likely to want to buy from someone they feel like they know. 21 Questions to Ask Any List Service Before You Sign on With Them If you publish an e-mail newsletter, or "e-zine," you'll need to sign on with a list service (or "listserve") to manage your subscriber list. There are many types of listserves out there, so here are some guidelines to help you choose one that's right for you. Do they use MULTI-PART MIME technology? You'll need this if you want to publish an HTML newsletter. Otherwise you'll have to send out multiple versions for users who can read HTML, users who can't read HTML, and users on AOL. Do they offer some type of ORIENTATION OR TUTORIAL? If you're new to the game and/or technologically challenged then you'll appreciate any type of help they offer for new clients. What's their CUSTOMER SERVICE like? Are they prompt to get back to you via e-mail? Can you call them if you have a problem? Are they available more than standard business hours? What about weekends? Contact them and see how long they take to get back to you -- if it's longer than 24 hours, definitely keep looking. Do they NOTIFY list owners if there's a PROBLEM with their service? If so, how, and how quickly? Do they have CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS to share with you? Or even better, client references? Contact some of these folks to see how their experiences have been. Do other BUSINESSES LIKE YOURS use their service? If most of their clients are large corporations, small businesses like yours may not get the attention they deserve. Is their interface EASY TO USE? Meaning is it easy for you to setup and launch each issue of your e-zine. They should offer a demo or let you access the 'mission control' area that you'll be using to test it out. Can you MANUALLY ADD AND REMOVE people to and from your list if you want to? Sometimes you'll need to do this, so you'll want the answer to be "yes" -- especially if you're moving over a list you've already collected. Can you access SUBSCRIBER REPORTS? How and how often? You'll want to know on a regular basis how many subscribes and unsubscribes you've had since the last issue. What appears in the "FROM" field when subscribers get your e-zine? You want it to be YOUR name if possible. Some spam filters screen out e-mail that does not appear to come from an individual person. What appears in the "TO" field when a subscriber gets your e-zine? You want it to be the person's name if possible. Along the same lines, some spam filters screen out e-mail that does not appear to be addressed to the individual person. Who has ACCESS to their servers and your list? Anytime you hand over your customer list, you're taking a risk. You don't want your service or anyone else using your list for spamming purposes. What happens if some addresses are UNDELIVERABLE? These are also called "bounces" or "bounce-backs." You don't want them to automatically remove names for "soft bounces," which are due to temporary conditions like full mailboxes. How do users SUBSCRIBE AND UNSUBSCRIBE? Do they have to visit a Web page or can they do it via e-mail (best if both options are available). Is the process single or double opt-in? (Double is better for more security - the user has to respond to a confirmation e-mail before she's added to your list.) Is the process kept simple? Can you customize your LIST SERVER DOCUMENTS? This means messages like your subscriber welcome and goodbye messages. (You'll definitely want to be able to do this, since the prewritten messages many list services use are horribly cold and confusing.) Can your e-zine give PERSONALIZED GREETINGS AND MESSAGES? Not necessary, but a very nice feature. For example, if your e-zine came to me, it would start off with something like, "Hello Alexandria!" How often do they BACK UP their servers? It should be at least once every day. Also ask if you can download your lists to back them up on your own, as a backup to their backup! Can you send a TEST MESSAGE out to yourself or another person before you send out each issue for real? You'll definitely want this because it's the best way to see how your e-zine looks on the recipient's end, do a proofread, and check all your hyperlinks. Can you see stats on your CLICK-THROUGH rates? If you publish in HTML, you should be able to see how many people - and even exactly who - opens your messages. Can they AUTOMATICALLY ARCHIVE your issues if you'd like them to? Some services will archive your e-zines at their site, others can configure it so they're archived at your own site (which is better). Are they currently BLOCKED anywhere on the Web? If so, it may mean they've been reported for allowing spammers to use their network. You don't want to work with any list service that's been blocked anywhere, because it means that your e-zine won't reach all of your readers. Ezine Advertising Strategy Exposed-15 Tips to Boost Your Profits In my opinion, Electronic Magazine (Ezine) advertising is the greatest, untapped source of online advertising available today. Search Engines Can Be The Online Writers Best Friend It's an exciting time for online writers, with a wide array of options. With desire and well-directed effort, a good writer can end up with a variety of work. However, as we know, there is much more to the writing biz than the meat and potatoes of the actual writing. Research, record-keeping, finding markets, composing and sending queries, dealing with rejections and self-promotion all factor in, and it all takes up a great deal of time. But the actual money, and the greatest satisfaction, comes from the writing itself and seeing your by-line posted on some well-trafficked site. 6 Important Tips For Choosing Ezine To Advertise In Did you ever wonder why some business owners seem to be able to pull in all the business they want, while others ? perhaps you ?can't seem to get any momentum? More often than not, it is because the successful ones have learned from marketing experts what works and what doesn't work in their marketing and promotional materials. Some marketing secrets seem to be secrets simply because they're widely known or understood. Only from trial and error and ad tracking ? combined with research on natural psychologycal predispositions ? do marketing experts know what really triggers a sale.
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |