Open Source Email Marketing Tools

By TC Watts

If you're anything like me, you're probably constantly looking for the best deal out there. Whether its shopping for a new car, home or just groceries, I'm always drawn to the freebies! I guess its the same with Email Marketing. Especially when you've first started and "getting your feet wet", you might not be prepared to spend too much on your tools yet.

Although there's some really great tools out there, like Aweber and Send Studio, I'm going to be talking about a few Open Source (read free) alternatives that you can start with. Now, these software are not for the faint-hearted or technologically challenged. Although most of them are quite simple to install, you still need to have some grasp of the technical jargon involved. You'll find that popular hosting panels like cPanel and Fantastico might have them pre-installed.

1. DadaMail - http://mojo.skazat.com/
Dada Mail has been around for awhile. Its written in Perl and can be set to use a flat file or a database like MySQL or PostgreSQL. The installation can be a bit daunting, but worth the effort. Once installed you can use it to generate your subscription form and cut and paste that into your website easily. Read our Dada Mail review here.

2. PhpList - http://www.tincan.co.uk/phplist
The description on their website reads: "PHPlist is a double opt-in newsletter manager. It is written in PHP and uses an SQL database for storing the information. PHPlist is software that runs on a server." The install is also quite simple but I found the interface less friendly than Dada Mail's. However it has some nice prebuilt features like Open and Click Tracking, plus a nice ability to pickup from the last email in case the sending fails midway.

3. Infinite Responder - http://infinite.ibasics.biz/
Unlike the 2 above, this is an Sequential Autoresponder developed with PHP that allows you to time your messages. It has an opt-in feature plus allows for Unlimited Autoresponders. A nice piece of software with an active forum to ask for help when you need it.

That's an intro to some of the more popular Open Source Email Marketing tools you can use. I've left out Mailman and Majordomo as its far too complicated for this purpose. If there's more that you'd like to see added, please contact me. But tools aside, its how you use them creatively that matters, but use them you must! A website without a mailing list is leaving a lot of money on the table as you would not have any means of contacting your prospects!

What I also like about using tools like these is that the information is in MySQL and that's easy to integrate into other membership registration forms and systems. You can even program your order form to automatically capture buyer's email addresses into the same database but use these email marketing tools to contact them.

If you don't know where to start or find installing scripts like this daunting, then head on over to Scriptlance or Elance and you get someone to do it for you affordably. Or perhaps if you ask nicely, some tech support at your hosting company might do it for you.

That rounds up my quick tour of Open Source Email Marketing tools. Remember that free is not always bad as these tools are often developed with collaboration from many brilliant programmers, ensuring you stable and reliable software.

T.C. Watts operates http://www.topemailmarketingsoftware.com/software/autoresponders/comparison

Find Out How To Come One Step Closer To Achieving Your Goals By Publishing A Newsletter

By Joe Rispoli

What can a newsletter do for you? It may encourage visitors to return to your site thus allowing you to stay in touch with them. This can help you build trust as well as start a business relationship with your website visitors.

Here are a few newsletter tips which may help you attract new business to your website.

1. Offer useful and interesting information. Your subscribers will not stay around if you do not.

2. Keep your newsletter short. People get alot of email, so send them something they can read quickly and actually use!

3. Take the time to put together a format for your newsletter. This will save time when you write a new issue of your newsletter, and it will also help your subscribers recognize your newsletter each time it appears in their inboxes.

4. Set up a hotmail or yahoo email account and subscribe to newsletters that are related to your topic. Check out the newsletters for ideas and formats that you can use in your newsletter.

5. There are many free services that are offered on the Internet that can help you publish a newsletter. I would like to suggest that you get one of the paid services such as GetResponse. They make it very easy to collect subscribers and to send out your newsletter, but best of all they do not place any ads in your mailings.

6. Specialize in a topic that is not covered very well in any other newsletter. Make sure that it is a subject that you can provide enough information on to allow you to send out your newsletters regularly.

7. It will take time to develop your own unique writing style in your newsletters, so be patient and remember that practice makes perfect. With practice you gain experience and before you know it, your subscribers are looking forward to each and every one of your newsletters.

Are you having trouble finding content? For example, my newsletter is about free online advertising resources and each week I try to provide information on a specific online marketing topic that is free.

One suggestion is to visit one of the many article websites and browse for ideas. Use other articles to establish ideas and then put your own unique spin on it. You can also reprint many of these articles in your newsletter as long as you include the authors bio.

Do you already have a website? If you do then you must know something about what is covered on your website, so share it with your visitors. The simpler the information is, the better. You can also use the material in your newsletters on your website, which will help to attract traffic.

By taking advantage of the resources that are online and dedicating some time and effort nearly anyone can develop a good, informative newsletter that will help them build a solid and profitable relationship with their subscribers.

How can you collect subscribers?

- Include a form on your website which allows people to subscribe to your newsletter. The sign up form should be on the top right and on as many of your web pages as possible. Offer something for free if they do subscribe.

- Add a pop up to your website to help increase your subscriber list. Even though pop ups are controversial they will increase your sign up rates.

- Make sure you announce your newsletter by using the many newsletter announcement mailing lists and directories.

- Most important of all, make your newsletter an interesting and informative read.

How can you make sure people will want to read your newsletter?

1. Publish on time.

2. Keep the same format.

3. Proof read your newsletter.

4. Make it your own.

5. Keep it short.

6. Ask for feedback, and respond promptly.

7. Have fun.

Remember that a great newsletter is passed around, while a bad one just loses subscribers.

Publishing an online newsletter does not have to be difficult. It is a great way to help brand your website while having fun.

Can you think of a better way to allow your visitors to get to know you and your business?

Copyright 2007 by Joe Rispoli

Joe Rispoli has been gathering free online marketing resources for over 10 years. You can find many of these resources at his website http://UcanTo.com where you can also subscribe to his Free Advertising Resources Ezine which includes free Email Marketing Software with your subscription.

Tell Me A Story

By Harry Hoover

Since the dawn of time mankind has been a sucker for a story. We may be wearing synthetics now instead of skins, but that one truth has not changed. Whether you are communicating with employees, customers or the media, a story has the most power.

Recently I read a piece in Bull Dog Reporter quoting Wall Street Journal Reporter Don Clark on the power of narrative to break through the media wall. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Know what constitutes a front-page piece�tell a story. �We�re not just looking for announcements,� says Clark. �We�re looking for great story elements. That�s how we work. For example, your story should include a level of drama�like a guy so upset with his company stock that he flew a plane into a mountain. But drama is just one element.� Some others:

Narrative: �What people want to read now is some narrative and a story line. For example, we tell stories through characters and people�not products,� Clark shares. �A good illustration would be somebody saying their plan worked just like they thought it would. Well, that�s not a story. We want things that are unexpected. We want to hear the stumbles, the roadblocks and the bad luck�then the good news at the end. But PR people always start with the good news.�

Conflict: �Similarly, journalists are interested in conflict,� Clark says. �For example, companies suing each other has plenty of tension. A lot of people want to say they have no competition. But that�s a great way not to get written about.�

Now, how can you incorporate storytelling into your organization�s publicity efforts? Just like Stephen King does. Start with the hero in his everyday, believable world. Then, take him on a journey into an unbelievable world. The hero completes his journey, returning to the old world inextricably changed. You also need a universal theme or a unique point of view that propels the story forward, like �good triumphs over evil,� or �the small outfoxes the large opponent.�

Next, remember the idea is not to sell the audience something, it is to engage them.

So, what�s your story? Weave one of your own to break through the clutter.

Harry Hoover is a partner in My Creative Team. He has 30 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Bank of Commerce, The Bray Law Firm, Brent Dees Financial Planning, CruisingTheICW.com, Duke Energy, Focus Four, Levolor, North Carolina Tourism, TeamHeidi, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX, and Verbatim.

Write a Newsletter That Will Make Money as Well as Inform

By Ken Bishop

Creating a free Newsletter can bring sales as well as give your readers information they find interesting. Newsletters can be a very important way to bring traffic to your website and build your online business.

When writing content of any kind, do not saturate the content with product links. Mention them once, possibly twice but no more. It is important to try to bring your product links in at the right time and not to put them in very often.

In a lot of cases, people get online to get information. If you are publishing quality information in your newsletter, more and more people will opt in to read your newsletter. If you offer your newsletter on your site and mail your list when your newsletter is ready, you may be able to up your chances to make sales through links on your site. You can also offer your newsletter through your blog. Blogs are becoming a very popular way to get traffic to a website these days. More about that in an upcoming article.

Creating a newsletter keeps your opt in members in contact with you and helps build credibility for you. If they trust you, and you do what you can to maintain that trust, there is a good chance they will buy something from you rather than from stranger. Usually people don�t buy when they see something for the first time. When they see the link for this product a few times, they get their curiosity up and click the link. They still may not buy right away but if they are interested, there is a good chance they will eventually buy from you and not someone else. It is very important that you keep your newsletter frequent and on time so you will not lose your sale when the time is right for them to buy.

Another possibility of making money with a newsletter is from advertisements. If you are able to keep your newsletter frequent and on time and build a substantial reader base, you can sell advertising spots on your well received newsletter. This could mean a few hundred dollars a month for something you are doing already.

You need to become good at writing so that it becomes more fun than a chore. This would not be hard for some people as once they start, the words just keep flowing. If you practice this and force yourself to do it, there is a good chance you will find this to be true. It is important to keep your information as informative as possible and not just babbling on. When you start babbling you will soon lose their interest. If it gets bad enough, they may unsubscribe. You want to keep your information as important to them as possible.

There is a considerable amount of time and work put into writing a newsletter. You will find this, especially when you first start. Your time will be cut considerably as you gain confidence in yourself and become better at it. You would be surprised at how much you know about a subject once you start to write about it.

To help you get started. Pick a subject, look it up on the internet and start writing about it with your own words and opinions. If you think this is cheating, your wrong. You are doing the research for your readers and condensing it into a newsletter for them using your own words and opinions.

Happy writing with prosperous news.

The author allows the use of this article as long as this resource box and the links remain usable

Ken Bishop

For free internet marketing tips and information http://www.AffiliateMarketingGenius.com

Importance of Submitting Your Articles to an Article Directory

By Darren Dunner

Articles are the most effective way by which you can generate traffic for your website. You must have heard the phrase that �Content is the king of any website�. Writing and submitting articles to article directories is a potent way of promoting your website, newsletter, or ezine. Today more and more people are using this technique to generate massive amounts of back links to their website, boost link popularity, get topmost positions in the search engines and flood their sites with an unstoppable flow of fresh visitors on a daily basis.

Importance of submitting articles to article directories

Article sites on the web provide free content for their website visitors. Webmasters who visit the article directories have permission to grab any article for use on their website, as long as the article is left in the original state and credit is given to the article author. For instance if you have submitted an Article to an Article directory and if a visitor of the article directory finds it useful and interesting he will publish it on his site in the same way as you posted your article in the article directory with a link pointing back at your site. In this way just one Article can result in thousands and thousands of back links to the Author�s website, resulting in tons of free and targeted traffic.

Tips while submitting Articles to Article Directories

Writing and submitting Articles to article directories are an effective way of promoting your website and generating more back links. There are certain points you need to keep in mind while submitting articles to article directories.

ท Make sure to leave a link pointing back at your website in the resource box provided by the Article directory. ท Always submit your article to an appropriate category related to your website. ท Make sure to provide useful information through your article. Do not just promote your website in the article. This might result in declination of your article from the article directory.

Search engines love content and by writing more and more Articles and submitting them to Article directories you can only help your site grow. Every single day, more and more people are discovering how powerful Article writing can be for traffic generation and website promotion. As a result of this boom, article directory submissions are at record levels.

Writing and submitting Articles to article directories can not help you achieve the top most rankings in the search engines but also boost your site traffic in the major search engines.

Copyright 2006 Darren Dunner

Darren Dunner is the writer of this article. For more information about the subject, kindly visit http://www.seositemanager.com

Dare to Be You

By Mary Kay Buttery

Over five billion people now live on this planet and yet no two people have the same finger prints. We all have some basic similarities with the rest of humanity yet each of us is unique unto ourselves.

Each of us has his own individual expression to offer to the world. That expression can take many forms from artistic interests, the way they think, athletic activities, the particular way we dress, musical talents, different hobbies, etc.

We should never forget that each of us is blessed with our own the innate ability and potential to achieve �success� no matter how insignificant this might look in the eyes of our own/ others critical nature. It is true that not everybody is meant (or want) to be a Bill Gates, Michael Jordon or Oprah Winfrey. But, at the same time it is even truer that nature creates variations, this being our uniqueness, and as we build upon our individuality it allows our sense of self worth to thrive. There is unlimited potential within each of us, all we have to do is realize it!

We are energy, and energy is about change and development, so from the moment of birth (and perhaps before) our passion is to develop on every level. This energy to be who and what we are builds and blossoms as we journey through life.

We all have the ability and opportunity to act in ways that are uniquely ours, Ways that expand our horizons and enhance our lives and the lives of others. It's usually fear that stops us: fear of stepping outside the defined normal conduct of our group, of being thought "weird".

Our built-in desire to retain group identity, security, and safety puts pressure upon us to be normal and can at times can be pressingly and tiredly restraining. We can spend a lot of time, effort and money to buy the right clothes, drive the right car, etc., all so we can get the approval of as many people as possible. In this process we give away our power, the essence of who we are and that which makes us unique and unforgettable. When was the last time you pointed to someone and said, "Wow, that person is so normal � I'd like to be just like that!" Instead, consider the heroes you admire and respect, whether they be political, religious, athletic, or in some other walk of life. Nelson Mandela; Mother Theresa; Gandhi; Tiger Woods � to name a very few � are these people normal!?

Take a small step, even a baby step, outside your comfortable boundaries and explore the possibilities. Then think about how it felt, and how you plan to keep extending yourself. By doing the unfamiliar and the electrifying we surprise ourselves by being more of who we are!

An example of this happened to me. Some years ago, I had taken a huge leap of faith and I became a motivational speaker, trainer, and personal consultant. Part of my �business� plan was that I would do sessions with individuals and groups and someone else would take care of all the logistics and do all the paperwork. Well it ended up that I did it all! Why? Well, it quickly became apparent that it wasn�t cost effective to hire another person, and more importantly, I had the skills to do it. All I needed to do was to put these attributes into action. And, I learned my business inside out! My self confidence sky rocketed. Next thing I knew, I was doing other things I had say �NO WAY� to in the past. End result: I was open and ready to receive other ventures and opportunities that were on their way!

When you are working, work hard, when you are playing play hard, get enthusiastic and give whatever you are doing everything you have got while you are doing it, then when you move onto something else, move on with a clear conscience and give the new thing everything you've got. Not only will you get more into your life, you'll have more fun in the process!

In Japanese flower arranging it is common that one of the branches in the arrangement is bent or broken, to signify that the arranger has attempted to present the flowers in a "natural" state. It is the "imperfection" of the broken branch that leads us to understand that the arrangement is potentially "perfect." So, appreciation of those parts of us we may consider "broken branches" are in truth signs of our uniqueness and perfection.

When we move into accepting ourselves for who we really are, warts and all, we will be able to accept others for who they are; our relationships and ourselves will actually have a chance to grow into emotionally mature adults able to give freely out of choice and flourish in our new found freedom.

There is a world that awaits and always welcomes you � this world is non judgmental, doesn�t criticize, nor does it condemn; it is loving and impartial. Each of us must first find our own way to break free, to break out of what we have been told in the past and venture out on our own path; in our own uniqueness. This world will then open to you, and your life will truly and authentically unfold for you.

You are the treasure, a human miracle, rare and irreplaceable. Don't waste this precious commodity by going about your life in a halfhearted fashion. Frequently review your own list of unique qualities. They represent who you are. Let them guide you. Shakespeare hit the nail on the head when he wrote "This above all, to thine own self be true".

Mary Kay's desire is that people discover how to create (and then live) a life they truly love. She is available for private consultations and speaking engagements. Be sure to visit her website and sign up for her *FREE* Monthly Newsletter, which is filled with inspirational, motivational and helpful information. Dare to be Different. Dare to be YOU! If you want Mary Kay to speak at an event in your area or you want to contact her: call 702-239-5451 or e-mail marykay@sfgtd.com

Creating a Sticky Web Site

By Sherry Schuller

When used to describe a web site, the term �sticky� refers to a site that is able to get viewers to stay at the site longer and come back frequently. Sticky web sites are more likely to turn viewers into customers.

10 Ways to Make Your Web Site �Sticky�

1. Keep content fresh! Feed daily news or update the site frequently with new information.

2. Use appropriate interactive tools for feedback and user participation such as chat rooms, discussion boards, polls and surveys, or feedback forms.

3. Teach your viewers. Adding tutorials and quick how-to articles to your site is a great way to bring viewers back. Proving you�re an expert in your field will also help turn viewers into customers.

4. Offer an electronic newsletter. Allow viewers to subscribe to your �e-newsletter� and include advertisements or descriptions of your new products and services in the newsletter.

5. Keep your web site pages light in content. In other words, don't fill the screen with a lot of text and expect your viewers to stick around!

6. Make the navigation intuitive. Use familiar navigation tools such as hyperlinks, buttons, or pull-down menus. Ask others to navigate your site and give you feedback. Better still, make it possible for viewers to provide feedback when they're not able to find what they're looking for.

7. Give something away for free and hold a contest that allows viewers to enter daily! What better prize to give away than your products or services?

8. Brand your web site with your corporate identity. Make sure your logo is on the site and visible to the viewer. Displaying the web site's address on the page along with your organization's contact information will help them find their way back to you.

9. Provide value-add information to your viewers. This could include recommended books, tips, top tens, product manuals, tools for download, or other useful information.

10. Make your site visually appealing and easy to read. Dark text on a light background is more apt to keep your viewers reading. Keep the graphics to a minimum, though! Excessive use of graphics will force your pages to load slower and potentially turn your viewers away.

Sherry Schuller is President of ViralCommerce.com and Zabbo Communications. She is the founder of the Conference on Strategic Growth for Businesses and Entrepreneurs, co-author of 222 Ways to Entrepreneurial Success, and has assisted many organizations with strategic planning, branding, marketing, advertising design, training, and application development. She was previously an Internet Specialist for IBM's leading North American distributor, Business Partner Solutions (now Avnet), and an independent consultant for various firms, including PRIMEDIA, Inc., the leading provider of targeted content and integrated marketing solutions in consumer and business-to-business sectors.

How to Create Stirring Headlines

By Sanjay Johari

Imagine a situation where you are driving to your workplace. You are going by your usual route. The roads are familiar to you, the areas you pass through are familiar to you, even the behavior of the traffic is known to you. You are not concentrating fully on driving � you don�t have to because driving by this route has almost become a habit. Your attention is partially on driving and partially on other thoughts.

Suddenly you notice a big �STOP� sign on the road. You come out of your thoughts and try to figure out what is happening. You are now giving full attention to what lies ahead. The road is closed for repair and you are advised to take the road on your right side. You mentally adjust the route you have to take now. You are forced to re-plan rest of your journey.

The headline of your webpage and subject line of your email should work something like the �STOP� sign. When people are browsing through different web pages they are absorbed in their own thoughts. As soon as they arrive at your web page, the headline should stop them in their tracks. The visitor to your web page should get hard enough jolt by your headline to take notice, just as the drivers are jerked out of their reverie by the �STOP� sign.

The subscriber of your newsletter should be drawn by your subject line as he looks at his in-box containing many emails he receives every day. The subject line of your email should attract the attention of your reader otherwise the email may not even get opened. .

Creating Headlines

Your headline has a fair chance of getting attention if it fulfills two conditions �

1. It presents an unusual situation
2. It appeals to human sentiments

You can create a headline on your web page using tricks of fonts, colors and graphics to satisfy the first condition, but it will probably not have the desired impact unless it also satisfies the second condition. The message the words convey in a headline is by far more stimulating than its appearance. The appearance of headline can be used to enhance the impact of the message.

The human brain is induced into action by what may be called the trigger points. While every person will have his own trigger points based on his experience, there are some features common to most of the people. Try to recall how your mind is conditioned to react to the �STOP� sign.

There are several trigger words that touch the common sentiments. For example the word �free� is a powerful trigger word. The thought that we cannot get anything free of cost is imbedded deeply in our brain. Therefore when we see a �free� offer we recognize it as an unusual situation and have the illusion that we can get something without spending anything. If this word is present in a headline we sit up and take notice � it is almost an instinctive reaction.

There are some trigger words that give suggestion of a better future. In real life we are trained not to expect any drastic change for the better. Therefore when something gives a mild hope of improved future we notice. �How to� is another powerful trigger word. It is generally used to address a problem or a concern and gives a hope that solution is within reach.

There are several other trigger words which appeal to different human sentiments. Curiosity is another natural trait in humans which is often exploited in creating headlines. There are words that give a feeling of movement and action and have greater appeal than passive words. I had initially kept the title of this article �How to Create Effective Headlines�. Later I changed it to �How to Create Stirring Headlines�. The word �stirring� looks more dynamic than �effective�.

Apart from the choice of words the style of the headline has a strong bearing on its acceptance. A question in the headline is more stimulating than a plain statement. The headline �Autoresponder Explained� can be improved to get better response by changing it to �How Does Autoresponder Work?� The question makes the headline appear more dynamic and challenging.

While creating a headline the focus should be on the reader and not on the content. The headline should indicate what problem is being addressed rather than the solution that is presented in the content.

The importance of headlines cannot be over-emphasized. Unless your headline is able to grab attention your content is of little use. It is always wise to put in sufficient effort in creating good headlines. One approach is to create a large number of headlines and then select the best one out of them. You can take help of your friends and well wishers in identifying the most suitable headline.

Your headline is your showcase � design it well to attract people.

Sanjay Johari regularly contributes articles to several ezines. Discover how network marketing can help you attain financial freedom and success in life. Visit his website on http://www.sanjay-j.com

Add Email To Your Marketing Mix

By Harry Hoover

If you are serious about adding email to your marketing mix, you should take email seriously enough to develop a plan for it. Too many organizations launch a half-baked email program and then are disappointed when it doesn�t live up to expectations.

The plan does not have to be as long as War And Peace, but it must include a few key elements so that you can develop a focused, targeted, measurable program that gets results. At a minimum, here are the elements that Hoover ink recommends:

* Objectives

* Audience Definition

* Key Messages

* Format

* Tactics

* Timeline

* Budget

* Measurement

First, determine what is it that you want the email program to achieve from marketing and communications perspectives. Is this a newsletter designed for relationship management purposes, or is it a sales-oriented vehicle? Are you trying to build awareness, generate leads, increase web traffic, encourage loyalty, or close sales?

Next, you need to define audiences. Who are you trying to reach? What do you know about them from demographic and psychographic perspectives? Are you addressing multiple audiences? If so, do you need to segment your audiences and develop emails with different messages? How will each audience profit from our communications.

Now, what is it you want to say to each audience? What�s the nature of the content? Will this include just editorial information or will it also contain some sales-oriented material?

Closely tied to messages is your format. Are you producing a newsletter with a lot of editorial material, or does it contain just brief snippets of information? Is it an announcement list, a discussion list, or just commercial messages? Think about your audiences as you develop the most appropriate format.

Your tactics section lays out tasks and who is responsible for them. What technology do you need? Do you have in-house email capabilities or should you use an application such as nTarget? How will you build and manage your list? How will you acquire new subscribers? Who will create content, design and distribute the email?

After you answer those questions, it�s time to turn to your timeline. Develop a schedule for having your technology in place, building your list, creating content, designing and distributing the email. Determine if this will be a one-time mailing, or if it will recur on a weekly or monthly basis.

Your budget may help you answer many of the questions above. Small budgets may mean you complete a lot of the work in-house.

Finally, it�s time to establish criteria for measuring the program. An awareness program may call for some baseline research so you�ll know how you are doing. A relationship management program may measure customer retention. Increased click-through from your email to your website is also a measurable element. Sales-oriented programs might measure total sales from email, or incremental sales increases with individual customers.

No matter what your objective in using email, spend a little time cooking up a plan so your results won�t be half-baked.

Harry Hoover is a partner in My Creative Team. He has 30 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Bank of Commerce, The Bray Law Firm, Brent Dees Financial Planning, CruisingTheICW.com, Duke Energy, Focus Four, Levolor, North Carolina Tourism, TeamHeidi, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX, and Verbatim.

Creating A Newsletter And Making Your Website Magnetic

By Mike Cheney

Creating a newsletter is an ideal way to drive repeat traffic to your website but its design, format and implementation need to be carefully considered in order to achieve the desired results.

Signing Up

Before you begin creating a newsletter itself attention needs to be paid to the way in which your website will facilitate the capturing of customers' email addresses and other information. Though many sites opt for the quick and simple approach of placing a "Name & Email Address" box on their homepage this is not always the best solution.

Although such an approach makes it extremely simple for users to provide you with their basic details it leaves little scope to sell the newsletter's benefits. Neither does it provide your business with the opportunity to simultaneously capture vital demographic information from its customers. A balance needs to be determined between the ease of signing-up for the user and the quality/quantity of information captured by you.

Format and Frequency

Your website visitors need to be made aware in advance how often they are going to receive a communication from your business. Failure to provide such information may deter people from giving their permission to be contacted in the first place. Stating the newsletter's frequency up front will also benefit your business in the long-term as customers signing up to receive it will all share a common understanding of the expected volume of email they are going to receive - this will lower the number of customers who unsubscribe.

The format of your newsletter is also important - you should either state the format during the sign-up procedure or provide an option for your customers to choose their preferred delivery format. Most newsletters are delivered in standard text format though HTML is being favoured more and more as it enables greater use of images and links but beware - not all Internet users can view HTML newsletters. There are various ways to combat these issues of compliance including delivering a newsletter in both formats based on customers' chosen option at the sign-up stage.

Content is King

This phrase applies equally as well to newsletters as it does to a website's content. Your newsletter may be well-designed, easy on the eye and technically sound but if it doesn't contain information that recipients find of value it is worthless.

Creating a newsletter can achieve many objectives and therefore you must decide on which are most important to you. Do you want to use the newsletter to facilitate increased traffic, enable capture of marketing information, push direct sales, improve public relations, generate product feedback or foster loyalty? Your newsletter needs to be tailored to the needs and objectives of your business in this regard.

Generating repeat traffic is one of the easier objectives to attain via a newsletter - including relevant links to certain areas of your site, or featuring competitions / special offers can all drive traffic to your site.

Summary

Engaging in newsletter activity is the electronic equivalent of knocking on your customer's door - your business has the potential to sell, whether this be selling products, services or the ethos of your company - the potential should not be overlooked.

Mike Cheney
www.magnet4web.com

About The Author

You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a Free Bonus Special Report "How To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnet" worth a value of ฃ47 ($85) here: http://www.magnet4web.com/website_services/?page=freeguide

Is Your Employee Newsletter Management Propaganda?

By Robert Abbott

It should not be. If it is an effective newsletter, it will serve the needs of readers (employees) as much as it serves the needs of the publisher (management).

Let me explain how to ensure it serves employees as well as management, by reviewing four key points I make in A Manager�s Guide to Newsletters: Communicating for Results.

Objectives and reader responses:

First, state your objectives in terms of reader responses. This forces you to focus on your readers, and what they're likely or not likely to do. Nothing brings objectives down to earth more quickly than the reality of implementation.

Now you may have self-serving objectives, such as increasing employee productivity, which is fine. But, once you state that objective in terms of reader responses, you are forced to see that objective in new terms.

For example, let's say you want to increase productivity. The desired reader response might be that employees will participate in lunch hour learning sessions. Now, you have to plan and write articles that give readers some good reasons to attend.

Reader goals:

To find those reasons, you'll have to identify readers' goals, and which of them they can achieve through your organization. Chances are your organization can offer a stable income, but probably not the chance to become fabulously wealthy. Nor would you expect most organizations to be part of spiritual or family goals. So the second key point is to focus on the goals that your organization can help readers attain, and leave the rest alone.

Content in which you share an interest:

Third, select content that serves both your objectives and readers' goals, and I emphasize the word 'both.' If there isn't something that interests both management and employees in an article, then it doesn't belong in your newsletter. You both must have something to gain or something to lose in choosing subjects for coverage.

Presentation style:

Fourth, the style of presentation should be appropriate for the characteristics readers bring to the newsletter. They don't pick up a newsletter with their minds in the blank slate position. Instead, they bring to it emotions, degrees of involvement, and ranges of consistency with your attitudes and beliefs.

You need to do at least some basic profiling, to identify these characteristics. For example, if morale is poor, you need to address the reasons and the solutions. It makes absolutely no sense to pretend everyone's happy when the opposite is true.

Of course, not every organization covers these four issues. Take a look at many employee newsletters and you'll see something much different. These newsletters have objectives that serve only management, and not management and employees both.

You'll see what amounts to a brochure, a sales pitch that does nothing to help employees advance toward or achieve their goals. And, if there's nothing there for employees, why would they read it?

And, if they don't read the newsletter, how will it help management achieve its objectives? It won't, of course, and the employee, having found nothing of relevance to her interests in the newsletter, will assume it is management propaganda.

In summary, an effective employee newsletter addresses the needs of both the publisher (management) and readers (employees). And, ironically, a newsletter can only achieve its self-serving objectives by serving the interests of readers, too.

Robert F. Abbott is the author of A Manager�s Guide to Newsletters: Communicating for Results, which explains how to create effective newsletters, newsletters that get the desired responses. Learn how to start a newsletter, with real-life examples, at: http://www.managersguide.com/articles.htm

Trading In Black And White Forex Trading Newsletter - 4/17/06

By Eddie Yakubovich

Cable continues it�s range trading, as we approach what should be the ceiling, and if the pattern holds, we should start yet another march down towards 1.7230. Keeping in mind that the last trip down stalled and reversed at around 1.7375.

This range has been in place for months, and until we break 1.7650 on the high side or 1.7200 on the low side, cable will continue to bounce in the range.

On Wednesday night our trade was excellent and yet we did not make our entry price, thus we did not make our trade. You might ask why we feel our trade was excellent, well here is why.

We resisted the temptation to make an aggressive trade and increase our risk of being stopped out. There were several reasons we could have used to try to justify a more aggressive trade, but in our system we teach our trader to stay with the safer trades, it�s much more important not to lose profit than it is to gain additional profit.

Our money management and compounding are optimal when utilizing this technique. Tonight we are trading around 1.7570. We have the super resistance level around 1.7600, that has held earlier in the night. Now is the perfect time to interject another important part of our trading strategies.

If you have missed your optimum entry point because you weren�t watching the market DO NOT fall to the temptation of making a bad entry point just because the market has come down off your resistance level.

Set your entry and if the market does not get back to it then so be it, as we have said many many times already, not making a trade is a valid position.

On the support side, we are looking at a range from 1.7480 to 1.7500. To learn more about how we teach traders to successfully trade the forex market it is important to take the time and learn about a forex trading course or other form of forex trading education.

We find these support and resistance levels using a set of technical indicators and other variables that we have found to be most successful for us. We use several other indicators and a variety of technical analysis techniques to enter and exit all of our trades. Every trader will have a different combination of indicators that makes the most sense to them. Learn how to develop your own successful Forex Trading style with an Elite Forex Trading Course or Forex Seminar.

Learn about any of Eddie�s amazing trading tools:
Forex Seminar | Forex Trading Course | Forex Trading Education

Email Donor Newsletters: Improve Your Open Rates for Online Fundraising and Donation Success

By Alan Sharpe

One of the greatest challenges in email fundraising is poor open rates. The majority of donors who subscribe to email donor newsletters receive them but never open them.

If you track your open rates, you likely already know that roughly 36 percent of your subscribers open your emails. That means a whopping 64 percent of your email appeals and email donor newsletters either languish in inboxes unread, get deleted by overzealous index fingers, or never appear in donor inboxes because spam~ filters catch them first.

Improve your open rates today using these proven methods.

1. Put yourself in the From line.
Put the name of your organization in the From line. Readers will see immediately that your email is from someone they trust. Some examples:

From: Amnesty International USA [alerts@takeaction.amnestyusa.org]

From: Coalition to Stop Gun Violence [action@action.csgv.org]

From: MADD Online [enews@madd.org]

If you use an email service provider, such as Constant Contact or GetActive, do not use them in the From line. Greenpeace Canada's newsletters, for example, arrive from ems@thindataworks.com. Your donors and members�and their spam~ filters�will not recognize a sender like that, and may inadvertently delete the valuable email fundraising newsletters they want to receive from you.

2. Put your reader in the To line.
Show your reader who the email newsletter is for by putting your donor�s name and email address in the To line. Don�t leave this line blank. That�s what spammers do, and you don�t want to be mistaken for a spammer. I have in my inbox, for example, an email that looks like this at the top:

From: Ontario March Of Dimes [info@dimes.on.ca]
Subject: Ontario March of Dimes Summer Online Auction

As you can imagine, I thought this email was spam~, not a message from a charity that I respect. It wasn�t addressed to me. And it contained an email attachment. Any email message from your organization that looks like it is for nobody in particular or everyone in general will quickly end up in the trash box.

Another mistake to avoid is putting the sender in the To line, like this:

From: ABC Charity [info@abc.org]
Subject: Summer Online Auction
To: info@abc.org

This infuriates many of your donors, and me, too. Your donors and members, especially if they share a family computer, need to know who your email is for. And they also need to know which email address they are subscribed to your newsletter under. They likely have more than one email address. Few tasks are as infuriating for donors as asking a non-profit organization to be removed from their mailing list but not being able to tell them which email address of yours they are using.

If you�d like to see an example of a donor newsletter that gets all of these things right, review this excellent example from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, at
www.RaiserSharpe.com/z/madd.htm

About the author
Alan Sharpe is president of Raiser Sharpe, a full-service direct mail fundraising agency that helps non-profit organizations raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors. Sign up for free weekly tips like this, and discover other helpful resources, at http://www.RaiserSharpe.com.