Writing a Newsletter ~ Some tips and ideas

Writing a newsletter is a great way to bring added exposure to your website.
I am no expert on the subject but I have produced 10 now and my mailing keeps growing each month. I enjoy writing so much that I am now doing this blog! LOL I also write a monthly column called "Whispers from the Past" in Primmart's Online Newsletter "Beneath the Willow Tree"

I send out my newsletter thru www.bravenet.com each month and just love their set up.
These tips and ideas will work for any newsletter set up that you use now or plan on using in the future.

These tips are in my opinion only...they aren't rules written in stone!
Work with them and see what works best for you:)

~ If you can learn to write like you talk, you'll find that people generally enjoy reading it. No one talks with perfect English. Make your newsletter a bit chatty and informal. But chatty doesn't mean airy and full of fluff. You need to say something worth saying or all you will do is turn your members away.
Now I am not talking full of bad grammer and lots of slang..... no one wants to read that!
But they don't want to read Shakespeare either! LOL

~ How often should you publish a newsletter?
I don't send out more then one newsletter a month if at all possible.
Get out a calendar and mark the day you plan to send your newsletter out on, and then block out a couple of days prior to the deadline to prepare each newsletter. As you learn how to produce a newsletter,this time frame will be less.
Alot of folks seem to pick the first of each month to send theirs out. If the folks who have signed up for your newsletter have signed up for quite a few others as well....this could make for a very full mailbox for them. Some folks may opt OFF your list if it gets too crazy for them.

Think about sending it on say the 5th of every month....... the middle of the month...... the end of the month even.

~Plan ahead

Plan what articles are to be written several months ahead if possible. You can start collecting ideas and data long before your fingers start touching the keyboard. I keep a journal next to the computer....I jot ideas down. Comments that I have heard. A website that I want to tell folks about. Listen to what feedback you get back and you will know what direction to go with your newsletter.

~How to get folks to sign up
Offer them something that is going to make them want to recieve your newsletter every time.
You want them excited when its time for it to be arriving in their mailbox.
I have offered "first glimpses" of new dolls I have created.
Run contests! Draw names from your mailing list for prizes.
Offer something FREE! Everyone loves getting something free. Not the same old thing everyone else seems to offer. Be unique! Stand out. If you can do that....folks will talk about you and your newsletter popularity will spread like fire wild!

~*~*~*
I will be offering more tips for newsletters in the near future. Can't give you everything now! LOL
I want you coming back too!