My e-newsletter was the linchpin of my Internet Marketing strategy.

People interested in Internet marketing subscribed to receive the free articles in my newsletter.  In each issue I also included some great tools, affiliate links and mention my services and ?presto? it generated a stream of steady income.

My html e-newsletter service, Constant Contact,  makes it easy to build and deliver great newsletters and tracks how many people open them, which articles are most popular and how many people and click on the links.

It was a beautiful thing, a win-win for everyone.

But the dark, ominous clouds are gathering on the horizon?.

It started with viruses.  People no longer wanted to open newsletters attached to email because of viruses.  So we learned to send our e-newsletters as text or html right inside the e-mail.

The second blow was spam.  With huge amounts of spam clogging people?s e-mail inboxes, our e-newsletters got lost or deleted.  Attempts to legislate this problem out of existence failed.

The next hit was spam filters.  A great tool to help people stop in-box clutter, but many spam filters indiscriminately ate e-newsletters that the user wanted to receive and subscribed to along with the actual spam.

Now with the patient on the critical list, comes the possible death blow.

Recent Windows security updates override the way people view email and strip out graphics from html e-mail viewed in Outlook and Outlook Express.  So now your e-newsletter consists of some text with a series of very ugly boxes with red ?X?s? in them.

They do put a notice bar at the top of your message saying they have restricted loading of pictures and the user can click on the bar to see the pictures.  The user can also change this setting to allow html in e-mails. 

But, in a world where many people still have MSN as their start page in Internet Explorer because they don?t know how to change their IE settings, how many people will click on the bar or change their e-mail settings, especially when the message says that the pictures are not loaded for their privacy protection?

So what are the answers?  How do we keep our wonderful relationships with our subscribers and ensure that they are receiving the information they desire?

Let?s evaluate the options:

1. Convert to text.

This option seems to be a no-brainer.  Just use text instead of pictures.  And my favorite newsletter system, Constant Contact even lets you send your newsletter as text and lets subscribers choose a text option.

The benefits?

1. No graphics to lose.  Since your e-newsletter is formatted for text, it looks just like you sent it.

The downsides?

a.      You lose the impact that graphics can provide.  This is especially important for marketers of products since they can?t show pictures of the products.

b.      It has been shown that graphic e-mails convert people from readers to buyer at a higher rate than text.

c.      It doesn?t solve spam problem.  Your text e-newsletter is still lost in the in-box and in danger of the spam filter ?sharks.?

2. Convert to a blog.

The increased popularity of blogs gives us another option. 

"Blog" is short for "weblog."  Essentially it is publishing for the people.  People who have a blog can easily post comments, stories and pictures to a web site (either their own or on a blog community) without learning html. 

We can post our articles and information in a blog format so that people can view them on the web.  This way we get to present our text AND graphics in the way we want.

The benefits?

1. Blogs are very popular
2. Because they are seen as informational, many search engines rank blogs higher than standard sites.
3. You can market your blog through a number of online blog directories.

The downside?

a.      People have to remember to visit your blog.  E-mail reached their in-box, a place they would check nearly every day.

3. Convert to an RSS feed.

Early adopters are starting to receive their news through RSS (Rich Site Summary) using free RSS readers like Pluck.

RSS is a way of syndicating your content (including your blog postings) so that it can be carried on other sites or read in free RSS readers.  Many people prefer to receive their articles in this way because they get to choose what to receive, reduce e-mail inbox clutter, and there is no spam or advertisements.

RSS readers can be downloaded for free in many places.   After downloading Pluck, or any other RSS reader you can see my own article/newsletter feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/E-businessTutor. 

The benefits?

a.      Other web sites can include your news feed right in their site and it will automatically update.

b.      Your readers don?t have to worry about spam.

c.      Your news doesn?t get lost in their e-mail inbox.

d.      RSS feeds also give you a way to market your articles on a wide range of sites without having to submit each article individually.  By submitting to major Blog/RSS feed directories, you may be able to substantially increase your audience.

e.      Many of the early adopters using RSS are higher income, well connected professionals ? a good target market.

The downside?

1. The general populace has not yet embraced receiving information this way, so RSS is only used by early adopters.
2. Your information doesn?t get directly in their e-mail inbox, a place most people open every day.  If people get busy, they may get behind in reading their news feeds in RSS.

So what?s the answer?

This will depend on your target audience.  If your audience is technically savvy, RSS should work well for you and you may be able to drop your e-mail newsletter.

If your audience isn?t using RSS yet, you will need to continue sending out an e-newsletter.  Adding a blog is a great way of attracting additional people without worrying whether they have an RSS reader.

What have I done?

My target audience includes both the technically savvy and neophyte computer users.  So I have retained my e-newsletter, continued to publish my blog AND published my articles in RSS as well.  This way I let the customer choose the best method.

If any of my readers would like help with publishing through blogs, RSS and e-newsletters, I would be happy to help.

Garland Coulson, ?The E-Business Tutor? is an acclaimed speaker, author and coach in the field of Internet marketing for small business and home business. For more information, visit The E-Business Tutor web site at www.ebusinesstutor.com or call toll-free in North America at 1-866-413-0951.

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Last Updated Wednesday, December 22 2004 @ 06:27 PM CST