Newsletters that Flop- Why most Newsletters fail their readers and owners alike! By Michael Green


by Lifewareonline - Date: 2007-11-07 - Word Count: 538 Share This!

Suddenly there are hundreds-of-thousands of newsletter editors
out there, publishing a ton of exciting new Titles each month.

Maybe you're editor-in-chief of one of these new publications :)

The newsletter explosion has come about because of a
combination of two main factors:

1. Easy-to-use DTP software and short-run Digital Print has meant that printed newsletters are now viable even for small or tiny audiences.

2. Most significantly, the advent of the EZine (Electronic
MagaZINE sent by email) has brought the cost of producing a
newsletter down to virtually ZERO.


SO HOW ARE THESE NEW NEWSLETTERS PERFORMING?
The answer is disappointingly badly!

You see most newsletter editors know a great deal about their
specialist subject and are probably able to write fluently
about fishing, DIY, computers, their Church group or whatever
subject their newsletter directly covers.

But does this make their newsletter a good read?

The answer is definitely - NO.


SUCCESSFUL NEWSLETTERS REQUIRE SOME EXTERNAL CONTENT
The trouble with most newsletters is that they "overkill" on
such a narrow subject range, that even the most dedicated
reader will eventually switch-off.

On the other hand, what all successful newsletters have in
common is a degree of varied content. Now this
"off-the-main-subject" content can be related to the actual
newsletter purpose, but it doesn't necessarily have to be.

Think about this....

A TV Channel entirely devoted to covering one subject
(Bloomberg covers just financial news for example) would
still have a spot for the weather.

The lesson is clear you need to add good external interest
and content to your newsletter to keep your readership truly
enthralled.


BUT WHAT ADDITIONAL CONTENT SHOULD YOU ADD?
There are numerous articles or "fillers" that you could add
to your newsletter. But here are some tried and tested
examples that will always energize your publication.

- Add Something Light-Hearted. Make your readers smile.

People won't forget that they were entertained by something
they read in your publication and it will increase the
chances of them continuing to subscribe in the future.

- Top 10 Lists. Or Top 20, 30, 40....
Everyone loves a countdown list of the hottest, longest,
tallest, fastest, and so on. This will always make for a
good and interesting space filler.

- Keep It Personal. Humans are interested in other humans.
With the big drive towards everything in life coming from
faceless global corporate organizations, you can reawaken
genuine interest by ensuring that your readership knows a
thing or two about you personally as the editor.
Remember: Humans love human interest stories. Period!

- Votes and Polls. Let the people speak.
Everyone loves to know what everybody else thinks. Help
them discover by publishing the results of opinion polls
or votes into all manner of subjects. A guaranteed good
read for your subscribers.


YOUR GOAL SHOULD BE TO DRAW IN NEW READERS
By publishing a newsletter with a more balanced mix of
articles you'll achieve two important aims:

First, you'll better entertain your existing readers.
They'll look forward to publication date and be glued to
your newsletter for the future.

Second, you'll encourage new subscribers by making your
subject more accessible to a wider audience. In fact,
the more specialist your subject, the more this is true.
If your newsletter focuses 100% on your primary subject
and covers nothing else, then you are unlikely to help
draw new people into your fold.

Good luck,
Michael Green

© How To Corporation. All rights reserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The author Michael Green has developed a TOOLKIT for
Newsletter Editors called "How To Write A Newsletter".
Included are hundreds of Copyright Free Articles, DTP
Templates a How-To eBook and lots more. A must for all
Newsletter Editors!
Check out ===> http://snipr.com/lifewarehtc1



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-


Related Tags: success, newsletters, michael green, how to ezines

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: