2. Tips: they are usually small pieces of information about size of a paragraph. Examples: tips on using a product, tips on doing your taxes.

3. Top Lists: they are a group of tips listed in order, usually numbered from first to last. Examples: top 7 ways to get to top of search engines, top 10 ways to market your product.

4. News Articles: they can include news about your industry or company information. Examples: joint ventures, new product releases, special events, overseas activity

5. Interview Articles: they could include interviews from customers, employees and experts. Examples: interview an employee that won an award, an expert related to your industry, a satisfied customer, people profiles.

Polls Are Fun

The key to obtaining great results from a poll is a question everybody has an opinion about, one they want to share. I goofed in this regard with a poll running on my site. I asked visitors their opinion about using HTML in business email. Response has been so low, it's clear not many are concerned about it.

Still, even these limited results tell me something of my visitors. That few are interested in this question is part of what I learned. While this may seem a trivial point, it does apply. I will be hesitant to say more on this subject, for I want to produce content readers and visitors want.

If you are interested in this notion, check out The scrip I'm using is free. And even though handling scripts is tough for me, I found it easy to install.

Surveys Can Produce Powerful Results

The only surveys I've tried on Web have been offered via "STAT News." It's difficult to get a significant response in this format. For one thing, we're all quite busy and it takes time to figure answers to questions. Additionally survey taker must reply via email; many are hesitant to do so for fear of their address being misused.

One way to obtain anonymous response is to put a survey up on your site. SurveyMonkey.Com makes this easy to do. While I haven't tried it yet, I will. Again, more interesting topic, more input you'll get. And quality is likely to be correspondingly better.

About Those Responding

An honest poll or survey seeks a random sample, a small part of whole. It's tough to obtain. And few get it right. With a survey or poll in your newsletter or on your site, sample you get will *not* be random. Why?

Those responding may be more aggressive types, not representative of whole. Or you may have phrased your questions in such a way as to turn off readers and visitors of one sort or another. Composing questions which all or even most will understand as you meant them, is a real challenge.

Evaluating Results

If you get a relatively large response, results can be taken more seriously. This is not usual case, however. The mode is to get a few responses, but not nearly enough to consider results representative of whole.

I personally am willing to extrapolate and say that any one response represents that of nine others, had they taken time to participate. But I won't go further. Thus given say 4000 subscribers and a response of 100 to a survey, you may be able to draw some reasonable conclusions about 1000 subscribers, but nothing much about other 3000.

How To Screw Up Results

If you require an email address, you will turn off those unwilling to give one. Input will come only from those who will, and those who give a phony address. Either way, any randomness in sample is gone. And results are likely to be meaningless.

Offering a freebie will almost always kick back on you. At least some will participate just to get freebie. Some will even try to twist results, just for fun of it. The greater perceived value of freebie, muddier results are likely to be.

Other Ways To Gather Input