6. 80% HELPFUL CONTENT, 20% PROMOTION

No one wants to receive and read a newsletter filled only with product promotions -- and they won't.

We teach Give to Get Marketing philosophy -- Give your prospects and customers what they want, and you'll get what you want.

Fill your newsletter with helpful information that your prospects and customers would actually want to read, maybe even look forward to receiving

Of course, you also want to include information about your products and services, so be sure to provide one or two offers in each issue of your newsletter.

80% content, 20% promotion is a good mix.

7. DELIVER IT ON A REGULAR SCHEDULE

You can deliver your newsletter once a month, twice a month, or once a week.

The more frequently you can send out your newsletter to your prospect/customer list, more effective it will be. You'll have to decide how often you want to commit to this marketing effort. The important thing is to be consistent.

8. ASK YOUR READERS FOR FEEDBACK

Your newsletter should be written for your subscribers to address their interests -- not yours.

To determine if you're delivering what your subscribers want, ask them. Let them know that you want their feedback and suggestions on how you can improve your newsletter to make it a more valuable resource for them.

9. DIRECT YOUR READERS BACK TO YOUR WEB SITE

The point of all your effort of creating and sending out your newsletter, is to follow up with your prospects and customers to gain their trust and their business. Give to Get.

If your product or service information is on your Web site, then you must direct your subscribers to your Web site in each issue.

You can do that by directing them to an article on your Web site that they may find appealing, or you can guide them directly to your product information pages.

The last thing you want to do, is just send out a newsletter filled with terrific content, and then fail to get kind of action you need to grow your business.

Joe Gracia - Give to Get Marketing http://www.givetogetmarketing.com

But this email intrigue continues. A new message just came in addressed to "Undisclosed Recipients." The subject says "Hello, how have you been?33, " and body asks whether Undisclosed Recipient is drowning in Credit Card Debt. Hmmm! I wonder where I should forward this. The Roundup won't need it, what with all this E-Z money soon to be coming in, so maybe I'll send it to that frisky autoresponder. Perhaps when it gets rid of its existing credit card debt, it can get a charge card and help Heather get her education. I'm sure it'll be only two or three seconds before I receive another email offering sure-fire guarantees around getting a credit card. That'll come in handy for Heather and Auto.

But wait! This is last straw! Now my web site is sabotaging me behind my back. Now as far as I know, and I do know because I designed site, it contains a number of resources for business people and entrepreneurs. But what's this? I now have an email from a sender "who has just visited my site and thinks I would be interested in hearing more about an opportunity involving horses." Horses? Is my web site self-generating equine-related content at night when I sleep? Does it have a dual-personality? This opens up possibilities for a catchy new logo: "Business by day. At night -- oats and hay!"

Such is allure of my technology's secret life. But this does answer one question for me. Now I realize that spammers are actually targeting ezines, autoresponders, and web sites. It makes a lot of sense. After all, no actual person would ever fall for this stuff.