Because my own newsletter appeals to such a wide audience, I wanted to make sure that I was able to include testimonials from folks from every level of computing experience. I have found four best testimonials from my readers, and testimonials represent all levels of computer users from new computer user, to experienced computer enthusiast, to computing professional. Two of four testimonials address new user, each from a different perspective.

Depending on where I place an ad swap or announcement, I have enough range in my testimonials to provide incentive to anyone to subscribe to my ezine. I have even updated my subscribe page to include all four testimonials, so that anyone contemplating subscription, will discover at least three more reasons to subscribe.

My readers tell my story best, and vast majority of folks who will be reading my ad want to know what my readers think of my ezine, before they are willing to consider subscribing. If you would care to see my testimonials in action, please feel free to visit my subscribe page to see for yourself:

http:/ opica.com/lists/WindstormComputing

The point is, you need to try out different ads all time. In their order of importance, two ad structures that provided best returns from my announcement ads have always come from: 1. testimonials, and 2. ads that included tips or materials from my newsletter,

Announcement lists are a great source for testing out your ad structure, and discovering what works and what does not work. But, in time, you will notice that what has worked before, does not seem to have same pull that it used to. It is at this time that you need to start exploring other great avenues available for producing new subscriptions.

The other day I was cruising around, and I realized why, after a time, why we get such a slim return from our postings on announce lists... Between all 20 or so lists that I submit to, there are maybe 2000 subscribers between them, and my bet is, most of those subscribers are people like you and me looking for their own subscribers!

Listing recent article and forum posts in your newsletter is a tried and trusted method of pulling visitors back to your site. Simply list ten most recent articles and forum posts that have been added to your site. If you don’t have a forum on your site, then checkout VBulletin at http://www.vbulletin.com. In my newsletter, I show visitors ten most recent article posts in a list, like this:

-- Latest Articles @ devArticles.com -----------------

There have been a total of 13 new articles posted in last two weeks. They are shown below:

- Working With PHP Data Types http://www.devarticles.com/art/1/55 ...

If you have more than 1,000 newsletter subscribers, then you should be including sponsor ads with each issue sent out. I usually include two or three five lined (65 characters per line) ads in mine. The key to effectively marketing a brand or product in your newsletter is to choose those that interest your visitor. For example, if you run a shoe store, include a promo by a shoe company that links visitor to their site to download a discount coupon.

One last thing I always include in my newsletter is an option for visitors to unsubscribe. I make it clear at both top and bottom of my newsletter that they can unsubscribe at any time, like this:

This is bi-monthly newsletter from www.devarticles.com. If you would like to un-subscribe at any time, please send an email to mailto:newsletter@devarticles.com with "unsubscribe" in subject field.

---------------------------------- How often should you send your newsletter? ----------------------------------

It all depends on amount of new content published on your site and how many visitors your site has. Let’s say that Fred Black runs a site about tennis and receives 4,000 unique visitors per day. Fred also receives an average of fifty new newsletter subscribers each day. His site has been running for six months, so he has around nine thousand newsletter subscribers in his database.

Let’s also say that Fred is a busy man and coach’s tennis too. He coaches five people for one hour each every day, so he doesn’t really have that much time to add new content to his site, which he updates once every 4-5 days.

In this scenario, Fred should send out a monthly newsletter that summarizes new content posted on his site, any new messages in his forum, as well as a couple of paragraphs about latest tennis news, such as winner of recent Australian Open.

How frequently should you send your article then? Well, as a good rule of thumb, smaller your site, less frequently you should send out your newsletter. If you’re adding new articles to your site everyday and have a nicely populated subscriber list, then sending a newsletter every day is not uncommon. On other hand, if you only receive a couple of hundred hits per day, then you’d be better of sending your newsletter monthly, and spending more time on promoting your site.

---------------------------------- How should you "speak" to your visitors? ----------------------------------

Notice in title for this section that I have quoted word speak, to indicate that I am referring to it an abstract sense? When you send your newsletter out, most of your visitors will assume that it’s been compiled by a couple of guys that help run your site and that it’s only going out to get them back to your site, or for them to click on ads included in your newsletter.

You have to change their mind set so that they are receptive to your newsletter and its contents. Talk to your visitors like they’re your friends, and you’re just emailing them to catch up. As I mentioned earlier, I have another guy, Todd, who manages our newsletter. When Todd takes over second half of writing newsletter, here’s line he uses to introduce himself:

Hi guys, Todd here... how's everyone going?

See how he introduces himself and makes you feel like there’s actually a person composing newsletter? Too many newsletters are just marketing junk. If you want to create a healthy subscriber base, then make sure you address your visitors like Todd has, maybe even spare a paragraph or two to tell them about what’s been going on in your life?

Whichever way you do it, more comfortable your visitors feel when your “speaking” to them through your newsletter, more likely they are to trust you, re-visit your site, and click on your sponsor ads.

---------------------------------- In Closing ----------------------------------

Well, there you have it… my list of secrets that I use whenever I send out bi-monthly issue of my sites newsletter, devXPress. If you don’t send out a newsletter because you don’t have faintest clue of what to include in it, then hopefully this article has given you some creative inspiration to start one.

If you already send out a newsletter, does it include everything I have mentioned in this article? If not, maybe you’d like to take some tips from this article and use them to better-equip your current newsletter?

Either way, a newsletter is best way to communicate with your visitors and invite them back to your site by providing them with useful, informative, free content that is sent to them on a regular basis.

If you’d like to see a sample of my newsletter, then you can subscribe for free by sending an email to newsletter@devarticles.com with keyword "subscribe" in subject field.