An Up Close And Personal Experience

My ISP installed a filtering package along about April of this year. I was "automatically" enrolled. This meant I got to visit site and look at blocked mail. Much more time consuming than doing so in my mailing program. Curious, however, I let it run for a time.

Surprise! Over a 9 day period, I found almost 30 messages from acquaintances, friends, peers, visitors, and subscribers blocked. Beyond notifying them that it happened, I was completely unable to say why. My hunch was, and remains, inadequate computing routines. Or inadequate programmers creating them.

When I'd had enough, I turned filters off. Guess I should be thankful I had that option. Shoot, some folks that mean a lot to me, only write a couple times a year. And I sure don't want to miss these messages.

Another List

I maintain a mailing list of people to whom I send my articles each week. In one mailing, about half a dozen were sent back to me from AOL. Reason: Invalid DNS pointers. Gee. I wonder how visitors are reaching my site.

As mentioned, most of mail filtered out is simply trashed. So there's no way to get a handle on this problem. I'd willingly delete email addresses, if they were returned to me. But if these packages wanted to play fair, they'd bounce to my mail list server. But being fair is not their objective.

Alternatives

Many have decided to send only a brief message that points to a URL for an HTML version of ezine. This won't work for all subscribers. Many don't want to move from handling email to jump onto Web. Page views will demonstrate wether or not this is so for you.

Another plan is to refer to an autoresponder for a copy of current issue. I don't see how this helps, for content mailed will have to get through same filter your newsletter would have faced directly.

Further, both ideas fail when filtering catches something in headers it doesn't like. As with AOL claiming my DNS pointers were flawed. Or a blacklisted IP address. How to beat such happenings is totally beyond me.

A Possible Maybe

I know many don't like attachments, but here's a thought. Send a message which has no content. Just identify newsletter in subject field by name. (It has been suggested we use our full name in From field, but I've been doing this routinely.)

Let message contain only URL to your HTML version. And include a .TXT version as an attachment. A click will load it to an editor on most systems. Again, though, if "obscene" content is in header, message won't go through.

My Plan

I see no better alternative than to continue to grow my list and mail to it. I'll simply have to factor in a number for those arbitrarily trashed. If those into this kind of thing come up with a number, my hunch is that it will be about 25%.

When I adjust my email and ad response by 25%, numbers agree with those in pervious years. Not fact, of course. But suggestive.

Whatever this number proves to be, I'll live with it. And seek to be content with percentage delivered.

Placement is also important. For best response and more subscribers, place your subscribe box on top half of your homepage. Remember old adage; "Make it easy for your customer to buy."

Four. Promote your eMag through your signature. Create a promotional signature in three to six lines, and add it to end of each email you send out. Here, you would list your book title, benefits of your service, your FREE eMag title, followed by your email or web site address.

Five. Promote your eMag in newsgroups, discussion lists and forums. Target those related to your business or book category. For instance, Sandra Schrift of Speakers University aims her newsletter primarily at emerging and professional speakers. Her secondary audience is coaches. Anne Wayman, San Diego Web designer and editor, and author of Powerfully Recovered, belongs to several related newsgroups.

Six. Offer your subscribers a free GIFT SUBSCRIPTION to send to their friends. You can use another autoresponder to send gift, plus whom it's from, and a little blurb about what they will be receiving. Always include a way for subscribers to unsubscribe.

Seven. Send out press releases via email about your eMag. Press releases by email are different from print ones. They must be short! They must be newsworthy! We at Skills Unlimited Publishing send out over 150 different print releases a year, and are just beginning great adventure online. You may not be able to include a story, but you can use a short analogy, and put your benefit in headline. Always be sure to make your message clear.