You Can't Be Serious?

You bet I am. I'm also being realistic. As stated, people have a life to live. "STAT News" has little to do with this fundamental task. If you believe your ezine is different in this regard, that subscribers cling to every word in every issue, you're dead wrong.

And There's More Bad News

Of those who do open my ezine, maybe half scan quickly to bottom, find nothing of interest, then trash it. Of rest, only a few will read from beginning to end. Some, but not many, may read an article, or part of one, before trashing it.

What A Dreary Picture

Maybe. But I don't see it this way. It's real. The way it is. People have lives to live. And my ezine doesn't matter much in making that happen.

Face it. People don't read all of a newspaper they buy. Books are often laid aside only half finished. And TV is often shut down in middle of a worthwhile program, when something that matters more demands attention. Do you really think your ezine is exempt from such decisions? Get real.

Putting It Into Perspective.

I'm content that those who delete "STAT News" without opening it, at least have positive thoughts about me or my site. At least sufficiently positive they choose to remain subscribers. They'll turn back to reading newsletter as time permits, provided they need information in it. And they'll return to my site if they find they need products and services available.

The same holds for those who quickly scan for something of interest. Or pause to read part of an article. They'll come back to reading when they need to. Meanwhile, I've demonstrated good free information is available. And again, reminded them of products and services I offer.

Personally, I'm delighted to continue to be invited by my subscribers to visit each week. And I'm excited when they find something helpful to them. Further I look forward to a time when I can help more specifically, with a product or service.

It has never occurred to me to ask for more. If you do so, your expectations are unrealistically high.

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.