I recently did a survey of publishers with less than 200 subs, and ones with 10,000 plus. They all said same thing. I don't know how many people read my publication.

They did however offer ideas on how to get a handle on how many are really reading what you put out on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Some try offering free reports, or information, that always brings out quiet ones.

One publisher offered this explanation. "I sent out my latest ezine, and minutes later I had 12 new leads that I was certain had to come from ezine readers because of offer I was making". That only told him that 12 people read his offer. But how many readers don't respond to these types of offers, and how do you know THEY are reading newsletter?

The bottom line to this whole thing is that no one really and truly knows how many people read ezines and newsletters of world. I thought that Terri Seymour hit nail on head with this quote "I do not know of a way to track actual reading of an ezine, but I would love to find one".

I say all of publishers of world should just keep banging away on their keyboards and put out best damn publication they can. When you have no more subscribers, then scrap whole ezine newsletter idea.

This could be a very hard thing for publishers to do however, because how will they know if they have lost all of their subscribers, when nobody knows how many subscribers read their newsletters in first place.

Jim Schulte Editor I.M.J. Newsletter http://www.imjpads.com/mycustompage0013.htm

Creator I.M.J. Mouse Pads http://www.imjpads.com

There is always opportunity in a crisis situation. I am eternal optimist so I always look for good when bad things happen. Sort of like, all clouds have a silver lining kind of outlook.

Here is a Chicken Little joke about how a second grader saw an opportunity in that potential sky falling incident.

A teacher was telling her students story of Chicken Little. She asked Mary what she thought Farmer Brown said when Chicken Little knocked on his door and told him sky was falling. Little Mary thought for a moment and then replied..........I think Farmer Brown said....Holy shit, a talking chicken!

You see, Mary thought for a moment and concentrated on talking chicken aspect of that whole disaster, and could have cared less whether or not sky was falling.

As publishers, that's what we should be doing. Looking for, and finding out about new laws and what's good for our subs. They are counting on us to give them honest and accurate information.

We cannot ask them to re-subscribe in next 48 hours, or they will be deleted from our sub base, because of new laws. When we do that, we are sending a message to them that we were not aware of things we should have been. I myself did not re-subscribe to two newsletters because of that reason.

We have to do our homework and be on top of situations before they happen. When I saw trend of re-subscribing starting to develop, I started asking questions of people I trust, and did my own research.

I did not send my subs a re-subscribe email, because I knew I was handling new subs correctly. That's not being an in -your-face know it all, that's honest truth.

When we react hastily to any given situation we give up some of our credibility as a professional. We don't want to do that, nor do we want to create undo panic in subscribers we all work so hard to gain.

So, to everyone that publishes an ezine or newsletter, including myself. I say, let's all remember this....... Hey Chicken Little, The Sky Ain't Fall'in.

************************************************************** Authors note: If any publishers would like information on where to go to view new s*am laws, (I have some great links from Michelle at SDT AdVantage) or a copy of welcome letter I send to new subs, or other things related to protecting your newsletter. Please feel free to contact me at mailto:jcs795@adelphia.net. I will be more then happy to give you all of info I have gathered in last week.