Check Your Server!Written by Dale Sexton
Do you use your own virtual server to send out your magazine? I do. Be warned, I have discovered bad things that can happen when you don't check your server before you send to your list.Last week, I was getting ready to send out to my subscribers. Earlier in day, owner of server warned me that it would be down for upgrades. I worked on newsletter waiting for server to come back up. When it did I started testing my newsletter, sending it out to myself (or so I thought). The software I use lets me add or change list before I send out my email. As far ad I knew, I added only myself to that list. I tested several times working on different aspects of newsletter, trying to make sure links worked, color was right, images worked, and plain text looked good. I even amused myself sending 'test' mails from R.M.(rim) Ryder with address of .The newsletter was being sent to my email address, so as far as I was concerned, everything was working perfectly. I put finishing touches on newsletter and sent it to myself again when I got an email that made me pale. "UNSUBSCRIBE!!!! You have sent me 6 emails in last 10 minutes! I have Unsubcribed! Stop sending NOW!"
| | Give Your Subscribers A SteakWritten by Ernie West
Your newsletter should give your readers something of substance and value in each issue. That should be your prime goal. And yet, I see too many ezines giving their subsribers bologna. (Or worse, spam!) Don't fill your newsletter with ads and nothing else. Or hype. Or poor quality material. Your readers originally subscribed in order to gain some benefit from what you have to say. Give it to them! Don't hold back. Give them a prime rib steak in each issue that you poured your heart and soul into preparing. The rewards might not happen right away, but they will. It takes time. Many newsletter authors give up because they want instant results. Stick with it! The health of your subscriber base will decline if you continue to give them bologna. If you are a vegetarian, substitute your favorite dish wherever I mention meat! And if you are trying to succeed online without publishing a newsletter, you are spinning your wheels. Your faithful readers, who benefit from each valuable issue that you give them, are many times more likely to make a purchase from you or from a product you recommend than from a one-time visitor. And one-time visitors who DO make a purchase are gone forever because you do not have their contact information to market to them on an ongoing basis. Look at Microsoft. They not only are successful at selling their product to first-time customers, but they keep their existing ones
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