Newsletters: DO YOU MATTER TO YOUR SUBSCRIBERS?

DO YOU MATTER TO YOUR SUBSCRIBERS?

Written by Bob McElwain

Think back to repparttar

last really great novel or mystery yarn you read. Back to one that really impressed you. One that so grabbed your attention, you are looking forward to repparttar 124301

next book by repparttar 124302

same author. If you don't read much, think of a film that jolted you.

How Much Impact Can A Great Story Have?

While such experiences matter a great deal to those who enjoy stories, they don't matter much in repparttar 124303 longer scheme of things.

How often do you think of that terrific book or film? The characters in it? A happening reported within it?

For most, repparttar 124304 answer is, "Not often." And then only fleetingly. You may think of it briefly in relationship to something you encounter today. Something you read or hear. A thought or two may come to you while having your morning coffee. But it does not happen often. Once a week? Twice? Maybe only once a month?

Why? Because you have a life to live and are busy getting it done. That book or film, no matter how great, is but one part of it. And it has no meaning at all when faced with serious challenges, as when your job performance is in question.

What Impact Do You Have On Your Subscribers?

The short answer is, "Not much." Can you expect to have repparttar 124305 impact of a great novel or film on repparttar 124306 readers of your newsletter or website? Not likely.

If this is so, how often do you think your readers will think of you? Or your site? The answer here is easy: Not often, and only fleetingly.

So Why Bother Doing All That Work?

I get flyers from a True Value hardware store in town. I never look at them, but in a glance I remember Larry, repparttar 124307 owner, and Bill, his second in command, who have been so helpful to me over repparttar 124308 years, and stand ready to assist me again.

That's repparttar 124309 most you can hope from your newsletter. That folks will remember you and your site. And that you remain willing to help.

How Many Subscribers Read Your Newsletter?

Not nearly as many as some webmasters believe. Here's my read on this. There's no data I'm aware of to back me up. It's all just guesstimating. Based upon experience, that's so. But certainly not to be taken as fact.

Somthing over half your subscribers delete your newsletter in every mailing without even opening it.

"Are Spam Filters Crippling Ezines?"

Written by Bob McElwain

A whole bunch of ezines you send to your subscribers are being trashed. Filtering software has been spreading like wildfire from ISP to ISP. The decisions these programs make are beyond your control. The question is, "Are you out of business?" 1049 words; 6.2K Autoresponder: mailto:spamfilters@sitetipsandtricks.com URL:

For other articles mailto:morearts@sitetipsandtricks.com To be removed from this list, please just ask.

Thanks for listening!

Bob _______________________________

SPAM FILTERS ARE CRIPPLING EZINES By Bob McElwain

The growing use of software to filter incoming email to an ISP has added an unanswerable question: How many subscribers receive your ezine? For several years now, I've ignored subscriber list totals. The data is fuzzy when you look at numbers held, numbers not delivered, and so forth. I track only repparttar number of successful deliveries. However, this number is now much less meaningful.

Many (most?) ISPs have installed email filters to block spam and that other stuff I can't mention for fear of being blocked. If those filters bounced back to repparttar 124300 mailing service, repparttar 124301 addresses could be eliminated. Most are only trashed into repparttar 124302 big black hole of cyberspace. So there's no telling how many don't get through.

Some are bounced back to me personally. Unfortunately, no email address is provided, so I can't remove it from my list. I get a particular hoot out of this, when they've blocked my newsletter, calling it spam. I wonder what they're calling repparttar 124303 stuff they send to me.

Moral Irresponsibility In Action

Such software is a great example of irresponsibility in action. And repparttar 124304 lack of ethics and morality of which we see far too much. The 'gods' (programmers?) have decreed we're at repparttar 124305 mercy of computer algorithms which are primitive at best.

Analyzing repparttar 124306 meaning of a statement in English with a computer is still in its infancy, even though many powerful minds have been working at it for many years. Current software assumes related problems have been resolved, which is absurd.

Here's What Has Happened To Me

Beginning in November in 2001, I began to notice a fall off in responses to "STAT News." Both to ads, and comments emailed to me. I didn't pay much attention at first, for things like this fluctuate.

But I did check seriously in December. Definitely down in both areas. During January and February, I was pretty much out of things due to some heavy surgery. I didn't really get back up to speed until March. By then, repparttar 124307 downtrend in repparttar 124308 response rate over November last year was very noticeable. Certainly in excess of 15% by any measure.

Blocking Software To The Rescue?

By March, it was also clear spam blocking software was repparttar 124309 current rage. I believe this accounts for repparttar 124310 drop in response I have seen. Here's why.

Email response to repparttar 124311 newsletter dropped by repparttar 124312 same percentage as ad response. I track ad response accurately with software. So repparttar 124313 only place for error in making this statement is in misjudging email response. My answer to that was to check trash and count. The percentages were almost identical, although there's not enough data to be certain.

If only ad response had dropped off, I'd have decided I needed new ads. But when both dropped by repparttar 124314 same percentage, I had to charge it off to repparttar 124315 spam filters.

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