* Thoroughly Check Spelling And Grammar

Even with electronic spell checkers, this is still a killer. Be especially careful with words that sound alike but have different meanings (homophones). Should that be "there" or "their"? "Your" or "you're"?

Another trouble spot is apostrophe ('). An apostrophe should be used to indicate possession (John's car), dropped letters (don't) and characters/words mentioned as themselves (ID's). And remember, "it's" means "it is."

* Don't Write In Long, Dense Paragraphs

Long, unbroken runs of text are visually unappealing, and act as a subconscious block to reading (looks like too much hard work). People are in a hurry, so information needs to be presented in a way they can scan for points of interest.

* Don't Ramble Or Use Wordy Sentences

Providing great information is not enough. People read to learn, but also seek excitement. Instant gratification. They lack time to be patient, so stick to point.

When you've finished writing, start deleting. Cut unnecessary sentences. Look for superfluous 'filler' words and repetitions. Delete them. Add more punch and drive by killing adjectives.

* Don't Employ Gratuitous Self Promotion

There's no greater turn-off than an article that proclaims author or their product wonderful. People want to discover your qualities for themselves. Your article is medium.

If you want to sell yourself; display your knowledge, innovative thinking, character. To promote a product, talk about a common problem or need, educate, perhaps tell a story. Provide interesting information. Only mention product subtly, or not at all, leaving it for your by-line.

* Don't Over-indulge On Your Resource Box

By Stephen Bucaro

If you publish an e-newsletter or e-zine, you know that administering your subscriber list is a big chore. To maintain list, you may be using an email program on your computer or a CGI program on your server. One advantage to maintaining list yourself is that you know it is not being shared by anyone else.

However, there are four good reasons why you should host your list on a list-server.

1. People can subscribe or unsubscribe from your list automatically with absolutely no work by you.

2. People often subscribe with an email alias or forwarded email account. You send your newsletter to one address, then receive a delivery failure or unsubscribe from an address not on your list. You can’t delete it from your list.

3. People subscribe to list and then forget that they subscribed. They accuse you of spamming. This can’t be avoided entirely, but if your list is hosted on a list-server, you can respond by saying “all subscribes and unsubscribes are handled automatically by list server, you have no control of it.”

4. If you plan to sell advertising in your newsletter, most advertisers and advertisement networks will require you to verify your subscriber count. If you maintain list yourself, only way you can do that is to share your list with them. You don’t want to do that.

If your list is hosted on a list-server, number of subscribers is there for all to see, provided by an independent third party.

Choosing a List-server

Many list-servers disappeared in ".com" bust. The best one, listbot, was bought by Microsoft. It is now called bCentral and costs $30.00 per month. Being a list owner, it is your responsibility to keep your list private. With well publicized ethical problems at Microsoft, I would not put my subscriber list in their hands.

Most of lists ended up on Yahoo. They are in domain http://groups.yahoo.com. I find yahoo groups very complicated to configure. I also worry about Yahoo’s privacy policy. Yahoo Group Help states, “If you use Groups, it is very likely that other users will be able to see your email address.”