Newsletters provide you with an outlet to a specific group of people, who subscribe and read your publication because they want to gain specific information. It could be Business, Humor or Travel, but nevertheless they are reading your words for a reason. Your job is to supply your readers with information they are looking for. This my friend is sometimes a painstaking job, with little or no pay and long hours to boot!

This is not a venture to be entered into lightly. Newsletters are not overnight successes. It sometimes takes years to build a respectable subscriber base. Cash flow is almost non-existent at beginning and for much of time after that. Your newsletter is an investment in relationships, or better-called "networking". You must earn, gain and keep a certain amount of trust and loyalty from your readers.

Mistake: If you think that you own your newsletter, I here to tell you that you are wrong. Running a newsletter is much like being in a political office. You would not be there if you did not serve your constituents to their satisfaction. They will directly or indirectly dictate to you your requirements in serving them. If you fail so does your newsletter.

Hint: Live up to responsibility you have taken on. When your readers bestow that trust in you, there is no better way to condemn your newsletter than to violate that trust.

Your job is not necessarily to be liked, but to keep your content up to standards that your subscribers have come to expect from you. Keep your information content high and your advertising and "noise" levels low. The subject of your newsletter will of course dictate personality of your newsletter.

Here's a handy checklist I use to make sure each of my issues is in great shape BEFORE I send it out. Please be my guest and use it for yourself!

1. Are all lines 65 characters or less?

More than that and your missive may come through looking messy to many subscribers. End each line with a hard return by pressing "enter" key.

2. Have you made sure there's no auto-formatting, such as bolding, italics, or underlining?

These features don't translate well in e-mail and can come out looking mighty strange on other end. Instead, emphasize words or phrases with *asterisks,* "quotation marks," or ALL CAPS ... sparingly. While words in all-caps make an impact when used occasionally, they're extremely hard to read and can come across as "screaming" to your readers -- not a good thing.

3. Are all sections neatly separated?

Use underscores (_____), asterisks (******), another nifty symbol ($$$$$, %%%%, @@@@), or a combination thereof (<<==>>) to help define each area and help your readers skim your issue more easily.

4. Do all Web links include "http://" before them?

Some e-mail programs won't automatically hyperlink a URL in your text without this prefix. So don't take a chance -- make it easy for your readers to click and link, especially to YOUR site!

5. Do all e-mail links include "mailto:" before them?

Same idea here: Some e-mail programs won't automatically hyperlink an e-mail address in your text without it. Be sure to leave no space between colon and first character of address.

6. Is your masthead at very top?