Question; Newsletter Programs

[Lionheart]

Hey all,

I have had people request newsletters from my website.

I am 'pondering' doing this, having a clickable 'signup' form for people that want to be on the newsletter.

Does anyone here do newsletters? Is there anything someone new to them should know?


Many thanks,


Bill

[Nick C]

Bill I do get a couple of Newsletters from Aerosoft and Simviation. I think the SimV comes out once a week, or once a fortnight and the Aerosoft once a month.

But, make sure you have an unsubscribe option and make sure it works. I had to threaten a major FS publisher last month (not with violence), after I tried many, many attempts over several weeks and via various sources to stop receiving their newsletter. They would send them sometimes several times in a single week, all advertising new products. Once I pointed out the trading body I was about to send their details too, I was amazingly removed from their list almost straight away.

I think as a single developer you could get away with a monthly news letter, detailing what you are working on and perhaps a clutch of small images showing progress. Plus of course you could then always send out smaller notifications when patches are available. The latter however already come from shops such as Simviation if you've subscribed to receive product update notifications.

All in all I think it's a great idea to keep people updated, but just make sure the back door works. :engel016:

[fswidow]

G'Day,
If you don't have an overly large database of potential newsletter readers you could do it manually.

Have an email link on your page such as subscribe@xyz.com and they click on that, send an email to you and you save the email address to your address book. Or, copy & paste the email address to excel (which workes better if you want to send attachments in the emails).

At the time of newsletter you use your address list in excel and mail merge (has limitations) or
use Outlook using a distribution list (you need an email list though to import from, we use excel, this has more options and can send attacments).

To unsubscribe have an unsubscribe@xyz.com listed and remove the addresses as they email you.

If you want more of an automated system there are website plugins that can be coded into a webpage. I know our site hosts a newsletter function, though I prefer to use the outlook distribution list (as used for a client).

Good luck.
:wavey:

[harleyman]

I think its a great idea Bill....

But you are pretty much a one man show already !

But, as you are a one man show , possiably you can pull your info for it from your blogs, and submit some pics with it as Nick C mentioned..

A monthly or bi-mothly seems good to me..

[Wozza]

Hi Bil
I manage a couple of local School web sites which do newsletters.
Because they have no real bandwidth limits we just offer them as PDF files from a download page,which is set up with a simple term and date reference

The only issue with subscriptions via email is you may upset your ISP's spam
alarms/filter so check with them before hand.

For doing the newsletter we found it easier to use one of the pdf file generators that act as a printer.You make the news letter in word,publisher or whatever app suits then print it via the pdf converter ..easy as
cheers
Wozza

[fswidow]

My last post just disappeared, LOL, so here is a revised version:

You can set up an email link on your website: subscribe @xyz.com and unsubscribe@xyz.com from there you can get their email addresses and save them to your outlook contact list OR copy & paste to an excel spreadsheet.

In Outlook set up distribution lists (check with your ISP for your limits, ours is 75 users per send) and send using that way, you can send with HTML formatting and attachments.

Alternatively you can send using your excel address book as mail merge.

Otherwise, you can install a newsletter code into your website and do it through there, or find someone who can code a PHP script for you.

The other (last possibly) resort is to look at something like these sites:
www.constantcontact.com
http://www.ezymsg.com/
http://www.enewslettersonline.com/

Wozza had a great idea using a PDF program and just having it on your website. Our sons school uses that method and I check there Wednesday mornings for the updates.

I do work on a medium size database for a client for over 600 addresses and recently 270 email recipients and once the excel sheet is setup and the distribution method understood it takes us less that 5 mins to send out all newsletters.

Good luck.
:wavey:

[falcon409]

Bill,
Considering you already have a great looking Blog going I'm not sure why you would need a newsletter, just let the blog perform that function. Use the e-mail notification to alert those who signed up to check your blog for the latest updates. No reason to add more to you're already busy development schedule.

[spotlope]

If you decide a newsletter is for you Bill, have a look at Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com). My wife uses them for her newsletter mailing, and they've got some terrific features. Very affordable too.

[Francois]

You will have seen the simMarket Newletters of course (your products are featured in it with every new release) ..... *chuckle*.

I write them (MAKE them, actually, since they're graphic).

For a single dev you'll need another format...... personally I prefer my blog(s) and an occasional 'nudge' to people to read them.

You could make a subscription system that links to your blog. I was planning on it but haven't had time yet (what else is new.... ).

[falcon409]

. . . . .For a single dev you'll need another format...... personally I prefer my blog(s) and an occasional 'nudge' to people to read them.
You could make a subscription system that links to your blog. I was planning on it but haven't had time yet (what else is new.... ).
Dang, why didn't I think of that, lol. . . oh wait, I did. . . .two posts up^

[Lionheart]

Thanks guys for the input and idea's. Very much appreciated.

I know how good newsletters can be and telling people first hand whats going on with their product (future updates and releases) is a cool thing as they wont have to email in to find out the details, etc.

I'll check out Constant Contact and check with my service concerning sending out news letters.



Bill
LHC

[Francois]

Dang, why didn't I think of that, lol. . . oh wait, I did. . . .two posts up^


Heheh, sorry, I don't have time to read everything usually..... mea culpa.

[falcon409]

No problem Francois, simply a case of "Great minds. . .and so on", lol. Still a good idea we came up with I think.