Newsletters - PDF is dead?

Is this a paid product or a free one?

The printed newsletter was free, a variation on the four day cash machine. The online membership will be £20 per month.

I'm still trying to decipher the question.

From what I understand, you're thinking about 1) using Wordpress member site to deliver content as drip-fed blog posts or 2) send PDF's via autoresponder.

Once I know...I'll post my thoughts on both.

Hey Blue, you've got it right.

I think they might see more value for their buck if you offer them the membership website option. As long as the information is good they aren't going to have a problem though.

Why not offer both? It would be simple to just reposition your website content into PDFs.

I would never deliver my content via Autoresponder or attached PDFs in an autoresponder. It's too narrowing. I would place it (lock and key) inside a members area. Here's why:

1. Once they login...actually...everytime they login you can pitch an OTO, upsell or downsell. 'Nuff said. This should end the debate right here...but I'm a sucker for overdelivering.
2. You can customize the "pitches" on your website. Let me explain. If I send someone to a member site to get a lesson, I can customize and test the banners that appear, the testimonials...the formatting...everything. I can even track and split test variations on the fly. This means extra revenue.
3. Content is semi-secure. More difficult to share. Especially if it's drip-fed. Thieves are lazy and hate compiling stuff.

Here's what I would do:

Chop up the content into weekly member lessons. Drip feed the content over time using your CMS. Setup the autoresponder to email them everytime a weekly lesson is available. In the AR emails advise them to "login" to get the lesson. They visit the lesson and see a banner for a related service or an OTO. They read and learn and logout...then...another OTO if you want.

See where I'm going with this? You're sending members to a website that you control. That can't get flagged for spam. No "deliverability problems". You can test, tweak and add viral elements to promote more member signups. The website becomes it's own promotional beast.

I hope this answers your question.

And read the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript to really get a feel for what I'm talking about. But don't buy the BFM script...just read it for the knowledge. There are easier CMS's than BFM now that can do the same thing.

I've got the BFM, but not read it for ages. I actually won't be using an autoresponder for this at all, regardless of which way I go. Thanks for all the advice though blue - food for thought.

The reason I won't be using an autoresponder is I just sent out a free report to this niche and got this delightful response:

> Thank you for the free report. Please ensure that this IS your final email to me. Please
> now remove me from your database. Your late delivery of said report has guaranteed that
> I shall not order any products from you


I had nothing for sale... Just an autodelivered free report on opt in...

I do not think newsletter PDF's are dead... I do a Newsletter Style PDF's and post them on scribd.com and I get some nice hits to them on scribd.com and nice traffic to my site...

James

Hey James,

My concern is that my niche is completely non technical, and in some ways a membership area is easier than delivering PDFs every month. Largely because I don't trust email deliverability...

I think it does depend to how ATTENTIVE you are in delivering support to your email lists. More marketers have been losing subscribers because they lack support in delivering information in a regular basis. Thus, when stressing on this line, "Your late delivery of said report has guaranteed that I shall not order any products from you" it seems it's really one of the most common causes.

Tyrone - it's delivered by autoresponder after they sign up - this isn't really something I have any sort of control over?

Also, looking at the time elapsed from signup to this email... less than 30 minutes.

I can understand that might not have been clear - but I really doubt speed of delivery is any sort of factor in unsubscribers and complaints - simply because auto responders are automated. Maybe if you set your auto responder to initiate first contact after a week or something?