Setting Up A Newsletter

[Jake Howard]

I am hoping that some warriors might be able to provide me with some advice on setting up a monthly newsletter.

Background
My father in-law has his own business, and he is looking to set up a new website, which will incorporate a monthly newsletter, that will be email to his clients and distribution list. He has asked me to look into it for him.

I've listed a couple of questions that I am hoping people may be able to assist with:

1. What is the best application or template to develop a newsletter, considering that it will be circulated by email. Obviously these days, a word doc or pdf just isnt going to cut it.

2. We want to also include the monthly newsletter in an archive on the website. Is there an automated process for this, or will it have to be done manually?

3. As well as the newsletter, we are considering setting up a blog. Are these two things totally seperate, or should we be looking at doing one or the other. In a sense, would a blog achieve the same thing as a newsletter?

4. What do we use as an opt in feature on the website. Do you just use a simple form asking for their email address, or is there a certain program you need.

Thanks for your help on this.

[SeanSupplee]

1. Best bet all around is AWeber will be free the first 30 days then $19 a month if your list is under 500 people

2. I am going to combine your 2 and 3 questions together here for this reason. With aweber you can set up a auto response message and then set up a series so say after 7 days on the list you want them to get your next email you can do so. If you want to do a monthly newsletter you simply make up the message in both HTML format and text format and broadcast it out to your list once a month. Now you can take this board cast email which is your monthly newsletter and just take it and place it into a free blog like blogger or spend a little cash and get a professional looking blog and host it for about $100 in which you would post your daily newsletter to option is yours free method would work just as well but not sure how into it you want to get.

4. Aweber will give you a code javascript or html that you can add to any website you want. You can build a splash page example of mine is at Get Limitless Traffic To Your Sites! or even add this subscription form to your new blog you have just created with your monthly newsletter.

[Kevin Riley]

Originally Posted by Jake Howard

1. What is the best application or template to develop a newsletter, considering that it will be circulated by email. Obviously these days, a word doc or pdf just isnt going to cut it.

No need to get fancy. I've been sending a simple text e-mail newsletter for the past few years, and nobody complains that "It ain't fancy". It's the content that's important.

Then, like Sean, I highly recommend Aweber for delivering your newsletter.

2. We want to also include the monthly newsletter in an archive on the website. Is there an automated process for this, or will it have to be done manually?

Wish I knew. I'm about 2 years behind in archiving mine.

3. As well as the newsletter, we are considering setting up a blog. Are these two things totally seperate, or should we be looking at doing one or the other. In a sense, would a blog achieve the same thing as a newsletter?

I find a blog can be a great extension of your newsletter. For example: If you're talking about something in your newsletter, you can then give a link to your blog and a call to go there for more info, illustrations, etc.

4. What do we use as an opt in feature on the website. Do you just use a simple form asking for their email address, or is there a certain program you need.

Yup. Aweber's web form. Easy peasy.

[ajiabs]

I have tried constant contact, icontact and mailchimp. finally went with mailchimp. They sames a lot of my time when sent slightly modified versions to different groups. Crating the newsleter was much easier than i thought.

[Jake Howard]

Thanks for your advice everyone, it has enabled me to do some further research.

As far as newsletters go, I am probably just looking for easiest, cheapest and basic options. We will only have a distribution list of less then 50, and we will only be sending out one newsletter a month.

I got a quote from a local mob, and they said they would charge $50 to set up the template (Which I thought seemed reasonable) but then it was going to be an additonal $50 each month, to circulate the newsletter, and to manage to the subscribers and unsubscribers and bounce backs etc.

Seeing that it is only going to be a relatively basic newslettter with a small distribution, am I better off just getting the template designed, then trying to look after the distribution list and circulating the newsletter by email myself?

Or is there a cheaper firm that offers the same service for less then $50 a month. I notice that Aweber is charging $19 a month. Will this cover everything i need, from handling the subscribe / unsubscribe list, circulating the newsletter to my distribution list, etc? Will it also cover the cost of setting up my template, or do I need to pay extra for that?

Cheers

Jake