Posted by Ray White on November 22, 2009 Comments (1)

Providing a newsletter for your opt-in list subscribers can drive traffic to your web site and boost your sales and profits. A newsletter helps you develop a good relationship with your readers. It keeps your site and services visible to your subscribers. Your readers will be kept up to date on your products and services. You can supply good information related to your web site with content-rich articles, establishing your expertise in your niche. You can also make special offers to your readers that other web site visitors will not be able to access.

Publishing a newsletter sounds like a huge endeavor, but really it’s not. In digital format, publishing a newsletter couldn’t be easier.

You have a couple of options for making a newsletter. You can do it through your autoresponder. Many autoresponder services have templates that you can choose to use. Just type and send. If you want people to be able to easily retrieve previous issues, then maybe you can go with a blog format. You can easily install the WordPress blogging platform on your hosted domain, or get a hosted blog on WordPress.com or Blogger.com.

Here are five things to consider when publishing a newsletter.

1) The content of your newsletter should be closely associated with your business or the theme of your web site. For example, if you have a site that sells auto car parts, your newsletter must contain articles or content like photos that pertain to cars, auto parts and such. You may also include content about your company and your staff to add a personal touch.

2) Ensure that you have well-written information and content-rich articles. Your articles will be the body of your newsletter; they should entertain your readers as well as provide information. Articles should be well written and checked for errors such as spelling and grammatical errors for it to look professional. The trust of your readers is at stake here.

3) Fact-check your articles. Make sure that you provide true facts and figures so that your reputation as an expert in your niche is not questioned.

4) Provide fresh and new articles that can provide new information to your subscribers. If you publish old news in your newsletter, your subscribers will lose interest and unsubscribe.

5) Never use copyrighted photos or articles; this is outright plagiarism. You can be sued for copyright infringement and lose your business. If you do not have the time to write your own articles, there are professional article writers that can do it for you for a reasonable fee. The time and/or money invested in writing and publishing articles will be well worth it when you see your subscriber list grow and your web site traffic increase.