Adding a newsletter to your Web site

Newsletters give you an opportunity to alert people of updates and interesting content on your site via e-mail. It's like sending a scheduled reminder.

"Scheduled" is the operative word. Unlike your Web site, which can be updated and tweaked anytime, good newsletters are delivered consistently. If people make the effort to subscribe to your newsletter, it's only fair that you deliver it on your assigned schedule.

When you develop your schedule, be realistic. Consider the amount of new content you post on a weekly basis. Do you have enough to justify a daily newsletter? Weekly? Monthly? Consider your free time as well. Newsletters often take an hour or two to write and produce -- can you squeeze this into your day or week?

Types of newsletters: Text vs. HTML

Once you've determined a suitable schedule, you'll need to decide what type of newsletter you want to send. You have two options: Text and HTML. Text newsletters look exactly like e-mail. There are no images, multimedia or fancy formatting. They're the lowest common denominator of Web content; a distinction that's both good and bad. It's good because text newsletters will work with any type of e-mail client -- even old ones. The drawback is that their design and readability are limited.

HTML newsletters have all the bells and whistles of Web pages. You can insert fonts, graphics and multimedia and you can manipulate spacing and objects with significant accuracy. But you can also go too far. All of that formatting and all those spiffy graphics take time to download, and since people are used to their e-mail appearing instantly, even a small lag can lead to frustration.

If you're leaning toward HTML newsletters, keep in mind that some e-mail clients have trouble displaying this format. There are also security issues associated with HTML that could make users skittish about subscribing. Because of this, the best way to reach the widest possible audience is to offer both HTML and text versions of your newsletter. If this isn't an option, consider going text-only. It's not as pretty as HTML, but it's guaranteed to work.

Newsletter programs

Technically, you could send a newsletter through your regular e-mail client by inserting the e-mail address of every subscriber into the "To:" or "CC:" areas of a message. Don't do this. It's a cumbersome process that can go awry in a variety of ways. Most notably, you can unwittingly expose the e-mail addresses of everyone on your list. People tend to react badly when their privacy is compromised.

It's far easier -- and safer -- to send your newsletter through a newsletter program. These programs can be accessed through a piece of software or via a newsletter service. There are benefits and drawbacks to both.

Newsletter software

Software packages give you a high degree of customization and control over your newsletters, but they can cost anywhere from $50 to thousands of dollars, depending on the tools you require. However, cash-strapped publishers can still take advantage of newsletter packages by using free, scaled-down versions or open-source packages. The following table lists a few low-cost options:

Name	Price	Notes
Mojo Mail	Free	This program has no subscription limitations and works on Windows, Mac, Unix and Linux. It requires some minor technical configurations.
Majordomo	Free	This open-source program is quite technical and requires familiarity with Unix systems and the Perl programming language.
LISTSERV Lite	Free for non-profit organizations	With this limited version of LISTSERV you can only have 10 newsletters with 500 subscribers each. A commercial version -- with the same limitations -- is available for $500.
Arrow Mailing List Server for Windows	$50	An Arrow license has no subscription limits. You can try an unregistered version that lets you add up to 50 subscribers.
Got a recommendation? Send it to: editor@theindependentpublisher.com.

Newsletter services

Newsletter services are usually free of charge, but you have less customization options. The service companies often include advertising within your newsletters as well. You'll find a few of the better services below:

Name	Price	Notes
Yahoo Groups	Free	In addition to powerful newsletter tools, this service archives old messages and includes Web space. Newsletters can also be transformed into discussion lists, letting subscribers converse back and forth. The downside: Ads are inserted into your newsletters.
Your Mailing List Provider	Free	This service does not insert advertising into your messages. The only drawback is lack of support for discussion lists.
Topica Exchange	Free	Topica's free service supports newsletters and discussion lists and includes a message archive system. It inserts ads into your newsletters, but an ad-free version is available through Topica's fee-based Email Publisher product.
Got a recommendation? Send it to: editor@theindependentpublisher.com.

Making a decision between a software package and a newsletter service hinges on how important your newsletter will be to your site. If you foresee the newsletter as a large wing of your site that offers exclusive content, you'll be best served by the robust customization tools in software packages. If your newsletter will be used primarily as a publicity tool, free services will fit the bill.

You also have the option of working you way up to a software program. The grandiose newsletter scheme you're concocting may be more than you can handle. Before you make the investment in an expensive software package, test a free service to get a sense of your newsletter's workload and popularity. If it's manageable and drawing a good number of subscribers, it's worth jumping to a software product.