HOWTO write and send a Newsletter

Some advice on how to structure your newsletters and how to send it off to the recipients.

GOOD Newsletters

Title
WHAT is this all about?: Give your newsletter a title.
Reason
WHY do I get this message?: Tell the recipient why you sent him your newsletter. People tend to forget that they once subscribed to your newsletter. And some never noticed that they have been subscribed by some service to the newsletter automatically. Tell them that they can easily opt out by unsubscribing. Allow them to click on a web link for this and also to unsubscribe via email. This convenience also means that every subscriber must get his own copy of the newsletter

Kategorien von newsletters:

From:
 ohne Name
 mit Name - person oder rolle
Reply-to:
  redundant
  dieselbe adresse - aber name fehlt
  extra adresse an mitarbeiter
  extra adresse an role account

subject:
  name der community oder firma
  "newsletter"
  datum

date:
  spezielle uhrzeit
  zufaellige uhrzeit


body:
  persoenliche anrede ("wir kennen ihren namen")

  text/html
  attachments

Example Newsletter

From: Newsletter Admin To: Newsletter List <newsletter@domain> Reply-To: Newsletter Feedback <newsletter-feedback@domain> Sven's Newsletter of the Month === What is this newsletter? This newsletter gets sent to a bunch of people who once subscribed to it. So they asked for it. Here is what my database says about your subscription: From: Sven Guckes <me@guckes.net> Date: Thu Apr 6 12:07:00 MET DST 2000 === Announcement This Newsletter announces - itself. === News This Newsletter is NEW. (gosh, wow) === Unsubscribe You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by http://www.domain/unsub.cgi?ADDRESS&password=foobar === Author This Newsletter was written by Sven Guckes with the help of W. Shakespeare E. A. Poe http://www.domain/newsletter/authors.html === Content This Newsletter contains information about these things: - Newsletter changes and updates - Newsletter features - Newsletter special offers from sponsors (ha!) http://www.domain/newsletter/content.html === Disclaimer and Legalese No bits were hurt in the making of this Newsletter. ASCII Grin and the ASCII Smiley are trademarks of the ASCII-Fun Inc. http://www.domain/newsletter/disclaimer.html === Newsletter Achive All previous Newsletters can be viewed online at http://www.domain/newsletter/archive/ === Privacy Your data is dafe with us. Really. We will use your e-mail address only to send you periodic emails. We will not give your information to any outside organization. http://www.domain/newsletter/privacy.html

BAD Newsletters

BAD Newsletters are Newsletters which are not GOOD Newsletters. :-)

Send feedback on this page to

Sven Guckes webpage-howto-write-newsletters@guckes.net http://www.guckes.net/howto/newsletter-writing.html