Since I have only been at this for five
months, I am in no way a pro.
I can however give you the pro's and cons
of having your own newsletter.
OK let's start with the pros.
You get recognition
You can place your own ads for free.
You get to have your own opt-in list.
You find there are still very nice people
out there, reading your newsletter.
You can post your articles for other ezines
to use, creating advertising for you.
With a large enough subscriber base you
can sell ads to other marketers, once you
can do this, you can start getting back
some of the bucks you spent getting to
this position. (I HOPE)
You also have a sense of pride, that in
some small way, you may have made someone's
day a little better.
Now let's take a look at the cons.
Before I start the cons, I want to tell
you this. Don't let this talk you out of
starting your own newsletter. I am convinced
this is the thing to do if you plan on
staying on the internet and marketing.
You can start out without spending money,
until your subscriber base gets to seventy
five to one hundred. Then look out, because
it starts to overwhelm you.
You are trying to send out one hundred emails
by hand, using copy and paste.
You are receiving emails with subscribe in
the subject line, and you are putting them
on your opt-in list manually.
You print each and every subscribe, so if
you get accused of using spam, you have proof
that they signed up of their own free will.
You keep all of these in a special three
ring binder, hoping you will never need them.
You try many many things as I have to try to
handle all this without spending money.
Finally, you tell yourself, I just can't keep
up and I must do something different. So you
start looking for that free service, that will
do this for you.
After looking at different options for a few
days, you decide, I will not turn all of my
subscribers over to any one else.
You are afraid of the horror stories of sites
selling these list for the money involved. So
you decide, I will do this myself, where I have
control of my subscribers, and no one else.
Let me tell you what I did, and hopefully you
will know better than to do this. I purchased
a cgi script, since I know how to install cgi
programs.
I didn't think this thru good enough, or I would
have known, that this was not what I should be
doing.
I paid, "hang onto your hat" $99.95 for this script.
If you read my newsletter, you know what happened.
My web host went down for about ten hours, and the
end result was, I lost my entire subscriber list.
Thank God, I had most of it in my printed file as
people subscribed. Think of the fun I had going
thru over three hundred pieces of paper, setting
up a new list.
On that very day, I said to myself, "Vern" that's
what I call myself, most of the time. The other
times, I can't put in print. I said this is going
to change, before this happens again.
I tried many programs, ranging in price from $199.95
to $499.95. Some were so hard to setup, that you
needed to be a computer expert to set it up.
I finally decided on Postmaster, $299.95, going to
$349.95 very soon. I picked it, because a dummy
like me can set it up.
I feel confident now that I can collect my subscribers
info without having to worry about it.
Putting out this newsletter, takes time away from my
advertising, but I think the advertising I get by
putting it out, out weighs the time I missed promoting.
PS. If you are thinking of starting your own newsletter,
(do it.) Send me the way to subscribe, and I will.
About the Author
Vern Anderson
Author of (Show Me The Way) ebook being
shown at the Ebook Palace
101 South Cherry Street
Lexington, Illinois 61753
http://www.marketingnewsnewsletter.com
vern@marketingnewsnewsletter.com
For autoresponder articles
vern@freeautobot.com