How to Create an HTML Newsletter
One of the best ways to let potential clients know you're around is to regularly send them a newsletter. Using HTML, you can keep in touch with customers and distinguish your newsletter from others they receive.
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Instructions
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Choose a reliable newsletter distribution service (see Resources below) with a policy against SPAM. If you use your own e-mail program, you risk being cut off by your ISP for sending out an excessive amount of e-mail (spamming) and you'll be buried in requests for changes of address, cancellations and "undeliverables."
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Decide on what program you need to create your newsletter. If you just want to create a simple newsletter, you don't need a full-fledged web page design program. A link to a decent HTML newsletter creation tool is listed below. Otherwise, consider a more feature-rich program such as Adobe DreamWeaver or Microsoft FrontPage.
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Select or create a template. This will contain the basic layout of your newsletter, including your logo, width of the page (which shouldn't exceed 600 pixels) and other graphical elements.
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Keep it less than 20 kilobytes. Larger newsletters take a long time to send and download and may run into problems with many e-mail systems.
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Use an FTP program (see Resources below) to upload graphics to your web server. Link your graphics to the full-sized images sitting on your web server. The template must know where to find the graphic so that it can upload it to the page. For example, a picture of a cow would have to be linked to the area where the photo is stored, such as "www.newsletter/images/cow.jpg."
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Use a plain text editor, such as Notepad, to write the newsletter. This will avoid the appearance of odd characters in your text that can't be translated by an HTML editor.
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Cut and paste your text into your HTML template. Save it with a file name other than the one you used while creating the template. This will prevent you from overwriting it.
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Proofread the newsletter for typos and other mistakes.
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Cut and paste your newsletter into your e-mail broadcast program. Some providers also have tools that will let you "personalize" your newsletter for each recipient.
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Send yourself a test broadcast, and check it for errors. If it looks okay, send it to everyone on your mailing list.
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