How to Administer Your Own E-mail Newsletter

Once you've set up an e-mail newsletter, you'll need to perform a number of administrative tasks on a regular basis. You'll need to add and remove subscribers to your mailing list, promote your "e-zine" to attract new subscribers, remove "dead" e-mail addresses from your mailing list, obtain fresh content, respond to subscriber messages, and make decisions about using ads in your newsletter.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer Desks
• E-mail Accounts
• Computers
• E-mail Software

Administrative Tasks

1. Decide upon a publication schedule, then plan your own schedule so you can meet it.
2. Add and remove subscribers as necessary. (See "How to Add and Remove Subscribers to an E-mail Newsletter.)
3. Houseclean your mailing list (remove dead addresses) after each mailing. (See "How to "Houseclean" an E-mail Mailing List.")
4. Develop a plan for promoting your newsletter so you can attract new subscribers or advertisers. If it is a private newsletter for family or friends, this will not be necessary. (See "Promote an E-mail Newsletter.")

Content Creation

5. Write your own articles, Web site reviews, news items and so forth.
6. Engage the services of professional writers.
7. Arrange to trade content with other newsletter publishers.
8. Subscribe to a newsletter or mailing list that matches writers with publishers. Typically, in this situation, a writer provides you with articles in exchange for a byline and a link to his or her Web site.
9. Invite your subscribers to contribute articles. Reserve the right to edit or reject ones that don't meet your specifications.

Tips & Warnings

• If your subscriber list is small, you can use your regular e-mail software to send your newsletter.
• If your subscriber list becomes large, you might consider purchasing a bulk e-mail program designed to handle large mailings.
• Look for content that is not stale. When many newsletters are published on the same topic, free articles tend to get used over and over by different publishers. If the subscribers are the same, they'll soon tire of seeing the same articles.
• Avoid articles that are thinly disguised sales pitches. Subscribers expect information and will unsubscribe quickly if they believe you're trying to disguise a sales letter as an informative article.
• Remember to proofread your work. Consider enlisting a friend or even hiring a professional copy editor or proofreader - depending on the scale of your e-zine - to make sure your newsletter is clean.
• Be sensitive to copyright violations. Accidentally using material that is protected by copyright can have legal repercussions.