Whether you decide to publish weekly, monthly, or quarterly or on some other schedule, establish the publication date—the day and the time of day that your newsletter is sent out to subscribers—and work backward to determine how much time you need to allot to each stage of the process. After you do the first couple of issues, you’ll be able to reasonably estimate how long the writing takes. In general, build in a day for the editing, and build in a day for the final formatting. Read the rest of this entry »
Whether you distribute your newsletter as a plain-text file or as a Web page, you need to ensure that what your subscribers see on the screen is readable and attractive. Here are some suggestions for formatting a good-looking plain-text newsletter:
· Visibly separate the sections using characters, symbols, or blank lines.
· Use a monospaced font so that readers with older e-mail programs can read your newsletter easily.
· Set off URLs by enclosing them in angle brackets (< >) and include a link to the home page of your Web site if you have one. Read the rest of this entry »
If you can’t find a person in your organization with these skills, you can obtain the services of a professional. Many editors work on a freelance, per hour or per assignment basis, and you can find them through an editorial agency or even on the Internet.
The most efficient way to work with an editor is to work online. Whether someone within your organization will do the editing or you contract for the services of a freelancer, you can send your newsletter file to the editor as an attachment to e-mail. Read the rest of this entry »
Everybody needs an editor, and the more you write and the longer you write, the more you will find this to be a necessity. You can, and should, spell-check your document, and if the program in which you are creating your newsletter has one, run its grammar checker. Neither, however, take the place of an editor. Read the rest of this entry »
Never begin a sentence with “There is” or “There are” if you can find a noun or a pronoun and a strong verb to do the job. For example, which is the stronger sentence: “There are a number of people who agree with you” or “A number of people agree with you”? These are only some of the handy devices you can use to maintain the dynamic nature of your e-mail newsletter. Read the rest of this entry »