[Hidden-tech] Blogs vs. Newsletters

[Susanna Opper]

 Great question, David.  And very interesting answers from our technology
gurus.  I'd like to add some thoughts from the perspective of effective
business communication.  It all depends.

I always ask two questions:
- What is the purpose of the communication?
- Who is the audience?

And then there's the issue of resources.  To be effective, blogs need to be
fed and nurtured.  And in a world in which everyone is overwhelmed with
electronic communications, a blog may not meet your business needs.  If you
want to be on your customers' mind when they are ready to buy, I vote for a
newsletter.  Fill it with really good material, choose a frequency that
meets the needs of your audience and fits with the time you have to devote
to it.  Create it and sustain it with consistent email marketing so that you
accumulate a body of work you can refer to when a customer or prospect seeks
information.  Oh yes, and put lots of links in it to drive traffic to your
Web site and other useful Internet resources as well.

My own newsletter "Web Words" has developed quite a following.  It's like a
little sales agent that runs around each month and reminds people that I'm
available to help them with their business communications.  There's more at
this link http://www.shawenon.com/ci/16/newsletters/

--Susanna

-------------------------------------
Susanna Opper
Shawenon Communications
Our distinction is communicating your distinction
413-528-6494
susanna at shawenon.com
www.shawenon.com

 


-----Original Message-----
From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
[mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Ron
Miller
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 1:29 PM
To: DAVID F. FARKAS
Cc: Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] Blogs vs. Newsletters

   ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
   ** You too can help the group
   ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
   ** If you did, we all thank you.


I would recommend having a single site that handles both. It's really easy
to set up with Feedburner. They offer a free (yes, free) service that
enables you to set up RSS and email subscriptions and place links in your
blog. They send a daily digest to all email subscribers and RSS subscribers
get updated in their RSS Reader. You don't have to do a thing.

They integrate smoothly with all of the major blog players (Typepad,
Wordpress, Blogger, etc.).

You can even customize the look and feel of the email newsletter to include
your logo, colors, etc.

Very nice service and you can track subscribers, what they've read, where
they clicked, etc. For a small fee (maybe $5 a month, you get more advanced
tracking information).

If you are into podcasting (or want to get into it), they provide some nice
tools for handling podcasting as well. I'm not as familiar with these as I'm
not a podcaster (yet).

Ron

Ron Miller
Freelance Technology Writing Since 1988
Contributing Editor, EContent Magazine

email: ronsmiller at comcast.net
web: http://www.ronsmiller.com
blog: http://byronmiller.typepad.com

DAVID F. FARKAS wrote:
>   ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
>   ** You too can help the group
>   ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
> 
> 
> Hi folks...
> 
> What are the pros, cons and mechanics of Blogs vs. Newsletters / Lists. 
> I understand how a newsletter run from an autoresponder works. I'm new 
> to the Blogoshpere.
> 
> For example... if someone 'subscribes' to a blog how are they notified 
> of new posts?
> 
> Thanx.
> David
> 
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