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How do people feel about email newsletters
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tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 5:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Marigold123 wrote:
If there are members who don't like newsletters or are worried about spam, perhaps you could put a link in a prominent place on the site, giving visitors the opportunity to sign up for (or unsubscribe from) the newsletter independently of registering. ie, You could sign up for the newsletter without registering, you could register without signing up, you could do both or neither, and change your subscription options at any time from the main page, your personal profile, or via the newsletter itself, without changing your membership status.


Good idea, but then someone's got to write it...

Marigold123



Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 6:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

judyofthewoods wrote:
What about a short email with a readily recognised logo, with a contents list and a link to a webpage with the news? That webpage could either be set up specially for the newsletter, or could be linked to from the main site.

I like the idea of a separate newsletter page, where either casual visitors who arrived by other routes, or regular visitors who don't want to receive a newsletter by email, can pop in and view it. If it is good, it might encourage others to sign up to the emailed newsletter itself!

I think it should be identical to the newsletter that gets emailed, though, as I don't find a plain link with no jam very enticing.

I actually quite like the format of the MSE newsletter, as an example. It usually has a good balance of plain text, clear links and tempters, and usually isn't too long and doesn't have too much garbage.

I think that a newsletter which is being used partly to sign up new members, as well as to keep current ones in touch, does need a few 'samples' of what can be read on the site, to draw people in. I expect that if current members are aware that the newsletter they receive is being harnessed to this purpose, they will be prepared to put up with a certain amount of 'icing', and hopefully pass it on!

judyofthewoods



Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire
PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

On the subject of forum traffic/size I think this one seems to be the optimum size. I have been on a few, and some have so little traffic, that visitors get bored, move on, and then the traffic gets even less...viscous circle. Then I've been on a forum which had so much traffic, that any post is immediatly swamped by masses of new threads, and actually gets very little viewing. A delicate ballance indeed, maybe tide and ebb?

Marigold123



Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 6:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Quote:
Good idea, but then someone's got to write it...
There is always that!

But it doesn't necessarily have to be regular or frequent, and could perhaps be timed to go out when there have been several new articles put up on the site. Then part of the content is there already, plus maybe listing a few events or pieces of site news that have appeared on the site recently?

Don't know, I've never written a newsletter. I do know that writing anything takes a lot longer than you think it is going to, though!
----------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: Or did you mean the programming to enable us to run a newsletter mailing list in that way? Either way I'm still pretty clueless.

Last edited by Marigold123 on Tue Feb 08, 05 6:31 pm; edited 1 time in total

Marigold123



Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 6:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

judyofthewoods wrote:
On the subject of forum traffic/size I think this one seems to be the optimum size. I have been on a few, and some have so little traffic, that visitors get bored, move on, and then the traffic gets even less...viscous circle. Then I've been on a forum which had so much traffic, that any post is immediatly swamped by masses of new threads, and actually gets very little viewing. A delicate ballance indeed, maybe tide and ebb?
Actually, I think this site is perfect. Enough stuff being written to be interesting, but small enough to be cosy. But I thought I read that people were hoping to increase the membership a bit. If that's the case, then a forwardable newsletter is a good way to do that.

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 6:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We do need to increase our membership, I post loads specifically because of that, as user levels rise I for one will probably post less and concentrate more on admin/pr stuff.

Marigold123



Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 6:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Do you think a newsletter would be a useful tool to do this, then?

I might be able to help out on an irregular basis, but the amount of time I could commit is likely to vary enormously, and I don't have any experience.

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 6:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Marigold123 wrote:
I don't have any experience.


You think we have?

jema
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28098
Location: escaped from Swindon
PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Marigold123 wrote:
Actually, I think this site is perfect. Enough stuff being written to be interesting, but small enough to be cosy. But I thought I read that people were hoping to increase the membership a bit. If that's the case, then a forwardable newsletter is a good way to do that.



Cosy can be attractive, the "DC" team I am in, has that same feel, a small enough membership for a good supportive feeling and of people really knowing each other

With this site though, we do have to put such things aside, and take the attitude that we want to get a message across. If we end up with a site with 10,000 members it may well have lost something in the atmosphere, but won't we all have achieved something worthwhile

jema

Marigold123



Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Well, for people without experience, you produce an extremely well put-together website. Sorry if I sound like I'm crawling madly, but there's a lot of great material on here.

Has anyone thought about writing articles summarising the information collected on particular threads? It's just an idea, but do you think it would work? The collective wisdom and experience of posters here on this site must be quite impressive when put together!

jema
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28098
Location: escaped from Swindon
PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Marigold123 wrote:

Has anyone thought about writing articles summarising the information collected on particular threads? I


You are kind of in with the core idea of why downsizer was set up. A lot of us are and were on a forum where all these good ideas had to be endlessly repeated, we thought that a web site where the members wrote articles which would then be a constant resource would be a good thing.

As you contribute further on downsizer, someone will pounce on you to write for the main site, just make appear knowledgable in a thread and watch us pounce

jema

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 7:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

She's already been pounced on

Marigold123



Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 05 11:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Yep, Bugs pounced so fast that I hadn't even seen the site yet when I was brutally, and completely against my will, forced to say yes!

I have agreed to write an article on my chicken shed conversion, which I was foolish enough to admit to having done, ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WEBSITE I might add, just before Bugs swung in on a commando rope and forcibly captured me and brought me here.

On arrival, I was immediately brainwashed into thinking that I was among friends and like-minded people, so that now I don't even want to leave, and don't realise I am a prisoner any more!

Bugs



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

PostPosted: Wed Feb 09, 05 7:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Buwahahahahhahahaha

You may be my first veectaym, but you veel not be may last.

Buwahahahahahaaaaa


(Please insert your own James-Bond-villain accent and cloaked gestures where appropriate )

jema
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28098
Location: escaped from Swindon
PostPosted: Wed Feb 09, 05 8:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Round here you have to talk drivel or be forced to work, which is probably why nothing of mine has been published in the last month

jema

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