So you’d like to start sending out an e-newsletter, that is great, and I highly recommend it. The person who reads your e-newsletter is very different from the person who reads your blog. It is important before you start to understand that you just can’t start your e-newsletter with names you buy from a service or harvest from website or for that matter take off of business cards. There is criteria for the people to whom you can include on your e-newsletter list.

First, I recommend that all websites have a privacy policy and whether you have an e-newsletter now or not, that you cover in your online privacy policy that if someone contacts you by email, you will be adding their email to your newsletter list.

Second, the rule by the FTC, in very simplified terms, is that if you have a business relationship with a person, that means you have estimated something, sold them something, or chatted with them about one of your services or products then you can email them a promotional notice about your services. This does not cover you getting their business card at a mixer or from a bulletin board. There has to be a real “business relationship”.

The FTC clearly states that no emails that are harvested, even by hand, from the Web can be used in creating your new e-newsletter mailing list. There is simply no way around this no matter how creative you think you can be, you will still be in violation. With pretty serious fines for violations, it just isn’t worth the risk of trying to bend the rules for your benefit in trying to start out with a big list.

If your list is over about 1,000 subscribers you will trigger all the filters of any firm you are using to send out your e-newsletter. You may end up finding that they will allow the first email send, but then may force you to validate  your subscribers, by double opt-in confirmation, all your subscribers for your second send or they may ban you all together.

It is by far better to build your list over time starting now from legitimate clients than to try to break the rules and start with a big untargeted list especially when you have so much to lose in regards to your reputation and a CAN Spam Act violation hanging over your head.

Nope they are not! Although e-newsletters are more difficult to deliver to the end user than they used to be, they are certainly not dead. In fact for me, many of my clients come to me from my own e-newsletter. I typically will hear, “I’ve been getting your e-newsletter for a while, and now I need xyz and thought to call you.”

I do a monthly e-newsletter and try to keep what I blog about separate from my newsletter so that there is real value to someone subscribing to it. I do not want the two vehicles to be the same. I use my e-newsletter sometimes to flesh out a point or topic in more detail than I do in a blog post.

Yes, it does take time and effort to create a newsletter but with now over 1,200 subscribers it is a wonderful vehicle to keep in touch with past clients, current clients, and prospects. One of my clients, who was a top long term care insurance client, told me that you need to keep your name in front of a client at a minimum of four times a year to continue to build business with them.

Additionally, it is typically less costly to work your existing client base to increase your sales than to bring in a new clients. I feel that it is important to have a mix of both approaches; always reaching out to new clients and making sure that older and existing clients know what you have to offer and of any new services you add.

I tell customers who do an e-newsletter to make sure you offer value. There is no faster way to be blocked from inboxes if all you do is talk about yourself. If you offer value in regards to tips, information that your audience really wants to know, and soft sell your services in a winning way you will grow your subscriber base.

Even if you don’t have an e-newsletter right now, I strongly recommend that you update your privacy policy on your website to cover that you will keep email addresses if a prospect contacts you and you will use it for your own marketing. I also recommend capturing email addresses of current and new customers. This way if at a point in the future you want to do an e-newsletter you are building your own list. The days of being able to buy an email address list and being able to use that to springboard your own e-newsletter are long gone.

It does not benefit you to not follow the federal Can Spam act. Not only can you have a financial penalty if prosecuted, but you can waste time and money trying to send to a spammy list.

If your e-newsletter list has been created by getting email addresses off of websites, from organization directories, or harvested from publications you read or subscribe to you are in violation of the federal Can Spam act. Your names fit into the “harvested” category. Many clients simply say “no one will catch me” and they decide to play the odds. Yes, it is true they may not be caught, but they may end up spending more money than they bargained for in trying to email to this type of list.

In several cases clients that came to us did not truthfully divulge where their large 6,000 member lists had come from. In both cases they paid money to us to set up subscriber accounts with a service to use to send out their mailings. One client purchased over 10 hours of additional time to scan his printed subscriber lists to create a digital version. In each cases after the first mailing the professional e-newsletter sending services shut down the accounts. One closed the account outright, and two forced these large lists to become double opted in. This means that a confirmation message was sent out and anyone who did not respond would never receive mailings again. Out of the nearly 6,000 that were on these lists under 100 responded that they wanted the mailings. So in essence with a spammy list the customer just threw money out the window in trying to send email to a harvested name list.

The lesson to be learned here is that a spammy list does not do you any good. You may end up spending more money trying to send to this type  list and still end up being shut down. It is simply not worth the effort or risk.

We invite you to review our November e-newsletter online today. In this issue we talk about several topics of interest:

1. Blogging and SEO – Working Hand in Hand

2. Twitter Made Easy with Social Oomph

3. Personal Information on Google – Can You Ever Remove It?

If you have not subscribed to our monthly e-newsletter you can subscribe here. We only mail once a month and have chatty interesting articles, reviews, and tips that you may find of interest. We never spam you and you can unsubscribe at any time.

To review past newsletters please visit our archive.

I get newsletters from a small software firm and their last one was a good idea gone bad – way bad. With October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, they sent out a newsletter with the headline “Save the Boobies” and then went on to talk about breast cancer and their support for cancer research.

Wow, how do you recover from a huge faux pas such as that? Who ever dreamed up and approved the title showed an incredible lack of sensitivity as well as an overt sexist attitude. That small flippant comment that made it to the headline of their newsletter will clearly be a black eye that will have their PR staff wringing their hands.

So really, how can you recover from a big boo-boo like that? Well first, I would send out an apology to all readers and then donate a nice chunk of change to the local breast cancer foundation or sponsor a runner in a big way in the next breast cancer walk. I would make sure to have a photo op at each event and feature that prominently in the very next newsletter – making the walk match the talk. Second, I would immediately institute a review of any future publications for appropriate professional wording.

What sounds funny in the office or tossed around in jest can have huge public relation ramifications when it sounds too flippant or simply sets the wrong tone in your print or online message to customers and prospects. Even for small businesses crossing the line from professional to questionable must be carefully watched. Remember your reputation is forever even for a small business!

If you don’t subscribe to our monthly newsletter, here is a link to view the e-newsletter online: http://www.mccordweb.com/e-newsletters/2009/aug-09.html

In this issue our topics are:

It’s Time to Upgrade to WordPress 2.8 or at least to 2.7

Songs Stuck on Your iPod? Move Them to Your PC With This Free Tool

Concrete Marketing Recommendations for Business Startups

You can visit our e-newsletter online here: http://www.mccordweb.com/e-newsletters/2009/july-09.html or you may want to consider subscribing to get our newsletter in your inbox.

Topics for this month are:

Graphic Electric Inc. Moves to the Web

Facebook Advertising Reviewed: Is It Worth the Money?

Microsoft Releases a New Search Engine Called Bing

As always you’ll get my candid comments and review as well as notes on special features or things to keep an eye on.

I have recently had two situations that were similar in nature and wanted to talk about the two as you may benefit from the experience.

One situation the person had paid a party on eLance to scrap emails (harvested them) from websites manually in order to create a email list so they could send a notice of a new product they were selling. I was presented with the lists and asked to load them into the subscriber database control panel. I had to approve that the list was not a violation of the services terms of use and that the lists were  CAN SPAM compliant. I stopped the load and had to ask where the list had come from and found out the history.

It is very important to understand that lists of this nature – harvested emails, even done manually do not meet the criteria to pass review and do violate Federal Law. No one likes spam and although you might be able to get away with loading a list of that nature by lying your way through, are you willing to be held legally responsible for participating in that?

In another situation the person said that they could buy a list of 120,000 names from a party who they did not personally know for about $1,100 and that the list was CAN SPAM compliant and had been double opted in. This person was even told they should set up shell domains and spam, whoops send, to the list the first time and then resend to the list the second time on another domain – so the emails would not be blocked by ISPs. This is a spammer technique clear and simple – milk a domain for a few days, then drop it and move to another.

I have to say in both cases a business really flirts with disaster by doing shady deals and gray market activities in an effort to generate business even in a tough economy. My question in both these cases is: is it worth tarnishing your business reputation to send out spam? You hate spam, but you are you willing to spam others to make money for your own business?

For me, I will not participate in these types of enterprises. They are in violation of the law and I simply cannot risk get drawn into a bad situation that may spiral into legal action.

My question to you today is, are you breaking the law too? Or possibly just contemplating breaking the law. Maybe you just don’t know what they law says. Find out what the truth is when it comes to email lists and what is considered spam by reviewing the CAN SPAM act here.

What is interesting is that after these two conversations I checked with management at Topica (where my own e-newsletter list resides) about their policy on list creation and was told that they do not even allow the load of info, sales, and other generic email account names to the subscriber’s list as they know that these may be harvested emails. They focus on being totally CAN SPAM compliant and would not knowingly accept a harvest list of these natures. Vertical Response flags lists that are large (over 1,000 names on load) and asks the list owner to reconfirm in writing that the list is clean and not in violation of their terms of service or the CAN SPAM act. They will not even send the emails out until you provide answers.

Check out our online copy of our February 2009 e-newsletter.

In this issue we talk about:

1. Getting Links the Easy Way with Press Releases and Feature Articles
2. Newsletter or Blog, What Should I Do?
3. Organic Blogging – a Case Study on Blog Posts as Search Entry Points

The first article talks about how you can get a volume of inbound links with article and press releases and deals with the staying power of those links by reviewing one clients actual statistics.

The second article talks about when you should do a blog and when you should do an e-newsletter. It may help you decide which avenue you should pursue for your own business.

The last article gives a real life example of how blogging lead to a search entry point for a customer lead and why the blog title and content is so important for organic searches.

We have great content every month. Make sure to review our e-newsletter archive for previous issues or subscribe to get the March issue in your in box.

Hey guys come check out our most recent e-newsletter at McCord Web. It talks about the new addition to Google, the Friend Connect. This is a new fun way to get noticed using your website. It gives your site social networking if you put the Friend connect application into the source code. It will allow you to use your Yahoo, AOL, and Google base accounts to join and find friends. It allows its users to be able to leave comments, rate the page or website with a star based rating system. Also you can upload videos. Over all it will allow you to extend your reach on the Web.

Content overview

Google created Friend Connect Gadgets

1. Member panel gadget
2. Comment gadget
3. Rating gadget

Also the e-newsletter touches on the top content viewed in 2008 on the McCord Web Services website. In this article we give you links to the most viewed pages and content from the past year.

Concluding the e-newsletter we mention that we have four blog writers employed at this time. Most of the writer have been with McCord Web Services for about a year and a few writers for over 2 years.

To learn more or read our full e-newsletter visit this link to McCord Web Services. http://www.mccordweb.com/e-newsletters/2009/jan-09.html.

From my perspective, blogs are better than e-newsletters. Many clients are surprised to find out that they will typically only have between a 10% to 35% open rate with e-newsletters. The reality is that it is simply getting more and more difficult to have your e-newsletter appear in someone’s in box and not their junk mail folder.

Blogs allow for the same type of contact with clients, prospects, and visitors without the person having to share their email address. In my own case my e-newsletter subscriber list is over 1,000 but typically on any given month under 100 people will actually open and read my monthly e-newsletter. In comparison nearly 20% of my website traffic will stop in visit and read my blog.

I still do a monthly e-newsletter, but now use it for a platform for special features, tips, and longer newsy articles than what I post as a typical blog post. I do try to get double duty from my e-newsletters by archiving them on my website and sometimes even breaking out the content as a white paper download in our resources section or special PC instruction.

So, do I feel that an e-newsletter is passé? No, not for some clients. particularly clients who are not blogging and an e-newsletter is the only regular contact they have with clients and prospects. From my point of view the contact is what is important, if the client does not buy into a blog then an e-newsletter monthly or quarterly is a good alternative.

For e-commerce site owners, I have a different perspective on the value of e-newsletters, I consider an e-newsletter crucial in regards to building repeat sales but only if the e-newsletter is used as a perk for regular shoppers and includes coupon codes and promotions.

Anyway you look at it, if you are in business, you should at least start to capture email addresses of clients on a daily basis if you are not already. You may want them for a regular e-newsletter in the future or to announce your new blog.

You’ll want to click in to read our November e-newsletter that tells you how to get the most bang for your buck on the Internet. Learn our top picks for pay per click, search engine optimization, and e-newsletter services.

With the economy tanking and business climates slowing, now’s the time to check out our tips to see if you can easily implement some of them to get your own business rolling again.

Here’s the link!

There are those in Web World who say that e-newsletters are dead. I disagree!

Yes, e-newsletters have become more difficult to serve to readers especially those behind corporate firewalls, but they are not dead. We still recommend e-newsletters as a great way to keep your client base and prospects informed, but we do recommend a few additional actions to help with distribution to the widest audience possible. Here are our tips:

1. Make sure to create a text and HTML version of each newsletter. Let your subscriber services decide which to deliver to each client by preference or auto-sensing. That’s why you pay a service to maximize deliverability.

2. Make sure to archive your e-newsletters back on your website so search engine spiders can see the new content for the freshness factor, but so your newsletter content can show up in the search results. Link your e-newsletter archive into your website navigation. Promote subscribing to your e-newsletter on the page and showcase past issues. You would be amazed at the information that prospects can glean about you and your services from previous e-newsletters. We know that some of our old e-newsletters which have been spun off into new pages in our website due to interest have become some of our hottest entries from the Web into our website. Here’s one of our top pages that speaks about how to set up email for multiple addresses: http://www.mccordweb.com/e-newsletters/instructions/setting-up-multiple-emails.php. This one page gets thousands of visitors each year wanting to know how to set up multiple email accounts and return addresses in Outlook. Put your old e-newsletter to work for you. When we find a topic that generates real interest we spin out additional articles feeding that interest. One example is our Instruction section and our Tech Notes section.

3. Make sure to create an RSS news feed for your e-newsletters. Some people will not want to share their email address with you, but may choose to subscribe to your e-newsletter the anonymous way using an RSS feed. Make sure you are using this technology for your e-newsletter. You will need to manually create the xml file each time you add an e-newsletter, but it is not complicated and you can even use a service like FeedHoster. Here is a link to our feed subscription page. If you have multiple RSS feeds make sure to make it easy for people to subscribe to all the news you offer with one click using auto subscribe buttons.

E-newsletters are not dead, you just have to massage them a bit to get them to really work for you.

We’ve just published our October e-newsletter online.

Topics for this month are:

1. Google AdWords Changes Cause Sweeping Impact in Cost Per Clicks

This feature article discusses Google’s new AdWords update that was rolled out on September 15th and what it means in layman terms for Google AdWords advertisers. What you can expect in your own account, what to look for, and our concrete recommendations to help your account return to a level of performance.

2. AM Warner Insurance is launched.

3. McCord Web Services is redesigned.

Review it online now!

We’ve just posted our August e-newsletter. You can view it here.

Topics for this issue are:

Ghost Blogger Spotlight on Sue Guirl, Director of Writing

Give Your Browser a Tune Up

How to Set Up Email Member Groups

We’ve returned from vacation at Myrtle Beach and are ready to roll. Stay tuned this week for posts on how you can turn your “Web Authority” into sales.