I’ve been doing a series of articles in my newsletter called, “How to Plan and Start a Great Email Newsletter” which is about how to develop your own email newsletter and I got this question about blogs and email newsletters from one of my subscribers.

Hi Nicolette,

In yesterday’s newsletter, you listed blog posts as content that you can include in a newsletter. Why would you put your blog posts in your newsletter? Wouldn’t most people have read it already? And why would you have a newsletter if you already have a blog? Aren’t you just making more work for yourself?

Linda-

Now if you are already blogging, you probably thought about whether it’s a good idea to also have an email newsletter as well. This is how I answered Linda’s question.

Hi Linda,

There are a couple good reasons why blog posts can be good content for your newsletter.

1. Subscribers to your newsletter may not necessarily also visit your blog (and vice versa). So this is content that’s new to them and having an example of what’s on your blog may encourage them to visit.

2. Even if your subscribers also read your blog, it doesn’t hurt to remind them of posts that they may have missed. There’s times that I’ve forgotten what I’ve read on a blog hour after I’ve read it (though this just might mean I’m absent minded). Plus you can use the opportunity to expand on a certain blog post in your newsletter or look at it from a different angle. In this way, you’re using your blog post as a jumping off point for content for your newsletter.

Now as for your question about having a newsletter when you already have a blog, it’s important to remember that it’s perfectly okay to have both…there are plenty of people (including me) that do both. Yes, it is more work to have both a blog and newsletter. You’ll need to be able to keep both of them up and to add content on a regular basis, but there are benefits to having both:

1. Not everyone likes reading blogs and not everyone likes reading email newsletters. By having both, you get to appeal to both types of people.

2. The benefit of blogs is that they are a lot more interactive than your typical email newsletter. Plus since you’re always adding new content to your blog, it’s good for getting search engine traffic. On the downside, there’s no way of keeping track of who’s subscribing to your blog unless you’re using a service like Feedburner or Feedblitz. You have no way of directly contacting the people that read your blog about that new piece you posted on your website. Yes, you can write a blog post about it, but there’s no guarantee that they’re going to return to your blog to read it.

On the other hand, the big benefit of an email newsletter is that you have that name and email address, so you can contact that customer directly if you need to. Also, those who subscribe to your newsletter are showing that they value what your saying enough to give you their contact information. Remember that above all else, your goal is to gather the contact info of people that visit your website…and email newsletters do much better than a blog.

3. You can make your blog and your newsletter work together. For example, I use my blog to encourage sign ups to my newsletter. Every time a new article goes out, I post a summary of it on my blog and encourage people to join in order to get the whole article. You can also use your newsletter to encourage more activity on your blog. If you have an article or a news piece in your newsletter which might make a good discussion topic, create a blog post about it and encourage your subscribers to submit their comments to your blog.

So, there’s plenty of reasons why a blog and a newsletter is a smart combination. Of course, if you only have time to do one, then it’s better to pick one thing and get really good with that. It’s better to keep up with one thing than it is to spread yourself too thin.

Sorry this reply was so long…hope it helped some!

Do you have a burning question about websites or promoting yourself online? Click on the “Ask a Question” tab at the top of the page and send me your question. I’ll send you an answer to your question personally.

If you want to start reading the article series on “How to Plan and Start a Great Email Newsletter“, you can sign up for the Crafted Webmaster Newsletter for free here: http://www.craftedweb.com/subscribe.html If you subscribe now, you can get a free audio download on “Effective Ways to Market Your Website Offline“.

Okay, so it’s been what two or three days since I last wrote about Twitter? Well, I’ve finally finished two mini-projects about Twitter so I won’t have to yap about it on my blog every day.

The first one is that I’ve created a brand new Squidoo lens called “The Artist’s Guide to Twitter” that lists tells you all about what Twitter is, how to get a free account, and how you can use it to connect with other people and promote your website. I’ve also included a growing list of Twitter tools and programs that can help you Twitter better and you can also sign the guestbook and leave your own Twitter name so that people can follow you. You can check it out at http://www.squidoo.com/ArtistTwitterGuide

The second mini project is that I finished doing a video tour of Twitter so you can see what it’s all about, how it works, and what you can do with Twitter. You can watch that by clicking on the video below.

RSS users: Can’t see the video? Click here

So now…I’ll be writing about things other than how great Twitter is…if you want to continue the conversation, follow me at http://twitter.com/nikolena.

The heart and soul of any good newsletter is the content. What people will read when they open up your email. Great content can make the difference between a successful and effective newsletter that your subscribers wait eagerly for and one that goes straight into the Trash folder.

This week’s newsletter article is the second article in a four-part series on, “How to Plan and Start a Great Email Newsletter“, where I will go through how to choose what kind of content to put in your newsletter. To read the article sign up for the Crafted Webmaster Newsletter for free here: http://www.craftedweb.com/subscribe.html If you subscribe now, you can get a free audio download on “Effective Ways to Market Your Website Offline“.

Photo by Ada Community Library

Okay…so I’m not going to talk about Twitter today. My Twitter friend (sorry…couldn’t help it) Keith Burtis clued me into Art Review.com, another social networking website for artists. Now unlike IndiePublic and The Artful Community, this particular site seems to be mainly geared toward painters, photographers, sculptors, and even video artists. But it didn’t stop me from getting a profile anyway.

So, check out Art Review.com…it looks like it’s run by the same folks that run the Art Review Magazine, and sign up for a free account.

And of course, while you’re there…check out my profile and add me as a friend!

I’ve marked this under my “DUH! How come I didn’t do this?” file. One of the artists that I’m following on Twitter, miscellaneaarts has created a special landing page for her Twitter profile.

If you’ve listened to my free audio, “How to Market Your Website Offline“, you’ll know that one of the things that I mentioned is that when you’re pointing people to your website you don’t want to do is to point them directly to your homepage. You want to create a special web page that only people who found your website through an ad, or business card, or a hangtag will be able to get to. This is known as a “landing page”.

Why don’t you want to direct people to your homepage? Because 1) if you’re offering someone an incentive to come to your website (which you should), then it won’t do for you to dump them on your homepage with no clue on where to go next, and 2) creating special landing pages will make your marketing efforts easier to track especially if you’re using a website statistic service or software like Google Analytics. You’ll be able to see exactly how many people found your special page and therefore judge how effective your marketing from that particular channel is.

Now I mentioned the concept of landing pages as they apply to marketing your website offline…like using business cards and product packaging. But the concept works great with online sources as well…including any links from other websites like your Twitter profile, or your MySpace or Facebook profile. Just like what miscellaneaarts did on her Twitter profile and just like I’m going to be doing within the next couple days. DUH!

So, be sure to check out miscellaneaarts Twitter landing page, and if you haven’t had a chance to hear my How to Market Your Website Offline” audio, just click here to subscribe my free newsletter. You’ll receive the link to the free audio after you sign up and you’ll hear a better explanation of what landing pages are all about.