What to write about, need ideas

[jelmyoung]

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Michele,

Is the blog the only site that you have, or the only email list you are considering? I ask because I use Aweber, which is a mailing list manager. For my blog I recently started using their Feed Broadcaster which turns my blog into an HTML formatted email newsletter. It works very nicely as an email notification feature for your blog - and you can also promote it as a newsletter! I have a review and example on my blog here: http://clicknewz.blogspot.com/2005/12/f ... aster.html

If you dont choose to go that route, and want to send separate content via email, your first question will be: how will I do this? You have to choose a script or a service to manage your mailing list...

Here are some ideas for your content:

- cooking tips
- recipes
- reviews of great cooking related sites
- reviews of cookbooks or cooking related books/products
- more cooking tips & articles

You'll find that managing an email list is as much fun as blogging! You can just sit down and write to them like you would on your blog -- and you have great content there! You wont have any problem coming up with great things to send out once you get on a roll

[jelmyoung]

Lynn,

I am in the process of creating a website. for now I am going to use to send out the newsletter. I am just going to send it out plain text at this point. It's an autosponder and right now I am trying to figure out how to get each person that signs up to start with the most recent newsletter as opposed to having the system start them from the begining. I am making an outline of what I want to do, thank so much for your suggestions!

Michele

[Lynn Terry]

I have a niche website that does really well during certain seasons or around certain holidays - and I imagine that you slant your blog/newsletter in that way too. Meaning you might do holiday recipes or great "special dinner" ideas for certain holidays, etc.

I am going with an autoresponder option for this particular site of mine as well. However, I didnt want them to just start from the beginning of the sequence, because I wanted to do seasonal mailings - so I wanted them to get the right emails at the right time of year, of course! What I am doing is setting up the entire year's worth of messages all at once, and then putting them in with the dates for publication pre-set. So they will get a confirmation & welcome, and then automatically get the next email in the set (according to date). Hopefully Email Aces works similar to Aweber in this regard, because that would be a good solution for you too!

[jelmyoung]

Hummm... I'm not sure if I can do that with Email Aces, I am going to try to figure that out today. I just started using it yesterday so still have lots to learn.

[Lynn Terry]

Well, if you change your mind, Aweber is awesome. Plus they have the Feed Broadcaster now too. This is my link to Aweber if you want to test it out (free trial): http://sswt.aweber.com . But if you are already signed up with Email Aces, check them out - and maybe email Gary to see if you can set it up that way.

For my niche site, I am using by Lisa Preston. This thing is magic! I am using it to set up all of the lists for each of my niche sites... and have gotten some great tips & ideas to use in the SSWT newsletter as well (which is one I write by hand - labor of love, you know lol).

[jelmyoung]

[Lynn Terry]

[jelmyoung]

[Lynn Terry]

[Profits-Business]

To subscribe to my newsletter and receive more marketing tips and secrets that will make your online sales soar.
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10 Mind Altering Words That Make People Buy

1. Use the word "fast" in your ad. People want fast
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want to find bargains. They could be rebates, one
time sales, percentage offers, get one free offers, etc.


7. Use the word "free" in your ad. People want free
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10. Use the word "new" in your ad. People want
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like new information, tastes, technology, results, etc.


Warm regards,
Mike Collins

P.S. Try this - It really works!

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[Kirk]

[Profits-Business]

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Mike,

I would appreciate it if you wouldnt place duplicate posts all over the forum

... especially where it doesnt even make sense as a respose to the thread you are replying to. Thanks

[Bonnie Lowe]

Hi Michele,

Here are some tips on getting topic ideas for your newsletter:

1. Set up some Google Alerts for appropriate keywords/phrases. For example, I have a site related to job interviews. I have a Google Alert for "job interviews" and this gives me automatic email notifications (with links) of news and/or website mentions of that phrase. By reading these articles, I get lots of ideas on topics that will be of interest to my newsletter readers. An added bonus is that the news articles provide ideas that are very current. (You probably already know this, but don't copy the articles.)

2. Expand on topics that get the most comments in response to you blog posts.

3. Do a survey. You can do a free survey through SurveyMonkey.com. Make a post on your blog, asking people to help you out by taking a quick survey, and have a link to the survey. A good way to get participation is to offer an incentive, perhaps a free ebook or something for everyone who fills out the survey (with SurveyMonkey, you can place a link at the end that could direct people to a download page). Design your survey questions to get topic ideas. Example: "What do you find most frustrating about cooking?"

4. Check article directories, like EzineArticles.com, for articles on your niche. I started out using only my own original articles in my newsletter (and the majority of my newsletter is still my own writing), but now I check directories to see what else is available. If I find a really good article that I know my readers will be interested in, I'll include it in my newsletter (resource box intact, of course).

5. Visit forums related to your niche. See what people are chatting about, and write articles that answer questions they raise, or expand on advice/tips they provide.

6. Do product reviews. Perhaps you tried a new kitchen gadget or bought a new cookbook... you can give your opinions about it. Added bonus: if it's something you highly recommend and there's an affiliate program available (i.e., Amazon.com), you might be able to make a few bucks if your readers buy from your affiliate link.

I hope that helps!