For those of us who receive way too many unsolicited emails, Spam filters are a blessing. Switch to the publisher’s side of the desk, though, and Spam filters can become problematic.

Before you can keep your opt-in newsletter out of the Spam filter’s reach, you have to learn a little about the kinds of Spam filters available. Currently, options range from those installed by an ISP, like Spam Assassin, to those that run with another program, like Microsoft’s Outlook, as is the case with cloudmark’s SpamNet. Spam Assassin uses a point system to determine whether or not a piece of email is Spam. The more points a particular email collects, the more likely it is to be Spam. SpamNet not only filters based on key words (free!, for instance), but also allows users to submit Spam to then be blocked for other users. Most Spam filters use some sort of blacklist of known Spammers to block emails.

The other component you’ll need to be aware of is the blacklist. As mentioned, most of the available Spam filters use one or more of these collections of email addresses and domain names that send out a lot of Spam. Blacklists are primarily compiled by volunteers. In other words, you mail them the Spam you receive in your inbox, they take a look at it and then decide whether or not to add the sender to their list.

Because Spam filters have both a computer component (such as the points system used by Spam Assassin), and a human component (such as the blacklists and the new system from SpamNet), you’ll need to make sure your newsletter doesn’t raise flags in either camp. Here are some suggestions for avoiding problems.

So your newsletter convinces people

1. Never send your newsletter unsolicited, not even to current or past customers (it’s easy enough to ask them if they’d like to be subscribed with a personal email). In fact, it’s a risk even to send your newsletter to a list you’ve purchased no matter what you’ve been told about the intent of the list’s subscribers-can you be sure all of the subscribers expected to receive your email on widgets just because they checked a box saying they were interested in widgets? This will help keep you off the “blacklists” that are available to Spam filters.

2. Provide what you say you will, when you say you will. Don’t mislead your audience at the subscribing stage and don’t send out emails with manipulative subject lines. Not only is this not good for your reputation, but it may also trigger common Spam filters.

3. Don’t type all in caps. A hallmark of the Nigerian Bank Scam, typing all in caps isn’t just rude; it may get your newsletter forwarded to a blacklist. Additionally, make sure to capitalize the beginnings of your sentences and otherwise use professional grammar and punctuation. An unprofessional email may be more likely to arouse the suspicions of your readers.

4. Leave them wanting more. If your newsletter is really, really valuable, subscribers who don’t get it will miss it. Some ezine publishers have found their ezines are so popular, people who stop receiving the emails actually complain.

5. Make your policy clear. Tell readers how to unsubscribe at your website and in your newsletter. Let them know whom to contact if they have any trouble. And, of course, make sure to follow through immediately.

So your newsletter convinces the computer

6. Steer clear of subject lines that scream SPAM! Words like “free,” “limited time,” and “money” often trigger Spam filters. Take a look at the Spam in your own inbox for examples of words not to use.

7. Offer directions for “subscribing” and “unsubscribing.” Spammers often use the word “remove” in their emails, so you’ll want to avoid it at all costs. Plus, in some Spam filters, you actually lose points (the fewer points, the less likely an email is Spam) when you offer subscribing and unsubscribing instructions.

8. Send it from a reputable domain name, or better yet, your own. Free email addresses are often used heavily by Spammers, so you’ll want to stay away from them if at all possible.

9. Don’t send attachments. Most email readers regard attachments with suspicion anyway and the attachment may trigger Spam filters set up to screen adult material. Both are good reasons to send your entire email in the body of the email. Still not convinced? Many of your readers will have limited inbox space–by avoiding attachments you won’t give them an extra reason to delete your newsletter unread.

When you keep up-to-date on the latest Spam filter technology, you may find Spam filters are actually your allies-they may mean your newsletter will have less competition in your reader’s inbox.

Would you like to maximize your use of prospect lists, customer lists, and newsletter subscribers without over contacting any one person?

If you run promotions designed to appeal specifically to a narrow group of people, mining your database will help ensure only those readers most interested in any one promotion will receive it–this way, you’ll not only save time and money (by not contacting people unlikely to be interested), but you’ll also keep your customers happier. They’ll know when they receive a promotion from you that it’s likely to be highly relevant to their lives.

What does it mean to mine your database? Take your database (newsletter list, customer database, etc–here we’ll focus on your newsletter list) and look for patterns, demographics, trends, and interests and you’ve just mined your database. Use the information in your promotions and you’ll make more sales and spend less money. (Of course, you can make things a lot more complicated, but this gives us a good starting point.)

To most effectively mine your newsletter subscriber database, you’ll want to follow three steps.

Step One: Ask the Right Questions

When you set up your subscribe form, you can typically add a couple questions for subscribers to answer. Depending on the distribution program you’re using, there may be pre-written questions for you to use.

When deciding which questions to ask, narrow your list down to the three most important questions–you can further define your list later. Statistically, for every question you add to your subscribe form, you’ll lose potential subscribers, so now’s not the time to be especially chatty.

Think of how you approach a subscribe form at a website you’re not familiar with. Do you click away when they require details like your home phone number and household income? Most potential subscribers do. That’s why it’s important that you only ask those questions that really will help you serve readers better. You’ll have plenty of opportunities later to gather more data about readers.

And, whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of believing that the readers who are most willing to answer your questions are most ready to buy–there’s seldom any correlation at this stage (because, again, they simply don’t know you well enough to trust you with much information–whether or not they’re ready to buy now).

Step Two: Track their Behavior

Once you’ve gotten them on your list, the fun begins. Depending on your distribution system, you’ll be able to track each subscriber’s behavior. From click-thrus to opens, you’ll want to analyze this information after each issue.

To use it to your best advantage, try to segment your audience deliberately. For instance, if you’re a real estate agent, you might run an article about making a move easier on children–it’s a safe bet that most of the people who clicks through to read the complete article on your website have kids.

Offering forms, checklists, schedules and worksheets on your website will let you see specific topics each reader is interested in. So, figure out the information you’d like to know about your audience and then determine the best way to attract only people for whom this interest or need is immediate.

For instance, if you offer virtual assistant services and you’d like to target graphic designers with an upcoming promotion, you might offer a “Questions to Ask Clients Before You Start Their Designs” worksheet. By keeping track of who downloads the report, you’ll have a pretty good idea who to send the promotion to.

This type of tracking isn’t fool proof–readers won’t read every issue, they may get distracted while they’re reading (and not click on a link they really wanted to visit), or they may be more curious than average (and so click through to a lot of extraneous pages), but by tracking subscriber’s behavior over a period of time you’ll be able to learn quite a bit.

Step Three: Craft Specific Promotions

Knowing all about your subscribers won’t do you any good if you don’t use the information you’ve gathered to your advantage.

This should take two forms: 1) Letting subscribers guide what you offer by their interests; and, 2) Deciding what to offer and then segmenting your list.

The first form, taking your cue from subscribers, is pretty straightforward. If subscribers express an interest in wrinkle-free pants, you should stock wrinkle-free pants. If click-thrus are high when you offer a link on pet care, you should offer more pet care links.

Giving subscribers only what they ask for, however, means you’ll be missing out on sales you could have made because we don’t always know what we need until someone asks if we need it.

That’s why it’s important to do both–offer them more of what they express interest in, and keep testing to see if interest exists in other areas.

By spending some extra time tracking and profiling subscribers, you’ll find each promotion you run is more successful. Plus, you won’t waste time developing ideas your subscribers won’t be interested in, and are less likely to overlook ideas they’d like.

The three steps: asking the right questions, tracking behavior, and carefully crafting promotions, are key to using your newsletter list more effectively.

If your newsletter’s in HTML or print, you need a nameplate (the banner that displays the name of your newsletter).

Designing a nameplate is similar to creating a company logo. Typically, you’ll want a design that’s memorable, compact (size-wise), and classic enough to last two or more years.

We’d like to share the five steps we’ve found ideal for creating great nameplates. They’ll save you time and help you produce the nameplate just right for your company newsletter.

Make Time

1. Set aside enough time. Never designed a nameplate before? Then schedule at least seven hours for the project spaced out over at least one full week. Whatever you do, don’t wait until the night before your first issue is supposed to be published to start the design! Remember, nameplates work best when they’re consistent over a span of many, many issues.

Inspire Creativity

2. Gather a creativity kit. Our head designer swears glitter’s a necessary component of any creativity kit, but I’m not convinced. You will need blank paper, scissors, colored pencils or marking pens, and some music (if you work best with background noise). Most people find being outdoors inspiring (especially if you can be near running water), so don’t think you have to create your nameplates at your desk.

Sketch

3. Sketch at least six nameplate designs. You can do them each full size, or you can fold a sheet of paper into smaller boxes (eight is usually a good number). You don’t need to be an artist for this step–you’re mostly concerned with generating placement ideas and general concepts on paper. (You should see the messes I used to make in my design classes!)

Choose

4. Choose the two or three you like best to create rough versions on your computer. Use a graphics program that allows you to use plenty of layers to keep each element separate (like Paint Shop Pro, Corel Draw, or Adobe Illustrator) and save a new copy every time you develop something you think you might like. If you’re not a designer, try to keep it simple–lots of effects and stylized fills can detract from the rest of your newsletter.

Finalize

5. Choose your nameplate and finalize the design. Smooth any rough edges (literally or figuratively). Save the file to the appropriate size, resolution and number of colors for your newsletter (all depend on your needs and medium).

The right nameplate for your newsletter will serve you and your readers well for many years to come. Even better, the repeated exposure to the same nameplate over many issues will build your company’s credibility and trust, so make sure your nameplate is something you really like that suits your newsletter well.

Not much of a designer? The Write Exposure has just what you need. From free advice to a great free ezine, straight through to full-service newsletter options. We’d be delighted to be your newsletter company. Send us an email describing your needs or visit our site for more information.

You spend a considerable amount of time and money on your print newsletter and the only way your investment pays off is if your readers actually interact with your newsletter in a positive way. Unfortunately, most company newsletters don’t do a very good job of encouraging any such interaction.

How can you make sure your newsletter’s one of the successful few? Here we have the five key questions your newsletter must answer to leave a lasting impression on your readers.

• Who’s it from?
• How’s it relevant?
• Is it interesting?
• Why read it now?
• Why keep it?

Who’s it from? You wouldn’t believe the number of companies that neglect to make it obvious who the newsletter’s from. It’s often not enough to include your company name on the newsletter somewhere. Rather, consider each newsletter an opportunity to introduce your business to people who’ve never heard of it before. Your mailing label should include your company’s slogan (and a bit about what you do if it’s not obvious) and logo. Ask someone who’s unfamiliar with your company to take a look at your newsletter and guess who it’s from and what they do. If they can’t, perhaps it’s time to make some changes.

How’s it relevant? Your readers don’t have much time. Clearly they don’t want to spend what little time they have reading something that’s not going to apply to their lives. You might prove your newsletter’s relevance by putting a table of contents near the mailing label (don’t list article by title, rather list them by benefit). You’ll find some great examples of proving relevance at the newsstand. Take a look at the magazines available and see how they convince readers that’s what’s inside is worth reading.

Is it interesting? After you’ve proved to the reader it’s relevant, you still have to prove that it’s interesting. Interest is typically a matter of tone and depth. Some readers prefer formal newsletters with articles that examine each facet of a limited topic, while others want a more general approach with a more playful tone. Get it right and your readers will wait by the mailbox for your newsletter.

Why read it now? Make sure your readers see the information as applicable right now. What’s applicable will depend on your readers, but in general, if you have information that’s in someway timely (safety features, for instance), promote it up front. You can also offer your readers special discounts and promotions.

Why keep it? Not all company newsletters should be kept, and you’ll need to determine whether or not yours should. If you decide you do want readers to keep the newsletter, you can add value to your publication in the form of reference articles or collections of resources. If you want to make sure readers can always find your newsletter, perhaps you could start new subscriptions with a manila folder to keep all the issues in (or a binder, if you prefer). An alternative is to offer something they can keep from each issue-an index card of important phone numbers, for instance-that they’d cut out or remove from the newsletter before throwing it away or passing it along.

When your newsletter answers these questions, your readers will see more value in it. While you simply can’t get everyone to read your newsletter the moment it arrives in their mailbox, you can encourage readers to look forward to receiving your newsletter.

Offering your email newsletter in HTML frequently results in higher subscribe rates, greater reader recognition and impressive ROI. That is, if they’re done right. Done wrong, your reader may suffer broken links, missing images, or worse.

To take advantage of the best HTML has to offer, your HTML will need to be error-free. Fortunately, that’s not as complicated as it sounds. While constructing and testing HTML newsletters, we’ve found six steps that eliminate about 99% of all HTML errors. You can do them yourself or look for a company that offers HTML email testing.

1. Keep the plain text separate.
Perhaps the easiest way to avoid HTML problems is to offer a plain text version separately (depending on your distribution system this may mean setting up two separate lists). Though many email distribution systems do allow you to send both your plain text and html versions in one message, the technology behind multi-part MIME can create problems with older email programs.

Because email programs vary, sending both versions of your newsletter in one message may actually create more problems than it solves (readers may see both versions, the HTML may become garbled, etc). Though maintaining separate lists is a little more work, you’ll wind up with a newsletter that’s consistently delivered correctly, because your readers choose the version that’s best suited to them.

2. Write your HTML code by hand.
Though WYSIWYG editors (like FrontPage and DreamWeaver) make quick work of HTML design, they’re also notorious for adding unnecessary codes.

Excess code presents two potential problems. First, it bloats the file size which results in longer download times for your readers. Second, these excess codes can confuse email programs which tend to be less forgiving of HTML errors than are typical web browsers.

3. Preview your HTML newsletter in a web browser often.
Watching the results of your coding in a browser is the easiest way to catch HTML errors as they occur. You can use whatever browser you’re most comfortable in, but remember each has its own idiosyncrasies and isn’t identical to an email program.

By checking on your progress regularly, you’ll also ensure the newsletter looks the way you want it to look. This saves you from going through all the steps only to discover your newsletter looks nothing like you’d planned.

3. Avoid missing images and broken links.
An HTML email newsletter needs to be coded differently than a website. For a website, relative links usually work just fine, but for a newsletter all URLs and image locations must be absolute. A relative URL for the index page of a website would be “index.html” while an absolute URL for the same page would be “http://www.domain.com/index.html”. Get in the habit of typing the complete location for both links and images.

When your email newsletter arrives in my inbox saying my computer can’t find the images folder (it doesn’t know to look on your domain) and displays a broken image. Microsoft Outlook does allow you to insert images directly into messages (which it then sends with the message), but this method is unreliable for readers who don’t use Outlook.

You can also use the base href tag if all of your links and images will come from one domain. To set a base URL, you’ll want to add a to the very top line of your HTML code (before the ). Make sure to include the trailing slash. This will tell your reader’s computer where to look for all images and links and means you can use relative URLs throughout the newsletter.

4. Run your HTML through an HTML validator.
Because you’ve typed your HTML code by hand, it’s possible you’ve left off tags or made typos in your HTML. There are a number of HTML validators available, some that you can use on your desktop like HTML Tidy, and others, like NetMechanic that you use over the Internet. They all help you to uncover and fix errors that may cause problems in your newsletter.

Though these programs are designed to check HTML designed for web browsers, they can alert you to many common HTML errors. You’ll still need to check things like image links (for absolute locations) and URLs yourself (they can’t tell you if you’ve linked to the wrong page, for example).

5. Test the newsletter.
Though it wouldn’t make sense to test your newsletter in every email program ever made, you can test your newsletter in the most popular clients. AOL, MSN, and Earthlink each offer limited-access or “Bring Your Own Access” programs for reasonable sign-up fees. Check your subscriber list to see which accounts are most popular so you’ll know which services to emphasize.

You may also want to set up accounts at Yahoo!, Hotmail and Excite, if you allow these addresses on your list. Also check platforms and programs most likely to be used by your clients (i.e. test it with a Mac if your newsletter goes out to graphic designers, etc.).

Bottom line: An HTML newsletter does require more time than its plain text counterpart, but, when carefully executed, the results more than make up for any initial inconveniences.

For the last two months, I’ve been taking Izzy (my five-month old yellow lab puppy) to puppy class. He’s learned a lot about how to behave in public. And I’ve learned a lot about him in comparison to his classmates.

There’s sedate Maggie, an English bulldog who loves to play, so long as she can stay in one place. There’s shy Zeus, a rottweiler who takes awhile to warm up to new situations. There’s obedient Levi, a Weimaraner who’ll do absolutely anything you ask him to.

And then there’s Izzy. He’s the entertainment–teasing the other puppies, talking to everyone who stops to watch the play sessions, and just being an all-around playful, clownish lab.

Just as the instructor’s learned what to expect from each of the puppies, your readers have learned to expect something from you.

Whether out of all the newsletters they get in their inbox yours is the “enthusiastic one,” or the “serious one,” or the “informative one,” your readers have defined you in comparison to the other newsletters they read.

Readers label, like it or not

Maybe you hate the idea of being labeled. Because, if your newsletter is the “smart” newsletter, it can’t also be the “funny” one.

But, this one ingredient is actually behind more successful newsletters than any other.

That’s because it’s what makes your newsletter more memorable. It’s what helps your readers begin to trust you–because every month they see the same dimension of your personality and begin to see you as reliable.

Your readers get way too much email not to make some generalizations. It’s what helps them prioritize their email. And it’s what’ll get your newsletter read first, last, or not at all.

You can choose your label

Now, here’s the good news. Your label is up to you. You’re a three-dimensional, multi-faceted person and have lots of great personality points to choose from.

Depending on your subject, it might be appropriate to position yourself as the “outdoorsy type” even though you also love to relax at the spa. Or maybe you’ll focus on your love of black and white movies even though you also love today’s high tech special effects.

When you choose one thing to really focus on about yourself–one characteristic, one hobby, one passion–your readers will start to associate that with you. So, now, when they see your name in their inbox they’ll think, “That’s the guy who tells such great stories about camping.”

Supporting your label

Once you’ve chosen your label, you’ll need to support it in every issue. Even slight inconsistencies will bother your readers and reduce their trust in you. So, if you’re positioning yourself to be an expert on keeping your grocery bill low, revealing that your family eats out six days a week probably doesn’t belong in your newsletter.

Start by making a list. At the top of the page, write your label–whether it’s “outdoor enthusiast” or “intelligent.” Then list all the words that, for you, back this up. You can list activities that fit in with your label, phrases that define your label, or other people who fit your label.

For instance, for this newsletter I’ve chosen the label, “bright.” For me this means I work to project intelligence and enthusiasm. That means I focus on areas where I have the most experience within newsletter production–the activities I enjoy the most, like subscriber interaction and overall perception.

All successful newsletters have one

Take a look for yourself–review some of your favorite newsletters and see if you can’t categorize each. Chances are, the newsletters you like the most of all are ones that consistently live up to your expectations for them. And in the end, that’s what your label’s all about.

Just as I know when I take Izzy to puppy class, he’s going to be the class clown, your readers need to know what’s going to happen when they read your newsletter.

When your visitors click on to your website, is your newsletter helping or hurting your image? Does it proclaim, “Hire us, we’re professional, trustworthy, and do impeccable work,” or is it clearly old and neglected?

It’s time to transform your newsletter into the beautiful, brilliant salesperson it can be. Open up your own website and go over these five points to see how you’re scoring with first time visitors.

Do you keep archives?

I’m the first to sing the praises of archives. They’re a great way to demonstrate to first time visitors why they should subscribe. They’re fantastic for your search engine rankings. And they’re a shockingly easy way to let your website get dusty.

Does your archive page make your website look abandoned? Were you great about updating them until 2002 when you suddenly stopped?

If you’re going to keep an archive page, you’ve got to be obsessed with keeping it up-to-date. If you don’t keep it up, when visitors stop by, they may think you’ve gone out of business.

Also, in building your archives, don’t just list them by date. You have a great opportunity to demonstrate your communication skills by summarizing each issue after the link.

Keep your archives up to date to demonstrate your attention to detail.

Do you promise privacy?

Do you share or sell email addresses with others? Assuming you don’t, do you make that clear beside every subscribe box on your site? Do you offer plenty of reassurance to your readers that their information will never be compromised?

If you’re not posting your privacy policy, you’re increasing visitor distrust–definitely not the way to win clients.

What should your privacy policy say? You’ll want to talk to a lawyer about that one, but spend some time looking at what other sites have to say–what details they include that make you feel comfortable.

Don’t copy what you find, but take your notes to your lawyer and put together something that protects you, makes readers feel comfortable, and represents the experience you want visitors to have with your site.

A well-written privacy policy goes a long way towards building trust.

Do you make visitors search for subscribe forms?

Here’s another chance to show visitors to your site how easy you are to work with–make it easy to find the subscribe form.

When visitors are browsing your site and stumble upon your subscribe form, it damages your credibility.

Why? People don’t like to feel like they might be left out. They don’t like to feel that some of your customers get a better deal than others.

And by making it hard to find your subscribe form, you’re creating the impression that they’ll have to stay on their toes if they work with you to make sure they get everything they’re paying for.

Don’t make visitors wonder. Put your subscribe form in an easy-to-spot spot on every page of your website.

Put that subscribe form front and center to ensure equal access.

Do you ask for intrusive information on your subscribe form?

It’s good to ask questions of your subscribers. In fact, just by asking subscribers for their first name (instead of just asking for their email address), you’ll increase the quality of your subscribers substantially.

That doesn’t mean asking every question works in your favor, though. So, take a critical look at your subscribe form and ask yourself why you ask each question.

When you ask for extraneous (or overly personal) information, you’re making visitors think you’re into wasting time. And no one wants to sign up for a newsletter that’s likely to waste their time.

So ask only for the information you really need in order to provide a solid newsletter. Leave the rest out.

By carefully considering what information you want up front from subscribers, you’ll demonstrate to site visitors that you value their time.

What does your confirmation page say?

Now, take a moment to actually subscribe to your newsletter. What happens next?

Are new subscribers taken right back to your home page? Are they stranded on a third-party’s website (and bombarded with ads)?

Never leave your subscribers stranded. This makes them wonder about the care you take with your clients. No one likes to be at a loss for the next step.

Your confirmation page should include at least three things: a brief “thank you for subscribing” message that lets readers know when to expect their first issue, a contact email address or phone number if they have questions, and something else to do.

Your “something else to do” could be to offer them an immediate discount on one of your products or services. It could be to ask them to refer others to your newsletter list. It could be to ask them to download a special gift. Just be sure to give new subscribers something to do next.

Carefully craft the experience of new subscribers to put them in the optimum frame of mind for their first issue and you’ll demonstrate the care you take of all your clients.

Examining what your newsletter’s currently saying about your company helps you maximize its success as a sales person. By making just a few changes, you’ll find visitors think much more highly of you and join your newsletter in the right frame of mind to buy.

I don’t often watch the morning news–rather, I get most of my updates online where I can go at my own pace and focus on the stories that I want to know more about.

But, this morning I was feeling a bit disconnected from the world, so I turned it on in time to see that in the US we’re having a shortage of flu vaccinations.

Of course, this is serious–the flu can be a big problem for people at high risk, and it’s certainly miserable enough for the rest of us.

However, it’s not a national crisis.

And yet, that’s exactly what it was made out to be. The reporters were using words that should be reserved for catastrophes to describe this problem. A problem, yes. A catastrophe, no.

Watching the news, there’s very little sense of priority–most of what they’re reporting on is pretty trivial. And why do the newscasters turn everything into a life or death drama?

Because there’s so much competition.

In order to get your viewing eyes, they think they have to add drama where none really exists, and magnify problems that stand alone.

And here’s why that’s a problem for you and your newsletter.

Your business is no different than a television news program–you face competition for your readers’ attention. You may feel like you need to inflate the importance of an event or product sale in order to get your reader’s attention.

In a noisy world, you may think the solution is to shout louder.

But that doesn’t work. Because, no matter how loud you yell, someone can always yell louder.

Instead of using false urgency, huff-puff language, and overwhelming fear to get what you want, find another way. Find a way that’s in keeping with who you are and what you have to deliver.

Don’t let your newsletter turn into one of those loud late night infomercials. Instead, separate yourself from the pack by gaining readers’ respect and offering them relevant information.

Be yourself, deliver what you’ve promised, and be that fresh approach your readers are longing for. Give them a break from all the shouting, and they’ll reward your efforts.

Just like you, I struggle with writer’s block. Not so much for client newsletters (which tend to flow pretty easily for me), but with Newsletters in Focus, some days creating the issue is as hard as convincing Izzy not to chase squirrels when he’s on the leash.

In fact, today is one such day. So, I decided that I’d share with you a method I’ve found that works like a charm for moving me through writers block and into a great issue: writing rituals.

What’s involved with a writing rituals?

For me, I start off by setting everything up just so. I give Izzy a Kong™ stuffed with peanut butter, make a cup of tea, put on some music, and open up the newsletter file.

And I do these same steps, every single time. It’s a way of shifting my thinking from client work (or whatever I was working on) into Newsletters in Focus mode.

Setting up your own ritual doesn’t need to be complicated. And it doesn’t need to be even as long as mine. Perhaps you just have two steps–closing your office door, and grabbing a pad of paper.

Why you need a writing ritual

Writing your newsletter is likely very unlike anything else you do during your day. Even if you’re a copywriter, chances are you spend most of your time writing in someone else’s voice. The shift into writing in your own voice necessitates a shift in thinking.

Such a shift is eased with a ritual.

If the regular parts of your job are more removed from writing–say accounting or managing people–it’s even more important that you give your brain an obvious beginning point for the new task. This helps you close out all the thoughts related to your other work, and really focus in on the newsletter.

How many rituals do you need?

I recommend having at least two–one ritual you go through before you start working on your newsletter, and one ritual to wrap up the newsletter. The second ritual should be a treat for all your hard work–something to look forward to.

For me, my treat is leaving early. That’s right. When I’ve finished creating Newsletters in Focus and I’ve sent the files to my assistant for delivery, Izzy and I head to the beach.

Your treat will make the writing process more enjoyable. Plus, it keeps you efficient. Without a reward on the other end, writing Newsletters in Focus could easily take me all day. Because I know what’s waiting for me, though, I get it done as efficiently as possible.

Establishing your rituals

What’s right for you will depend on your needs and your likes. (And your boss :-).)

Maybe you can’t head out of the office in the middle of the day, but perhaps you could take a longer lunch break. The key is to find a reward that’s meaningful to you–something you’ll look forward to.

Once you’ve decided on your beginning and ending newsletter rituals, write them down. It’ll likely take you several times before you’re completing the ritual automatically, so this way you won’t miss a step in the meantime.

Practice makes perfect

The key to making your ritual stick is doing it every time you write a newsletter. Even if you feel pressed for time.

(In fact, you’ll find your rituals help you create the newsletter more smoothly and more efficiently, so especially complete the rituals when you’re rushed.)

Why not take a few extra minutes to create your own writing rituals–they’ll definitely pay off the next time you sit down to write your newsletter.

I’ve gotten a lot of newsletters over the past few days that have mentioned Thanksgiving and the upcoming winter holidays.

And I realized you’re probably wondering how YOU should handle the holidays in your own newsletter.

So, I’ve got a round up of three ways to make your holiday issues great. Enjoy!

• If you celebrate it, you can mention it. If you’re worried people may be offended, don’t be. Just because you celebrate doesn’t mean readers have to and your readers know that. I recently received an email from a subscriber in India wishing me a Happy Diwali and not only was I very touched, but I was also encouraged to learn about a holiday I hadn’t heard of before.

(Even with *millions* of readers, this is still good advice, but see if there’s a company policy in place about holiday mentions.)

• Publish anyway. A lot of clients have talked about putting their newsletters on hold because some of their readers may be too busy to read. But, what about your readers who *aren’t* too busy? Just like publishing straight through the summer, publish straight through the holiday season. Yes, some readers won’t read the issue, but there’s no reason to give their behavior more importance than the behavior of your other readers.
• You don’t have to mention the holidays. After a week full of Thanksgiving issues from US-based publishers, I’m feeling a bit like there’s nothing left to say on the topic. If you find yourself feeling the same way, remember, you don’t *have* to mention the holiday.

With these tips, take a new look at your holiday publishing schedule. Remember, it’s YOUR newsletter and there are no rules :-). Enjoy the holidays!