Barbara Feldman: Death of Email Newsletters?

Death of Email Newsletters?

Dear Barbara,
I am ready to start my newsletter and was going to sign up with SparkList.com or proautoresponder.com. But I have been reading articles about the "end of the age of emailing." They're saying they are having way too many non-deliverables using email. Are you planning to move your newsletter to your MovableType blog? I have been hearing that is the way to go.

Rob

Dear Rob,

Yes, email deliverability is a huge problem, and it will get worse before it gets better. That said, however, I still believe in email newsletters. But as an alternative, I also believe in RSS as a publishing media.

You mentioned setting up a blog. Most blogs (including Movable Type) can auto-publish an RSS feed for you --- however I would NOT consider a blog to be a subsitute for a newsletter. A blog is a website .... not a newsletter. And an RSS feed can be created in other ways besides from a blog.

That said, I publish four blogs, and six RSS feeds. One of my RSS feeds is the same full-content as my free weekly newsletter. You can see it here:
http://www.surfnetkids.com/newsletter-rss.xml

For more from me on using RSS for newsletter delivery, see

http://barbarafeldman.com/archives/cat_newsletter_publishing.html#000080

http://ezine-tips.com/articles/resources/20030820.shtml