Letter from Phil…383  -  Aug 26th, 2009 – Newsletter Success Formula

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I was going to write about something else this week. Well a few things. A long, multi-subject, rambling affair

But guess what? I’ve just realized that today is the 12th anniversary of this newsletter. The first one was written and published (and read by very few people) on the 26th August 1997.

Which means – according to the very clever calculator that’s built into the new Windows 7 – I’ve been writing it for 4,383 days. And yes, before you hit me with the jokes, I know I’m a very slow typist

So today is just about newsletters.
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First of all a big thanks to everyone who completed the short survey’s in the last two newsletters, and posted comments on the ‘your valued opinion post’ The survey answers and comments you left on the blog have been a big help. Thanks  And I’ll now be able to concentrate a bit more on the subjects that the survey results show you want to read about.

One of the highest checked boxes was for more help with  keyword research, and another was how to get more traffic. In my mind the two are very interlinked.

If you’re a regular reader of my newsletter I need your opinion please.

Read this short piece, then take a moment to share your thoughts.

I’m conducting an experiment with my newsletter this week.

And that’s keeping this issue short. A number of readers have complained that in these days of email overload my newsletter is often far too long, so they put it aside until later but hardly ever get back to it.

My answer is that’s because I’ve got a lot to say, but publish infrequently so I’ve got to cram it in

So what do you think? Would you prefer shorter, but frequent newsletters – inevitably meaning that some of them would just be product promos to pay the time and costs involved with writing and publishing it?

Or perhaps you like the long, and infrequent ones, that just spring into your mailbox at odd intervals?

Can you let me know here, by posting a comment.

And / Or it’d be great if you could take 2 minutes to tick your answers to my 4 questions in a short survey I’ve loaded on Survey Monkey

I’m staying with a friend in Windermere, in England’s beautiful Lake District, in a house full of rampaging children, plus Ruby the teenage cook who’ll probably take over from celebrity chef Nigella Lawson one day if her cooking and looks are anything to go by and a new (today) Labradoodle puppy called Boo. The puppy (who bit my big toe making everyone laugh) is insisting on hiding behind my legs and the children keep jumping on me, and the whole place is a cacophony of noise.

According to dictionary dot com a good use of the word cacophany is: “a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.”

And that just about sums up the mayhem here

Here’s a video of Ruby teaching you how to bake a delicious lemon drizzle cake. You should try it. It’s yummy You’ll find the recipe on her (neglected) blog at rubybakes.com