Edition #30 – 03/15/2006
I’ve decided to change the format of the email newsletter from plain text to HTML. I realize that this will be an inconvenience for a relatively small percentage of subscribers, but I believe the benefits outweigh the downside.
First and foremost, it will create a better experience for those who read Eric’s Tips via email. Second, it allows me to “brand” my newsletter with a certain look.
Also I will be adding a series of five “Welcome” emails, which will be received by new members of Eric’s Tips when they sign up. The purpose of these Welcome emails is to introduce myself to new members, to familiarize them with Eric’s Tips, and to provide some good starting points for newbies.
I’m going to allow those welcome emails to be sent to existing members as well. I could have set it so that current members wouldn’t receive the sequence, but there might be a point or two that existing members will find helpful. So if you’re an existing member, you can expect to receive your first “Welcome email” in the next couple days.
Also, I will be managing the Eric’s Tips member list from two different autoresponders, so if you somehow manage to sign up for both locations and start receiving doubles of everything, please cancel one of them.
When you receive the new HTML formatted newsletter, feel free to let me know what you think…
Thanks for the warning…..how about a little TIME so those of us who choose not to receive HTML email can give you a different address where we will read such email? I just changed my profile, so here’s YOUR notice to change it in your mailing list between now and the time you start sending our your HTML email so it actually arrives in a place where I can read it.
Good point George…
Due to virus concerns, and scam emails, I think making your newsletter html only is asking people to open themselves up to potential threats.
Personally I have my email program set to text only, and will not bother with emails where all I see is html code, or a bit of text telling me my email program needs updating unless I am 100% sure that there isn’t a virus or spyware in there.
Couldn’t you give people the option, or make an rss feed version available which people can subscribe to?
You may like to read up an article I wrote called Are you putting technology before your customers?
I agree with George. Here is my new email address. I dislike html mail, and usually
don’t open it. Maybe I will make an exception in your case.
Have to admit, it is a very nice presentation, not at all cluttered.
Thanks for the comments guys. I’m keeping the HTML very plain… You could probably read it in plain text, but I’ll admit that would still be annoying even if there’s just a few tags. Douglas- Yes there is RSS available. All of the important newsletters are posted as blog entries, and you can get the RSS at http://www.ericstips.com/feed/
However, I’m not yet too savvy when it comes to RSS readers and subscriptions, maybe someone can tell me– does that work?
Just an update for everyone – I’ve decided to go with a 2-part MIME format so it can be read in HTML or text. If your email reader supports HTML then you will automatically see it in HTML. I highly recommend the HTML version because it looks cooler, but if you’re a hard-core text junkie, then you can have it that way too! E