Every website (including yours!) needs an email newsletter. Why? Because of the bazillion marketing messages your visitors will receive today. Once you go to all the trouble of learning how to get traffic to your blog, then you have to get your visitor to DO something.

Even though you may want them to buy on the spot, experts tell us it takes 7-9 exposures before a potential prospect turns into a buyer…. and an email newsletter is a wonderful way to get more exposure.

We set up email newsletter functionality for all our blogsite clients, but you’ll notice there are several different email newsletter software programs we are using. To help you determine which one is the best, here are 10 questions you should ask about each service:

1. Does the email newsletter software offer a free or low-cost trial version, a demo version or a money-back guarantee? You want a chance to experiment with the software to see if you like the way it works or not.

2. Does it offer free newsletter templates? Especially if you are setting up your own newsletter, you want an easy-to-design newsletter that lets you incorporate your business logo or book cover.

3. What does the email newsletter cost, and even more importantly, what does it cost as your list grows? Your goal should be to have 10,000 subscribers, and several of the services, while inexpensive at the beginning, start rising in a hurry once you have 500, 1,000 or just 2,500 subscribers.

4. Can you send unlimited messages? Many of the email newsletter programs will charge you per message sent rather than per user. We never recommend these services because we want you to feel confident sending messages whenever you want to (especially when you want to announce something new).

5. What does the service do to ensure deliverability of your newsletters? It can be difficult to get email delivered. Many of the largest services create relationships with the major internet service providers to help track their deliverability. They also require double opt-in which means that when an email address is entered, a confirmation link is sent to the new subscriber to ensure they did want to subscribe (this stops spammers who use email addresses without permission).

6. Do you have unlimited sequential autoresponder services? An autoresponder is a special kind of email functionality that lets you set up a series of messages (for example, a message a week for the next 52 weeks) and then each time someone subscribes, they will receive the messages in order. It doesn’t matter when they subscribe, they always get the first message and then each one in order.

This can be an easy additional revenue stream if you can reposition your content into a weekly or monthly “course” delivered by email (Want to know more? Check out Membernaire here. I’m a member and it’s a thorough step-by-step course.)

7. Does the newsletter service automatically convert your RSS feeds into newsletters? An RSS feed is the technology that automatically notifies readers of your blog that you have new contents. Some of the services automatically create email newsletters from your RSS feeds.

8. Can you personalize the messages? Most services let you collect your visitors’ names and then let you put the names in the newsletter so you can say, “Hi Julie” at the beginning of each message.

9. How long has the service been around? The real challenge for email newsletter services is staying power. Many of the free services, especially, started out strong but then their policies prevented them from being a long-term solution, and they shut down leaving their publishers without a way to reach their subscribers.

10. Does the service support CAN-SPAM requirements? The CAN-SPAM legislation has some very specific requirements for email newsletter publishers, and many of the services handle the requirements for you.

11. Can you schedule your messages to go out sometime in the future? This feature is really helpful when you plan to go on vacation. You can schedule your newsletter so it will continue to go out without you.

12. Is your newsletter archived for you? One of the best ways to get new subscribers is to share past issues with them. Some of the email newsletter services will set up archives for you.

Another common question is whether instead of paying for a service, can you just use one of the free services, like Yahoo Groups, for your newsletter? Can you? Yes. Should you? No, and here’s why….. most of these services put unrelated advertising in your newsletter. Do you really want to send your visitors to someone else’s site–and not even get paid for the advertising? It’s also a challenge to get yourself off these services because you have to resubscribe everyone to your new service (and lots of people won’t take the time to resubscribe). You don’t want to know how I know this (one of my sites is still using Yahoo Groups because of this!)

My number one piece of advice about email newsletter software is to get started with the right service from the very beginning. Moving around later will cost you subscribers. It’s much better to pay a little more now and have a long-term solution.

Here are my favorite email newsletter software programs:

Aweber - Easy-to-use, good deliverability, flat monthly fee for unlimited messages to 10,000 subscribers, supports RSS and includes HTML templates. Find out more about aWeber here.

iContact - Easy-to-use, includes over 300 templates, archives, pricing varies with number of subscribers. Get more info on iContact here.

OrganizedCart.com - Useful if you will be selling downloadable items or doing teleseminars/webinars where you would like your buyers added to an email list once they buy. Bit more complex to use, and may be more than you need. We typically set up the system for our clients, and then train them on the pieces they need to use. Try the trial version here.

Feedburner.com or Feedblitz.com - These two solutions are specifically for bloggers and will notify your subscribers automatically each timen you’ve made a new post.

With a little time spent experimenting, you can find the perfect email newsletter service for you.

In my last post on how to blog, we discussed how to find search-engine friendly phrases to blog about.

Here is another quick and easy way to find something to blog about: comment on current news in your topic area and add your own spin on it.

For example, I typed “what’s new in blogging” into Google. Then I clicked on the News tab to see an article that mentions how libraries are using blogging to increase circulation here. Here is the post I could do about it:

Even Libraries See the Power of Blogging

Libraries are jumping on the blogging bandwagon and are using the medium to increase circulation. The Williamsburg Regional Library in Virginia has recently launched Blogging for a Good Book, and noticed how this new medium has attracted readers of not only the latest titles, but also older titles. As LibraryJournal.com reported in their book survey article, all of the titles being blogged about are circulating, even older ones.

Since blogging is such an interactive experience, libraries can use this medium to connect with their patrons. The commenting feature of blogs could even be used to facilitate online book discussion groups. Libraries and blogs are definitely a good mix, and an area for growth for both librarians and readers.

A couple features for you to note:

• These types of posts can be quick and easy-to-write,
• They provide interesting topics for your readers,
• Include links to the original news article so your readers can find out more,
• Be sure to expand on the topic with your own original spin,

and

• Definitely use the online news sources to find the latest and greatest news on your topic.

Just a little surfing can provide a quick and easy way to blog!

I’m sure you’ve heard the proverb that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” In the blogging world, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture on a blog is priceless.

Pictures add feelings, emotions, excitement and then you also get to add words for your readers to help explain why the picture has been included. Our client, Erica Ross-Krieger at WellnessCoach.com, does a fantastic job of including photos in her posts.

See how you instantly get a feeling for what this post is about without even reading it?

You want to do the same thing on your blog… give your visitors a feeling for what you’re talking about before they even start.

So where do you get the photos? The internet has plenty of photo sites where you can purchase photos (and some are even free)! Just make sure you read the terms of use on each site to make sure you have the copyright/permission to use a photo on your blog. You may need to pay for the right to use a photo, and sometimes you pay royalties based on how many times it is used.

Two of my favorite places to get budget-friendly images are iStockPhoto and Big Stock Photo.

I was going to recommend a popular site for free images but after checking their terms, I couldn’t….they don’t get model releases for the photos and you could inadvertently post a photo without the proper permission.

Another thing to keep in mind with your blogsite is “How busy is my site?” You’ll notice we don’t have a lot a photos on YourBlogTeam.com…. mainly because the site has lots of places for your eye to land the way it is. Because of the unique design with the offset header, the rolling headlines at the top, and the text fully justified, adding too much more could be overwhelming to the visitor.

So do you use photos on your blog? Why or why not?

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

Hi gang!
I just had to share another resource for you….Recipe for Camtasia Videos is a quick-start tutorial on how to use Camtasia. It walks you through exactly how to put your new video together and includes a storyboard template you can use for your script. There are also resources for royalty-free music and photos. You’ll even learn the best way to include audio along with your video.

And the best part? The whole course is less than $10! Get your copy of Recipe for Camtasia Videos today.

Couldn’t you use some help in your business? I know I sure could, and I’m starting a series of posts about outsourcing to share with you some of my favorites resources to make it easy.

The first one is a software called Camtasia that records your screenshots and mouse clicks as you surf. You can also record audio along with the video screen cams.

So how can you use this software?

• Show your assistant how to post to your blog.
• Explain how to check your Google Analytics statistics.
• Record the best ways to review your comments.
• and lots more!

The best part is that the company that owns Camtasia is giving away version 3 to encourage buyers to upgrade to version 5. But you don’t have to upgrade! Version 3 is full-featured all by itself.

You can download Camtasia here. Then register here to get your software key to activate it.

Be sure to subscribe (over there on the right >>>>) so you can get the rest of my outsourcing secret resources!

What are the biggest blogs in your topic area? Not sure? Here’s how to find out:

1. Go to Technorati.com and enter your main keyword phrase. You’ll get a list of blog posts about your topic.
2. Then go to Google.com and enter your phrase with +blog attached.

You’ll start to get a feel for what blogs are the important ones in your area of expertise.

Then what?

• Add them to your reader so you can follow their posts.
• If they are really good, you may want to add them to your blogroll.
• You can always trackback to their posts.
• For the really advanced bloggers like you, you can find more even more blogs that link to them and expand your empire in the same way.

Let me give you an example. I want to find some of the best blogs about blogging so I went to Technorati and got 1,299,219 blog posts and 23,539 blogs.  Yikes!  Now the tricky part is trying to determine which of these are the most relevant and important.  There are two numbers you can look at on Technorati:  the number of fans and the authority.  Several of the top blogs are listed in my blogroll.

Another thing you can look at is the Technorati list of top blogs and commenting when their posts are relevant to your topic. This is an easy way to get traffic to your blog since Technorati is such a good blog search engine!

P.S.  Make the blogosphere even better by adding your favorite blogs and posts to Technorati (we use the green button on the right hand sidebar that says, Add this Blog to My Technorati Favorites-thanks)!

Blog Rush is a brand new way to get traffic to your blog…. and I’ll use this post to review it for you and let you know how it works to generate targeted users to the site.

What is it? Blog Rush is a small box you add to the sidebar of your blog. Inside the box, relevant blog posts from other blogs are listed (and your blog posts show up on other related sites in there Blog Rush box). Your users can click on a post and it opens a new window to a different blog. You can see a video that explains exactly how it works at BlogRush.com video.

So far here are my initial impressions about Blog Rush….

• It couldn’t be easier to sign up. A little bit of info and you get code to insert into your template and the Blog Rush box appears.
• The software has been created by John Reese, Traffic Secrets guru. He was the first Internet marketer to have a million dollar product launch day so I always keep an eye on what he’s doing!
• You can also block certain types of posts from appearing in your Blog Rush box.
• You get credits if another blog signs up to BlogRush from your link, too.

I’ll follow up this post with more details on how much traffic it generates for me. Stay tuned and in the meantime, sign up for your BlogRush account right away.