Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I believe that this could be developed to a subscription level of about 500. Annual charge would be $100 for 12 monthly newsletters. So the gross could be $50,000 per year.
Assuming that a webmaster handling this type of business would be more efficient than me what kind of cost or Webmaster charges might be involved?
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Presumably, you will write the content. I HOPE you're not intending to use HTML mail. :( Assuming you are not, you will just be writing plain text, which will not require any technical skills.
Many ISPs put restrictions on number of emails sent in a certain time period, to avoid spam. So, you might be best going with a specialized mailing-list service. Most of these will have a mechanism for managing subscriptions - either by users (in the case of free newsletters - so people can add or remove themselves from the list) by admins (as you would want for your paid newsletter), or both.
Thus, if you go with a service, you don't even need a webmaster for one-time setup of a subscription system.
You can probably enlist internal clerical help to maintain the subscription list, billing, etc.
If you don't feel comfortable choosing a service, hire a consultant for a few hours or a day to go over your needs and steer you in the right direction.
Of course, you may also need a small commerce system to handle taking orders. I don't know just how you are planning on selling the newsletter. This can be outsourced, as well - Yahoo, etc. You may need somebody one-time to set up your sales site.
OK, I guess now I'm a bit confused about your question. Maybe you need to be a bit more specific, as I find I'm having to guess about your needs... Just what part do you need help with? How to your reach your audience? Do you have an existing website? If not, you may need marketing and SEO help. It's unclear that a "webmaster" is just what you need.
You have made several good points. I need to do more homework. Thanks for your help.
I HOPE you're not intending to use HTML mail.
Just out of curiosity why do you consider HTML newsletter to be so obviously bad?
I send our newsletter out in both formats (the subsciber chooses when he signs up) but just wondering if there is something I'm missing regarding HTML newsletters.
I personally prefer receiving newsletters that I have signed up for in HTML format.
Just out of curiosity why do you consider HTML newsletter to be so obviously bad?
I'm glad to hear that you offer the user a choice. The main problem I have with HTML newsletters is that, often, no choice is offered.
Other than that, the problems are the inconsistency of rendering between email clients (which are far greater than those between browsers) and the loss of privacy, often without disclosure.
I'm personally agianst any use of unsolicited email/phone calls etc. I do get plenty of email newsletters and have turned of <img> rendering in my email client (thunderbird) which works great.
I will say that since so many people want to send spam, I can usually separate legit newsletters at a glance by the quality of the html rendering.
where does the loss of privacy come in?...have turned of <img> rendering in my email client...
There's the loss of privacy, which you've defeated.
If images are included in the HTML mail, and hosted on the server, rather than inlined with MIME, they can be used to detect whether the receiver has viewed the mail, how many times, and at exactly what time of day.
Is this a loss of privacy? It sure is. At it's extreme, it can be used to determine just where you are at what time and to develop a daily schedule.
A great tool for a common burgler.
BTW, how many privacy statements on sites that have email newsletter do you think disclose this?
Is this a loss of privacy? It sure is. At it's extreme,
The email newsletter service we have uses this method to track exactly what happens with our newsletters. I can drill down and see exactly who opened what email, when they opened it and exactly what they clicked on.
The first time I saw all this data I thought to myself "should I really know this?"
I guess it's kind of cool from a webmaster point of view but as a user I don't think I would want my movements to be tracked to this extent.
BTW, how many privacy statements on sites that have email newsletter do you think disclose this?
um, ours doesn't.
hmmmm.
