Launching the Newsletter

Changes to Subscriber Service.

I mentioned about 6 weeks ago that I was considering changing my approach to updating website subscribers,  moving away from an automated email service to a manual “Newsletter” service.   Well, it’s time to make the change and I hope/believe that it will be of benefit to readers.

The principal change will be that subscribers will get less frequent,  less repetitive but more useful updates.    The Newsletter will replace the previous Feedburner system which I have found to be increasingly unreliable and frustrating.    That system,  being automated,  sent out email alerts every time I updated the blog,  fine in theory but flawed in practice.     The first issue is that my blogging schedule is somewhat erratic so readers may get updates once every 2 to 3 months or daily,  as was recently the case when I had a blogging splurge.    The second issue was that there seemed to be a persistent glitch leading to repeated mailings of the same blog posts over and over.    Irritating to me and unacceptable to subscribers.    Goodness knows we can all do without being bombarded with email,  let alone repeated emails!

Current Subscribers

Those people who were subscribed under the old system have been moved over to the new system,  there is nothing more for you to do,  no need to resubscribe,  etc.    Should subscribers feel that the new system is not to their liking,  there is a simple unsubscribe feature (which obviously I hope doesn’t get too much use 😉 )

What will it look like?

Below I’ve posted a mock-up of the first Newsletter,  which I’m sending out to existing subscribers in conjunction with the announcement here.   The actual Newsletter will have functioning links from each of the articles shown.   If you see something of interest,  then clicking will take you through to the specific blog page or post.   Obviously, the exact layout may change or evolve as we progress.

For those who aren’t already subscribed,  just click on the image above.    For existing subscribers,  I’d appreciate any feedback you may have.   ~KD