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Review: Free Marketing Newsletters, Part I
October 08, 2004
As promised, here are the results so far of my Three Strikes newsletter purge. This is going to be a "two-part" (or possibly "three-part") series - I still have some newsletters in my inbox that I'm keeping an eye on, and I'll report back later on these.
I based my stay-subscribed-or-unsubscribe decisions on the following things:
1. How informative is the newsletter?
2. Does it contain original content?
3. Is it glaringly obvious that I'm "part of the list" (and of course, we all know that if you have a large list, you'll make a good profit with every mailing you send out)?
4. How obvious are the affiliate links? How many of them are there? Basically, is the newsletter always just one sales pitch after another?
5. Do I get something useful out of the newsletter (if nothing else, something to at least blog about?) (While this might sound like point no. 1, a newsletter can be informative but not useful, and vice versa.)
6. And finally, is there any evidence of at least a modicum of proofreading? I really dislike badly spelled, full-hype sales pitches riddled with grammatical errors.
I do realize that the point of most Internet marketing newsletters and ezines is to "make money from your list". I'd just like to get a little something (a.k.a. real tips, information or advice) in return.
That said, here are my recommendations so far (in no particular order):
Webmasters Reference. I've mentioned in previous posts how much I enjoy Sean Burns' newsletter. It's about as low on hype as you can get, and Sean always comes up with really interesting articles that are practical and applicable. He also has a clear, easy-to-read writing style.
If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend going through his archives and downloading all the back issues. Print them out and stick them in a binder. You'll learn a ton of stuff. I know I did.
Internet Marketing Secrets. First, I have to say that Michael Campbell's newsletter is usually chock-full of affiliate links. He's got his favorite products, and he usually seems to pitch all of them in each newsletter. But when I first discovered Internet Marketing Secrets, I downloaded most of the back issues, affiliate links and all. Why?
What Michael likes to do is give you a really useful tip or idea or suggestion. Sometimes it's background or preparation advice that goes really nicely with the product he's recommending. Sometimes it's not even something that you need to buy the affiliated product for at all. But, and here's the clincher, he'll then point out how this product will make his idea go even further. I can't tell you how many times I've clicked on one of his links, just to check out the product.
I'm waiting for the new version of Revenge of the Mini-Net to come out. From the last newsletter, it sounds like it will be soon.
Marketing Sherpa. I really enjoy these newsletters (they offer several - email, B2B, B2C, PR - or everything in their Best of the Week). And of course, the fact that the articles are only available for free for ten days means I try to read these as often as possible. The articles are very professional, always well-written and filled with information.
My husband and I both run offline businesses, and Marketing Sherpa also offers a lot of "regular" marketing articles that are very helpful. The case studies are usually quite inspiring. And I find that even the regular marketing articles have lessons to be learned for online marketing.
Bill Myer's Tip of the Week. Every week you get a great marketing tip with very little hype. Actually, no hype at all, except that Bill puts in links to new articles he's written, with some wonderful teasers, that are only available if you're a paid member of his site.
Bill's site is geared toward the product developer (it's actually called the Product Developers Resource Center), and one of these days, when I'm ready to write some of the ebook ideas I've got stored away, I'll join his site and take a look at what he has to offer. Actually, he has a nice 3 month subscription rate that is probably well-worth the cost. It's a good opportunity to "test-drive" the site and see if you want a yearly subscription. I'm just not there yet.
Marketing Experiments. When you sign up for the free version of the Marketing Experiments newsletter, Flint McGlaughlin sends you one research brief every month. And, unbelievably, there is absolutely no hype. In fact, the last newsletter didn't even include links to related briefs (which you need membership to access). And each brief ends with a "Literature Review" list of other, rated, online articles on the same subject.
Marketing Experiments is all about testing and testing and testing to see what works, and what doesn't. Each report you get is pretty indepth - they're around 1200 words long - and there's a lot of good information available. If you visit the site, there's an archive of previous free research briefs, as well. The last newsletter was on long copy vs. short copy. Very informative.
I haven't purchased a "Lab Pass" from Marketing Experiments yet, but again, I think it's just a matter of not being at the right stage. They offer a free fourteen day trial so you can check out past research briefs and see if membership is right for you just yet. I suspect it's something that you should definitely look into if you have a lot of sites up and running.
That's it for now. Actually, I have a few more that are definitely keepers, but it's late and tomorrow is going to be another long work day, and I already know I'll be writing a part two and probably a part three sometime soon. (I didn't get nearly as much work as I wanted to get done today, what with the PR update excitement around here. I'll post about our results later.)
- BJ
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Posted by BJ at 01:26 AM in Free Resources and Tools | Permalink
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Comments
Thanks for the links, I will read the newsletters, just starting out myself after getting the ax at my previous employer in May.
Paul
Posted by: Paul Glowiak | Nov 30, 2004 9:15:18 PM
