Do you Publish an E-mail Newsletter? How Often?

[MichaelCorfman]

GPWA member webpositionexpert recently added a newsletter signup to his site, but wasn't having much luck with signups as he stated in his post at: www.gpwa.org/forum/promoting-newsletter-172542.html

I thought it would be interesting to find out how many members have newsletter publishing plans, and how many have successful newsletters today, along with some information about how often members publish their newsletters.

Besides answering the poll question, let us know more about your newsletter activities by posting about them in this thread.

Michael

[aksana]

I publish my newsletter every month. Earlier I published weekly but now I have no enough time to do that weekly. There were no any sign ups for 2 months, but it's not a problem. I'll continue to publish my newsletter.

[MichaelCorfman]

Casino City is pretty active in the newsletter publishing business.

Most familiar to members here will be the GPWA Time weekely e-mail newsletter. We put it out every Wednesday to all GPWA members - there are currently close to 5,000. If you are not familiar with the newsletter, just click on the newsletter link in the top navigation on this site. If you would like to receive a copy, just register as a member and it will be in your inbox every week. Our goal for the newsletter is to let members know what is going on both in the industry and in the GPWA community, and to encourage participation in the forums and other activities.

Casino City also publishes two newsletters every week for gambling enthusiasts.

We began publishing the Casino City Times newsletter on August 6, 2000. After an erratic start the first couple months, we've published it quite reliably every week for the last seven years. The newsletter is for a general gambling consumer audience (covering both land and online gaming) and has over 100,000 subscribers. We completely revised the format of the newsletter at the beginning of last month to try to turn it into a what we think is a very strong newsletter for its audience. You can see copies of the current or past issues of the newsletter at www.casinocitytimes.com/newsletterarchive.cfm, and, of course, you can subscribe to receive your own copy every week on that page.

During the summer of 2005, we began publish Rebecca's Recommendations every week. Rebecca manages our affiliate relationships, and her goal was to tell all about the fun and glamour of doing that for Casino City, and to let player's know about some of the folks behind the scenes and the deals she had arranged for players. In April of this year we took the weekly column Rebecca writes and turned it into a full weekly newsletter called Online Casino City Times. This newsletter also has a subscriber base of over 100,000. The goal is to provide information and news about the online gaming industry to players. We have a lot of plans for additional enhancements to this newsletter - mostly around tailoring the content geographically based on recipient location. You can see copies of the current or past issues of the newsletter at online.casinocity.com/times/, and, of course, you can subscribe to receive your own copy every week on that page.

We also let people sign up to receive a "newsletter" for each of our gaming gurus on our www.CasinoCityTimes.com. These newsletters are just copies of articles written by particular authors distributed to those who have said they want to read more articles by a particular author as they become available. There are probably at least a couple such articles sent out to appropriate distribution lists each day.

So, we definitely fall into the greater than two newsletters each week category.

Michael

[mojo]

The newsletter is a very important tool to me. I try to keep it to once a week unless there is something new and exciting worth mailing out. To many mails will prompt opt outs.

Forum mails excluded, it has taken me a couple years to build a decent sized double opt in gambling targeted list. It has been, for me, a one at a time kind of thing. One of my webmastering pleasures is to see new joins.

[pdjoe]

Thanks Michael, another fun poll!

I voted to send one out every 2 or 3 weeks. The fact is, I send them out when I have something new to let the players know about.

E-mail marketing has been so important in my growth. From the early days, my mailing list did better then my site. Thats not true today but it still plays a major roll in my marketing efforts.

To build my list up, I ran free games and as part of the terms they had to opt in for the mailing list. Today, I still give out $20 casino accounts and special bonuses that players will only find if they opt in for the list.

Thanks again and good luck everyone!

[matted]

I've tried a few times in the past... but even with opt-outs I still somehow generated complaints to my host (with fewer than 20 subscribers once as I was starting up).


Two related questions on this topic... Do you post your email newsletter on the web? Do you sell advertising in your newsletters?

[MichaelCorfman]

Two related questions on this topic... Do you post your email newsletter on the web? Do you sell advertising in your newsletters?

At Casino City (and at the GPWA) we always have our e-mail newsletters posted on the web. We think the archives build credibility, help with search engines, make the material available over a longer term and to people who find us on the web, and also provide a way of viewing the newsletter online for those who have trouble reading the newsletter in our e-mail. Also, the e-mail version of the newsletters we produce generally only have teasers for the articles and items in the newsletter, and so you have to follow links to web pages to see the complete content of any given article.

In terms of selling advertising in newsletters, that is generally not our primary objective. When we are working on an affiliate, or CPA, or CPM, or sponsorship basis with an advertiser on our websites the e-mail is generally just part of the same overall campaign without special separate income beyond that we would normally receive for the traffic delivered to a promoted website. We also do a certain amount of promotion on a barter basis - you promote us and we'll promote you. Right now we have arrangements like that with some print publications - advertisements in their magazines in exchange for promotion on our websites or in our print publications. On rare occassions we do an e-mail promotion for a fixed fee.

Michael

[mojo]

I've tried a few times in the past... but even with opt-outs I still somehow generated complaints to my host (with fewer than 20 subscribers once as I was starting up).


Two related questions on this topic... Do you post your email newsletter on the web? Do you sell advertising in your newsletters?

In my case matted I don't archive them. We offer current casino bonuses or seasonal events/specials that quickly become outdated.

I haven't gotten into any advertising space and probably wouldn't. I feel priviledged that they joined and don't want to add anything they didn't ask for.

Joe has a separate list and sometimes if we need more exposure we will use each others as well as help others who work with us. Usually this is done only for an exclusive campaign.

[tokensmith]

Hi everyone!

We send out two types of affiliate newsletters monthly - a new games newsletter with reviews and banners etc, and a general newsletter with the latest news and programme information.

With so many newsletters and emails being received daily in affiliates’ (and players) inboxes, it would be interesting to know:

• What determines whether you open and read a newsletter? Is it the subject, the length, the information, the affiliate programme, etc?
• Do you ever check your junk mailbox incase your newsletter has gone into it?
• What information would you like to receive in a newsletter?
• How often would you like to receive a newsletter?

If you have any feedback, or suggestions, or comments, please let us know!

[Maxfalcon]

That is a vast and tricky subject.

I know email marketing / newsletters is very important to keep a connection with your prospects.

However I used to do quality newsletter for two years and just stopped them.

It was just too much work and too mcuh hassle (spam filters, css rendering / layouts very variable depending email programs, addresses changing very often) to carry on. Plus, you need the technical expertise when you get lots of addresses to properly handle the sending, or pay for a special program to manage your newsletters. Personally I used to code everything myself, but I think I was wrong as managing mass emails (above 1000 per send) is a full work and need expertise.

I prefer now sticking my visitors directly via the website, with great content, user accounts, bookmarking services etc...

However, I still collect email adresses on my websites. Occasionally, I may send them an email or two... My newsletters were great and players were liking it (good response in clicks, opens) but I never targeted any *direct response -> sale* with affiliate programs. That was more some sort of branding /sticking tool than direct response marketing.

[helpyou]

I have plans to start one, but have not done it yet.

I'd like to have one good newsletter, but it is diffcult to find the time and to publish it.
For this I don't have. I am secure that with one good newsletter, one can have good number of new player.

[Smoking]

Been planning to send one for about 3 years lol Maybe I should make that a new years resolution ?

[TravG]

Thisis always something I wanted to start but just haven't had the time.

[Frank Benjamin]

I have to say that this was my biggest asset before the Penguin slap. The thing is that you need a reason for them to subscribe. In my case, I have a sports betting guide. I ended up making it into a 5 part video course, which just increased my opt-ins. I have an autoresponder sequence set up to email them the "latest" video every day for the first 5 days. After that, I have about 4 or 5 more emails on a 7 to 10 day delay that highlights some of my best posts and some sportsbook review posts, which seem to help my conversions. I also periodically send out broadcasts of announcemnents, special bonuses and new posts.

I also don't worry about unsubscribers. Those that unsubscribe are not my targets. Most likely they were tire-kickers and only around for the free gift. They probably weren't going to open a sportsbook account or purchase any of the other affiliate offers that I have. Also, there is a good chance that they might have already opened an account which is fine and means they did what I wanted them to do. As long as my optin rate is higher than my unsubscribe rate, I am fine with that.

I am currently going through a re-subscribing period where I am trying to trim the fat from my list. Some emails are stale and others bounce. I would rather have 50 receptive subscribers than a over-bloated list of 1000 where only 100 open the emails and even less click through to my newest post or offer. It isn't the size of the list, it is how receptive the list is and if they open and click through.

On the subject of spam complaints, I had a few, but my email service is pretty good and it doesn't affect me. My spam complaint is pretty low. Also, I am now including a reminder of how, when and where they subscribed. This seems to lessen the complaints.

My site is starting to come back from the dead. I am working on upgrading the video course and making a new guide that includes an offer for another sports betting service. I swear by an email list. It isn't that difficult to maintain and only takes an hour or two a week for me to maintain after the initial set up.

[casinoplanet]

I just started a monthly newletter last month and today the 2nd issue will be released


A reason of concern is deliverability though.
Although my spam-checker says everything is ok, I noticed that not all recipients (especially gmail, yahoo and live accounts) open it. So I think that it might end up in their spam-boxes. I also publish the newsletter on my site.

[Frank Benjamin]

I just started a monthly newletter last month and today the 2nd issue will be released


A reason of concern is deliverability though.
Although my spam-checker says everything is ok, I noticed that not all recipients (especially gmail, yahoo and live accounts) open it. So I think that it might end up in their spam-boxes. I also publish the newsletter on my site.

You most likely will never see a 100% open rate. That is tracked by a 1px x 1px image. If the recipient has images turned off, which is common with gmail, yahoo, etc, it won't register.

Do you have the email going out as both HTML and text? If so, the text version won't show up in the stat because it doesn't have the tracking pic.

Finally, is your list double optin? If so, there is less of a chance that the emails are in there Spam Folder since they already found the confirmation email. If they use gmail, yahoo, etc, then your emails most likely won't be in their Spam Folder because those services disable links in the Spam Folder.

To help increase my open rate, I use a custom Thank You, Please Confirm page that subscribers are redirected to after subscribing. This page lists the steps to confirm their email and reminds the to whitelist the sending email address.

[casinoplanet]

You most likely will never see a 100% open rate. That is tracked by a 1px x 1px image. If the recipient has images turned off, which is common with gmail, yahoo, etc, it won't register.

Do you have the email going out as both HTML and text? If so, the text version won't show up in the stat because it doesn't have the tracking pic.

Finally, is your list double optin? If so, there is less of a chance that the emails are in there Spam Folder since they already found the confirmation email. If they use gmail, yahoo, etc, then your emails most likely won't be in their Spam Folder because those services disable links in the Spam Folder.

To help increase my open rate, I use a custom Thank You, Please Confirm page that subscribers are redirected to after subscribing. This page lists the steps to confirm their email and reminds the to whitelist the sending email address.

Thanks for the info. I indeed use double opt-in (with custom thank you and confirm pages) and also send the mail in both html and text. I'm curious to see how things will develop in time.