In order to make a newsletter, special software is required. Several types of software programs are required at each stage of the newsletter creation process. Some of these software progrteams are free whereas others need to be paid for. After choosing a topic and a title for the newsletter and after creating enough content, time comes to work on some other aspects of the newsletter publishing procedure.
Now depending on your newsletter format, you are going to use some special software program to format the newsletter. A plain text newsletter is the easiest type of newsletter that one can make. All you need to do is to write your newsletter article using Microsoft Notepad which comes free with Windows. You may add some decorative touches to the article using Notepad but everything included is plain text. No graphics or colors can be used. Even the links that are used in the article should be inserted in the form of a URL. This can cause problems sometimes especially when the URL is quite long. Inside the email client pane, the URL must be split at the line break in order to be displayed properly. This may cause it to stop functioning and become non-clickable. The user will have to copy it and paste it in their browser search box to access the page.
A text newsletter can also be created using any word processor such as MS Word. The creation process goes through the same steps that are used with Notepad. However, it should be noted that the publisher cannot use any of the rich editing options and features which come with word processors such as bolding, fonts and font color. These features do not function with plain text newsletters. If you feel like that you should use these features, you should try creating an HTML newsletter.
In order to create an HTML newsletter, you need to have access to HTML newsletter creation software. In other words, you need an HTML editor. There are plenty of HTML editors on the market that you can use. However, we are going to focus only on three editors because they have proven to be the most effective ones. Two of these editors are free to download and use whereas the third one which is more sophisticated and complicated is paid. All these editors are WYSIWYG editors. WYSIWYG stands for what you see is what you get. In other words, the editors are visual; you do not need to learn HTML in order to use them. Nvu is one of the most effective HTML newsletters; it is mainly used for creating websites but it can be equally used for creating anything that requires HTML such as HTML newsletters. It can take you a bit before you become familiar with the software. There are several guides and tutorials online that can help you master using this newsletter tool.
Besides Nvu, we have KompoZer which is almost identical to Nvu. It is just as effective as Nvu and it is also free to use. You can use their support forums to get advice on how to get along with the program. You can also watch some video tutorials to get a clearer idea on how to design HTML templates using it. Adobe Dreamweaver is a paid HTML editor which does the same thing as Nvu and KompoZer but it has a few more options that you may never need to use. I recommend that you go with just Nvu or KompoZer. You do not really need any of the extra options which come with Dreamweaver; they just making things more difficult for the beginner.
HTML newsletters have a lot more features and customizations options than text newsletters. You can use graphics and photos, insert links, add colors, create tables and play around with the entire newsletter layout. But first, you need to overcome the steep learning curve of HTML or HTML editors.
PDF newsletters can be created using special software programs. Usually, these programs convert your document from a word format into a PDF one. All you need to do is to write your newsletter using a word processor and then use a software program such as PrimoPDF which is free to convert your document into a PDF file. There are other PDF software programs such as NitroPDF which is the premium version of PrimoPDF. The premium version has a lot more options and features than its free counterpart but for creating a PDF newsletter, most of those features are not needed.
These software programs are used to format the newsletter article and to create newsletter templates as well. In order to create a template for a text newsletter, one can use MS Word to create Microsoft Word newsletter template that they can use for the newsletter. This same procedure is used create PDF newsletter templates. First, you create the template using Word and then you convert it into a PDF format.
HTML newsletter templates are the most popular because HTML newsletters are growing rapidly into popularity. The same software which is using for formatting an HTML newsletter can be used for designing an HTML template. You should be adept at using the HTML editor if you are to create a good template.
The last type of email newsletter software programs that you will need to use in order to get your newsletter published is an autoresponder. An autoresponder allows you to manage your subscriber list and to send email newsletters to them. Using the readymade optin forms that are typically available for free in the autoresponder, you can collect subscriber details such as their emails and first names. You can configure your auto-responder to automatically send newsletter issues to new subscribers. The autoresponder will also give you statistics on your subscribers and their interactions with the newsletter. An email list management software costs around $19 per month.