Email Newsletter Ideas – Where To Find Them And How To Use Them

In this article, I’ll share some of the techniques and strategies that I use to generate topic ideas as well as content for my newsletters, so read carefully.

Ask Your Readers

Your readers can be a great source of newsletter ideas. The next time your mind hit a block, go and ask your readers ‘What do you want me to write about ?’ Usually, your readers will respond to your request and flood you with a stream of suggestions.

You don’t have to use all of them. Instead, try to organize them on a scale of priority according to how many subscribers asked for each topic. You may wish to deal with the most common questions first. Or you may start with those which appear to be more relevant.

Usually, most of the questions your readers ask will fall under similar headings. Only few of them will run astray from the main stream. It’s advisable to stick to those which are most relevant and most common, and when you run out of these, you can easily move on to deal with the rest.

Asking for readers’ feedback is one of the greatest ways of cementing your relationship with them. This will show them that you care about them and are aware of their problems and needs. Another indirect benefit of such an approach is that the number of subscribers who actually read your newsletter will increase as the becomes more relevant to them.

Hang Around In Forums

Hanging out in forums can be a big waste of time or a great investment of it. This may seem pardoxical. Well, it does not have to be. If you visit forums just to read every thread you stumble upon, then you are missing out on some great opportunities, and are not getting the most of your visit. In addition to the stuff you can learn from reading forums, there is some hanging fruit that may not wish to leave unpicked. Forums can be used to build backlinks, cherish relationships, find joint venture partners, and create streams of traffic to your business.

They can also be successfully used to create content for your newsletter as well as your website. There are so many interesting threads that can be converted into quality, info-rich articles.

Whenever I hang out in forums, I take note of any threads or topics that might serve as great newsletter content. Forum threads are rarely complete, they need some editing and expanding before they are fully developed into useful articles. Not much work any way.

Article Directories

A great source of newsletter ideas and content. I agree that you might come across a lot of crap articles there, just skip them and check for the most informative and well-written ones. The chances are that you will find many unless your niche is too small or quite new.

A habit that I have got recently into is to bookmark any authors who happen to produce quality content regularly. I really don’t like going through those cheap articles which were written solely for the sake of a backlink or so.

some article directories offers you the option to subscribe to an author’s RSS feed. This can very helpful and saves you the trouble of checking for new content manually.

Once you find a great article for a newsletter, do not just copy and past it. If you do, then you are required to keep the resource box with the link to the author’s website. This will look unprofessional and might upset some of your readers.

What you want to do is rewrite the article, add or remove elements as you judge suitable. By taking this step, you ensure that the article is tailored so that it serves the interests and needs of your audience.

News Aggregators

Websites, such as Google news, yahoo and others, can help you come with great newsletter stories. Browse through their news stories especially those which are relevant to your niche. If you find any news story that can serve your newsletter, just grab it.

Do some research about it to collect more data. Once you have enough data in store, it’s time to actually start writing your newsletter. You have just found a great topic !

You may also check the archives of these websites for stories that are not time-bound, but that can be a lot of work.

Your Competitors

Before I plunge into any niche, I usually do a good research about which websites are competing to dominate it. I bookmark the most prominent ones, analyze them, and sometimes even imitate them.

I also subscribe to their RSS feeds as well as their newsletters. This way I can be sure that I am regularly updated on my niche.

Sometimes, my competitors serve as a good source of inspiration; they give me article ideas, newsletter ideas, and website promotion strategies. No need to reinvent the wheel, just use it. But remember, this does not mean to steal their content or newsletters, or create a website that is nothing but a duplicate of theirs.

You must stand out from the crowd, do something different ; observe what they are missing and pioneer it. If you are doing exactly what everybody else is doing then, you give readers no compelling reason why they should stick with you and not move to your competitors.

Build your brand by creating unique quality content that your readers can find no where else except on your website and newsletter. Splash it with your personal touch to add more flavor.

A Good Habit To Acquire

A good habit that you should get into is keeping a notebook at hand all the time. You never know when great ideas hit, and if you don’t jot them down as soon as possible, they will fade away and never come back.

Some of the great scholars and authors stated their greatest ideas came to them in very unusual moments. For example, I read that Agatha Christie said that her greatest ideas came to her when she was bathing whereas Einstein pointed that his best ideas hit him when he was shaving.

Whether you are watching TV, having a walk, or surfing the Net, keep your notebook nearby ; and take down any ideas that may come to the surface.

These are a few techniques that come to mind regarding newsletter ideas. But certainly, there are several other techniques that have been left out.

Stay tuned for more Newsletter Ideas and Tips!