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Archive for May 12th, 2009

Designing Your Nonprofit Organizations E-zine

EZINES The alternative of choice for many organizations are agreat way to market yours. All you need is an email account andpermission from your stakeholders to send the ezine. In fact Ihave found ezines to be so powerful that I write and producefive a month. They are:

SelfMarketing News a marketing newsletter for small to midsized businesses

PetalsNCents a marketing newsletter for the floral industry

Creating A Legacy a newsletter for the nonprofit communityand

Ramblin’ Rose a newsletter for my retail customers.

WECommerce News a newsletter for Women Who do Business on theweb

The first thing you must do is collect your customers/clientsemail addresses. We collect them when they call visit myretail business answer surveys or enter our contests. We askfor an email address every time we have interaction with them.

Formatting your Ezine

Keep it basically the same from issue to issue. Consistency inthe format can apply to many marketing strategies on the web.That includes keeping it consistent with the colors and look ofyour website to consistent categories in your newsletter.Consistency helps your stakeholders understand what is comingnext so they continue to look forward to receiving it.

Test new strategies with your newsletter but you also need tokeep certain things similar so that you do not confuse yourstakeholders. This will decrease the amount of unsubscribes youwill receive.

Length and frequency of delivery Make it easy to read andbrief. The length of your ezine will depend on the frequency inwhich you publish. If you publish your ezine once a monthincluding two to three articles is the norm however if youpublish on a daily or weekly basis then I recommend only oneshort article and or a tip. Too much or too little content willquickly drive readers away.

Subject Line The subject line of your ezine should beconsistent. You can use the name of your ezine yourorganization or another catchy title. The main thing is to usethe same subject line with each issue.

Table of Contents “Table of Contents” or “In this Issue”should appear at the beginning of the ezine. This to let peopleknow what is in this issue. Most people scan the table ofcontents see if there is an article that interests them..

Categories Should remain the same from issue to issue. Theycould include:

Editor’s or Executive Directors Remarks A great place towelcome people and thank them for their support.

One to three articles Lead with the most important orinteresting article. This will get people to read the rest ofyour ezine.

Volunteer recognition and Thankyou’s

What’s New in the organization Such as events and happenings.

Resources Things your readers would appreciate receiving suchas complimentary reports notices about upcoming seminars thatwould be of benefit to them as well as a book review or two aregreat items to put in the resource section of your ezine.

Advertising and Sponsorship Support Here’s where you thankyour supporters of the organization and advertisers of yourezine. Getting sponsors and advertisers to put ads in yourezine can make it cost you virtually nothing to produce. Oneword of caution follow the 80/20 rule so people won’t feel thatall you are trying to do is sell them something that meansyour ezine should be 80 content and nor more than 20advertising.

Questions Comments Reader feedback A great place to answerstakeholders questions that other may also be interested inknowing comments and by all means any testimonials you receivefrom your readers.

General Information How to contact the organizationsubscribe unsubscribe refer others to the organizationprivacy statement and how to support the ezine or organization.

Format

HTML email although HTML is not the preferred way for somereaders all of my ezines are HTML format. They simply lookbetter.

ASCII text regular text email format which includes up to 65characters per line.

Web based posting your ezine on the web.

Font use a generic font such as Arial Times Roman Courieror Helvetica

When designing your ezine here are some things to keep inmind:

Use a Template This provides consistency and you can makechanges gradually over time.

Spell Check Always. Period.

Proofread Have someone else proofread. I have a professionaleditor read each issue. I read it over two or three timesbetween edits and so does the editor.

Answer Every Email When someone writes an email to yourorganization there’s someone on the receiving end waiting foran answer. You owe it to your readers to respond.

Inform Entertain and Serve People sign up for emailnewsletters to gain knowledge information to get involved andto be entertained.

Cultivate contributors Take your time build interest gaintrust then ask for money. Include links to giving pages. Thisallows supporters to make a contribution via credit card or apledge. If your ezine has what readers want you will have amuch higher likelihood of increased giving. An email newsletteris an excellent tool for finding new donors online andincreasing its circle of stakeholders.

The technology you use to disseminate your ezine must be secureand have the capabilities you either now need or will in thefuture.

One of the most important things we had to deal with was whenour lists started growing beyond 250; we were very limited insending through our original email account AOL. They haverules and sometimes will freeze an account if you send too manyat once. The format would also get botched sometimes. The listsbecame unmanageable when we had to remove the unsubscribes andduplicates. Finding the ones who wish to unsubscribe can bechallenging. We switched to another service hoping they couldsend our newsletters and maintain our lists. It was a goodservice; however we didn’t like the look of our newsletter. Ithad limited capabilities no bold or italic. Since I’m thecreative type I didn’t want my ezines to look like everyoneelse’s. We have now found a program we are very happy with.There is no monthly fee just a onetime purchase fee. It iscalled Group Mail Pro Mailing List Group ManagementSoftware. And it only costs 79.95 and you own it. For moreinformation visit Group Mail Pro or follow this link:http://www.sellshareware.com/CustomView.asp?PrID=34362.AfID=7838PageID=1

Promotion

Have a subscription form on your website!

Have a sign up sheet at the office and at all events. If youspeak before a group make sure you mention your ezine. Somepeople are bound to want to sign up.

Promote it with postcards in your monthly statements or on yourbusiness card.

Tell anyone you think might be interested. This includes currentstakeholders contributors and volunteers.

Offer a fr*ee report when people sign up. When people subscribeto Legacy they receive not one but two reports just for tryingus out.

When you use email for an outgoing message to cultivate toinform to request action to ask for money you are creatingpublic relations. Good things happen with Ezines; increasedvisibility increased contributions and goodwill. If you planyour ezine right give it an interesting title and offer yourstakeholders benefits your ezine will be a success! HappyWriting!

copy; 2005 Heidi Richard

Want even more high traffic sites to market on? Jinger Jarrett will show you how to market your business online to hundreds of high traffic sites for free. Grab a subscription to her premium ezine for just 5 per month. This is a limited time offer. http://www.smallbusinesshowto.com/SpecialOffers.html.nbsp;

1 Year On From The .asia Domain Name Bonanza

Nearly a year has passed since Early Bird Sunrise registration began for the coveted new .asia domain extension the Early Bird Sunrise period SR2a was the first opportunity for commercial entities to register a .asia extension. Prior to this registration was limited to Asian governments wishing to submit their public bodies and culturally or economically important domains during the preSunrise period.

Throughout the commercial Sunrise period entry was limited to those companies with registered trademarks trading in on of the 72 Asian countries as defined by ICANN the period was split into four subperiods which ran consecutively with the entry requirements becoming less stringent over time and finally closed for new registration on January 31 2008. On March 26 2008 the .asia Go Live registration period started allowing anyone around the world to buy a .asia domain and prompted a wave of speculators to begin buying up cyber realestate from web hosts in the hope that a few companies with sloppy marketing departments had missed the Sunrise window.

So why is the .asia extension so important when the region has functioned perfectly well over the years with .com and the other Asian regional extensions? Put simply .asia provides a unifying sense of economic identity for the region which has over 500 million internet users compared with 315 million in Europe and 253 million in the USA a number which is growing steadily all the time as the cost of technology decreases. .asia also allows companies to demonstrate an online presence and expand in to a region with one of the fastest moving economies in the world.

That said how many companies have taken advantage of their newly acquired domains and actually set up a live site well fewer that you would expect a search of the obvious key players Coca Cola Pepsi Ford returned error page not found messages Toyota the third largest Asian company according to Business Weeks Top 25 Asian Companies have not set up a .asia page Sony the seventh largest Asian companys site is under construction and 7eleven the minimarket of choice for the region has their domain parked in fact of the well known international brands only Honda seems to have a fully functioning .asia domain. So why this reticence to embrace .asia? Do we expect to see a wealth of new .asia sites before the end of the year? Or are the big players just happy with the fact that they have secured their plot and are now content to sit on the fence while the price of the cyber real estate rises around them? On thing does seem certain this area is bound to take off eventually and although the transition is slow it is gradually happening with millions of quality domain names still on offer it could be time to speculate and buy your companys piece of .asia before somebody else does.

A List of Worldwide Domain Extensions.

.asia New TLD for the Asia Pacific Region .com Toplevel domain name used for commercial Internet sites. .edu A toplevel domain name used for educational sites . .firm An ending of an address for an Internet site for a business. .gov A toplevel domain name used for a U.S. government site on the Internet. .int A toplevel domain name used for international institutions. .mil A toplevel domain name for a U.S. military site on the Internet. .mobi A toplevel domain name for a sites made for mobile phones. .nato A toplevel domain name used for NATO sites. .net A toplevel domain name used for Internet administrative sites. .nom An ending of an address for a personal site on the Internet. .org A toplevel domain name for organizational Internet sites. .store An ending of an address for an Internet site that is for a retail business. .web An ending of an address for an Internet site that is about the World Wide Web. .ac Toplevel domain name for an educational network same as .edu. .ad Andorra .ae United Arab Emirates .af Afghanistan .ag Antigua and Barbuda .ai Anguilla .al Albania .am Armenia .an Netherlands Antilles .ao Angola .aq Antarctica .ar Argentina .as American Samoa .at Austria .au Australia .aw Aruba .az Azerbaijan .ba Bosnia/Herzegovinia .bb Barbados .bd Bangladesh .be Belgium .bf Burkina Faso .bg Bulgaria .bh Bahrain .bi Burundi .bj Benin .bm Bermuda .bn Brunei Darussalam .bo Bolivia .br Brazil .bs Bahamas .bt Bhutan .bv Bouvet Island .bw Botswana .by 1. Belarus 2. Byelorussia .bz Belize .ca Canada .cc Cocos Islands Keelings .cf Central African Republic .cg Congo .ch Switzerland .ci Cote DIvoire or Ivory Coast .ck Cook Islands .cl Chile .cm Cameroon .cn China .co Colombia .cr Costa Rica .cs Czechoslovakia former .cu Cuba .cv Cape Verde .cx Christmas Island .cy Cyprus .cz Czech Republic .de Germany .dj Djibouti .dk Denmark .dm Dominica .do Dominican Republic .dz Algeria .ec Ecuador .ee Estonia .eg Egypt .eh Western Sahara .er Eritrea .es Spain .et Ethiopia .eu European Union .fi Finland .fj Fiji .fk Falkland Islands/Malvinas .fm Micronesia .fo Faroe Islands .fr France .fx Metropolitan France .ga Gabon .gb Great Britain .gd Grenada .ge Georgia .gf French Guiana .gh Ghana .gi Gibraltar .gl Greenland .gm Gambia .gn Guinea .gp Guadeloupe .gq Equatorial Guinea .gr Greece .gs South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands .gt Guatemala .gu Guam .gw GuineaBissau .gy Guyana .hk Hong Kong .hm Heard and McDonald Islands .hn Honduras .hr Croatia/Hrvatska .ht Haiti .hu Hungary .id Indonesia .ie Ireland .il Israel .in India .io British Indian Ocean Territory .iq Iraq .ir Iran .is Iceland .it Italy .jm Jamaica .jo Jordan .jp Japan .ke Kenya .kg Kyrgyzstan .kh Cambodia .ki Kiribati .km Comoros .kn Saint Kitts and Nevis .kp North Korea .kr South Korea .kw Kuwait .ky Cayman Islands .kz Kazakhstan .la Laos .lb Lebanon .lc Saint Lucia .li Liechtenstein .lk Sri Lanka .lr Liberia .ls Lesotho .lt Lithuania .lu Luxembourg .lv Latvia .ly Libya .ma Morocco .mc Monaco .md Moldova .mg Madagascar .mh Marshall Islands .mk Macedonia .ml Mali .mm Myanmar .mn Mongolia .mo Macau .mp Northern Mariana Islands .mq Martinique .mr Mauritania .ms Montserrat .mt Malta .mu Mauritius .mv Maldives .mw Malawi .mx Mexico .my Malaysia .mz Mozambique .na Namibia .nc New Caledonia .ne Niger .nf Norfolk Island .ng Nigeria .ni Nicaragua .nl Netherlands .no Norway .np Nepal .nr Nauru .nt Neutral Zone .nu Niue .nz New Zealand Aotearoa .om Oman .pa Panama .pe Peru .pf French Polynesia .pg Papua New Guinea .ph Philippines .pk Pakistan .pl Poland .pm St. Pierre and Miquelon .pn Pitcairn .pr Puerto Rico .pt Portugal .pw Palau .py Paraguay .qa Qatar .re Reunion .ro Romania .ru Russian Federation .rw Rwanda .sa Saudi Arabia .sb Solomon Islands .sc Seychelles .sd Sudan .se Sweden .sg Singapore .sh Saint Helena .si Slovenia .sj Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands .sk Slovakia .sl Sierra Leone .sm San Marino .sn Senegal .so Somalia .sr Suriname .st Sao Torme and Principe .su Former USSR .sv El Salvador .sy Syria .sz Swaziland .tc Turks and Caicos Islands .td Chad .tf French Southern Territory .tg Togo .th Thailand .tj Tajikistan .tk Tokelau .tm Turkmenistan .tn Tunisia .to Tonga .tp East Timor .tr Turkey .tt Trinidad and Tobago .tv Tuvalu .tw Taiwan .tz Tanzania .ua Ukraine .ug Uganda .uk United Kingdom .um U.S. Minor Outlying Islands .us United States .uy Uruguay .uz Uzbekistan .va Vatican City State .vc Saint Vincent and the Grenadines .ve Venezuela .vg British Virgin Islands .vi U.S. Virgin Islands .vn Viet Nam .vu Vanuatu .wf Wallis and Futuna Islands .ws Samoa .ye Yemen .yt Mayotte .yu Yugoslavia .za South Africa .zm Zambia .zr Zaire .zw Zimbabwe

About the writer:  James is the web hosting expert at Which Domain Host