If you’re debating whether to launch a spiffy-looking HTML e-newsletter or start a blog… seriously consider the latter.
Here’s why: once you have a blog template set up (quite simple to do if you use a hosted service like TypePad) it’s the work of 15 minutes to write a short, pithy paragraph and publish it to your snazzy blog site.
In contrast, I maintain that you cannot produce and send a properly formatted HTML newsletter, no matter how short and pithy, in less than two hours.
You MUST check your links, send test copies and otherwise correctly configure your HTML template in whatever email service you are using. And once you publish, cross your figures and pray that your new issue will make its way through spam filters to your readers.
Yes, I am simplifying a complicated issue. An e-newsletter is pushed to your readers via the universally understood channel of email. A blog can also be pushed to your readers… but via the much less well understood – and adopted – channel of RSS.
And RSS, still new, has its problems: Will RSS simplify your life?
But if you add up writing, editing and production time, a blog wins hands down. What’s your take on publishing a blog vs. an e-newsletter? Click that Comments click and let ‘er rip.
Useful resource
How HTML Code Affects E-mail Deliverability