There is more visibility for newsletters now than ever.
For the past decade, I have watched corporations and small businesses alike terminate their newsletters or allow the in-house staff "do their best" to put out a useful product.

As this trend continues, smart companies see the forest thinning which means more visibility to those sticking to their publishing schedule. If you are one of those who believe that newsletters can deliver personal, timely and welcome information to your audience, keep publishing - on paper or online - you are right.

If you're like me, you probably get a pile of Newsletters and E-Zines each month. Some of them are excellent. But most of them bother me; the message has gone from information designed to HELP me to pure advertising that tries to SELL me. Where I come from, we call that junk mail.

If you want to create a newsletter for your organization or an E-Zine for your site, make sure you give your readers something ‹ facts, relevant stories, ideas, thought-provoking ideas, maybe a case study of a project. It stands to reason that in writing articles, you will gravitate toward subject matter that reflects your own business ‹ after all, that's what you are interested in, and the whole point of being in business. But no one wants to receive a collection of ads in their e-mail on any regular basis.

There are those who would have you believe that no one will read newsletters or web pages of information anymore ‹ that we've all become so impatient and busy that we can't handle it ‹ that in this computer age, anything more than 2 or 3 sentences culminating in point and click is just too much.

My own e-mail tells me otherwise. We don't have an E-Zine per se, but our website's "Strategy Paper" Section (where you are right now) gets many great comments and compliments from people who say they can't believe how much information we provide ‹ and how good it is to get personal and thorough responses to their questions. People want -- CRAVE -- good information. Give it to them, and make a friend for life.

Don't give up on people reading. Give your readers something to read ‹ let the decision to read all of it or some of it be their own. This propaganda that "people don't read" is being churned out by "Computer centered Marketing Wannabe's" that are watching the twilight of their Dot.Com revolution dim by the day.

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers. Forget the Numbers. Your've heard it all before: "Our newsletter goes out to 2,000 people each quarter." "Mine goes out to 5,000 a month." Forget the numbers! Unless you're planning on selling advertising for big bucks, the numbers game is a huge expenditure of time and effort.

Myself, I spend little time on this little exercise. You need to decide your motivation for beginning a newsletter. If it is your intent to make your publication your prime income producer, then YES you need to chase those numbers. Build your circulation with every ethical means possible, and "kiss up" to those advertisers shamelessly, because when it comes to advertising dollars, the game is all about numbers. But if you're like a majority of the small business owners I've met online, your prime motivation is not about attracting big advertising money. It's about your passion for the work you do. It's about sharing your talents and skills with those who need or want to learn. It's maybe even about creating a following for your web site -- bringing your visitors back to the site to see what's new. But it's not about advertising money.

If that's the case, you don't need to be playing the numbers game. Relieve yourself of that one stress factor today. Let people sign up for your newsletter, and ask them to forward it on to friends who they feel would be interested in the subject matter. Put a prominent spot on your site for sign-up, and then stop worrying about it. Fifty readers who love what you provide for them in an informative, well-done newsletter will be the best advertising you can get -- word-of-mouth advertising. Two thousand who may or may not even bother to open your ezine or print newsletter before discarding it, aren't talking to anyone about you. "To thine own self be true" -- know your motivation and go with your instincts. Not everyone enjoys playing the numbers game, or needs to. Selling advertising is only one way to make money with your business, and it's not an absolute necessity. Make your newsletter an expression of who you are and what your business is all about. If you do that well, people who are interested will find you in good time.