How to make a Newsletter

[Uma888]

hi, i was wondering if anyone knew how to make a newsletter


where do i start? i have googled it, but i havent got anywhere

what sort of system would i need to setup to do this?

i know i need a template of some sort, how would i link this to articles?

is dreamweaver + coldfusion sufficiant for this?

anyone know of any tutorials on how to setup such a system?

thanks for you help

 

[iSaint]

Microshoft Word has some decent templates to guide you along the way. Not sure about AppleWorks. I think dreamweaver and coldfusion are more for web services. Quark is the preferred design software for Mac systems. I can do a lot in a word processor, but a more experienced design person can work with Quark much better.

 

[evil_santa]

I make a newsletter of a riding club, I get submissions as word documents or emails. Then I put them together using Adobe Indesign. I email the finnished newsletter as a pdf.

 

[fox2005]

hi, i was wondering if anyone knew how to make a newsletter


where do i start? i have googled it, but i havent got anywhere

what sort of system would i need to setup to do this?

i know i need a template of some sort, how would i link this to articles?

is dreamweaver + coldfusion sufficiant for this?

anyone know of any tutorials on how to setup such a system?

thanks for you help

First thing, print or web?

if it is print you can pay me and i'll do it, if it's web the same...

 

[Uma888]

First thing, print or web?

if it is print you can pay me and i'll do it, if it's web the same...

Im not willing to pay you anything, if you can guide me on how i can setup everything (i.e make everything run smoothly, the most i can push in you direction is £150, sry im a student , and NO i havent asked a professional)

it has to be web based, must be available to every browser without problems (table errors or css errors), reaching 6000+ clients who also should have the ability to comment on any article, and view archived articles

Im in a windows environment (for 30 days ), so quark and apple works are out the question

i might have confused you before, but i need methods not ideas (sry for being an ass), everrything design wise is sorted, including content for the first 7 issues + flash animations ect, i just neeed advice on how to run the service, i.e how i can make things work, e.g do i need a server, and upload a new issue every week to the server then email it out? would i need a server to host all the past articles? etc.

again, sry for being an ass, i realy need some help with this.

 

[wordmunger]

Sounds like what you really want is a blog. See, for example the two blogs listed in my .sig. Mainly what you need is some understanding of HTML and CSS. There are also templates available so you don't need to design everything for yourself. If you use WordPress for your blog (like I do), then there's a tutorial here. Lots of others are available through Googling.

 

[njmac]

Sounds like what you really want is a blog. See, for example the two blogs listed in my .sig. Mainly what you need is some understanding of HTML and CSS. There are also templates available so you don't need to design everything for yourself. If you use WordPress for your blog (like I do), then there's a tutorial here. Lots of others are available through Googling.

I'm sure you'll find out too that Blogs are easy, inexpensive, and very flexible.

 

[Uma888]

Sounds like what you really want is a blog. See, for example the two blogs listed in my .sig. Mainly what you need is some understanding of HTML and CSS. There are also templates available so you don't need to design everything for yourself. If you use WordPress for your blog (like I do), then there's a tutorial here. Lots of others are available through Googling.

After having looked at wordpress (mac only, but that wont matter), i think this solves my problem. ill look into "blogging" as this is very silimar to my idea of the newsletter.

would users have to register to add comments, cause it would be ideal (there are morons out there who just add bullsh*t comments)

one little snag though, would users recieve this as an email?

and how much hosting (space + bandwith) would this require (obtaining the domain wont be a problem)?

again thanks for your help

 

[rendezvouscp]

After having looked at wordpress (mac only, but that wont matter), i think this solves my problem. ill look into "blogging" as this is very silimar to my idea of the newsletter.

would users have to register to add comments, cause it would be ideal (there are morons out there who just add bullsh*t comments)

one little snag though, would users recieve this as an email?

and how much hosting (space + bandwith) would this require (obtaining the domain wont be a problem)?

again thanks for your help

WordPress is a good solution for what you're looking for. I use WordPress for my blog, which currently uses the default theme (but changing the theme to your own in WordPress is very easy).

I'm not sure what you mean by "mac only," since WordPress is all web based and doesn't run on your computer.

In WordPress, you can make it so that users have to register to post comments (it's a simple click of a button in the preferences).

There probably is a plug-in (a file that adds functionality to WordPress) available to send out posts via e-mail, you might want to check out the WordPress Codex to find one.

Running what you want for ~6000 clients will take a relatively small amount of bandwidth. Here's the math that's possible, but it could be completely off for what you'll actually use:

6000 clients, at one page load every three days in a 30 day month, with the page at an approximate 100 KB per page:

6000 clients * 10 (3/30) days * 100 KB / 1,000,000 (to change to GB) = 6 GB of bandwidth

Now, that's assuming quite a bit: all 6000 clients have one page load every three days, and every page is 100KB. Your clients may load the page every week, or every day. Maybe they'll comment quite often, and you'll have a few page loads to every client every few days. You might take your file size down quite a bit, and only have to deal with 50 KB for every page (which is entirely possible using CSS and semantic XHTML). There are a lot of variables, but hopefully that gives you an idea. In your case, a Small plan at
A Small Orange would take care of all of your needs at a relatively low price with outstanding support.

I hope this helps and leads you in the right direction.
-Chase

 

[davecuse]

If you're looking to send out email newsletters, and want the most flexibility as well as ease of use you might want to check out something like:

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/

I'm not sure what your HTML abilities are, but they offer a pretty straightforward approach. If this is not appropriate let us know your abilities so that someone can recommend a solution appropriate for you.

If it were me, I would search around SourceForge to see if there are any suitable open source options, or alternatively just set up a blog. However if you're not familiar with any web programming languages, a paid service is going to be the way to go.

 

[Uma888]

If you're looking to send out email newsletters, and want the most flexibility as well as ease of use you might want to check out something like:

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/

I'm not sure what your HTML abilities are, but they offer a pretty straightforward approach. If this is not appropriate let us know your abilities so that someone can recommend a solution appropriate for you.

If it were me, I would search around SourceForge to see if there are any suitable open source options, or alternatively just set up a blog. However if you're not familiar with any web programming languages, a paid service is going to be the way to go.

Thanks for the link, but i think the costs would spiral out of controll , never the less its an excellent idea / suggestion and is much appricated

i will be using wordpress and will be getting hosing from "a small orange". that fits nicely in to my estimated bandwith/cost/budget.

thanks for all the input and all the help (its put me into the right direction, eslecially "wordmunger" who suggested the idea of a blog) , i really appricate it.