So, I am thinking about starting an eNewsletter but am not sure how to go about this. I am wanting to take a stab at writing. I am not much of a writer but feel that if it is something I feel strongly and passionate about it should come naturally to me.
Any how, I am looking for advice, tips and pointers on what I should include in this business letter, how to write it and set it up. Should it include pictures to grab its readers interest? What should I not do when writing it? I am wanting to connect with potential clients and thought that since I have alot of traffic on my website every week this would be a great starting point. Any advice would be awesome. I am so new to it that I want to be ready before I jump in head first!

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Have a fantastic day! Dekota
Aspiring VA

You can use your VAF blog and try your hand at writing articles their and asking for feedback. This way you are keeping your articles here and getting feedback from your peers.

I hope that helps,
Andrea

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Action Jackson Virtual Assistant|

Figure out what your clients need most for tips (organization, time management, marketing...) Then you create an article that will help them. Then you create your focus area or special that you offer that will help them out if they hire you.

Remember that you can only email people that you have had some form of contact with in the past.

MailChimp is a free email marketing site that allows you to have 500 contacts and send 3000 emails a month. You can join at http://www.mailchimp.com With MailChimp you can also hook up a sign-up form for your website to request your newsletters.

I originally created my newsletter on Publisher and found that I was not able to use it on MailChimp so I transformed it into a flyer to fax to potential clients. Attached you can find that newsletter to give you an idea of what you could do.

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Erika Glem
www.advadminsol.com Let my administrative solutions be to your advantage.

I know for me a newsletter would be waaaay too daunting to start my 'publishing' career! Have you thought about blogging at first to get comfortable with writing informational articles? My understanding is that with a combination of SEO and your current contacts you could create a pretty good draw of readers which, ultimately, may give you the email list for a newsletter.

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

There is great advice given here. One or more of these options will help you get started.

One thing I like to do is 'collect' copies of newsletters that I receive from others which I like in the way of format and article ideas. In fact, I saw an newsletter yesterday that was sent to me by someone on LinkedIn offering tips on writing business articles. I liked the way the newsletter was set up and how clearly developed the page was for the reader. Of course, I wouldn't copy that person's newsletter but I was comparing two-column v three-column and decided that a two-column was the way I wanted to go just by looking at examples from other newsletter authors.

So I suggest looking around for newsletters you like and breakdown components within those samples that you feel would best serve your purpose.

Janine

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WRITE FAB RFP PROPOSALS & land THE VA job. WinningRFP unveils soon! SignUp www.WinningRFP.com

Dekota, I wrote my first newsletter a little while back and I spent about a week on the web before that just looking at newsletters, how to articles, and researching SEO. I kept the tone folksey and fairly short. I just have to get the guts up to put it out there now. Nice to know I am not the only one worried about making sure it is GREAT before it goes out.

Good luck.

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~ Norma Guerin
DSA Virtual Assistant Services

I have a quarterly newsletter that I put out off my website. If someone requests a copy of it, I will email it to them in PDF format for free.

I do a newsletter for one of my clients and she uses Constant Contact. For a small fee you input your info in a pre-designed format that you chose. It's very easy to use and you can connect it to your website so that people can fill out a form and request that the newsletter be emailed to them.

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Elva Miranda, Virtual Assistant
Visit my Website

Thanks all for the advice on MailChimp and Constant Contact. Erika, you said you attached a newsletter. Don't see it. Did I miss something?
Vicky

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Vicky A Stein