I Am Totally Computer Stupid

witchofthekitchen · Posted: February 21, 2006, 6:39 am Post subject: I Am Totally Computer Stupid

The idea of a newsletter really appeals to me and is something that I am very much wanting to do; however, after reading all of the posts I am wondering what language you wonderful women are speaking in as I don't understand one word of any of it Embarassed

Can someone please talk "WAY DOWN" to me and explain the process as if you were talking to a toddler? Thank you so much - your old and almost senile sister in love -donna
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Lauren · Posted: February 21, 2006, 10:25 pm Post subject:

Donna-

I would be more than willing to walk/talk you through the process. I'm good at talking to toddlers (my boys are 2 and 5). I also consider myself an old dog (42), who has been able to learn lots of new tricks lately. Laughing

Why don't you start off with whatever questions you may have...remember, no question is a dumb question.

Let me know how I can help...
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witchofthekitchen · Posted: February 22, 2006, 9:27 am Post subject:

You asked for it

What is the best site to get a free template? That sounds like the first place to start. Please tell me if that is wrong.
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Walk your Path with the Light of Love Guiding your Way.

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Lauren · Posted: February 22, 2006, 10:47 pm Post subject:

Donna-

Honestly, I don't know of a best site to find free newsletter templates. The type of template will depend on if you plan to have a text-only vs. HTML format for your newsletter.

I did a Google search: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GWYA,GWYA:2005-32,GWYA:en&q=free+newsletter+templates and there seem to be alot of resources.

Take a look at some of those-hopefully you'll find something that will work for you.
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Lauren
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Holiday Wrap Party at MomChats! - Black Friday, Nov. 28th 10A-10P

Personalized Santa and Secret Santa Greetings
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Keep them believing for one more year!

Anita · Posted: February 23, 2006, 6:37 am Post subject:

I don't know of any free ones but a little selfless promotion here but I am a reseller of templates and they're only $5 each if that helps. You can view them at http://www.mommyshelperonline.com/website-templates.html

After you do get that taken care of, let me know and we can tackle this newsletter situation Wink

Take care,
Anita Smile

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Lauren · Posted: February 23, 2006, 8:02 am Post subject:

Can I say "duh"-I should have mentioned that to you Donna. There are several templates there specifically for newsletters. Can I say "duh"-because I purchased one of them several weeks back that I plan to use with my new site's newsletter. Rolling Eyes

The one I have has interchangeable graphics, so if I want I can give it a different look each month.
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Lauren
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Holiday Wrap Party at MomChats! - Black Friday, Nov. 28th 10A-10P

Personalized Santa and Secret Santa Greetings
SendSantaGreetings.com
Keep them believing for one more year!

karadawn · Posted: February 23, 2006, 8:10 am Post subject:

There's a heavy debate over HTML vs. Text. For your first newsletter and if you have limited knowledge of HTML, I suggest a text newsletter.

So going with text, a template you need not worry about. Basically you'll just want a nice outline of the newsletter broken down into sections. Even in our HTML newsletter, we still use things like this for headers and to separate each section:

~~~~~~~~~~~
Section Header
~~~~~~~~~~~

Now of course you will need all the "elements", which are:

- Ezine Name
- Date
- Content/Sections
- Your Name
- Publication & Contact Information (SPAM law - address, phone, email is a MUST)
- Subscription information (done automatically by my favorite mailing list provider, YMLP.com, which is also a MUST because of Spam laws)

To get an idea of how we layout our newsletters, you can look at the one that was just sent out today. Note the contact information and subscription information is not here because it's just a message board post:
http://mommyshelperonline.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3580
Normally the contact information and subscription information would be at the bottom.

Now there's some optional things you could do with your newsletter, such as having a table of contents. Our first and largest newsletter has a TOC because of it's size. Now this one is in HTML and much more complicated, but this is what it looks like when it's sent out:
http://www.momsezine.com/issue117.html
(Don't let it intimidate you - we've spent 3 years tweeking that one!)
Actually the print version of that one doesn't even have a TOC, so really it IS optional.

All that's left is really deciding what to put into your newsletter. Making a layout for it is pretty simple. Wink

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Anita · Posted: February 23, 2006, 4:39 pm Post subject:

witchofthekitchen · Posted: February 24, 2006, 12:22 am Post subject:

Thanks for all of the help and suggestions! You are all on a really helpful roll for me! I just checked out the one from the last post and it is very similar to the "practice" one that I did the other night. Is there any way that I can get someone's email addy so I can send a copy of what I did to them? I don't know how to put "links" into anything. Is there any help for an old woman with that problem? Confused

_________________
Walk your Path with the Light of Love Guiding your Way.

www.mytupperware.com/witchofthekitchen

Lauren · Posted: February 24, 2006, 1:43 am Post subject:

Donna-

Links within a text-only newsletter are really easy. All you have to do is put the entire URL (web-address) like http://www.mommyshelperonline.com and it should show as an active link within the newletter. You have to make sure you include http:// at the beginning of the URL-it makes the link more active (read or understood by more internet servers)

Does that answer your question? That would be the only way you could have a link within a text-only newsletter. Am I right ladies? If you wanted a hidden link, within your content like Mommys Helper Online that would require HTML codes,etc.-not possible in text only versions.

HTH (hope that helps Smile

)
_________________
Lauren
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Holiday Wrap Party at MomChats! - Black Friday, Nov. 28th 10A-10P

Personalized Santa and Secret Santa Greetings
SendSantaGreetings.com
Keep them believing for one more year!

karadawn · Posted: February 24, 2006, 2:04 am Post subject:

Exactly right! Links in a text newsletter show up automatically as long as you include http://, but to have something like Mommy's Helper Online it would have to be a HTML newsletter because that's not possible with plain text. Wink

_________________
~Kara Kelso~
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Anita · Posted: February 24, 2006, 3:31 am Post subject:

And if you were to use HTML coding in an HTML version of something ...

The code for Mommy's Helper Online would look something like this: