When preparing an article for distribution for use in as part of an autoresponder series, there is more to consider than mere content. Of course, good grammar and punctuation are necessary for your email to make a good impression on your audience. However, even the details of how you format your article are important.



The Character Count

The character count is important. What I mean is how many letter and number and spaces are on each line. Each email program and computer is different. If you use seventy five characters per line but the person who receives it has a program that only shows seventy character per line then they will get a broken up message. Those five extra characters will get kicked to a new line all by themselves. Then the viewer sees a line of seventy followed by five followed by seventy. You get the picture and have probably gotten emails like it. The best way to avoid this mess is to limit your lines to sixty to sixty five characters.

Font Style

Font style is equally important. Standards are not the best. The standards like New Times Roman and Aria fonts have variable width to each character. An I for example is not as wide as a W. This can also wind up with character kicked to the next line and ruining the look for you messages. You need to choose a fixed character with font. Choose a ten point size. Fixed width fonts are sometimes called monospace fonts. These fonts include type faces such as Courier and Letter Gothic. You would use Courier 12 size to get exactly ten characters per line.

Do Not Rely on Your Email Program to Wrap Text

It is often over looked but letting your program wrap you text for you could ruin the look of the email. Instead hit enter, a hard return, after each sixty to sixty five characters. Use Microsoft Word to compose your messages. It has a view at the bottom that displays what line and character number you are on. You can also use a guide at the top but be sure to remove it once you are finished before you save and send your message.

Saving Your Message

When you save your message you should either save it in plain text or Rich Text Format as these will work and be viewed correctly on any computer but other files may not be. Rich Text Format will allow you to save and use bold and italics where as the plain text will not. Use save as and in the drop down menu you can select the file type to save your message as.

Ways to Make Your Messages More Effective

Try to use a catchy title as the subject. Most people read the subject and decide to delete or open right then. If you do not use a good subject line then your email may be deleted as junk or even routed directly to junk mail by their email host. Think of what you delete as spam and avoid those kinds of subject lines. Instead try to make the subject line seem more personal.