The decision as to whether to carry paid advertising, and if so, how much, is another policy decision that should be made while your newsletter is still in the planning stages. Some purists feel that advertising corrupts the image of the newsletter and may influence editorial policy. Most people accept advertising as a part of everyday life, and don't care one way or the other.



Many newsletter publishers, faced with rising production costs and viewing advertising as a means of offsetting those costs, welcome paid advertising. Generally the advertisers see the newsletter as a vehicle to a captive audience, and well worth the cost.

The only problem with accepting advertising in your newsletter would appear to be that as your circulation grows, so will your number of advertisers, until you'll have to increase the size of your newsletter to accommodate the advertisers. At this point, the basic premise or philosophy of the newsletter often changes from news and practical information to one of an advertiser's showcase.

Promoting your newsletter, finding prospective buyers and converting these prospects into loyal subscribers, will be the most difficult task of your entire undertaking. It takes detailed planning, persistence and patience.

You'll need a sales letter. Check the sales letter you receive in the mail; analyze how these are written and pattern yours along the same lines. You'll find all of them - all those worthy of being called sales letters - following the same formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action on the part of the reader - AIDA.

Jump right in at the beginning and tell the reader how he's going to benefit from your newsletter, and then keep emphasizing right on through your "PS", the many and different benefits he'll gain from subscribing to your newsletter. Elaborate on your listing of benefits with examples of what you have, or you intend to include, in your newsletter.

Follow these examples with endorsements or testimonials from reviewers and satisfied subscribers. Make the recipient of your sales letter feel that you're offering him the answer to all his problems on the subject of your newsletter.

You have to make your prospect feel that "this is the insider's secret" to the success he wants. Present it to him as his own personal key to success, and then tell him how far behind his contemporaries he is going to be if he doesn't act upon your offer immediately.

Always include a "PS" in your sales letter. This should quickly restate to the reader that he can start enjoying the benefits of your newsletter by acting immediately, and very subtly suggesting that he may not get another chance to get the kind of "success help" you're offering him with this sales letter.

Don't worry about the length of your sales letter - most are four pages or more; however, it must flow logically and smoothly. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, indented paragraphs, and lost of sub-heads for the people who will be "scanning through" your sales letter.