How can you get more people to open your emails? The answer is to take some time to explore what you are communicating and what the feedback is telling you. Here are some suggestions:

• Take a look at your content and other aspects of your mailings to see if this area needs improvement for enticing those no-shows to open up.
  
• Review your newsletter's stats after each mailing to learn about your readers' patterns. See what articles were clicked on and any other information that you can glean to improve your content. Run surveys to help get insight into what your readers are interested in.
  
• Fine-tune your from and subject line. Surveys have found that up to 60% of e-mails are opened based on the subject line, 40% on the from field. If the subject line isn't interesting or a familiar title, and/or the from field not recognisable - your e-mail will be deleted.
  
• Make sure there's a high 'WIFM' (What's In It For Me?). You have about eight seconds in that 'above the fold' part of the newsletter to get your reader to do the all-important scroll down the page and begin clicking.
  
• TOO much great information can be a bad thing; readers will open, think 'hey, good stuff, but too much to read now, I'll read it later' - and never get back to it.
  
• Of course, there are people who do read when they have the time, and in fact refer back to articles. Review your stats to find this pattern and keep links from past mailings active.
  
• Check your frequency. Quris reported that 68% of the respondents in their recent survey listed 'too frequently' as THE most annoying factor of a newsletter and/or mailings from a company.
  
• Research has shown the optimal number of times you need to email someone who is on your mailing list to get a response is six. Reasons it doesn’t get thru include - message got lost in an e-mail-packed mailbox, recipient deleted it by accident, someone else using the computer deleted it, person was too busy to respond, he was on vacation, she had to discuss it with someone else, he wanted to compare with other offers, it just didn't "strike" the recipient in the right way, she filed it for future review, he simply forgot about it, it was blocked by an ISP or user-installed software program

• Know your e-newsletter's goal. Do you to keep your name in front of prospects? Position yourself as an expert? Show samples of your work? It's your time -- and your dime. If you put out an e-newsletter, make sure it achieves your business goals.
  
• Don't send an e-newsletter as a mass mailing through Outlook, Eudora, or Entourage with all your recipients' names in the BCC field. You won't be able to track whether they open your message. You need an outside company to send the e-mail for you.
  
• Set up a publishing calendar and stick to it, such as the second Wednesday of each month. Many readers will actually look forward to your e-newsletter and expect to receive it on a regular schedule.
  
• Version your e-mail to different audiences. It doesn't take long and will increase your response rates when your e-newsletter shows relevance to your reader's needs and interests.
  
• If you're not a writer, include links to interesting articles from other sites or invite your colleagues to contribute articles. Lead off the e-newsletter with an editorial note from yourself, and be sure to include your photo for brand recognition.
  
• Keep on top of spam filter triggers. Instead of saying "free," say "no cost." If you sell products with red flag words such as "mortgage," put the word in an image, which is less likely to be picked up by spam filters.
  
• Link back to your Web site so you can track what your audience is really interested in.
  
• Review the data. You can find out what topics really resonated with people, and you can follow up individually with highly interested prospects.

Momentum Technologies LLC is a privately held Company headquartered in the Silicon Valley with offices in Mountain View, California and Denver, Colorado. The Company is a leading provider of electronic marketplace solutions for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer vertical markets.

Brett Figueora, the CEO of Momentum Technologies, makes this comment: "I have been a technoid for the past 5 years and I have seen to use or explored using most of the major newsletter development programs on the web. I have never ever and I mean never found or witnessed a program with such simplicities and usefulness. I am Using The Net's biggest fan."

Based in Canberra the Law Council of Australia is the peak body representing around 40,000 legal practitioners across Australia. The Law Council advises governments, courts and other federal agencies on ways in which the law and the justice system can be improved for the benefit of the community.

Reflecting on the implementation of our newsletter system Ben Caddaye, the editorial officer of the Law Council, made the following observations. "I found Using the Net's "create a newsletter" process very straightforward. In no time at all I was able to transform my raw text and images into a professional-looking publication. Then, within seconds of hitting the "send" button the first of the stats came in. It was very helpul (and somewhat addictive) to keep an eye on how many recipients had opened the newsletter and which articles perked their interest. The feedback from readers since the first issue was distributed has also been extremely positive. A number have already expressed interest in setting up similar html publications."