In this edition of Web Enlightenment we'll be talking about a way to publish E-Newsletters - set it and forget it.

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Set it, and forget it.

As you are reading this newsletter I am in Baltimore, MD getting ready to give a speech to the Mailorder Gardening Association, the title is Website Analytics Demystified.

The next edition of this newsletter comes out in 2 weeks, and on that day I'll be speaking to the Maine Landscape and Nursery Association. Two weeks after that is February 2nd, and I'll be providing a workshop at the Governor's Conference on Tourism.

On February 16th I plan to actually be on vacation, my birthday is that week and I hope to go somewhere a bit tropical. Long story short the next time I'll actually be in my office when this publication goes out is on March the 2nd, 2010.

I swear I didn't do this on purpose, it just happened this way.
But - it did get me thinking about you - and an often overlooked E-Newsletter publishing tactic.

For each of these newsletters I'll be "setting and forgetting" them and the advantage of doing this is that it lets folks publish on a regular schedule without fail. I've even seen companies setup a whole year's worth of publications in advance and have it all go off without a hitch.

"Set it and Forget It" is a pretty common marketing phrase but the person most associated with it is of course Ron Popeil and his Ronco Rotisserie Ovens. If you have a fondness for super cheesy late night television you can find a clip right here on YouTube.

A brief note if you are wondering how this is done - if you aren't wondering go ahead and skip to the next paragraph. I use a service bureau to send my E-Newsletter called Constant Contact, but I've never heard of an E-Newsletter sending machine that does not do this. When I login and setup my publication to send it allows me to schedule it to be sent in the future. Whatever date and time I pick the machine sends out the message.

Now - there are an awful lot of potential problems with setting up publications far in advance. People really don't like doing it and will often roll their eyes at this suggestion. There are some real dangers here and you have to be careful about not using material that is overly time sensitive. Last summer I'll bet it would have seemed like a great idea for a golf site to profile Tiger Woods - and we do sometimes see publications that make errors like that.

But here is the problem - most Entrepreneurs are awful at publishing on a regular or dependable schedule. They send publications when they "remember" to do so - you know, the good old we send our publication "approximately quarterly but more like three times a year" cha-cha we so often see. If you have never been guilty of this you surely know someone who is.

And that my friends - that is real and seriously genuine damage to how well your publication works. We all know that we are trying to build a relationship by communicating this way and that can only be done over time. That means that if you don't deliver on a regular basis in the exact way you said you would - well, it's awful. All of your effort on content, design, delivery - a lot of that is wasted.

It'd be like exercising every day but also having a dozen or so twinkies at lunchtime.

If you must choose between timely information and regular publishing that is no choice at all, go ahead and setup all 12 of your monthly newsletters for 2010 in the next week.

The key to setting up publications in advance is to avoid material that is overly time sensitive. Direct mentions of recent headlines or changes in your industry are a bad idea - you want to stick with items that are tried and true.

There is no doubt that "Set It and Forget It" publishing has some problems, and many would argue it is not as effective as producing issues with timely information.

It is best to think of this tactic like those "convenience" vegetables in the grocery store - are a bagged salad and carrots that have been pre-washed ever going to taste as good as farm grown fresh veggies? No way. But they are vegetables and when your other option is none they start to look pretty gosh darn good.

If you know you'll have problems getting your publication out on a regular basis consider giving this a try, I have seen it work very well for many companies in the past.

The Way To Think
A road map for Internet Entrepreneurs

This fall I mentioned that my book would be published at the end of this year. As is often the case with large projects I have experienced some delays but I do expect the book will be available this spring.

Thank you to everyone who has offered suggestions and thoughts for improvement, I really appreciate it.

"The Way To Think" teaches and guides Internet Entrepreneurs and those responsible for marketing web-oriented business on how to think about the web in a new and different way. The reader will learn principle-based thinking and a method to continuously evaluate new technologies using very simple and proven methods.