Writing a newsletter and want it to bomb big time? Use these guaranteed tricks of the trade to get your readers cursing you to high heavens in no time.
1. Put everyone’s address in the “To:” field of the email you send out. That’s right. Show absolutely no respect for your audience’s privacy by violating the most basic email etiquette.
2. Make getting on the subscription list easy and getting off a huge pain in the ass. While this sounds like a good idea for brute forcing customers into your list, it’s also one of the easiest ways to earning a negative reputation. You don’t want any part of that.
3. Use every paragraph of your newsletter as a platform for selling something. Want to show subscribers you’re not really interested in anything, except making another buck at their expense? This is how you do it.
4. Add links without double-checking them. You add links in your newsletter to either share information or lead them to one of the products you’re promoting. When you mistakenly put in the wrong links (and, believe me, it happens often enough), you end up accomplishing neither of that. Worse, your readers ends up disappointed because you got them excited about something (like a breakthrough piece of information), but never delivered.
5. Add people’s emails to your list without their knowledge. Sure, buying opt-in lists and tricking users into dumping their emails your way are all legal. Being lawful doesn’t mean that people enjoy finding their addresses traded that way, though. In fact, majority of them resent it and they’ll feel the same way about your newsletter because of it.
6. Don’t proofread. While some people will forgive writing mistakes if your newsletter actually contains useful information, it can turn off others to the point that they won’t even bother reading. At the least, use a simple grammar and spelling checker.
