from the outlook PM: “The reason for this lies in the benefit Outlook users gain by having Word as their e-mail authoring tool; rich tools like SmartArt, automatic styles and templates, and other benefits found in Word 2007 and 2010 enable Outlook users to write professional looking and visually stunning messages.” great. so we have to put up with crap html-rendering to make sure that people can use bright pink comic sans and backgrounds of dancing penguins. thanks, guys.

I like the idea of designing the header for the preview pane.

I'd like to do this with the monthly newsletter. talk to boss about this.

(need to check on external vendor....)

2 ideas I want to try.

damn good questions.

fun with outlook/exchange.

"Automatically opting members in to electronic newsletters — and opting them out of snail mail campaigns." -- that 2nd half is the "radical" bit, from what I've seen.

this is a good idea. html email is a PITA to do.

I might try that next time.

I don't need this very often, but when I need it, I really need it.

for HTML email.

I really like the last one. (Oh, heck. it's already the middle of the month, and I haven't started on October yet.)

"it's not going anywhere and it's broken" -- excellent case for standards in html email. "people", btw, seem to really like email with graphics, colors, etc.

mmmm...math....

I ::heart:: Campaign Monitor.

a wealth of info here, for later.

don't send people email they don't want. :)

wanna know what people want out of a newsletter? ask them. (who'da thunk?!)

hey, this is useful. I'm 3 months in on the work newsletter, and starting to figure out the regular flow.

hey, a whole new batch! may have to put some of these to work....

"Email Newsletters Are the Preferred Information Source for Small and Medium Businesses"

I researched and wrote this (and my boss edited it) for our last email newsletter. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, and how many of our members clicked through to read it. (Not that I actually follow all of my own advice....)

Yeah, yeah, so I'm becoming an evil marketer. At least I'm trying to be sincere and open in what I do.

that's rad. makes me wish I were still developing for drupal regularly.

a cautionary tale in dealing with highly suspicious and anti-marketing geeks.

also, a reminder that I need to set up a subscription form.

hrm. the things that make Campaign Monitor neat-o also make it a little problematic.

mostly related to managing addresses!

for giggles, look at their RSSLogix product; however, apparently last fall their web survey product worked very well at work.

useful stuff for the future. (also, how's MailChimp's service?)

I used to subscribe to both of these. I'd forgotten about them, and I should probably sign up again!

More comparable to Campaign Monitor. Might be worth additional research.

looks nice, very friendly, but I'm not psyched about the pricing.

additional take on the whole Outlook '07 madness.

from the comments: "Thanks, Microsoft. Once again you prove to be the worst company on earth."

in glorious detail

or more properly: add AJAX spiciness to a mailing list signup form.

a clever idea to try in November's newsletter!

should I go?

I agree: the writing in this is really engaging!

people scan, use extra mailboxen, etc. nothing surprising, but a good reminder.

continued....

so help me $DEITY, this is what I'm working on now.

for 5.6+