Hello Peggie,

First off, welcome to the forums.

Second, Do you know what resources you have access to? Such as, what tools will you be using to build the site, will your domain have access to a database, and if so do you know what kind of database it is, and most importantly, what is your domain name?

Sending out a newsletter from a domain isn't inherently a difficult thing to do, though it can be confusing if you're just starting out.

I'm willing to help out, as I'm sure many others here are.

Paul,

Thank you! I was hoping someone would help. I have done websites before, but they have not been like what I am trying to do here. Some were for classes I was taking and some for others. The one I am working on now is www.followingtheson.com I only have a one page coming soon up now. My site is going to have a section for Spiritual walking, thus the following the Son and then a section about other things, to show Christians can have fun. I will be having affliliate ads on some and maybe google ads on the fun parts.

These are the catagories in my control panel. Some I know what they are for, others I have not used. Want to learn, but have not as of now. I feel a bit dumb /blink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" /> compared to those of you on here, but I sure would like to learn from you. Thanks for letting me "pick your brains".

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Thanks again.
Peggie

Great! I think the best way to start here is to take two steps.

1. Figure out the format of your newsletter (html vs. plain text).
2. Set up a MySQL database. If you don’t know how to do that already, most hosts provide a short tutorial on what needs to be done. Some hosts will even set it up for you if you send them a ticket with the request. We need the database to store all of your subscriber’s contact information. Yes it is possible to do this without the database, but once we start getting into more advanced topics you’ll be glad that it’s set up.

Again assuming this is your first database, you can google for tutorials for MySQL and phpMyAdmin. ( a handy tool for MySQL )

If you have any questions, just let me know.

Offtopic, but welcome to CWM, Peggie, and I just wanted to add: all of us here are learning about something, and all of us ask questions of one another on some topic. No one knows it all, and some here started as complete newbies and are now advising others. You could end up doing that, too! I think most of us have asked questions that later seemed, well, kinda dumb! /lmaosmiley.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":biglaugh:" border="0" alt="lmaosmiley.gif" /> (me, for one) But please don't call yourself dumb; it's just stuff you haven't learned yet. The forums are here to help for that very reason!

Peggie, for a simple newsletter, you might like Campaign Monitor. We use them for our church newsletter, just to save the hassle of managing the mailing list, and to utilize their very accomplished reporting structure, etc.

The process for publishing the newsletter is simple as well. With Campaign Monitor, you just build a web page with your newsletter content and then add the link to your campaign. They pull the content from the page and create a newsletter out of it. While the newsletter is being created and sent, they incorporate all the legalities for keeping your newsletter in compliance with the law. (Unsubscribe links, etc.)

Here's one of our recent newsletters for an example.

Of course, you can manually setup a newsletter system and over the long haul that could prove to be more valuble. But if you want to get your feet wet and possibly find a system that works for you, Campaign Monitor might help.

Essentially it's a little more than $5 per mailout. (1 cent per email + $5 flat.) Our church does a quarterly newsletter, so that cost is nominal to us. If you wanted to do a daily or weekly newsletter, the cost might be a little much.

Have a look at Constant Contact. They are great with newsletters and such. They can keep up with deliveries, problems, subscriptions, unsubscribe requests, etc. Well worth a look.

justme

Thank you all who replied! I am going to check out all of these. I would like to learn to use the database and do it myself if I can, but glad for other options. I had no idea.

Now, I am just getting the site up and still working on many of the pages. At what point do I offer the newsletter? Should I wait till I have the site done and then add that? Obviously I will not add anything till I know what I am doing,,, which may take me some time. I guess I wondered how far into the working of the site do I wait. I am planning on putting the site up a few pages at a time and just continually working on it. Do you folks wait till you have it done and then put it all up or put it up pages at a time? I have done both, but hate to have navigation and then have it go no where if the site is not finished. I have put the nav up little at a time before, but that can be a pain too.

Thanks for all the help and the welcome. I guess I should go to introductions and introduce myself, huh?

Peggie

You might just find some of the ideas on this page useful:

http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/newsletters.php

blessings

Tony

Tony,

Thanks, the info looks like it will be good . I have not had much time to work on things the last few days since my daughter with 4 girls and 1 boy asked me to make the girls their Christmas dresses! Somehow the web site has gone lower in priority for this week anyway.

I will be looking the site over during my sewing breaks and in the evening, but it sure seems to have some good stuff. /thumbsupsmiley.png" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumbs:" border="0" alt="thumbsupsmiley.png" />

Thanks!
Peggie