Confessions of a passionate e-newsletter publisher: start small, think big. (Online publishing).

An impressive resume (formerly Web Content Marketing Manager for Network Solutions Inc.) and education (B.A. from Harvard, M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, M.B.A from Georgetown University,) doesn't hurt.

But when it comes to launching an e-newsletter, nothing beats hard work, passion, and the bitter lessons of experience. That's how Debbie Weil explains the launch of WordBiz Brief.

She began publishing WBB last July, hoping to leverage the success of her regular column for ClickZ on b-to-b e-mail marketing and to generate more leads for her b-to-b consulting and copywriting business, WordBiz.com Inc., www.wordbiz.com.

In the back of her mind, however, was the idea that the e-newsletter might take off on its own as a paid subscription product--and not just a marketing vehicle for her company.

The launch

As she wrote in her ClickZ column in July ("Anatomy of an E-Newsletter Launch"), "After talking the talk, it was time to walk the walk....

"Naively, I thought I had the steps figured out. Step one is to promote the e-newsletter with a great offer and thus acquire subscribers. And step two wouldn't be too hard: Type up an interview, throw in some choice factoids and a few hands-on tips--and hit Send.

"But oh," she continued in her article, "the number of steps in between. Still, if there were a battle cry for launching an e-newsletter, it would be this: Just do it!"

Within the first month, more than 1,000 people signed up. She now has more than 3,500 subscribers and offers the e-newsletter in both text-only and HTML.

The focus is great copywriting for the web and the internet, offering what she describes as "best-practice examples, handson tips, and 'smart thinking' about how you can tie copy and content to the bottom line."

No "bullet-proof editorial agenda"

She admits that she did not start out with a "bullet-proof editorial agenda," nor did she have a long-term business plan for the newsletter. She figured the editorial content would evolve over time and with feedback from readers, which it has.

It's becoming more personality-driven--which she said was a surprise to her. Readers seem to like her "voice." Even big-time readers, she said, like Seth Godin, www.sethgodin.com (the "inventor" of permission-based e-mail marketing and the author of the recent Unleashing the Indeavirus) have good things to say about WBB. In a testimonial on Weil's web site, he writes:

"If you're in the business of selling (or even giving away) your words, you've got to pay attention to Debbie Weil and wordbiz. Anything else is malpractice."

She told NL/NL that the revenue model would evolve as well. Advertising? Yes, a no-brainer. Paid subscriptions? Still not clear. This is still uncharted territory for digital information products, she stated.

Equally important to Weil, as an online marketing expert, was to observe all the tenets of best-practice e-mail marketing. Offer an incentive to sign up, make it easy to unsubscribe or change one's e-mail address, and use a Welcome (confirmation) message as an opportunity to upsell other products or services (in her case, those of WordBiz.com).

Convert readers to paying subscribers?

But, as the circulation continues to grow, she is beginning to consider more seriously how she might convert her list to paid subscribers. She recently surveyed her readers on the issue of paid subscriptions. Using a link to an online survey, she asked them, "Do you currently have paid subscriptions to online content--either e-newsletters or web sites?" The response was heartening Weil reported. Thirty percent said, "Yes" (they do pay), while 70 percent said, "No."

However, the subscription products they pay for average $39 to $49 annually. Not enough, Weil feels, for "a substantive b-to-b publication with compelling content that truly offers value."

Pricing is a quandry, she admitted. But she's happy to take it on as her next challenge. "It's all perceived value," she said. "If a well-formatted text version or an attractive HTML version of an e-newsletter can be easily printed, hole-punched and filed away, why isn't it worth the hundreds of dollars subscribers pay for a similar print-only news-letter?"

Advertising

With her reputation from her ClickZ column, she was able to swap advertising and links "with fairly sophisticated companies." She said she was puzzled by their willingness to swap ads with her since she was just a start-up and they had thousands of subscribers, but she soon learned that it didn't come down to numbers and money. "I've learned that much on the internet is based on relationships rather than money."

More than money, she said, the costs for her are "time-time to research, to write, to edit."

The offer

For her offer, "I decided to use the "Guide to Copywriting" that I'd written," she said. "The original Word document could be dressed up and packaged as a downloadable PDF Yes, looks do count, especially for a free offer. And it needed a better title. How about this: 'Guide to Killer Copywriting on the Web.'"

She has succeeded in selling others' marketing reports and is going to be selling her own, principally her own repackaged material. And she's hired some-one who's beginning to sell ads.

Her models

Weil cited two web sites/e-newsletters she especially likes which have gone from free to paid. "Adventive.com started out totally free, with 15 different discussion groups, but they eventually said, 'Pay up.' And many did." The same for CEO- Express. corn, a home page with links to "everything." Both offer different levels of membership, varying from $29/year to $49.

She also closely watches the fortunes of two e-marketers and their eponymous e-newsletters, both founded in the mid-1990s: LarryChase.com and Ralph-Wilson.com.