About Your Service
Which newsletter service do you use?
Constant Contact
How long have you been using this service?
Since about 2004
Are you a convert from another service and, if so, why?
I’ve used Constant Contact from the beginning because it came highly recommended and because I wanted a double opt-in feature to decrease the likelihood that my newsletter would end up in Spam folders.
How did you choose it (ie: what criteria were important to you?)
I chose it because Randy Ingermanson recommended it and because it had a double opt-in feature as well as automatic features that make it easy to maintain the readership list.
What do you like best about it? The worst?
Love the double opt-in feature, the templates and the tutorials that Constant Contact sends out. I don’t really have a “worst” but it was a learning curve to navigate since I wasn’t familiar with it. I believe CC has improved those features to make navigation easier for technologically challenged individuals.
What, if anything, is the cost?
No cost until you reach certain subscriber base. I believe you can have up to 500 subscribers before there is an option to continue to build past that. The fees are extremely affordable for the service and convenience Constant Contact provides.
About Your Newsletters
How often do you send a newsletter (or how many have you sent so far)?
Quarterly, each season, or less. I know how inundated my Inbox is and respect how busy people’s lives are so I try not to bombard subscribers’ inboxes.
What is the purpose of your newsletter?
To show readers how much I appreciate and value them. Also provide goodies exclusive to subscribers plus book news such as signings, new releases and exclusive insight on what I’m currently working on. I love offering readers the chance to give input on future books. I also invite readers to send prayer requests.
How easy (or difficult!) do you find creating your newsletters? Why?
My opinion is that it’s very easy, considering how technologically challenged I was when I started.
What do you always try to include in each letter?
The above mentioned things: Bible verse, features on readers, their pets, their recipes. I want my newsletter to be about my readers more than about me, but I do realize they are interested in book news, so I include upcoming release information as well as current book projects, events and appearances that enable me to engage with readers.
About Your Subscription Base
How do your subscribers find your email sign up?
By visiting my website and inputting their contact information in the space provided. I do not share that information with any third party, other than perhaps my author assistant who sometimes helps with my newsletter formatting. She understands how important to me it is to preserve the privacy of my subscribers’ information and I never send newsletters out unsolicited.
Here is one of my newsletters which people can preview which has some yummy reader-sent recipes in it: December 2010 Newsletter
Do you offer an incentive for new subscribers?
I have lots of goodies that are exclusive to my newsletter subscribers. Lots of giveaways and opportunities to provide input in future books and characters. I’m working on a new feature for new subscribers and current ones, which is free newsletter fiction reads.
Are your subscribers the same people who are your Facebook fans, or who follow your blog or Twitter?
There is some crossover, but not entirely. Each newsletter I try to include my Facebook and Twitter links in case people want to interact with me more frequently than quarterly.
About Cheryl
Cheryl Wyatt is convinced that being born on Valentine’s Day on a Naval base destined her to write military romance. Her Love Inspired debuts earned RT Top Picks plus #1 and #4 on Harlequin’s Top 10 Most-Blogged-About-Books, lists including NYT Bestsellers. Her Wings of Refuge series books garnered a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, a Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence final and other awards. A longtime RN, Cheryl uses her nursing skills on short-term overseas humanitarian media and medical missions. She considers readers a tremendous blessing and loves interacting with them.
For more info, join her newsletter in the space provided at her website. Join the fun on her Facebook page by “Liking” it. “Follow” her on Twitter. A mentor at heart, she provides frequent free writing prompts for aspiring writers on her blog. She is agented by Joel Kneedler at Alive Communications.
Interested in seeing reviews of other newsletter services? They’re all here in the newsletter category. Valerie Comer uses and enjoys YMLP. You can sign up for her newsletter here.
