"What's that Jim? You're discontinuing the gazette?"

Not a chance! But you still may never see another issue. Today's gazette explains why, and how you can avoid losing this and other newsletters you find valuable.

Oh, and if you're a newsletter publisher, you'll really want to read what follows...

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FACT: Email newsletter delivery rates are near an all-time low.

Why?

Spam.

Or more accurately, the war on spam.

In an effort slow the growing glut of junk email, ISP's, web hosts and software companies are doing some massive blocking and filtering. Inevitably, legitimate email messages, especially newsletters you've subscribed to, are being caught in the nets.

I will not use this space today to talk about the war on spam. Heck, I get literally THOUSANDS of junk emails a day, so I agree that SOMETHING has to be done. But while we're all waiting for the holy grail of spam solutions to come along, why not try something new?

Today I'd like to show you a couple solutions for subscribers and publishers. Both of these solutions allow subscribers to receive the content they've requested, and publishers to reach more of their subscribers.

1. RSS

One newsletter publishing solution that is gaining in popularity is called RSS. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, depending on who you ask.

RSS allows you to receive newsletters without the use of email. Actually, in order to benefit from it as a subscriber, you need to download a special RSS reader.

And to be frank, this is one reason I'm not a big fan of RSS.

But the bigger reason is that, in my opinion, RSS is too difficult for the average publisher to implement! That is, unless you're prepared to learn about things like scraping, XML, XPath expressions, div or span tags, Perl, Python or PHP, or XSLT.

Yeah, me either.

But maybe I'm just a techno-phobe. After all, there ARE many publishers migrating to this new platform. And the more publishers and subscribers who use it, the more viable it becomes. So we should also see simpler ways to implement it in the near future.

The fact is, RSS is being used by many publishers. So even though I'm not a fan, you may want to give it a shot.

If you'd like to get more information on RSS, here's a great RSS tutorial that explains all the technical details.

Or, if you'd like to try a simpler solution, read on...

2. InfoSyndicate

Are you familiar with browser toolbars? You know, the little bars that plug into your browser that give you quick search options and such?

Well a fellow by the name of Sid Hale has just released a toolbar for Internet marketing newsletter publishers and subscribers. It's called InfoSyndicate, and it is completely cost-free for both publishers and subscribers.

While this solution, like RSS, also requires subscribers to do a one-time download, this browser toolbar installs in seconds.

Once you've installed it, it reside in your browser just like any other toolbar. It gives you features like searching the web via Google and a few other goodies, including a clever newsletter "delivery service". Here's how that works....

In the toolbar, you select "request alerts" from the options menu. You are then taken to a web page where you can choose which newsletters you do not want to miss. Anytime a new issue is available at the publisher's website, you'll get a flashing "new issue" notification in your toolbar the next time you open your browser. You can then click directly to the most recent issue of your favorite newsletter(s).

Publishers can hook into InfoSyndicate at no cost as well, though they do have to be approved. You see, the network not only brings publishers and subscribers together, it handles quality control as well. This way you choose from only the best quality internet marketing newsletters.

As a BizWeb eGazette subscriber I invite you to get your free InfoSyndicate toolbar and you'll never miss another issue of this gazette. Publishers will find a signup link there as well.

I suspect that solutions like Sid's InfoSyndicate will crop up in other niches as well. In fact, I'm surprised it took so long to see such a simple yet effective solution arrive on the scene!

See ya in a few weeks...
- Jim Daniels - make-a-living-online.com - The "How to Make a Living Online" Website.

*** Jim Daniels is author of five Internet Marketing books and one of the few marketing experts who will consult with you personally, to ensure your success. (And he's actually affordable.) You can hire Jim here.

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