RE: [epub] Email: HTML vs. Text?...

["* Rev. G. M. Pace" <wicce@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:51 PM 7/24/00 -0500, Brian Alt wrote:
>Cool. Mainly, HTML becomes useful for making long URLs like affiliate 
>tracking codes, deep directory subcategories (like Yahoo! cats, for 
>example), and so on, into single-word or short-phrase links.

Right.  I have a bunch of affiliate links on my site, but rarely use them 
in my newsletters.  Something I should actually probably be doing more of, 
but haven't gotten around to.

>Good point. But could smaller "previews" of your images encourage 
>click-throughs to your site? Just a thought...

The images of tarot cards are, at 100% size ratio, already very small in 
terms of detailing and I provide scans of *six* cards with each review.  I 
have already found that thumbnails of something that intricate rarely even 
shows up (just little blobs) and unless they were thumbnail sized previews 
there'd be no point in reducing them at all, really...... besides, I do 
still want them to go to my site!  *wink*  if I give them all the stuff in 
the newsletter then I'm shooting myself in the foot site-wise!

>All of these ideas would need to run off CGI on your Web server.

Ok, that's something I've more or less avoided till now.  Eventually I will 
learn how to use it, but so far haven't needed it.

>I'm still looking for time to integrate recommendation forms directly into 
>an HTML newsletter. With Lyris, you can actually set the form to 
>automatically send from the subscriber's email address, while all he or 
>she would have to enter is the recipient's address. I'll let everyone know 
>when I get it done. Should be pretty cool :)

Yes, I will be interested in checking it out.

>Yes. I was thinking of sidebar navigation, or even a pull-down menu to 
>save space on the page.

Oh, I like the sound of that!

>It might surprise them. That *could* be a good thing :) Then again, it 
>might freak them out if they weren't expecting it.

LOL  Shock value goes a long way sometimes..... and sometimes it goes a 
long way towards the padded room!

>Ray touched on this. Many HTML email newsletters will pull graphics from 
>the Web, which allows you to track hits. This gets more sophisticated and 
>easier to track if you're using banner serving software of some kind.

Yes, I saved Ray's email actually cause the information is something I'd 
like to use down the road a bit.

>That's a cool benefit of publishing the HTML, that if you do archive your 
>content, you won't need to re-create the pages. Just slap the HTML version 
>of your newsletter up there.

That *would* come in handy.

>And archiving in HTML, as you do, is a great idea for publishers who don't 
>want to push the HTML through email.

Exactly!  Very simple and straightforward.

>Yes, please let us know how it went.

So far so good.  One thing I've noticed is that for every 50 people who get 
ASKED their opinion, only one or two answer, so we'll see how many actually 
respond.  LOL

>I don't mean to sound like an HTML fanatic either :)  But I suspect that 
>many email publishers might be overlooking the benefits of publishing HTML 
>simply because they either don't like to receive it themselves or don't 
>know how to create an good-looking HTML newsletter. I don't want folks who 
>are considering publishing in HTML to become discouraged and miss out on 
>publishing what might be a ground breaking rich-text ezine.

You don't sound like a fanatic.  You sound...... passionate.  *grin*

>I'm not interested in changing the minds of anyone dead-set against HTML 
>email. After all, for many ezine topics, an HTML version would be 
>overkill. Giving your audience a choice, though, is seldom a bad idea.

If I were that dead-set, you *couldn't* possibly change my mind.  LOL  But 
it's given me food for thought, something I appreciate even when I seem 
like I am resistant at the time.  LOL

>I wouldn't send you an email in HTML, unless you specifically requested an 
>HTML version of one of the ezines I publish. At that point, I would expect 
>you to open it, read it thoroughly, and then send me an email telling me 
>how much you liked it! ;-)

Someday maybe I'll do that!  *wink*

>HTML does not belong in email discussion lists, as it will only cause a 
>nightmare of formatting problems when replied to, etc. I'm *only* an 
>advocate of HTML email in a publisher-controlled, one-way medium.

OK.

>True. But again, I am addressing opt-in email publishing, not spam.  Spam 
>is bad, with or without HTML.

Spam BAD!  Money GOOD!  LOL  (Sorry, bad Metallica reference there -- if 
you haven't seen it, go to http://www.campchaos.com and load the little 
video busting on Metallica suing Napster)

>Every time you view a Web page, you're downloading a copy of it to your 
>hard drive.

Oops, did I say that? LOL  My bad.  I know better!

>There aren't many folks publishing HTML ezines in any of the niches I 
>publish in either. That doesn't mean that I'm going to sit around and let 
>them beat me to it though! :)

More food for thought.  Thanks again!
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Rev. Gina M. Pace			Wicce's Tarot Collection		www.wicce.com
KEYWORD: Wicce			email: wicce@wicce.com	
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