There are lots of newsletters on the internet: eNewsletter are the growing form of communication and nowadays getting very common and web page newsletters are gaining popularity. However, a lot of newsletters (particularly eNewsletter) have serious problems:

• They're long
• They're not organized
• They're difficult to read

Remember, an eNewsletter of any kind is most likely going to be viewed on a computer screen. That means a little space to read and users don't want to strain their eyes, nor their brains. So they need to be able to go through the eNewsletter and get to the important stuff right away. Most of them simply delete many of the newsletters they receive, even if they would be valuable, because they can't get a good idea of what's in it.

The two basic newsletters: HTML and plain text

eNewsletter are now becoming very common on the web, and increasingly are taking the place of plain text newsletters in emails. They tend to have a few graphics, hyperlinks, and more complicated layouts than those of plain text newsletters.

What not to do in a newsletter.

Here are few important points to avoid in HTML newsletters:

1. Avoid sending long articles
2. Don’t make it look like a newspaper
3. Keep it focused
4. Make it for adults not kids
   

Avoid sending long articles

Newsletter authors will have to use their understanding when it comes to article length. Long articles, more than a few hundred words, are basically useless. Most of the authors push their content out of the visible display area, and are hard to read.

Don’t make it look like a newspaper (Multicolumn layouts)

Just as on web sites, multicolumn layouts are hard to follow, and take a long time to open in some email programs. Make your article fit into one column, so make it short and sweet: it's a newsletter, not a newspaper.

Keep it focused

Unrelated, or out-of-context, links have no place in HTML newsletters. Most people frequently receive email newsletters that have line after line of links, trying to expose them to everything under the sun. That’s where they stop reading. Users have no need for that: a newsletter is not a website. Newsletter authors are better off inserting a context-sensitive link and gently guiding users to a website that incrementally exposes the reader to more relevant information.

Make it for adults not kids

Again, you have to use your understanding and judgment in deciding which images are useful and which aren't. A small logo might be fine, in addition to a relevant graph or pertinent photo. However, the total number of photos should not exceed 3-5. Images take a long time to load, especially in email clients.

What to do in a newsletter.

eNewsletter are more effective than plain text newsletters, and than paper newsletters. The interactivity afforded by hypertext is invaluable and allows newsletter authors trim their works and make them readable.

Here are some things to do in eNewsletter:

1. Keep writing simple and to-the-point
2. Use links extensively
3. Use short human-generated summaries and tables of contents
4. Use bulleted lists
5. Use hierarchical elements

These guidelines are fairly straightforward, but important nonetheless. Like all online writing, newsletters should be simple and to-the-point. Consider how many emails or other snippets of text the user is likely to read in one day, and remember that they are going to want substance, and quickly.

By Alex Fishbone

GreenCode Technologies, Inc.

(954) 840-8068

Blogging is more than just writing on a topic. There is a lot of work involved starting from putting a post together and then promoting it after it has been published.

You have to be passionate about your topic. You should know the community and monitor over 20 related Blog feeds on a daily basis. You should be looking for conversations and comment threads that intersect with your company’s interests, monitoring news, industry buzz and specific bloggers that you regards as authorities to an audience that Blogger cares about.

You should also be watching for specific keywords. When you see a Blog post, comment thread, or something in the news that sparks the interest, you should write a Blog post about it or visits the respective Blog and leaves an insightful comment.

If you write a comment, your name and URL should be attached with a link, credit and visibility. If you write a post, you should cite (provide a hyperlink to) your sources, categorize it, add keyword tags, and publish. Automatically this then pings the social media search engines and alerts the people that have subscribed to your blog’s feed. The post is also picked up in the major search engines.

Before or after publishing, you also do some outreach to notify certain bloggers about the post and solicit their input. You should know your audience and therefore your comment or post addresses something that is more likely to generate attention and discussion.

The bloggers that you have reached out to, have now publicized the post’s existence to their audiences and it is attracting readership. People start to comment and you should stay engaged with the conversation until it has run its course.

Finally, the posts and ensuing threads stay online as content that can continue to draw attention in the future.

Success breads success. The more successful you are in Blogging efforts, the more people react and pickup on your stream of thinking. Practically speaking this creates a snowballing increase in readership and Blogger citations and all the other benefits of a successful social media strategy.

By Alex Fishbone

GreenCode Technologies, Inc.

(954) 840-8068

Agile Project Management is talk of the town in project management domain.

So what is Agile Project Management? It is a set of simple practices, which can easily be understood by development teams and enable them to concentrate on the most important aspect of the project, 'delivery of the product (the final version of software) to the users.

There are many traditional methods such as Waterfall and Capability Maturity Model (CMM) who are well-suited for long-term projects. However, they mostly slow down short-cycle, smaller projects.

New methodology is expected to be uncomplicated, and have the ingredients for success in today's business environment - speed, smartness, and simplicity - all of which are essential for contributing towards success.

3 basic characteristics of such a new methodology are:

Ease: It should make it easy for the team to deliver results at regular intervals to the customer

Supportive: It should provide support to the team for easy-learning and adaptation

Flexibility: It should be flexible to change.

Agile places a lot of emphasis on teamwork. Both parties (Customers & developers) are on the same team. So, customers are always available to the developers for feature prioritization or product feedback. Developers collaborate with each other. Due to the team structure & environment, the problems are resolved faster.

As it is said “TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More”. Isn't that a truth.

By Alex Fishbone

GreenCode Technologies, Inc.

954.840.8068