Should you publish your entire e-newsletter within the e-mail message? Or should your newsletter consist solely of a table of contents, with article summaries and hyperlinks to web-based feature articles?

If the content is very brief, mostly text, and either urgent or disposable (not meant to be saved), go ahead and publish it entirely in the body of the e-mail message. You can include hypertext links to related web-based features, but the newsletter itself is all in one place.

One the other hand, if the content is voluminous, if it includes images and embedded links, if it is meant to hang around for a number of weeks or months, if you want the whole world to see it (not just the folks on your e-mail distribution list), then you should publish the content on your website, and your e-mail message should contain only summaries and links to the web-based content.

In many cases, the best way to publish is to mix the two methods -- some brief features and some blurbs-and-links.

If you decide to include blurbs-and-links in your newsletter, you'll need some tips on writing good blurbs. Those tips are included at the end of this article.

Can your subscribers read HTML e-mail?
Let's make sure we have a clear definition of e-newsletter. An e-newsletter, sometimes used synonymously with e-zine, is simply an e-mail message containing news, which you distribute to a large number of (opt-in) subscribers and/or other targeted (opt-out) readers. You can create an e-mail message in various formats, most commonly plain text and HTML.

The choice of which publishing method to use depends on two other factors besides the length and complexity of the content: (a) your readers' e-mail reading capabilities, and (b) who owns the rights to the content.

If you know your readers well enough (e.g., they are members or employees), you may be aware of what browsers and e-mail programs they use, and you can format your e-mail messages accordingly. If you don't know their e-mail reading capabilities, well, ask them -- query them by e-mail, call them on the phone and ask, or provide options in the subscription form that they fill out when they sign up for the newsletter.

There are two major advantages in formatting your e-newsletter in HTML. First, you can include multi-media content and embedded links (hyperlinked text and images), just like a Web page. Second, you can include internal links, so that the items in your table of contents, at the top of the e-mail message, can be linked to where the individual stories begin lower down in the message -- readers don't have to scroll and hunt for specific articles.

If there's no way to find out what kinds of browsers and e-mail clients your readers use, play it safe and publish your e-newsletter in plain text format. Then, if you want readers to see some HTML or multi-media content, give them links to the website(s) where that content resides.

The ideal way to publish an e-newsletter is to produce two versions -- one in plain text and one in HTML format; then give subscribers a choice. Producing two versions really doesn't involve very much work, and it'll pay off big in terms of reader involvement and retention.

Do you own the copyright?
Ideally you will publish only originally written articles in your newsletter -- that is, content to which you own the copyright. If so, you can publish it in a newsletter, post it on your website, or distribute it as you wish.

If you do not own the copyright or have permission from the copyright owner to publish an article, you should not distribute it via e-mail or post it on your website. You can refer your subscribers to such an article by providing a link to the website where it's published. (You don't need permission to link to another website; it's like telling a friend to read the article on such-and-such a topic in the latest issue of Newsweek.) When providing the link, clarify that you are sending readers to another publisher's website.

Scroll-o-phobia
Two of the most important guidelines for e-newsletter publishing:

• The more you require readers to scroll through an e-mail message, the fewer will read the whole newsletter. So keep the articles short. If an article occupies more than one screen, make it printer-friendly (easy to read when printed out).
• The more you require readers to follow links, the fewer will bother reading all the web-based content. So don't bombard readers with links. Keep it simple. Better to publish two short e-newsletters per month than one long one.