Monthly Newsletter - take two

Ok, I'll try again.

How about a monthly newsletter to try and entice some sleepy members to start using the Gardeners Corner forum?

A brief newsletter reminds people they are members here and will put GC's link into 10,000 inboxes, thus hopefully encouraging members to come back here and use the forum, after all..the webmaster has done a lot of hard work keywording the site so it appears high in search engine rankings to get people here in the first place, it makes sense to not waste that hard work. If 5% of the inactive members started to post here again that would double the active members here, surely that makes sense?

"How could it be done?"

Easy this one, the forum software is ready setup for such things, vbulletin also has a large third party "addon" community, people who write code to make the software do greater things, add ons exist now that will handle large volume member emailing via a cron job, the webmaster will understand what a cron job is but basically its a workload spreader that can be setup to do a task for example every hour sending out a few hundred emails, so over the course of a day the whole membership can get the email, no need for fancy expensive software packages to do the job.

"Wont it take a long time to do, and need a team of people to compile it?"

Well yeas if you want to put together a whole magazine, but no if you want to be brief and just inform inactive members that they are members here. Here's an example of what I meant, this could be padded out a little more but does not have to take hours. The forum software could also attach members login details to so they can read the mail straight away and go directly to GC with no issues.

"Dear member,

Its now a whole month since our last email, and winter is fast approaching!

Jobs to be done this month include planting bare root Roses/Fruit bushes and trees, taking hardwood cuttings, insulating your greenhouse and collecting fallen leaves to make leaf mould.

Why not see what other gardeners are doing right now at Gardener's Corner - the only Gardening forum you will ever need - Powered by vBulletin or ask how to do any of the things above and much much more!

Planning for next Spring? Look into the forum and see what others are planning, where they buy their seeds and plants to save money and make things easier, what are you waiting for, its all here at Gardener's Corner - the only Gardening forum you will ever need - Powered by vBulletin

Here are your login details incase you have misplaced them xxxxxxx/xxxxxxx

GC Admin"

Time taken to write, 3 mins. Research for current jobs to be done 5 mins. Total 8 mins.

The info on what current jobs to be done is freely available online to use, and in the heads of the more experienced gardeners here so takes little time to write/collate. Yes members can search it out for themselves if they wished to, but there it is in their inbox, along with a GC link and their login details.

If the writing of the email was stretched to half an hour, mountains of info could quickly be collected and written down. The aim is to not give members something to read, but to tease them to GC to read and take part.

So there we have it, nice simple uncomplicated and cheap method of letting mebers know we are here, after all...the hard work to get them here in the first place has already been completed by the webmaster here.

Steve...

 

Hi Steve
I joined in 09 and after a while I just coudnt log in so never bothered when I had the reminder from the Forum it was changing thas when I recontacted them and they finaly sorted out the problem I had was it me I still dont know.

But that reminder brought me back and obvious to all I am on here a lot and hopfully I am a useful active member I would like to think and I have made some good gardening mates I speak to more than some of my family

Still wish it had a spell checker though
how about a 1/4 spring summer autumn winter instead of monthly

Spruce

 

There is a spell checker, click go advanced below, then just above the writing window...to the right you'll see a little ABC with a tick...that's your spell checker.

Quarterly newsletter would work too..whatever lets members know we are here would work.

Steve...

 

We already do something very simmilar Steve infact we all recieved one when the forum was swapped back over to vbulletin a few months ago however your suggestion to make them more regular is interesting

the idea about including the username is good but I think a link to the lost password form would be more secure instead of including there password

so this isn't really a newsletter as much as a means to entice back users who have forgotten us?

 

Marley is my friend and she is not interested....

Sooo - Steve R -, why don't you take the situation in your hands and do it yourself with your signature...?

Myself I wouldn't have the knowledge/the interest/the time in one billion years,
but if you can and you are passionate about it (as you seem to be) the possibility of sending messages is there...

I know you can send many messages with the same content to many contacts but I don't know how many.

Another thing...one think is to pester the non participant members every month with a mail reminding them that ideally they should look after their overgrown garden and one thing is to send a christmas card and maybe another message a few months later just to remind them that the forum is alive and kicking...

 

Marley is my friend and she is not interested....

Thats a shame, but there is more than one admin

Sooo - Steve R -, why don't you take the situation in your hands and do it yourself with your signature...?

I cannot email 10,000 members with my signature

Myself I wouldn't have the knowledge/the interest/the time in one billion years,

It took you longer to write your post than it would to write the newsletter

but if you can and you are passionate about it (as you seem to be) the possibility of sending messages is there...

Not to me, a mere member it's not, this and my original posting was directed at the webmaster who can facilitate the changes that would need to be completed

I know you can send many messages with the same content to many contacts but I don't know how many.

I'm not sure I understand what your saying, I'm not sure you do either but hey ho.

Another thing...one think is to pester the non participant members every month with a mail reminding them that ideally they should look after their overgrown garden and one thing is to send a christmas card and maybe another message a few months later just to remind them that the forum is alive and kicking...

All members can set via their user control panel whether or not to receive emails from administrators or not, if they dont set it and an email is received its by member choice..not "Pestering"

Thank you for your comments.

Steve...

 

Precisely, the newsletter is a means to an end to just remind users we are here. They have already joined us so the interest is there.

Steve...

 

But for one aspect a letter would be useful: if it gave the possibility to unsubscribe to the forum, and therefore "refresh" what is the real number of interested members, which may not post immediately but they feel they may do so in the future.

The interest was there in the moment that the member joined...but we don't know if it is still there.

In today's world with facebook, twitter, skype and all the other wonders you can be here today and gone tomorrow to a forum in Brazil (just to make an example)...

But this is a matter for the Webmaster if anything therefore you should address your queries to him in private.

 

Thank you for your comments, it's a member request area Miraflores...thats why I put it here.

Steve...

 

To try and bring an end to this saga, can I suggest that the feature could be available for a member to submit a generic post for general release could be submitted (by members with significant history - to prevent spam) could be submitted to Forum Admin for onwards distribution - subject to the content being non-controvertial.
I have no idea how much work would be involved in activating the distribution, but a question to the Webmaster might offer a single key action to hit all members.

 

my 2p worth:

A news letter once a month sound a good idea, or is it? let's look closer.

The writing

So the first one is to be written, who is going to write it? hands up please. (sees no hands)

A secret volunteer does it, what are they going to write about?

Yes there are thousands of subjects but you have to actually write about that subject, and make it interesting.

Then next month they have to do the same again, since no one else has volunteered, what subject, what if they don't know too much about that subject?

It then has to go on month after month, I know how it is, I tried it for another website, you can ask for people to send stuff in, but the truth is they don't.

Distribution

Its all very well saying (for example) You can get an add on to your programme that will send emails, but how do you know there is one available for the programme in question?
Most forums the owner will "tweak" the software in some way to make it better/ more suited to their needs, this stops most add ons from working.

Then who will it be sent to?

Members: 10,451, Active Members: 462

If you look at the 10,451 members you will see that a high percentage made less than 3 posts, a very high percentage have made zero posts.

So you say "send it to them all, and you will get some come back"
If they were really interested they would be here. By the nature of forums, people come and go.

Who will read it?

I get email news letters from a few well known companies, doesn't mean I read them, most go strait into the spam folder because I am simply not interested.


The cost

Sending out 10,000 emails every month is not free, who will pay? oh, and not just this month but every month.

There was a forum, who had a member who suggested having a window sticker, free for every member. All thought it was a good idea. Designs were chosen, short list drawn up, and...................it was then "costed" it died an instant death.

The stickers were not too bad if ordered in bulk, the envelopes were not too bad, neither was the postage, BUT add all 3 and no one wanted to pay at all, never mind the poor soul who would have had to put them all together and post them.


in summary

The theory of a news letter is novel, but unless you have knowledge of what / how it goes on behind the scenes, and have the time / knowledge to write all the time, I suggest you sit back and enjoy your pop-corn.

My whole point is, its all very well suggesting something, but there is often more to get an idea off the ground than it first seems. (But keep on suggesting)

 

Steve, with respect, it seems you're suggesting an advert for Gardeners Corner not a newsletter.

 

Marley, I do not think your negative, just that one comment last night was.

Watergarden

It would seem you have not fully read the first post in this topic, but to clarify "The writing" takes very little time and utilises info already written and freely available online...total time to write around ten minutes per month, hardly earth shattering is it.

"Distribution

Its all very well saying (for example) You can get an add on to your programme that will send emails, but how do you know there is one available for the programme in question? "

How do I know one exists? I know because I have used them myself, a quick google will find many.

Also I write php and sql among other code, these are the coding languages that this forum is based. I have written this for around 18 years now and installed many forum softs, websites and web apps, most have been customised by my own code to suit specific scenarios. Like my own photography forum which is heavily modified to suit. Thats how I know.

The cost yes it costs absolutely nothing, zero zilch etc etc, that was also clear in my first post

in summary yes I have the complete knowledge of this and how to do it exactly...its all written in the first post. I pass my popcorn to you for your enjoyment.

Sheal, that's precisely what it is, as in my very first line of this topic, and I quote "How about a monthly newsletter to try and entice some sleepy members to start using the Gardeners Corner forum?" The Newsletter is merely a vehicle.

This posting here today was written merely as proof of my concept of the idea. It was put to me yesterday that it could not be done without paid software, without a lot of time spent, or without a big team of writers, it was even suggested that writers at a higher level could not achieve it and that I had not thought it through.

I've completely dispelled those comments and fully explained them here, take it as you will use it if you wish it was just an idea using a proven method. It was not meant to infuriate anyone.

Steve...