I think that the best newsletters are those that can be read in one sitting . If they are small enough for this they are far more likely to be read in their entirety. The best newsletters are specialized to the receivers needs, timely, short and laid out in a way that is readily scannable and arrive to a predictable schedule.

With all the other competing media, like video Newsletter use is down. Studies show that only 19 percent, down from 23 percent in the first study, of people read an entire newsletter. The best newsletters are read because they contain appealing information. They are more than calendars or have-to-have's.

Here are some tips to "jazz" up any newsletter:-

Readers love to hear what you're doing, what you're experiencing, and how you feel about things. Readers prefer consistency and left-edge alignment. They shouldn’t have to figure out where information is or where the next line of type begins.

Images are both a plus and a minus in emails, they certainly look good when displayed but so many user's email applications now block the images for security reasons leaving unsightly gaps in the pages that readers then see. Nevertheless, a picture can convey a great deal, both in the emotive, sales side of your newsletter, as well as the technical side.

Why are the offline people the only ones who get to brag about shelf life and use it as a selling point? I say, empower the newsletter. The Newsletter writer can certainly match the offline community for topicality. I mean, if I were to reference back to either an offline OR online newsletter, the idea of being able to use CtrlF to follow online links is enough to sell me on the online one, without any doubt.

Working for a small internet company, I find that ezines giving me topical professional views are invaluable. Great as a reminder, great as thought provokers, and great for giving me new angles on old topics!

How about getting a job as an Ezine or web site content writer? A great thing about this job is that it’s regular work. There is a newsletter to be written each and every every month. In this example, I would say that you will be creating and sending out many invoices and make a profit.

How do you know which Ezine to trust ? I'm always going to trust the magazine that took the time to write up a nice looking newsletter than the one who doesn't seem to care either way about the business I bring them. I can only hope more companies come to realize how much this matters.

The main function of a newsletter is to spread recent niche information connecting to interested subscribers activities, I also used it for discussion. Intentionally, I worked to start a discussion forum as a spin off from the newsletter, but I found the interest for my subscribers to engage to discussion is remarkably low.

Far from reading all my newsletters, I just read at the subject of the e-mail and open it when I find something interesting. I did some calculation and it appears that I open more or less 10% of the newsletters I receive daily (about 2/3 newsletters everyday). Any more and I would develop information overload.