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Have you subscribed to the
free Archden Connection newsletter at www.archden.org?
If you have, you may have wondered 
how
you could add a feature like that to your parish site. For those who have
never subscribed to an online newsletter, here's how it typically works:
- A user visits a web site and encounters a form inviting him or her to fill in an e-mail address in return for a free newsletter.
- The user types in the e-mail address and pushes a submit button.
- The user receives a confirmation e-mail thanking him or her for registering.
- On the appointed day, an e-mail shows up into the user's inbox with the newsletter.
- The e-mail newsletter looks just like web pages, and it contains links to other sources of information.
It's difficult to overstate the value a simple feature like that can add to your website. It not only allows you to send important information to your parishioners. It reminds them that your web site is out there, and it invites them to visit by simply clicking on a hyperlink right there in the e-mail window.
Think of a regular newsletter as a way to tap your parishioners on the shoulder, and say, "Hey, we've spent a billion and a quarter hours making this fantastic, award-winning web site. DON'T FORGET TO USE IT!"
Unfortunately -- while the vast majority of your e-mail users will be able to enjoy your newsletter as you intended it -- not everyone's e-mail program allows him or her to see HTML content. Some e-mail software sees HTML coming, and then displays the message as an attachment. Other software doesn't even have that functionality.
It may be necessary then, to take care of some parishioners by providing a companion text-only newsletter for those who request it. Preparing it would take very little work.
However, a text-only newsletter eliminates at least half the benefit of the HTML newsletter, because you can't bring people directly to your site via links. This feature, therefore, focuses on how to start an HTML newsletter.
If you're short on patience, you can download a model of an HTML newsletter here. Just adjust it to your liking.
1.
Doing It Without A Server-Side Script
2. Automatic E-mail Collection
Doing It Without a Server-Side Script
If you use e-mail regularly, you've probably figured out that you can e-mail messages to more than one person at a time. Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, for example, allow you to create "Groups," and e-mail everyone in the group at once. There are simple instructions on how to do this within the e-mail software itself.
If you have an existing e-mail
list of parishioners, you could send an HTML newsletter in the same way
you send any group e-mail. The only tricky part is figuring out how to
get that HTML into the new message window. Fear not, though. Your e-mail
software
has instructions on how to do that. In Outlook Express, for example, you
click on a "Source" tab beneath the e-mail window. The beginnings
of an HTML document appear in the message window, and then you add the
rest of the code. Just paste your information between the <body>
</body> tags.
Within the code of the newsletter model provided, there are instructions on how to do this. You'll find the instructions between the dotted lines.
Automatic E-Mail Collection
There are a few of reasons you may want to have some sort of automatic e-mail collection script running on your server.
- The bigger your e-mail list gets, the harder it becomes to maintain it.
- Your parishioners can subscribe and unsubscribe without any involvement from your overworked staff.
It's also worth noting here that unsolicited e-mail is considered bad manners -- even in Catholic circles. If you have an e-mail collection script running -- and you only use those e-mail addresses for the stated purpose (in this case, to receive a newsletter) -- you don't have to worry about bugging your parishioners with unsolicited e-mail. After all, they signed up themselves!
To get an e-mail collection script running on your site, however, you're probably going to need some help from your web hosting service. You may find that getting an e-mail collection script up and running is as easy as placing a call and asking for a newsletter script to be provided.
Actually, the scripts for this sort of thing are out there -- some are free of charge! The Archden Connection newsletter uses a free script called Subscribe Me Lite. Have a look.
It works like this:
The e-mail collection is done in an interface like this:
There's a password-protected folder on the server that contains an interface for pasting in the newsletter. It looks like this:
The newsletter is created in the Dreamweaver HTML editor. Everything between the body tags <body> </body> is copied and pasted into the interface. A button is pushed, and the newsletter is blasted to all subscribers. Clean and easy.
Regardless of which method you choose for delivering an HTML newsletter, you're going to need a newsletter first. That's why you've been provided with a model.
If you've had enough of this newsletter business, proceed to the next feature, an online community.
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©Gregory
L. Kail/Archdiocese of Denver, 2001
303.715.3123 |
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