Even if you start out including every email address you’ve ever acquired, let recipients have an easy way out. Respect the fact that their time, like yours, is precious. So let them out easily in your ezine. Always provide an unsubscribe option. Another smart idea is to invite clients to subscribe. This is a great use of your email messages. In any message you send, let them know that you publish a helpful ezine and that they can subscribe for free to it by clicking on the link contained in the email.

Here are some other helpful tips:

* Peak their interest in the subject line. You can have the best information in the world but if the subscriber never open the mail, it’s all for naught. Let them know what they are receiving. A good method is to put the exact nature of the publication in the subject line: May 2006 Client Update from (Company Name).

* Keep each article to the point. Your customer is busy, respect this. Keep your articles brief. Include three to four per issue and if they run longer than three or four paragraphs, continue the article on your site or create a link offering “More Information” and make it link back to your site. One of the reasons to have an ezine is to generate traffic on your site. Use links to accomplish this goal.

* Monitor your progress. As noted fee-based ezines have great logs that will tell you how many subscribers read your ezine, how many clicked through and to which link they went and how many ezines bounced. Use this information to further refine your content. Learn what your subscribers want to know and cater to that.

* Feature a client. Everyone loves to see their name in print. Your customers are no different. Feature one in each issue. Link to the website or business and build them up in importance. You’ll not only create additional traffic to your customer’s site, but build goodwill.

* Gain important intelligence. An ezine is a great vehicle for learning more about your clients. Provide links to surveys or opinion polls to find out what they want from your business, what trends they view as important, or what products or services they would like to see. Be sure that you report your findings to your audience in the next issue. Everyone likes to think that you’ve read through their thoughts and have considered or acted on them. Use your ezine as a vehicle for letting your customers know that their opinions, feedback and comments are indeed important.