...ly) your'list' is pretty worthless!Over 650 issues of my ezine, Kickstart Today -http://www.kickstartdaily.com - have taught me a few thingsabout what people really want from a newsletter.Here are the ten top tips that I've learned the hard way:1. Keep it short and sweet. Your ezine itself can be quite long,provided that each article is kept fast-paced and punchy. In myexperience, any section that runs more than 500 words isprobably too long. And 1500 words overall is enough....

... Manysuccessful newsletters are around 500 words total. 2. Be as personal as you like. If people want serious businesswriting they can go to the news-stand. It seems to me thatpeople love the personal aspect that ezines offer. Hence, themore I introduce elements from my own life and family into mynewsletter, the bigger my positive (virtual) mailbag is.3. Never sell. I write my newsletter three times a week and onaverage, about a third of my issues don't try to sell anything.As often as possible, I provide links to things that my readerscan have for free. In the other two-thirds of issues, I almostnever sell either - I make recommendations. My readers know thatI will never recommend something that I haven't used myself -and have found to be excellent. So, in effect, my selling is apersonal recommendation from one friend to another.4. And on that note, only 'sell' (or recommend) one item in anyissue. I have proved time and again with my own lists thatwhenever I mention two or more products for my readers to buy,overall sales goes right down. I know of severalsuper-successful people who do manage to make multiplerecommendations successfully, but it has never worked for me.5. Never write to your list. You may have thousands of people onyour list, but as soon as you start to write to 'the list' thetone of your words becomes impersonal. Always write to oneperson, who you imagine is sitting in front of you. If you learnto write as you would speak to that one person in front of you,your newsletter will almost automatically be a thousand timesmore readable than most others out there.6. Be brave. So many ezine writers fall into the trap ofavoiding controversy. The result is that their newsletters fastbecome boring. The truth is that people love to read a goodrant. If you allow yourself to let yourself go once in a while -even if it is completely off topic, I guarantee that your listwill become more responsive - and consequently more loyal. 7. Be responsive yourself. If one of your readers writes to you,make sure you write back - personally. People do business withpeople and they really like to know that you are a real personbehind the keyboard.8. Using other people's articles. This is a sticky one. Useother people's stuff too often and your own personality will notshine through. And if your readers see the same articlesappearing elsewhere, they start to think that they might as wellread them elsewhere. Personally, I don't run other people'sstuff in my newsletter at all - but that is my choice, and as afairly prolific writer, something that I can deal with. I wouldsay that if you must use other people's articles, keep them to afairly low percentage of each issue's total content.9. Be prepared for the long haul. Successful newsletters arerarely born overnight. They take a long time to build theirreadership and even longer to regularly turn a good profit. Likeany business you have to work at them - sometimes when you leastwant to. Get it right though, and they are worth it on so manylevels.10. Finally, find your own USP. Every product (and your ezine isa product that people have to 'buy in to' even if they don't payfor it) needs to have certain attributes that set it apart fromall the others out there. Your USP (unique selling point) is thething that people will talk about when they recommend you totheir friends - so make it easy for them to notice andcompelling enough for them to want to pass on the good news!Of course, the fact that this article is available for ezinepublishers to use does raise a conundrum. If my advice to avoidusing other people's articles in your newsletters is valid, willanyone use this article? Or any other that is made freelyavailable in article directories?My suggested solution is two-fold:a. Believe everything I say, and follow all of my rules exceptwhen applying them to articles that I have written. Clearly,those will be of far more interest to your readers than anythingelse. ;-) b. Seriously, rather than blindly publishing other people'sarticles in your ezine, it is usually a better bet to put thosearticles onto your website and link to that page from yourezine. That way your readers can accept the 'gift' of aninteresting article to read if they are interested, or ignore itif they so choose. Also, you can put AdSense, or other ads onto the article page tomonetize the article to those people who have shown a markedinterest in the subject matter by clicking the link.Ezine writing and publishing is a learned skill. The first feweditions you produce will probably be rather rough around theedges, but keep practicing and listen to what your readers emailto you. In a short time you will find your own voice and a stylethat will help you build a large and loyal following.And then, the advice that the money is in the list will cometrue for you.