Ads. I hate ads in newsletters. I want to read the news that I am getting and maybe the latest happenings of the site. Ads would be a big turn off for me.

That's perfect. I have no intention of ever putting ads in news letters, it always feels a bit invasive, and I'll be honest, it feels kinda tacky, hahaha. Aside from the short comings of email tracking in the first place, ads are just extra annoying weight in a news letter.

But covering anything special on the site like contests, competitions, ect, as well as general happenings on the site is something I really want to do. I'm still debating on the frequency, weekly or bi-weekly, but I think that'd change with membership and activity as a whole anyways.

One thing I'd love to be able to do though, is give a shout to new modding projects every time! I know that Fusion Mods as a whole has a general tech range of coverage, but I still love keeping a focus on modding!!

My thoughts exactly on the newsletter ads stuff. Putting in site activities and contests, competitions and whatnot sounds good too. I say we bring the USB flash drive modding competitions back too. Most interesting flash drive wins! XD

I would include a link in the email newsletter for a plain text version for people with old blackberrys or whatnot that cant do HTML email.

I would do a bi-monthly or bi-weekly until site activity grows again. I do like the idea of shouting new mod projects and getting traffic back up.

You know, I hadn't even considered a text only version, but you're definitely right, if I'm looking at doing mobile (which I definitely want to do at some point), I'll need a separate version.

Currently the site gets almost zero mobile traffic, which isn't surprising, it isn't formatted for it, but I'd like to get that in place at some point.

I don't have the familiarity with mobile phones that you might, what's your best estimate on how many can/can't view html formatted emails? I think that'll be an after launch project though, marking emails for mobile or reworking an email template to do either. lol definitely adds a new degree of things to consider.

But yeah, I do like your idea of having a bi-weekly news letter. I'll also see what kind of prizes I can find for a usb modding competition. I have a few larger items, but I'm saving those for a kick off for a new site launch give away

To be honest, i'd say only a 35% of phones(feature phones and dumbphones, and old ass blackberrys) can only do text email. The rest of the market("super" feature phones, android, IOS, BB-OS5 and up, WinMo/WinP7) are gonna be able to do HTML email.

All of the smartphones should be able to do the full website(at current) with no issues. I can load it up on my G2(3.6" screen), and I see the full page, no panning or zooming to read the text or anything. I'll see if I can get a screenshot or take a picture or something. I cant say that Blackberry's or smaller screen Android phones(3.2") or IOS (mainly the iPhone/iPod touch) would be able to view it properly. I can test it out with my G1(3.2" Android) when I get home.

that'd be pretty cool if you could test that for me. I know my phone can handle it, I have a BB Torch 9800, but you can tell it isn't mobile ready. The new framework I've put into the new site is extremely improved, literally written from the ground up, and I kept in mind the possibility that i'd eventually have a mobile version, so creating a mobile edition, won't be too big of an issue. It's a post launch plan, mainly because I want to do some research. There's the issue of figuring out which phones have the larger user base, and then looking into their browser capabilities.

But this does bring up a really great point still. I'm going to work on a template that'll look good in my desktop email, as well as my phone, something I really hadn't thought of before.

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So where we are right now, I know atleast one person will be happy with the news letters I'm proposing, hahaha.

- News Letters will promote site news. Contests, mods, cases, reviews, ect, I'd even like to put in forum topics that are getting a lot of attention.
- These will all be done on an individual basis. I hate things shot out by bots because you can tell the content doesn't flow...
- No Ads
- Once we launch the new site, users will have the option to turn off notifications such as news letters.
- I'll also see what I can pull out on formatting the email to look alright on cell phone and desktop email browsers.

Anything you can think of that I'm missing so far? I'm sure this will still be a bit of a learning process, but I think this will kick it off with a better start.