I have been having people ask me how to do an html newsletter, and so I thought I would discuss it here on my site.
For years I have used Joomla to manage web content. But recently they have upgraded their software and I just don’t like it anymore. It doesn’t work the way I want it to, and I can’t use Letterman, the newsletter component, which is mainly why I chose Joomla in the first place. I love running my website with WordPress, not on the free wordpress.com, but paying for hosting my own site and then installing WordPress, so that I can upload plugins and widgets and whatever templates I want to use. But I digress. The best way to run/manage your own newsletter is to use the free Yahoo Groups. Previously I hadn’t wanted to use Yahoo Groups because I didn’t think that I could make my newsletter colorful with images, etc. But I discovered that I can. And I’m all about free. I love the shareware idea, because I love to share my knowledge. People benefit from me. So it’s only fair that I can benefit from others.
That said, first you need to get a free html online editor. The one that I recommend is SeaMonkey. I was thrilled to find it. Years ago, I had used Netscape Composer, and when I started looking for it about a month ago after my disappointment with Joomla, I was devastated to find that Netscape Composer was no longer in existence. They said that Mozilla had done such a fabulous job with their composer that Netscape decided to bow out. But that is where I got my lead because they mentioned “SeaMonkey,” the name of the replacement that Mozilla had designed, and is continually working on. It’s a browser, mail manager, chat, (and other things), and an html composer in one.
So first you need to download SeaMonkey using the link above. Download whichever one is compatible with your platform. (I use Windows Vista, and so I downloaded the Windows version). Oh, and when you download it, be sure and do it using Windows Explorer. I was using Firefox and SeaMonkey just wouldn’t download and install correctly. I also had to download a dhtml that was missing from my windows vista, some kind of patch. Also, I chose “Run” instead of “Save” when I downloaded SeaMonkey. Don’t worry, Windows will guide you. Once you get SeaMonkey installed, you will click on “File/New/Composer Page.” (The slashes indicate new popup menus to go to).
Start your newsletter by inserting a table. You can make it two columns, but I recommend no more than 2. Figure out how many articles you’ll have, and if you want a table of contents or a row at the bottom and that will be how many rows you’ll want. You can always highlight the rows that are extra and delete them later. The width needs to be 480 pixels. That’s important because Yahoo always adds advertisements and you don’t want the ads to interfere with your header image, which is what happened to me when I first tried it out. My header was 480 X 100 pixels. The 100 pixels you can customize to what you want, but again, don’t make the width any more than 480 pixels.
Use whatever you like to design your graphics. I enjoy using Adobe Photoshop Elements. Once you get your banner designed and any other pictures made, you will have to upload them and copy the links for later use. The editor on SeaMonkey is very nice, and is similar to Microsoft Word. Just click around and experiment. To line up the text with the picture, you’ll have to click on the advance tab once you are in the image editor. This is where you’ll have to paste your link to your image.
Once you design your newsletter in SeaMonkey, you can click on “View” and then “HTML Source” to copy the code.
Next, go to Yahoo and sign in. If you aren’t registered you need to do so now. Go to “Groups” on the left-hand side. Click on “Start Your Group.” If you are an author, you might want to click on “Entertainment and Arts” and then “Humanities” to find “Books and Writing.” Read through the steps; it’s pretty self explanatory. Make it for a newsletter, of course.
Once you have set it up, click on Post and then click on Rich Text Editor. At the bottom of the text area where you type, you’ll see a small box that says “View HTML Source.” Check that box. When you do, a <br> will appear. Leave it there; it means a break or a space. And just paste your code from SeaMonkey below the <br>. Go ahead and hit “preview” and then send! That’s it! 