Goal: To help the user of the IMakenews Service create, populate, and manage content.

Prerequisites: Understand the material outlined in Getting Started.

At End of Lesson: After finishing this lesson, the reader will know how manage subscriptions.

Steps for Managing Subscriptions

1. Importing Data

2. Collecting Subscribers From Your Web Site

3. Manipulating Sub-Lists

4. Distributing as Email

IMakeNews has a subscriber management area for importing subscriber lists, adding and editing individual records, and moving subscribers between sub-lists. To get to the Subscriber Menu, click > Subscribers (under Participants). You'll get a menu of options:

Subscriber Menu This area is used to manage your newsletter subscriber list. You can add new subscribers one at a time or you can upload and import multiple subscribers. QUICK TASKS Enter a single valid email address and then select one of the radio buttons. To find, add, remove, or download multiple subscribers, use one of the operations below: Email Address: Find/edit address Add new address Remove and remember as opted-out Remove and forget. IMPORT SUBSCRIBER LIST Use this option to upload and import subscriber data from your computer to your account. VIEW/EDIT EMAIL ADDRESSES Use this option to view and edit selections of email addresses from your subscriber lists. SEARCH AND MANAGE SUBSCRIBER LIST Use this option to search and select subscribers and to move groups of subscribers into sub-lists or from one sub-list to another. PROCESS BOUNCES Use the Bounce Manager to review subscribers for whom emails are being returned undelivered or 'bounced'. You can then easily remove these subscribers from your list. DOWNLOAD SUBSCRIBER LIST Use this option to download all or selected portions of your subscriber list to a data file on your computer. REMOVE SUBSCRIBERS Use this option to remove a list of subscribers from your account all at the same time.    SUBSCRIBER LIST SUMMARY Total subscribers: 1 Subscribers in each sub-list: List 1 0 List 2 0 List 3 0 List 4 0 List 5 0 List 6 0 List 7 0 List 8 0 List 9 0 List 10 0 [CHANGE SUB-LIST NAMES] Total removals remembered: 0 This is the number of subscribers removed (or opted-out) from your list. These addresses are remembered so that they are not added again when new addresses are entered or imported. For more details regarding the number of new additions and removals, see the Newsletter Activity report.

1 - Importing Data

Let's check out the first option: Import Subscriber List. Before adding subscribers -- review the Important Note, which indicates that any email list you enter must be an opt-in list. This means the subscribers have indicated an interest to receive communications from you. You can read more about it in the Terms of Service agreement. You have a choice of two methods for adding subscriber lists:

• Choose a file - requires a tab delimited file. To make a tab delimited file using Microsoft Excel, open your subscriber list file in MS Excel. Select File > Save As > Enter file name > Select text (Tab delimited) for the Save As type.
• Copy and paste - valid email addresses should be listed one per line without any quotes or special characters. If you know the preferred email format for each subscriber, you can add ,txt for plain text and ,htm for HTML at the end of the email address. For example:

john.doe@noplace.com
peter@sample.com,htm
jane@example.net,txt
mary@email.org

Notice the email addresses are listed one per line. If no preference for HTML or TXT formatted newsletter has been indicated, just leave the information out. 

After you've entered your list, hit CONTINUE to go to the Subscriber Import Analysis screen. It gives you the number of subscriber records you are importing. Next is the Import Options where you have the choice of 

Import Options:
The import procedure automatically prevents duplicate records from being added to your list and updates the information associated with any pre-existing subscriber record with the imported values. There are two ways the records you are importing can be synchronized with the subscriber list in your account. You can:

Add new subscribers, update existing subscribers.
Add new subscribers, update existing subscribers, remove subscribers not in the imported file.

You may be keeping an updated subscriber list on your computer. When a subscriber requests to be removed from the list, you remove them from your file. In this case, you would choose the second option.

Reactivate subscribers in import file who previously opted out.

This is an advanced feature that can override the opt-out request of your subscribers. Use only to obtain an exact synchronization of your subscriber database and your account without using the opt-out protection feature. Click in the box if you want to utilize it.

Import subscribers to :  [NO LISTS] List 1 List 2 List 3 List 4 List 5 List 6 List 7 List 8 List 9 List 10   Source: 
 Make unique to this list. Check this box to put all of the subscribers you import into a single sub-list without duplication in any other list. Uncheck this box to allow a subscriber to exist in multiple sub-lists.

Select which list to which you wish to import your subscribers. If you just have one list, select List 1. You can give names to the lists by clicking on the [ Change Sub-List Names ] from the Subscriber Menu. We'll cover that shortly.

[ Return to Top]

Hit Continue. You'll get a new screen stating "Your subscriber file has been submitted for processing. This may take a few minutes depending on the size of the file. You will be notified through the Message Center. To access the Message Center click the Messages icon on the main menu." along with Continue. Click that again to see the results box pop-up.

October 5, 2001 5:37:58 PM

Results for Import Request on 10/5/2001 5:37:58 PM Import process succeeded The Import request you submitted has been completed successfully. The import results are: New Subscriber Records: 1 Updated Subscriber Records: 0 If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact our support team at support@imakenews.com

You've successfully imported your subscriber list.

2 - Collecting Subscribers From Your Web Site

To reach people who have not seen your newsletter, you can post a subscriber form on a Web site. For a standard form, click on HTML Links and Elements under ACCOUNT on the Main Menu. If you don't see it, click . Look under the OPT-IN LIST BUILDER - SUBSCRIPTION BOX. This is the subscription box which allows anyone to subscribe to your Newsletter by providing their email address. It looks like the following:

You can modify the format to match the Web site where it resides. However, it is important to leave the data entry elements the same because each one has a code to associate the form with your newsletter. Select the code within the box > CTRL-C (to copy), and then CTRL-V (paste) it into the Web page file where you want it to go. When you're finished, hit DONE.

[ Return to Top]

3 - Manipulating Sub-Lists

You may wish to have multiple subscriber sub-lists to control who receives the newsletter. For example, you can have an ADMIN list, MAIN List, and SPECIALS list. You can use the ADMIN list to email drafts of the newsletter to the newsletter team and yourself to see how it looks in email and to test it. The MAIN list is your regular mailing list of subscribers who receive the newsletter in its final form. The SPECIALS list could be subscribers who receive your sales newsletter or some other special issue that doesn't come out as regularly as your routine newsletter. Let's check out your Sub-Lists by clicking on Subscribers (under Participants) from the Main Menu to get to the Subscriber Menu. This is the default sub-list:

To change the names, click on [CHANGE SUB-LIST NAMES].

In each box, enter the name of the list of the new list name. We entered the three list names we previously mentioned. Enter as many lists you want. If you just want three lists, leave List 4 - 10 as is. Click SAVE. Anytime you send a newsletter, you'll see these new names from the drop down box.

4 - Distributing as Email

Your newsletter is ready to meet its public after entering the articles, editing the newsletter, and adding the subscriber list. Let's send it out by clicking from the Main Menu or the Subscriber Menu. This is the Send as Email page.

Load settings lists all the existing newsletter issues. Default is the latest newsletter. You can skip this if it's the correct choice.

Choose which format you wish to send the email. What is the difference between formatted and complete cover page? What if you have users who chose TXT whereas others choose HTML? Shouldn't it be based on their choices?

Time to enter the email heading information: 

If this is a DRAFT that needs final approval, then leave Subscriber List selected and choose Admin from the sub-list drop-down box. What is this Source? editor@tutorial.com is the email address of the contact person for the newsletter. It could be you and you can select this to send a test message. To send one email message that is not editor@tutorial.com, select Use the Address or List Server Specified Below: and enter the email address.

In the From section, the email address is automatically filled in with the contact's address and the person's name. Change it as necessary.

You may have you own content management system for how you manage newsletter drafts, edits, and final copies. In this case, we're sending a DRAFT to see how it looks, check the links, and make necessary edits. When sending the newsletter to your readers, it's helpful to come up with a snappy Subject to make your newsletter stand out from the many emails in readers' inboxes.

In the heart of the message, the Message Body, you enter Starting Text that appears before the newsletter. In a DRAFT message, it may say, "This is a DRAFT. Please submit your feedback to email@email.com by DD/MM/YYYY (date)."

When you're ready to email your final newsletter, you can use the Starting Text box to include a message from the President, Editor, company, or other representative. Select the items you wish to display when delivering the email. The default selections make up the newsletter in its entirety.

The Ending Text comes after the newsletter itself. It's a chance to add a few final words not in the newsletter portion.

Two more options left and you're ready to Continue. Bounce Management gives you the opportunity to check for "bounced" messages. When an email "bounces," it is not always an indicator that the email is no longer valid. A server can be down and cause messages to bounce. Selecting this options lets you review the bounced messages so you can determine whether or not to remove the email address from the subscriber list. It also lets you know who is not receiving your newsletter.

Tracking External Links is one of the more powerful features in IMakeNews because it educates you on which articles or links are more popular and which are not as interesting to your readers. When you select this option, the link will be converted from www.basic.com to www.imakenews.com/code/specialcode so IMakeNews can track it and create reports. If you don't select this option, the links will remain as you originally entered them as in www.basic.com.

When you're satisfied with the options, click Continue.

Before sending the email, you get a chance to preview it in three versions: Text, AOL, and HTML. When you import a subscriber list into IMakeNews, you may not have the Text or HTML preference selected for each user. Some users use a text-only email application and won't be able to view the HTML version. Here you can see how the Text version will look to such users and modify it to make it more readable.

America Online has unique settings for its customers using its email software, which makes email messages show up differently than most text and HTML applications. Click on the AOL tab to modify the content for such customers.

Finally, click on the HTML tab to view how the newsletter looks for HTML-based email applications. It should be exactly how you see it in Preview.

Preview Message
Since not every email program supports formatted email messages and not every subscriber wants to receive them, both plain text and HTML versions of your newsletter have been prepared and are displayed for review below. The plain text version will be seen by recipients who either do not have HTML capable email software, have asked to recieve only plain text email, or use AOL.

To:	joe@editorial.com
From:	"Editor" <editor@editorial.com>
Subject:	DRAFT - First Issue of Tutorial Newsletter
Date:	Friday, October 5, 2001

		Plain Text Format: This format is the way your newsletter will look to subscribers who view their email messages in text format. This text is editable, and will change the text and AOL content of the message. The HTML content will not be affected.
TUTORIAL NEWSLETTER =================================================================

Review the message text above. If the content of this message is correct, click the Send Now button to email this message to the addresses you specified.

Save settings for this issue.