Interesting question, and im sure everyone has an opinion on the best “frequency” to send your newsletter.
So here’s mine.
I say no – do not send your newsletter weekly.
I had a quick conversation with a lady at Chris Barrow’s Coaching Business Forum a few weeks back. She said that she almost missed the event as she had been letting Chris’ newsletters pile up… she enjoys his newsletter but doesnt have the time to read it each week. This got me to thinking about the whole weekly newsletter thing.
We all get enough email as it is, and you dont want your newsletter to just pile up in the inboxes of your readers. Besides which, it can be almost mundane to receive the same newsletter on the same day each week…
My vote would be to send your newsletter out 2-3 times each month, and to vary the days that you send it.
There are a couple of things I like about this approach
1. Takes the pressure off of you as the writer. A weekly ezine forces you to say something each week, even if you dont have anything to say. And there is nothing more boring than a “forced” newsletter or a “heres a past article cause i have nothing to say this week” newsletter. You don’t call your friends when you have nothing to say, so why do the same with your newsletter?
2. When you send your newsletter on an informal 2-3 times per month basis it becomes almost a special unexpected gift… your readers know that you email only when you have something of value to share (vs. weekly) “hey, an email from tina – wonder what all important valuable thing she has to say today?”. 😉
Remember, your newsletter is simply a tool to build relationship with your readers. Contact your readers when you truly have something to share, not because “its monday and i have to send my newsletter today”
And of course, there are always those who love writing weekly and reading weekly… in which case ignore everything I just said above. LOL
This may work for some, not for all.