Home >> 2002 and 2003 Gold Awards for Online Subscription Newsletter

Award-winning WordBiz Report eschews paid subscriptions to maintain ad and special reports revenues from large database

Debbie Weil's WordBiz Report is a lively production, led off with a distinctive blue and yellow nameplate featuring Weil's smiling face and characterized by lots of informative and lively features and articles focusing on online copywriting and content. "The goal of the publication," Weil said, "is to explore how words drive revenue online through effective e-newsletters, e-mail promotions, and killer web content." The newsletter features original reporting by editor Weil, including: - Tips and case studies about effective e-newsletters and web content

- Online copywriting best practices

- Before and after web copy makeovers

- Exclusive interviews with e-marketing executives

- Book giveaways

- Smart thinking and links to useful resources. Launched in July 2001, the newsletter now has a circulation of over 12,000, comprised of vice presidents, directors and marketing managers of Global 2000 companies along with CEOs and principals of small businesses in e-business, finance, marketing and communications. Its design, content and accomplishments won WordBiz Report the Gold Award in the 2002 Newsletter Awards Competition, Online Category, sponsored by The Newsletter on Newsletters. In her entry statement in October 2002, Debbie Weil said she planned on switching to paid subscriptions by late fall, but she more recently said she decided not to move to paid subscription. "Several reasons," she told NL/NL: "1. The spam filter problem really started to explode last fall, making it difficult to successfully deliver legitimate e-mails. It struck me as unwise to try to 'deliver' a paid product that might not get there." "2. After really digging in and doing some market research and competitive analysis, I came to the conclusion that my product, WordBiz Report, is not differentiated enough from a handful of other e-letters on the topic of 'online marketing' to make it worth paying for." "These would include the ones I consider to be the best: Anne Holland's MarketingSherpa e-newsletters, Allen Weiss's MarketingProfs.com, ClickZ.com, Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers, Ralph Wilson's newsletters, and a few others." "3. I realized there was more upside in growing my list and being able to market to a list of 12,000-than having a list that could be possibly as small as several hundred." "4. I agonized over a pricing level (per month, six months, annual, etc.) but finally realized this was not the key issue." "5. Finally, I came to the conclusion that as a company of one, I didn't have the resources to produce both a stellar paid version and an unpaid version that was good enough (i.e., intriguing enough) to get readers to continue opening it."
Revenue sources

Regarding her online ads, Weil said, "I sell three display ad positions as well as two-line text ads. The display ads are text as well. They're not banners. Ad sales have been difficult and slow since the beginning of the year. I wear all hats, including that of ad salesperson. It's hard to devote enough time to selling ads. This is only one source of revenue for me." On the subject of WordBiz Special Reports, she said, "In mid-December, I launched the WordBiz store to sell e-book and PDF reports. I am continuing to develop more products plus will be selling a few carefully selected products by other writers. This is a continuing and growing stream of revenue. I see a lot of potential in it. And, of course, I am marketing these products to an audience of 12,000-hence the advantage of keeping my newsletter free."
Links and clicks

Impressed by the number of links Weil provides in her newsletter, we asked her if she could put a number on them. "I've never counted the links to other sites or articles," she replied. "That's an interesting question no one has ever asked me. I've never thought of it as a metric worth measuring." "If anything, I try to limit the number of links to outside pages or sites or articles in order to keep my readers where I want them-inside the environment of WordBiz Report. My formula is to include a couple of short articles in entirety (including the Publisher Note)-and then write a short blurb or intro teaser for the other articles that requires readers to click through to my site to read the whole article." "One key lesson to do this (I always do it on the lead article, for example) is that I can measure the number of readers who click through for the full story. So I can tell whether or not they're interested in the topic. High click-throughs for the lead article mean-bingo-hot topic that has captured their interest."
Text vs. HTML

Until recently Weil made WordBiz Report available in both text and HTML, but she then made the decision to discontinue the full "text only" edition. "Too much work to put this together separately in addition to the HTML version," she said. "And not enough ROI. In other words, because of the technology I can't track the number of text readers who open their newsletters, nor (for the most part) can I track what they click through to." "What I'll do going forward is send them a short text message that says something like, 'The new issue is ready. Here are the highlights. You can read it on the web at www.wordbizreport.html.'"
Consulting business

Asked if the newsletter has helped her copywriting consulting business, Weil said, "Yes, the newsletter has brought me some consulting projects from readers. Not a huge amount, however. And that is not a business goal of the publication. My goal is to make it a self-sustaining endeavor based on: ad revenue, special report and e-book sales, and, most recently, event sales." "I'm putting on my first-ever public seminar on May 21, 2003 (How to Take the Pain Out of Publishing an E-Newsletter), and I'm selling the workshop through the newsletter - as well as any other way I can: local events calendars, ad swaps in other e-newsletters."
Editorial quality

Weil concluded our interview by saying, "Maintaining the editorial quality is paramount to me. As a solo publisher, I wear so many hats it's hard sometimes to spend as much time on the editorial as I'd like to. But frankly I love doing this. I wouldn't have it any other way. With an MBA under my belt, I enjoy the 'business end' of publishing the newsletter just as much as the editorial and creative aspects."

"WordBiz continues to be a work in progress. I continue to work at growing the list, improving the editorial, and generating more revenues from ancillaries as well as ad sales."

About Debbie Weil

WordBiz CEO/Publisher Debbie Weil is a former newspaper reporter and editor with an MBA and corporate marketing experience. She is an expert on B2B online content and marketing at both the strategic and creative levels. She was Web Content Marketing Manager for Network Solutions, Inc. (now part of Verisign) before launching WordBiz.com, Inc.She is a popular and widely-read columnist for ClickZ and launched both B2B Email Marketing and E-newsletter Strategies.Debbie has an MBA from Georgetown University, a Masters in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin and a B.A. from Harvard in English. She has been immersed in the Web and the Internet for a decade as a business and marketing strategist and as a writer.