RE: [epub] Email: HTML vs. Text?...

[Brian Alt <brian.alt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Gina,

I'm combining replies to your two recent emails.... It's a little lengthy
but I follow threads better this way. And it will make it easier for
folks to skip my meanderings if they want :)

>>In other words, the abilities to offer clickable links to URLs that would
>>otherwise wrap in a text email;
>
>I always offset my links in my newsletters so they rarely wrap around;
>plus, 99% of them are links to my site which are short and sweet because I
>have my own domain.

Cool. Mainly, HTML becomes useful for making long URLs like affiliate
tracking codes, deep directory subcategories (like Yahoo! cats, for
example), and so on, into single-word or short-phrase links.

>>to integrate images with the text of your email;
>
>I don't want to integrate images though..... I want them to go to my site
>to look at those!  LOL

Good point. But could smaller "previews" of your images encourage
click-throughs to your site? Just a thought...

>>to offer search, subscription, recommendation, or other forms;
>
>I don't know how to offer a search.

All of these ideas would need to run off CGI on your Web server.

>People can already use the link in my
>sig file to subscribe, and all my newsletters and lists have email
>subscription commands..... I don't use any other forms or anything yet.....

I'm still looking for time to integrate recommendation forms directly
into an HTML newsletter. With Lyris, you can actually set the form
to automatically send from the subscriber's email address, while all
he or she would have to enter is the recipient's address. I'll let
everyone know when I get it done. Should be pretty cool :)

>>to include Web site navigation, thus encouraging repeat visits to your Web
>>site;
>
>Isn't that what the links do?

Yes. I was thinking of sidebar navigation, or even a pull-down menu
to save space on the page.

>>to integrate your site colors, layout, and logo to increase the power of
>>your ezine's brand;
>
>I wonder how many people would want their email to come through in BLACK?

It might surprise them. That *could* be a good thing :) Then again, it
might freak them out if they weren't expecting it.

>>to track the number of people opening your email messages;
>
>You can do that?  I'm totally unaware of any way to do that..... please,
>tell me more!

Ray touched on this. Many HTML email newsletters will pull graphics from
the Web, which allows you to track hits. This gets more sophisticated and
easier to track if you're using banner serving software of some kind.

>>If images, stylized font, and the like were irrelevant, print magazines
>>and newspapers wouldn't spend the extra money to include them. The do
>>include them, because the experience is considered superior in many ways
>>to plain text.
>
>You're right about that..... I guess I always figure since I archive my
>newsletters on my website, and those ARE in html, that if anyone wants to
>read them they can go look at them there.

That's a cool benefit of publishing the HTML, that if you do archive
your content, you won't need to re-create the pages. Just slap the
HTML version of your newsletter up there.

And archiving in HTML, as you do, is a great idea for publishers who
don't want to push the HTML through email.

>I will definitely be doing this
>poll though, so I'll keep you (and everyone) posted on the results.  That
>is, if everyone wants to hear about it!

Yes, please let us know how it went.

Email #2...

>>That's fine. Which is why any email publisher who might want you as part
>>of his or her audience would offer you the option of text.
>
>Right.  I'm not arguing that.  =)  Actually, I'm not arguing anything.  It
>just seemed like everyone here was offering their opinion on whether they
>preferred text or html, and so I threw in MY opinion.  =)

I don't mean to sound like an HTML fanatic either :)  But I suspect that
many email publishers might be overlooking the benefits of publishing
HTML simply because they either don't like to receive it themselves or
don't know how to create an good-looking HTML newsletter. I don't want
folks who are considering publishing in HTML to become discouraged and
miss out on publishing what might be a ground breaking rich-text ezine.

I'm not interested in changing the minds of anyone dead-set against
HTML email. After all, for many ezine topics, an HTML version would
be overkill. Giving your audience a choice, though, is seldom a bad
idea.

>>All technologies (especially new ones) can be used maliciously.  The
>>question, however, seems to be one of trust, not technology.  If you trust
>>the source sending you HTML email, whether it's a
>>large corporation or a do-it-yourself publisher, the problem of receiving
>>viruses in HTML email goes away.
>
>Actually, though, if you get more than a handful of emails at a time, like
>I do, then often you don't LOOK at who they are from, you use the little
>down arrow on the toolbar that allows you to go from one email to the next,
>and read them all in order.  When I read through all my email this way, it
>saves a lot of time.  But if I open an email that is in html, I immediately
>go to the next email and then go and delete it when I'm done.  So I'm not
>even seeing who it's from.  So if, say, you sent me an email in html, I'd
>never see it.

I wouldn't send you an email in HTML, unless you specifically requested
an HTML version of one of the ezines I publish. At that point, I would
expect you to open it, read it thoroughly, and then send me an email
telling me how much you liked it! ;-)

>I've been on a lot of discussion lists where people posted to the list in
>html format and they ALWAYS get chewed out.  SO I know a lot of people 
>hate it.

Including me. You won't see HTML messages get through this list, because
Todd or I will always delete them from the moderation interface.

HTML does not belong in email discussion lists, as it will only cause
a nightmare of formatting problems when replied to, etc. I'm *only* an
advocate of HTML email in a publisher-controlled, one-way medium.

>>Tell me this: How is HTML in email any more dangerous than HTML on the Web?
>
>Because email is unsolicited much of the time.

True. But again, I am addressing opt-in email publishing, not spam.
Spam is bad, with or without HTML.

>If you go to a web page,
>you are obviously going there of your own free will.  Plus with email the
>material is downloaded onto your hard drive, with the web it's on the
>server and you're simply viewing it.  I don't download from web pages.

Every time you view a Web page, you're downloading a copy of it to your
hard drive.

Attachments (not HTML itself) are usually the problem with viruses in
email.

>My boyfriend said for me to add that from a virus point of view, email is
>active and web is passive.

Ask him to clarify what he meant ;-)

>>You're generalizing here based on how you reacted to the
>>experience.  Again, I've had my fair share of burning, but I still read
>>and appreciate HTML email newsletters from trusted sources, such as
>>ClickZ, internet.com, DirtSmart.com, and others.
>
>You're right, I was generalizing.  Sorry bout that!

That's okay! It happens to the best of us ;-)

>>What about the risk of not offering a rich text version of your
>>publication, when your competition might be offering the more interactive
>>experience that HTML makes possible? ;-)
>
>I know you don't read tarot and don't get tarot newsletters, but I do
>receive all my "competition" newsletters and every single one without FAIL
>is in text.  Apparently, at least within the tarot community, the general
>concensus IS to operate in text.  At this stage of the game I would
>probably alienate people by doing html.  I'll make you all a deal,
>though.  A bet, if you will.  I am going to put a POLL on my front page,
>and one in my next newsletter, asking my members which they would prefer to
>receive.... option A, text only, option B, html only, option C, both types
>available.  I'll be as interested as the next person in knowing what they
>will say!

There aren't many folks publishing HTML ezines in any of the niches I
publish in either. That doesn't mean that I'm going to sit around and
let them beat me to it though! :)

Cheers,

Brian Alt
http://Ezine-Tips.com/




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