I have been sending and receiving forum newsletters for a long time now and there is still some things that bother me, it’s the information provide in them. So here are a couple of quick tips on writing a good forum newsletter.

The Do:
Write an article; announce a contest or something related to the forum to draw the user back.

The Don’t:
Don’t just include threads and posts, give them something of value.

The Do:
If you’re going to show some threads in your newsletter, give them fresh information, threads that have been made within the past couple of hours or less.

The Don’t:
Don’t show the threads with the most views or replies, who cares? Is this really going to draw a member back that hasn’t been there in awhile? Keep it fresh!

The Do:
If you’re going to use advertising in your newsletter, make it either some text link ads or a non-graphic laden forum related banner ad.

The Don’t:
Don’t use flash banners or something unrelated to your forum, people will ignore them or they may never read your newsletter and just put it off as spam.

The Do:
Include how they can unsubscribe to your newsletter and honor their request. Make it easy on them, tell them that they can unsubscribe by replying to the e-mail or tell them exactly how to do this in their user control panel.

The Don’t:
Don’t send your newsletter without this information.

The Do:
Do send them out monthly and no more than that. I know some people send them out every 2 weeks and some even weekly. In my opinion sending one weekly way is too much, 2 weeks maybe okay depending on the forum’s topic.

The Don’t:
Don’t send them to the users that have not subscribed or to receive e-mails from the administrator. Honor this! You don’t need a bunch of members getting upset for sending out something they didn’t want and call you a spammer.

Hopefully you will put some of these quick tips to some use and let me know what you think.