ReveNews
PaidContent.org, The Best Email Newsletter I Never Read
Every day I get my daily email installment of the PaidContent.org email newsletter from Rafat Ali. And every day I do the same thing when I get it.
1. Try to read subject line, but it’s too long and full of too much information
2. Try to scan the headlines to see if anything jumps at me, but they are too small, too long and way too red
3. Hit the delete button, having learned almost nothing, feeling very dissatisfied
Sorry Rafat, but you’ve got some problems in your delivery, and in true Calacanis/Maverick style (currently my two favorite blogging heros), I’m using my influence as a blogger to get your attention so that hopefully changes will be made.
I know there is excellent content in there, I’ve forced myself to read through the newsletter before, and everyone I talk to nowadays seems to have you linked as an expert resource. But again, the problem creeps up… your high-quality information is simply not funneling its way into my brain because of the poor delivery.
I get close to 30 email newsletters every day, and the only ones that I read are the ones I can scan easily. PaidContent is simply not scannable, at all.
Take a look at this screenshot from today’s email. My highlights are the yellow boxes, with blue type on top of them. Click image to see full size.
Problems that should be fixed are as such.
- The wasted space up top
- The left hand navigation (is this an email or a website?)
- The decision to use valuable space to tell people you have misspelled words to avoid email filters?
- Subscription information in top right? Aren’t I already subscribed?
- Main content (headlines) are below the virtual fold. I understand you are pimping your advertiser above it, but by eliminating the space up top and condensing things a bit, or at least making your headlines bigger in pixel size, shorter in words and more readable, you’ll allow me, your reader, to easily scan and peck for information that is valuable to me
Ok, before I start channeling Steve Krug, my all-time favorite usability guru, I figured I’d take a stab at improving the newsletter. But then I remembered I’m not a designer anymore.
So here’s my selfish plea.
Someone please do a redesign of Rafat’s email newsletter for him in hopes that he’ll implement it so that I can read it? I encourage you to take the redesign into your own hands and send them to me at jimkukral at revenews dotcom. I will post them here giving you full credit.
Yes please, take up Jim’s challenge…I don’t have the time, nor the expertise. Help him read..
Rafat
Time Capsule: The End of May 2006 Is Pear Shaped.
No lengthy musings or rants about unstrained marketing here tonight. This is simply a collection of odds and ends that came in at the end of the month. The whole collection was…sort of strange when looked at in aggregate- or “going all pear shaped” a…
Hear, hear, Jim! I unsubbed from Rafat’s emails a while ago because they were just cluttering up my inbox. Would love to re-up, though, if they were more user friendly. Hope someone can help.
What do you mean? I’ve been subscribed to his newsletter for months and it’s brilliant. I find no problem with it whatsoever. The information get’s to my brain just fine. Jim, you need to check your brain LOL
Affiliate Marketing in the NY Post!
Yesterday, in a NY Post article titled ” WHO SAYS YOU CAN’T EARN MONEY SITTING AT YOUR COMPUTER? RAKE IN THOSE DIGITAL DOLLARS”., Post scribe JONATHAN BENDER suggest Affiliate Marketing as a method to make money online. (Shawn, I’ll bet…