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I'm starting a newsletter about Japan and I'm not sure whether it should have an online archive of past issues. If yes, only available to subscribers, or widely publicized all over the net?

I think this is a difficult question. Of course, such an archive would create a valuable knowledge base, make available past issues to new subscribers, and promote the newsletter itself. But on the other hand, there is the risk of it becoming just a "secondary blog," loosing the newsletter exclusivity aspect and lowering the value in subscribing to it in the first place, instead of using RSS or visiting the archive website directly.

What's you opinion?

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I am in the process of launching an email based start-up and I have been struggling with this question too. I think it is going to depend on the type of content in your newsletter.

In my case my newsletter content is a variation of a "tip of the day", which lends itself nicely to being duplicated as a short blog post. On one hand I worry that some people may not subscribe right away because they know the content is on the website, but on the other hand the more content I have on the web the more chances I will have to get the signup form in front of them.

Ultimately I decided to mirror the newsletters as posts on the website, but the email signup form will be prominent on each post. By making the content web accessible each tip can linked directly, and I get the added SEO benefit of regular new content.

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+1 for mentioning SEO benefit, that's the first thing I thought about. – Alex - Aotea Studios Dec 20 '10 at 21:17
Yes SEO is indeed something that makes me believe archiving could be a good idea. and many of the other benefits you noted as well. The thing is that I already have a blog with long high quality posts and lots of readers. Now the question is, should I have this archived in form of a second blog? I don't think having this as posts on the main blog is a good idea cause these entries are much shorter and of slightly other nature than blog post, and sometimes duplicating the themes of the longer posts. – Philip Seyfi Dec 20 '10 at 23:11
Thanks for the helpful answers! – Philip Seyfi Dec 21 '10 at 11:22
up vote 2 down vote

Why is exclusivety so important?

Two points:

  1. To answer you immediate question: Yes, your content should be available archived online. Put a delay between the newsletter and its archiving to the site, if necessary to maintain some illusion of "exclusivity".
  2. An additional point: you should have as many path to your content as possible. Not everyone likes emailed newsletters, not everyone likes blogs, not everyone does RSS. Don't get all caught up in the various mediums and lose sight that your main goal is to get your content out there. Given that you don't charge for you newsletter information, I'm assuming that the value to you in publishing the newsletter is in the branding inherent in the information.
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The thing is that I already have a blog with long high quality posts and lots of readers. Now the question is, should I have this archived in form of a second blog? I don't think having this as posts on the main blog is a good idea cause these entries are much shorter and of slightly other nature than blog post, and sometimes duplicating the themes of the longer posts. – Philip Seyfi Dec 20 '10 at 23:10
Thanks for your help! – Philip Seyfi Dec 21 '10 at 11:23

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