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Write a Newsletter in Two Hours a Month

How to Write the Whole Newsletter in Less Than Two Hours a Month

There was a time when I began to dread the arrival of the big package from Newsletters Ink. This meant that I was going to have to carve out some time from my busy schedule and sit down and, if I wanted it to look really personalized, start to write a bunch of articles from scratch. As anyone knows, sitting down at a desk to write with a blank sheet of paper, under time pressure, is a monstrous task that as human beings we want to avoid as much as possible.

The trick that I now use to have the newsletter write itself is actually very simple. I took a manila folder and wrote in big letters on the front of it “Future newsletter articles.” That folder sits on a credenza in my office. In between issues, anything that comes across my desk that might be an interesting topic for the newsletter gets dumped into the folder. I don’t have to do any thinking, sorting, or writing at this time. If I see an interesting case or an issue that is brewing locally or I’ve thought about something that consumers misunderstand about the law or about dealing with insurance companies, I simply dump it into the manila folder.

Now, you might think that even that is hard because now you always have to be thinking about going out and finding articles to dump into your folder. Actually, the opposite is true. The human brain is an amazing thing. Once you set up this physical system in your office, articles and ideas just pop up all the time. You don’t have to try to remember them and you don’t have to write them down anywhere. You just dump them into the manila folder.

When it comes time to write the newsletter, you simply sit down with the folder and a hand-held recorder and “re-write” the articles. You hardly have to think about it or “create” anything at all! Viola! You now have a four- to six-page personalized newsletter to mail. E-mail your articles and your mailing list to Newsletters Ink and it’s done (‘til next month, anyway).

About Benjamin Glass
Ben Glass (www.BenGlassLaw.com) is a practicing plaintiffs’ personal injury and medical malpractice attorney in Fairfax, Virginia. He is the author of The Ultimate Personal Injury and Practice Building Toolkit (information available at www.GreatLegalMarketing.com).