ArnoldIT Starts Free Information Service. Honk!
June 18, 2012
January was a cruel month. Now it is June and the ice has melted and the grass is green for a short time. At the ArnoldIT editorial meeting on June 14, 2012, the bright but feisty team suggested that we should try something new with our flow of more than 800 stories a month. So starting today (June 18, 2012) we are starting a test of Honk, an opt in, free restricted distribution newsletter. Key point: Free. Another key point: A test.
What will the opt in ArnoldIT newsletter contain?
We will be sending out one original and quite opinionated story plus links to six or seven supporting or complementary stories each week. Today’s test issue take a hard look at predictive methods for search and content processing. Instead of dancing around a company’s misstep, the content in the registration-required newsletter names the company. We hope that each newsletter provides the equivalent of a page in a college notebook about a specific topic.
If the feedback about the restricted distribution newsletter is positive, we want to expand the content coverage, run some ads, and use the newsletter for inclusions; that is, special content tailored to our opt in readers.
The logo for the free, weekly opt in newsletter from Stephen E Arnold
To get the free newsletter off the ground, here’s the deal. Write thehonk@yandex.com. Just tell us that you want to receive the email newsletter. You will start getting it each Monday. You can opt out at any time. As a shameless inducement, anyone who signs up in the next week will receive a free copy of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search. Info about the monograph is here. The book was published in 2011 by Pandia in Norway which has shifted its business from information toward more exciting venues. Therefore, the rights are mine, and you can get a free monograph in exchange for your request to receive our new newsletter.
Just so you know what ideas the team generated are, let me highlight a few of the suggestions:
- We build our own email list. We have worked on building a search, content processing, and analytics mailing list for two publishers and several clients in the last four years. None of those outfits is still in business and we don’t have the names we acquired.
- We want to experiment with different types of content, including sponsored content. (I am not sure how this will work, but there are 20 ArnoldIT goslings who want to experiment.)
- We get requests to advertise on Beyond Search, but we have finite space. We will try to put some ads in the newsletter. Some will be gratis; others will we hope paid for by some wise advertiser.
- The newsletter may be killed because no one cares. My team and I are okay with that outcome.
We have assigned one of our content specialists to the project. Her name is Jennifer Shockley, and she will be monitoring the email at thehonk@yandex.com along with Don Anderson, the engineer who is fiddling with the email publishing systems we are testing.
The original content in the newsletter is copyrighted and may not be reused without written permission. The content on my Web site and the blogs have different terms of use.
Stephen E Arnold, June 18, 2012
Comments
One Response to “ArnoldIT Starts Free Information Service. Honk!”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
Hello Stephen,
Perhaps it is time to reconnect,
How is your schedule in the next few days for a phone call?
Best regards,
Ross