Debbie Weil is a corporate blogging and social media expert, online marketing consultant, speaker and author of The Corporate Blogging Book (Portfolio). She consults with large companies, CEOs and senior executives on how to create blogs that connect with customers and attract media attention.

For some reason, I opened a message from Daniel Will-Harris recently. It begins:

“A few days ago I opened my closet door and found myself staring into a dark maw of nothingness. Where had all my clothes gone?”

I don’t know about you but I like absurd humor. This grabbed me. I clicked through and discovered this was Daniel’s Schmoozeletter promoting his Web design business. Sign up and you instantly get access to a passel of interesting fonts and clipart. Sometimes funny stuff works. It’s hard to do.

I’m trying something new… instead of mailing every special offer or product promotion to my entire list of e-newsletter subscribers, I’m starting a new *exclusive* WordBiz Insider list. It’s free to join. It gives me a venue to tempt Insiders with special discounts on WordBiz teleseminars, PDF special reports and other products. No pretense that this is a content-filled mailing. It’s a PROMOTION. Wanna join? Click here. Course I hope you’ll be a regular WordBiz Report subscriber too. Subscribe here if you’re not already.

Good article by Linda Kazares in eNewsletter Journal. She says if you re-send an issue of your newsletter to subscribers who haven’t opened it you’ll get 21.5% additional “reads” (assume she means “opens”). Be sure to use a different subject line, Kazares recommends. Interesting tactic. If you’re putting a lot of work into each issue, why not pump up your ROI?

That would be the bargain introductory price for my complete e-newsletter publishing course - digital + print + audio. I call the package E-newsletters 101. Learn more about Insider Secrets of Profitable E-newsletters here…

Read, scribble, click and listen. This is a comprehensive, step-by-step course that will get you quickly & painlessly up to speed and help you launch an effective e-newsletter. It’s packed with dozens of screenshots of newsletters you can steal from along with templates, checklists, strategy worksheets and other resources.

Order before midnight tonight to save $48. You’ll also get a FREE copy of my new special report, Make Your E-newsletter Sell (value $37)… if you order by midnight.

Jeesh… this is promoting in real time… waddya think? Does it work??

Wanna see a really clever use of audio on a 1-page Web site? The point is to lure visitors to the page and then get them to sign up for a paid teleseminar series. Click here to see what online conversion expert Alex Mandossian is doing. Be sure to scroll down and go through the steps to get his free offer - so you see how this technique works.

That’s Alex and me at The Big Seminar in Orlando, FLA this past weekend.

I’m at The Big Seminar in Orlando, FLA drinking in the latest on how to add audio, video and multimedia to your site. Only problem, the hotel is under (messy) renovation and there’s no Internet access. Check out these URLs for easy ways (for the non-techie) to add multi-media to your site (to create an online tutorial, for example): www.Camtasia.com. Or to edit MP3 audio files if you’re recording teleseminars and want to improve their playback value: www.SoundForge.com. More later if I can elbow my way back on to this computer. Otherwise, see ya next week.

Find out here. Just upload a Word document or enter a URL and find out if an 8th or 9th grader could make sense of your prose. Too complex, and your words won’t be effective.

Nick Usborne is one of the sharpest guys around when it comes to online copywriting. Fun to see him again in person today at an all-day workshop here in Washington DC on this topic (produced by uie.com). And gratifying also to see that nearly 60 people are willing to give up a day at the office to focus on “words” on the Web and in email.

As Nick puts it, “Character and voice rise to the surface online.” It’s individual voices that resonate through Web sites and email. Marketing-speak just doesn’t work. Makes sense. When you’re writing to sell online, you’re aiming your words at those “pesky readers” (as Nick calls them). Your readers are also writing online, in emails, discussion lists, news groups, chat rooms. They’re playing your game. Get them to respond to your site or email by writing in a warm, credible, articulate voice.

Maybe not the most burning question… but worth asking. In a WordBiz survey last week that got over 250 responses, 58% called it an e-newsletter. 23% say ezine. Bob Bly, who publishes The Direct Response Letter, calls it an ezine. No particular reason, he told me.

I think of an e-newsletter as being a professional marketing communications vehicle. And of an ezine as something more informal. But that’s not necessarily true. What do you call it? Leave your comment below!

Wheh I surveyed the 13,000+ readers of WordBiz Report recently on whether they regularly included a quotation in their e-newsletter or ezine, the answer was a resounding NO. 77% said no; 12% said yes.

But when I interviewed well-known B2B copywriter Bob Bly today for a live teleseminar, Bob told me he’s a big fan of quotes. Turns out one of our teleseminar participants publishes a daily “quote of the day” newsletter. It’s $47 a year but you can sign up for a free sample of PowerQuotes Plus here. (I have no connection with this e-publication.)