It's That Time Again: Summer Reading Recommendations

First, the fallen warriors. Sadly, since I offered up a list of publications about business-to-business (B2B) email and online marketing not quite one year ago, a handful of them are no longer around.

These include DigiTrends, iMarketingNews, and, most recently, Iconocast, all victims of the decline in online ad dollars. That trend will reverse itself this year, according to eMarketer’s “2002 Online Advertising Report,” which predicts an 11 percent increase in online ad spending this year.

Another resource that appears to have suspended publication is E-Mail Marketing News. Ditto for eMarketer’s weekly e-newsletter focused on email marketing. I was particularly fond of that one, a breezy text-only bulletin with commentary in addition to stats.

So what’s left if you’re a diligent online reader and want to stay on top of email marketing trends and best practices?

In addition to ClickZ, there’s plenty to keep you busy. The following is an annotated list, but it’s surely not complete. If I’ve forgotten something that’s a terrific resource, drop me a line.

You can still read an abbreviated version of iMarketingNews in DM News with some good reporting by Ken Magill. And there’s DM News’s E-mail Marketing Weekly that you can sign up for.

eMarketer consolidated all of its e-newsletters into a daily HTML newsletter featuring a graph pulled from the company’s paid access database. It’s not required reading, but it sometimes has a stat or two that’s interesting.

CyberAtlas summarizes the results of nearly every significant research report about the Web economy. It’s an invaluable resource and publishes a free weekly newsletter.

Below is a more or less alphabetical list of other e-pubs I regularly skim. Currently, they’re all free, but that could change in the future. Frankly, I hope it does. There’s no reason we shouldn’t pay for useful online content, particularly if the pubs have a distinctive voice and personality.

avant|marketer is a smart weekly that covers the online ad industry, published by Washington, D.C., based Ajay Segal. It’s a model of elegant and spare HTML design and a pleasure to read.

B2Bonline.com is the online version of the slick tabloid. It sometimes has a good case study.

brizcomm is a periodic e-newsletter by Australian Web content expert Yvette Nielsen. She includes some good information about e-newsletters and email as well as a roundup of more or less useful quirky items.

Bob Thompson’s CRMGuru newsletters are well written and edited (always a pleasure on the Web). eCRMGuide recently added case studies to its news and opinion lineup.

DotOrgAdvisor is a text-only pub with solid information for associations and nonprofits interested in Web and email marketing.

Ezine-Tips.com is one of the few email newsletters specifically focused on e-newsletters, a.k.a. e-zines. It’s penned daily by the tireless Janet Roberts. I had a nice visit in New York with Janet after the ClickZ Email Strategies conference last week. She suggested two other pubs: Congressional Quarterly and GigaLaw.com.

Congressional Quarterly has daily and weekly alerts if you want to stay on top of the latest legislative developments related to spam or privacy. GigaLaw.com is a comprehensive site with “legal information for Internet professionals.”

GrokDotCom just published its 50th issue, according to fellow ClickZer Bryan Eisenberg. He publishes the twice-a-month e-newsletter on the topic of online conversion rates with his brother Jeffrey.

I-copywriting, moderated by ClickZ’s Nick Usborne, is a good discussion list that addresses issues specifically related to copywriting, both on- and offline.

The Jennings Report is a new e-newsletter by ClickZ colleague Jeanne Jennings. It’s Jeanne’s take on the latest news and stats on the email marketing industry.

Marketing Experiments Journal is a hard-to-navigate but fascinating site if you’re looking for hard data on what works online, whether it’s pop-ups or search engine submissions.

MarketingProfs is one of my favorites. Sign up for the semimonthly newsletter, which will drive you back to the site loaded with marketing related articles.

MediaPost has several newsletters you can sign up for.

Opt-in News is a great resource site for news, trends, and research on permission email marketing. You can sign up for a daily, weekly, or monthly e-newsletter for updates.

SitePoint Tribune is another Aussie e-pub. It’s more on the techie side but also has good articles on online marketing.

The End of Free, penned (in English) by Olivier Travers from his home base in Bordeaux, France, is the go-to blog if you’re interested in the free-to-fee debate.

I’m a fan of Ralph Wilson‘s three e-newsletters and of Larry Chase’s Web Digest for Marketers. I may not read every issue, but I like to stockpile them in my inbox and scan the subject lines later.

Global Reach Express is the only e-newsletter specifically focused on international online marketing, as far as I know. It’s delivered twice a month and includes intriguing stats on who’s speaking what on the Internet. Currently, it’s 40 percent English, 60 percent non-English.

Last but not least in the e-newsletter category is my own pub, WordBiz Report. It covers the business of words online and is both a strategic and tactical look at how words — the copy and content — drive revenue on the Internet and the Web.

Newsletter Listings

If you want more ideas, check out Ad/Marketing‘s list of e-pubs on marketing topics. You’ll find it in the Email Marketing Section under Marketing Newsletters (you have to register to get access). ListFish is another directory of e-newsletters.

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