Subject: Test & Update on MC&T
Date: Sunday, March 26, 2000 9:42 PM
Greetings Folks!
If youve received this E-mail then your subscription to Managing
Change &
Technology has been received... if you havent received it... please let
me
know? :-)
The primary reason for this notice is to allow me to test out a bulk
e-mailer...
I had expected to produce a little Change & Technology newsletter and
have
a few hundred interested subscribers. With a subscriber base of this size
I was
going to handle it with the nickname and address book functions of
Eudora.
Ahem... we already have more than 3,100 subscribers. Yikes! A little
hobby/project
has quickly turned into a full-time activity.
Since Im already cluttering up your mailbox, I thought it worthwhile to
bring
you up to date on my thinking regarding MC&T.
First and perhaps most importantly, the newsletter will be distributed
as an
attachment in Acrobat format. (ie. a PDF file) The reason for this format
is
that it allows me to produce something a bit more sophisticated than just
a long
e-mail. It also allows me some limited control over copyright issues.
If you do not already have the free acrobat reader then you can download
it
from:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
Heres the deal with respect to copyright. MC&T will be copyrighted in
the name
of de Jager & Company Limited Any reader of MC&T will have the right to
redistribute
MC&T in its entirety.
If a company wishes to reprint individual articles for their corporate
newsletters
then they will gain that permission by purchasing and signing annual
reprint
permission contract. ( This fee is currently set at $500 per annum,
contact
me for more details if youre already interested.) The bulk of this form
of income
will be paid back to all the authors according to a contribution scheme
(which
Ive not fully worked out as yet. This will be in place before the first
issue.)
***First issue? Before the end of April.
To clarify, since some of you have already asked... The newsletter will
be totally
free of charge to those who wish to receive it and circulate it as they
see fit
on the condition that the -entire- PDF file is circulated intact. The
only fee
is if you wish to reprint individual articles.
In exchange for this free subscription I ask the following.
1) Active participation in providing feedback and topics for
examination.
2) You assistance in spreading the word about this newsletter.
Heres my game plan with respect to MC&T... It will always be free, but
I wish
to start paying contributing writers as soon as possible. To do this I
have to
generate some income directly from the newsletter itself. While reprint
fees
will cover some of this, it will take a while for the income from that
source
to make it worthwhile to any writer. (And since this is an annual fee,
this
income can only be distributed at the end of every year)
The simplest immediate solution is advertising... but that only starts
being
worthwhile to the advertiser when the subscription base exceeds 5,000.
Hence
my request for you to participate in spreading the word that this
newsletter
exists and how to subscribe to it... (for the moment an e-mail to
pdejager@year2000.com
with Managing Change & Technology in the subject line will suffice...
Im looking
at an automated sub & un-sub process)
What type of advertising will there be? and how much of it? Well, the
plan is
to have MC&T to be 16 pages for the moment. For the moment, there will
only be
10 advertising slots... (I doubt I will increase this page to ad ratio
significantly)
Each < page in size. As to the type of advertising. I promise it will be
appropriate
to the readership.
Youll have to trust that Ill be as responsible here as I was on
www.year2000.com...
In case you didnt notice, we allowed NO survival preparation vendors
on the
site, only solution providers... passing up on more than 100 requests to
advertise.
Our Annual ads cost between $2,000 and $5,000 each. You do the math and
determine
how important this was to me...
Regarding the sale of the list of e-mails... several queries on this
already.
IF I get to the point where this might be worthwhile you have the
following
personal assurance from me. I will NOT sell access to your E-mail ID if
you request
me not to.
***PLEASE*** do not send me an e-mail today with respect to this issue
***PLEASE***
When this becomes something I have to deal with I will send out a
special notice
asking you to reply and THEN I will tag your e-mail as NOT FOR
DISTRIBUTION.
Now some information on Newsletter content... heres some of the
things I
see appearing regularly.
An editorial... naturally
At least two articles on aspects of change.
At least one article on management
At least one article on a technology application of some sort
A 'recommended reading' book review.*
Some related humor.*
A connection between something creative and something useful*
A Question from the reader answered 4-ways*
Reader feedback*
A review of a related and recommended website
Quotorials*
Insights from Common Sense*
A calendar of events
Some commentary of the news relating to the ever changing technology.
The unavoidable ads... (sorry, but something has to pay for the writers
and
the time itll take to run this thing professionally... if wed only had
a few
hundred subscribers we could have done this on the cheap... with
thousands of
interested subscribers we have to do this right... does that make sense?)
The items marked with an * will either become clearer when you see what
I have
in mind... or will be a bit different than what youre used to.
Ultimately there are several prominent individuals who I would like to
have
as month contributors... but would not dare approach these folks until I
can
afford to sign a contract with them for a series of original articles
from them.
I cant do that, until I make this self sustaining. If you like what I
produce...
then I guess youll help me spread the word... otherwise you wont....
that seems
fair to me.
Theres no need to respond to this note unless you feel absolutely
compelled
to say something... I will contact some of you directly to make sure this
test
of the bulk e-mail succeeded.
Im looking forward to this project... I hope you are as well.
Yours truly
Peter de Jager
From: Peter de Jager
pdejager@year2000.com
-- (Ladylogic@....), March 26, 2000