I did a quick review of my traffic stats for this blog and here are the top ten most visited posts, ending with the most popular:

If Social Networking Isn’t Marketing, Why Bother?

Moving Your Print Newsletter to Email - 7 Tips

Where to Put Keywords on Your Web Page

Bunches o’ Studies and Stats on Nonprofit Marketing

Notes from “Building Your Online Presence on a Tight Budget”

Stand Out with Thank You Notes, Part II

Make Your Website about Visitors, Not About You

Website Tune-Up: Get Multiple Domain Names

Registration Now Open for Fall Webinar Series (This is obviously out-of-date, so check out our current webinar series schedule instead.)

Board Lists in Annual Reports - Past or Current?

But traffic isn’t everything. What about looking at posts based on the number of comments they received? The list looks a little bit different, again with the most popular post last.

Five Questions Nonprofits Should Answer with Stories

Is Web 2.0 Software You Buy from Microsoft?

What Type of Blog Should Your Nonprofit Write?

Special Olympics Blows It With Tropic Thunder Boycott

Nonprofit Buzzword Bingo - Get Your Game Cards Now

Stand Out with Thank You Notes, Part II

Just How Much Branding Can One Nonprofit Take?

What I Learned About Nonprofits at the NC Conference

If Social Networking Isn’t Marketing, Why Bother?

After I Give, What Do I Get?

Why are you reading this blog? Tell me what you’d like me to write about in 2009 by leaving a comment on this post.

Happy New Year!

Are you reading this in your email box? Switch to an RSS feed reader like Google Reader and you can subscribe to this blog and others, without clogging your inbox.

If you’ve been pondering an All-Access Pass to Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com, you only have 8 days left to get 16 weeks instead of the usual 12. Sign up for the pass now and you can attend live or watch recordings of all of these upcoming webinars in 2009 (a al carte registration for the first four webinars in January is now open too):

Email Newsletter Essentials for Nonprofits - From Start to Finish

How to Write a 4-Page Annual Report: The Crash Course Webinar

How to Position Your Nonprofit as an Expert Source

Friendraising: The Easy Way to Introduce Your Board Members to Fundraising

How to Write a Good Elevator Pitch

Online Marketing Basics: From Email to Social Media

Blogging for Nonprofits: Tips, Traps, and Tales

Creating Online Evangelists: How to Excite and Motivate Your Supporters (Featuring John Kenyon)

Getting the Media Interested in Covering You and Your Cause (Featuring Claire Meyerhoff)

Parties with a Purpose: Putting the Fun Back into Fundraising (Featuring Gail Perry and Claire Meyerhoff)

Best Practices in Nonprofit Communications

Nonprofit Marketing with Next to No Budget

Taking the Fear Out of Fundraising for You and Your Board (Featuring Gail Perry)

Storytelling for Nonprofits

Boasting Without Bravado: How to Share Your Success Stories

Get your All-Access Pass now (16 weeks = $97; Full Year = $330)

Affordable Nonprofit Marketing Training for Your Staff, Volunteers, and Board. The Nonprofit Marketing Guide Webinar Series gives you the real-world, practical tips you need at a price you can afford. Review the Upcoming Schedule Now.

Going from a Print Newsletter to an Email Newsletter - Webinar This Thursday - Get the Details

It seems like every nonprofit I’ve talked to in the last few months is either dropping their print newsletter entirely or carefully considering ways to cut back on the expense of publishing it (e.g. publishing fewer pages or printing fewer copies).

If you are considering moving from print to email, I recommend starting from scratch with your editorial calendar, because much of what you considered appropriate for a print newsletter simply won’t work in email. Here are a few examples:

Letter from the Director. Honestly, these are often ghastly in print because they are typically full of jargon and behind-the-scenes minutiae, all of which is exactly opposite of what works in email. If the director really loves writing that letter, then it’s time to give him or her a blog. Your email newsletter, on the other hand, should be focused primarily on the readers and what they care about and how they can connect to you and your cause. Very brief letters can work, but they must laser-focused on the reader — the letter is simply a format for content you want to share, not an open invitation for the director to ramble.

Calendar of Events. If you have a full page calendar with all the boxes for each day of the week, you can put that online (try Google Calendar, for example), but you shouldn’t try to email the whole calendar. Instead, highlight a few upcoming events and include a link to the full calendar.

Boring Photos. Group photos of your board, “big check” photos, and the like often make it into print newsletters, but waste precious space in email. Photos in email newsletters should be mission-oriented.

Masthead. This is where, in a print newsletter, you’ll often find complete contact information for the group, the list of the board of directors, the staff who work on the newsletter, and the mission statement. While you should include your contact information in your e-newsletter (CAN-SPAM rules require you to include your mailing address), leave the board and staff lists and the rest on your website. You can link to if need be.

Long Articles. Articles in email are much shorter than those in print. Shoot for no more than 500 words. If you need to go longer, include an excerpt in the email and have readers click over to your website to read the full article.

Big Display Ads. The majority of your email should be text, not images. That means those big full-page ads (or even half-page ads) that you include in your print newsletter, advertising everything from your own events to your sponsor’s products and services, need to go. You can create smaller button ads, or even better, turn that advertising into real content of interest to your readers — make what you are promoting relevant to them and to your cause.

Complicated Charts and Graphics. Email newsletters look different depending on which email program you are using to view them, making including charts and tables a crap shoot. Instead, save those items as a single graphic file (e.g. gif) and insert them into your newsletter that way. Remember, they need to be smaller because you are working with less space, so make your graphics as simple as possible.

Want more? Read “Moving Your Print Newsletter to Email - 7 Tips” and sign-up for this week’s webinar, How to Go from a Print Newsletter to an Email Newsletter, on Thursday, December 18 at 1:00 p.m ET (10:00 a.m. PT).

Get All of Our Webinars & E-Courses for $97. With the All-Access Pass, you can attend all of our live webinars, watch recordings, and take on-demand courses whenever you want. Now get 16 weeks of access for the 12-week price. Get the details.

If you are reading this on the blog itself, you’ll see that Nonprofit Communications has a look new. It’s not too far off from the old one, but this new template gives me some additional functionality I was missing before. I’m still playing around with it, so I apologize if the design tumbles around on you a bit.

Get All of Our Webinars & E-Courses for $97. With the All-Access Pass, you can attend all of our live webinars, watch recordings, and take on-demand courses whenever you want. Now get 16 weeks of access for the 12-week price. Get the details.

Photo by Snapr on Flickr

I’ve published the preliminary schedule for the 2009 Nonprofit Marketing Guide Webinar Series. Full descriptions and registration links are coming soon.

I’m negotiating with several speakers, so we’ll be adding even more to the schedule in the coming weeks.  During several weeks, we’ll host two webinars, making your All-Access Pass even more valuable.

Thanks to everyone who completed the recent survey on which topics you wanted to see on the schedule. The top five topics were

- Creating Evangelists: How to Excite and Motivate Your Supporters Online (scheduled for February 17, featuring John Kenyon)

- How to Position Your Nonprofit as an Expert Source  (scheduled for January 22)

- Building an Online Community of Supporters (still working on scheduling this one)

- Best Practices in Nonprofit Communications (scheduled for March 5)

- Nonprofit Marketing with Next to No Budget (scheduled for March 10)

I’ve randomly selected five survey participants to receive a free webinar pass (if your name is here, check your email box).

Marilyn Minor, Community Service Foundation

Lauren Massie,  Winslow Therapeutic Center

Linda Swarner,  Kenai Peninsula Food Bank

Sonia Singh, Arizona Women’s Education and Employment

Alexandra Pierschalla, Center for Resilient Cities

Thanks to everyone who completed the survey!

Get All of Our Webinars & E-Courses for $97. With the All-Access Pass, you can attend all of our live webinars, watch recordings, and take on-demand courses whenever you want for 12 weeks. Get the details.

The latest edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants is now available at The Feed by The Hatcher Group. You’ll find posts related to how nonprofits are using all the major social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) and more.

The next edition of the Carnival will be hosted by Joanne’s Nonprofits Blog at About.com and will cover “New Year’s Resolutions for Nonprofits.” Have some you’d like share? Write a post on your blog and submit it to the Carnival. (You don’t have to be a consultant to participate; you only need to have good words of wisdom to share with nonprofits.)

Get All of Our Webinars & E-Courses for $97. With the All-Access Pass, you can attend all of our live webinars, watch recordings, and take on-demand courses whenever you want for 12 weeks. Get the details.

Photo by terren in Virginia on Flickr

Email subject lines should tell us about the candy (the content), not about the wrapper (vague descriptions or formats, like “Winter Edition of the Newsletter”).

Last week, in my Nonprofit Marketing Tips newsletter (sign up in left sidebar), I published some advice on writing the best possible subject lines for your nonprofit’s email newsletters.

Here are my five tips. You can read the full article with explanations here.

1. Describe the Candy, Not the Wrapper.

2. Emphasize the Personal Value of the Content.

3. Don’t Tell People What to Do.

4. Keep It Short.

5. Piggyback on Hot Topics and Brand Names.

If you want to learn more about publishing an email newsletter, check out the next three webinars in the Nonprofit Marketing Guide weekly webinar series:

Easy and Effective Ways to Build Your Email List (Tuesday, December 9)

Going from a Print Newsletter to an Email Newsletter (Thursday, December 18)

Email Newsletter Essentials for Nonprofits - From Start to Finish (Wednesday, January 7)

Registration is $35 per webinar, or you can attend all three and many more with your All-Access Pass.

Get All of Our Webinars & E-Courses for $97. With the All-Access Pass, you can attend all of our live webinars, watch recordings, and take on-demand courses whenever you want for 12 weeks. Get the details.