Part 2 : Masses of newsletters and the "personality" focus

What do you think of the massive amount of newsletters out there?
There are hundreds and thousands of them and I look at them as an opportunity to act almost as a big brother to these people. I've always been very careful with integrity. I've had opportunities to sell my lists and to rent my lists but I just won't do it. I see a lot of newsletters out there whose list masters are only out to make a buck. Don't get me wrong - I want to make a living at this too. We're getting ready ourselves to launch a couple of new technology newsletters. But I never want to look at the newsletters as only a profit-making venture, from only that perspective.

What are the problems you see in newsletters?
The lack of professionalism. They look bad. Another issue, and even I'm almost guilty of this to a degree is "too much content", just way too much. The less you send someone the more likely they are to read it. You have to build their trust up which is the whole thing we've built up with Lockergnome. For instance we were having problems with our mailing lists software and people are upset because they aren't getting their newsletters and we're fixing it but it shows us people are counting on Lockergnome and we have to always rise to their expectations and keep those in the forefront.

What would you say Lockergnome's main focus is? Is personality one focus?
Lockergnome's focus is about many things, personality, sense of humor, technology, different flavors of things that make Lockergnome unique. The personality is so important, the identity of the newsletter editor and the personality of the content. You've got to find the right balance. In writing our new business plan it's funny because one of our partners said, "We need to de-Pirilloize this." But I don't want to read something and fall asleep by it. It was the same way with the book. I wanted to make the reading funny and entertaining to keep the attention.

Continued...