What Sells Online? Unsexy Newsletters

Nobody know this like Headlines readers: unsexy, e-mail newsletters are all that. They're not the newest fad, but daily digests sent via e-mail can generate some much needed ad revenue when there's not much of it to go around. It may sound odd that space on a low-tech newsletter could be so desirable in an age of mass-market blogs, when young people increasingly rely on instant messaging, texts, and such sites as Twitter and Facebook instead of e-mail. But remember that signing up for and opening an e-mail newsletter is a much bigger commitment than passively clicking on a link that takes you to a blog post. Publishers can see how many people open an e-mail, how long they read it, and how many friends they forward it to. Advertisers eat up that kind of engagement, because it's different, tangible, and more likely to result in an action such as making a purchase.