I occasionally get questions complaints about the format of
the newsletter. Specifically, some people find the fact that it contains only
the first part of each article and requires you to click through to the website objectionable.
There are several very important reasons that the newsletter is structured this way.
You Choose What To Read
I cover a broad range of articles on Ask Leo!, on a wide variety of topics. Not everyone is interested in every article.
By presenting just an overview of the question and answer, readers can choose exactly what they want to see and spend their time viewing and reading.
It'd Be HUGE
I occasionally get comments or suggestions that my newsletter is too large.
Now, consider if it included the full text (and often images) of the seven or eight articles that it typically contains. Not only would the email itself be excessively large, the chances of not getting it at all would go up as size and images do contribute to various types of deliverability problems.
Content Theft
Content plagiarism and theft is rampant on the internet. As it is, I find stolen copies of my articles all over, typically at sites hosted overseas where I have little or no recourse.
Publishing the full content of my articles in a newsletter ... well, that's just an automated delivery service for content thieves. It's not something I can allow.
The Website Pays The Bills
Being totally honest here: it's the website, not the newsletter, that allows both to exist. Yes, the newsletter has one ad in it, but that doesn't come close to covering the costs of running Ask Leo!.
I totally get that this isn't your problem, but the practical situation is that by viewing the articles that interest you on the website, you're contributing to Ask Leo!'s ability to exist in a way that a full-content newsletter simply could not.
What About A Premium Version?
While it doesn't address all the issues above (size, automated delivery for content thieves, etc.), I have and continue to consider it. So far, there hasn't been enough interest to warrant the extra work that it would entail.
One Alternative
The newsletter itself is on the web; the latest is always at http://ask-leo.com/currentnewsletter.html. Many people find reading it in a web browser to be less objectionable than in their email program.
Similarly, as you've seen, half the newsletter is simply the week's most recent articles, which you can also browse simply by visiting http://ask-leo.com.
