Earlier this year we started sending out a weekly update to our readers. We like the newsletter because we reach an extra audience and it works like a reminder for people to visit the site or read the RSS feed.
Since a few weeks we also include more content in our newsletter that we don’t publish to the site. This to give our subscribers and readers more incentive to also subscribe to the newsletter.
There are now more than 4000 subscribers and we are growing fast. I wrote here earlier about MailChimp, the solution we use to manage and deliver the newsletter. This weekend they upgraded to a new version of their software which made me discover an easy way to present our readers with an Archive of all the previous newsletter we sent out.
It is convenient to look up stuff you read about earlier but can’t find now or to send a link to someone if you want to share information but don’t want to forward the newsletter.
A few months ago we were looking for a newsletter solution. We wanted a simple, dynamic, scalable and Web2.0 style newsletter management service. We asked around and several people told us to check out MailChimp. We did, and we got hooked.
Since then our newsletter has been growing with hundreds of subscribers every week and we are now sending out our weekly update to more than 4000 people. The design, reporting and management tools are just a pleasure to work with and are even available via the iPhone.
We have also gotten to know the people behind MailChimp a little better. They featured us in one of their MailChimp Case studies as an example of a company that uses their service. Then we launched TwitterKeys and they wrote something about that. Then they bought a 125 x125 to advertise here. In a few weeks Amanda Lauter, my contact at MailChimp, is visiting Europe and I will make her dinner at our house.
In other words. This is not an unbiased post about MailChimp!
This weekend (Jan 17th at 12am) MailChimp is upgrading to version 4 which is a big upgrade which I expect a lot from. Here is a video detailing some of the new features. It also gives you a quick look at MailChimp’s interface so if you don’t know it yet this is a good opportunity to check it out:
Here are all the improvements they are implementing in Version 4:
- Easier Signup Forms: Drop-downs & Hidden Fields!
- Geographical Open Reports
- Click Overlay
- Batch Modify & Batch Unsubscribe
- RSS Scheduling Options
- Import Campaign via URL
- Import Campaign via ZIP
- Salesforce, Highrise & Paypal Integration
- Wufoo Integration
- Social Sharing
- New Template Headers
- New languages
- “Remember Me” Checkbox on Login Page
- Plain-Text Generator Tweaks
- Smarter Databases
MailChimp is one of those applications we couldn’t live without and are proud to work with. So proud that we happily recommend it to anyone we talk to. If you want to check it out visit their website or click their button in the sidebar here.
As you might now we have a lively (3700+ subscribers!) and well received newsletter which we send out once a week on Friday. You don’t want to miss it if you want to receive discounts to events and services and invitations to invitation only new start-ups. We try to keep the newsletter interesting for our readers by including content there that we don’t feature on the blog.
This last newsletter we announced the Next Web Salon. Check it out:
The Next Web Salon is an event organized to bring together internet professionals in an informal setting. We prepare dinner for up to 40 people and serve some good wines. We also make sure we have a few (4) interesting presentations that take no more than 6 minutes but should inspire, confuse or upset the audience and are guaranteed to give you something to talk about.
The 4th Salon is taking place on January 27. Our speakers:
Faisal Galaria
Managing Director Kayak.com and the former European Director at Skype.
Yvette Pasman
Strategist at IN10 Amsterdam, who will trigger you with insights in our future society and the impact on our business and marketing strategies.
And more...
We will announce the other speakers in our next newsletter.
The price of attending is €80 (ex taxes) and will include food and drinks. Make sure you reserve your ticket on time, previous Salons filled up very fast.
As you may have read a few weeks ago we now send out a regular newsletter. Every Friday we collect some statistics from the site and figure out what the most popular post was. We email this to everyone who has attended a conference before, to The Next Web LinkedIn group and to people who sign-up for our weekly newsletter here at the site.
The first Next Web Salon was sold out within 48 hours and the second one, which was held last Friday, was sold out within 20 hours! We first send out an invitation to our mailing list and then, if we still have tickets left, we post the invitation to our blog.
As soon as we have more details about The Next Web Conference 2009 we will send out an invitation to our mailing list first and post it to the blog and send out a press release later.
If you want to make sure you are invited first to all our events do sign-up for our newsletter!
Click the image on the right here to see an example newsletter and sign-up here:
Sign up for our weekly Next Web Update. Just the highlights!
Yeah, newsletters sound a bit like The Previous Web right? But we received lots of requests for a serious weekly newsletter so we decided to start one anyway. Today we sent out the first edition and if you were lucky enough to receive one: congratulations!
You can click on the image on the right here to see what our newsletter looks like. pretty slick right? We used the excellent MailChimp services to design and distribute it.
Good news for those who aren’t subscribed yet. The newsletter is absolutely FREE and will be delivered once a week directly to your inbox if you sign-up now:
Sign up for our weekly Next Web Update. Just the highlights!
Written on 21st January 2009
2 COMMENTS 
Earlier this year we started sending out a weekly update to our readers. We like the newsletter because we reach an extra audience and it works like a reminder for people to visit the site or read the RSS feed.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
