All solopreneurs and small businesses should consider having an email-based newsletter for developing a loyal following, communicating your "personal fabulosity" (compliments of the Communicatrix), and assisting in marketing the products and services of the organization. There are many email campaign sources available to the solopreneur to build a client list, offer services, and to market products and services. One key to all of the services are to avoid SPAM and the reputation for sending it. Although it takes longer, building your own client permission-based list, one person at a time yields the best results. Avoid trying to buy a list; it is less hassle and more effeictive to build your own. Each of them has differing strengths, pricing structures, services, and support resources. Here are just a few:

Out of them all, Santa Walter selected MailChimp for several reasons. Their do-it-yourself approach fits a beginner's skills; however, the support is humorous, high quality and even Walter-proof. They give all trial accounts a 600 email credit, and a list of up to 100 emails in each mailing. They even let me spit my list into A/B when it exceeded 100. The template-builder was easy and intuitive, list building was equally easy. I was able to use it for over 3 months without spending anything, and then the choice of plans were very flexible. They did not seem to be pressuring the sale. And the MailChimp's outrageous little snippets are quite fun. Once I signed on for a prepaid account, I even had the choice of the email campaign being completely without their logo or affiliation, if so desired. MailChimp powers Santa eNews and several other accounts for Santa Walter at a pay-as-you-go rate of $0.02 per email for now. Once the list grows huge, changing to a monthly fee is easily done. Their free 64 page eBook on email marketing guide for newsletters is a great help, regardless of which company you select.

Within the Santa community, one service that is used a lot is Constant Contact. Since they have even radio ads, and telephone support for the novice, they cost a little more; however, the strong color bands typical of their newsletter product tends to be distracting. They offer live webinars for the beginner to get started. Their pricing is $15/month for up to 500 emails on the list, which translates into $0.15 for each email address per month for 100 emails and slides to $0.03 each. If you are only sending one blast per month, and your list is small, it can seem to be pretty expensive.

A very impressive candidate is MyEmma as an email marketing solution. They develop your email look to coordinate with your website for about $100 or $250 for a small business, and for $30 per month, each client has an assigned human support provider available by phone and email to help and support getting out the campaigns. Since I found them through Marketing-Mentor, they were even going to give me a 20% discount on the monthly rate. They also plant 5 trees for every new client.

Another Internet Newsletter source is iContact. They start at about $10 per month. They have a series of 7 emails as resources on how to  do effective newsletters. They offer a free trial period.

Welcome to iContact's 7-Day Email Marketing eCourse

You will be receiving a total of 7 emails educating you on some of the most important topics in email marketing. Here's a snapshot of what you will find in your inbox over the next week:

• Day 1: iContact’s Five Step Process of Fail-Proof Permission Email Marketing
• Day 2: Learn How To Make Money and Leverage Email Marketing for Your Business!
• Day 3: How To Build Your Email Marketing List
• Day 4: iContact on Spam: What It Is and How To Avoid It
• Day 5: Increase Your Open Rates with an Effective 'From Name' and 'Subject Line'
• Day 6: Using Autoresponders to Put Your Marketing on 'Autopilot'
• Day 7: Get Instant Feedback From Your Subscribers with Surveys