Hi...........thanks for opening........

I just want to send out a few short paragraphs of text and maybe 2 photos to local schools promoting my live snake programs for kids of all ages.

I thought I could figure this one out but I must be missing one key step and my efforts are not converting my html to text.

So.....starting at the very beginning....if I use Yahoo, Inbox or Gmail...last is preferred.........do I choose plain text or rich text?

Then to I need an opening and closing html tag and a body tags as well?

I don't even care about the photos at this point but could they be inserted as img src codes from my photobucket account?

What I am missing here.........I even tried to cut and paste a free enewsletter html template and it just arrived as html code in both plain and rich text. Help! I've got to send these out sooooooooooon!

I don't know what templates you tried, but you might want to read up on email newsletters here: www.campaignmonitor.com - there's a ton there on how you do it and they even have 30 FREE templates you can download.

The reason you are receiving html code is because you are pasting html code in web editor. The standard account of yahoo does not provide the option of html source window..

To resolve this issue, do following:

1- Open the html page, containing the content/blurb you want to send.
2- Press Ctrl + A (to select all)
3- Copy (Ctrl + C)
4- Open yahoo composer
5- Paste in composer

This will take all the html code from your html page, to yahoo compser..

Its probably a bad idea to put HTML in an email anyways. With hotmail anyways it wont display any of the html without the user clicking a link telling it to display it. My as well just make it plain text so its less likely to get flagged as spam and users dont have a hard time opening it.

veri nice tips "itHighway" we thank you..

Thank you much to all especially itHighway!

So the question is if I do get it done.....will recipients using SBC global, etc be able to read it?

Anybody give me a clear answer on this.....estimate of percentage where it's going to work, etc?

Or should I just play it safe and use some highlighted text etc. My clients, in general, are very low tech....a surprising percentage (20%) don't even have an email address yet! Thanks again! Here is what I'm thinking of using so far with highlighted text that disappeared when I inserted this........is it worth doing it in html?

Snakes for the Classroom Aquarium---The Ringneck Snake brought to you by Hands On Snakes!


http://www.handsonsnakes.com/


One of the most common, but seldom seen Bay Area snakes, is the Ringneck snake, a small, slender gray species, with a narrow orange ring around their neck and bright orange belly scales.

Their pencil thin bodies leave tracks in soft dirt which may be seen on hiking trails such as Skyline Park in Napa, Mount Tamalpais, or Annadel State Park.

Ringnecks seldom bite, but will musk and twist their bodies into loops to display as much of that bright ventral coloration as possible to scare off would be predators.

Because they feed primarily on hard to obtain food items such as small salamanders, slugs, and grubs, they may not be the ideal reptile for the classroom aquarium.

Several Ringneck snakes could live in a small tank (with a tight lid!) provided with sphagnum moss and a water bowl, however, if one wished to go to the trouble of procuring their favorite food items.

Ringneck snakes are one of the few reptiles, along with Alligator lizards that can adapt to highly urbanized areas, and may often live happily for years in just a small corner of the yard that provides adequate cover such as a rock wall, pile of bricks, or a small wood pile.

HTML email can be read by SBC people. It's not usually the ISP that causes such a problem, but the email reader. I personally send out my emails using multipart/mime with a plain text and an HTML version, but wouldn't know how to tell you to do that with the hosts you've mentioned.

I disagree about sending out just plain text emails. It's not the 1900's anymore and it's about **** time that HTML email is supported by all clients. But, that's an attitude, not technical advice. People just get so worried about being hacked or spammed b/c they don't know anything about the net before getting on it and abusing it.

Now, my opinion is that for professional emails, they should come from the domain associated with the business and include both versions. Sending from @gmail.com or, worse, @aol.com just isn't professional looking and seriously pales in comparison to @yourdomain.com.

Thanks Jeremy! I think this is going to take some trial and error for a while to get it right. I hear what you're saying about the 1900s but I am constantly confronted by low tech people in my life who either just haven't mastered the basics of using a computer, or are in odd businesses like preschools that as yet don't rely on the internet as much as other enterprises do. I still find many small local brick and mortar businesses in Northern California that simply get a web site up and forget about it.

I am not a techie kind of person myself by any means, but was lucky enough to work in a vitamin company for 5 years where I really got a good basic training of how to find my way around the Cyberworld. If not for that I would still probably be a total Luddite myself! I am still awed and amazed in the year 2008 how many people are still seriously dragging their feet in accepting computers as a fact of life. Maybe it's just Americans...

And others like myself who really try to make an effort can be left out in the cold in odd ways also. I have a photographer friend who opened a studio 4 years ago, got someone to do a nice looking web site for him, figured it was all taken care of, but his ranking was way less than even marginally optimal. I did some work for him creating some back links and realized that he didn't even have the word "photographer" on his entire website!!! "Photography" lots of pictures...but not photographer! He got that corrected anyway.

I was told that if I used gmail for all my correspondence, Google would pick it up somehow and it would help my ranking. Any truth to this? Thanks again.

Originally Posted by JeremyMiller

Now, my opinion is that for professional emails, they should come from the domain associated with the business and include both versions. Sending from @gmail.com or, worse, @aol.com just isn't professional looking and seriously pales in comparison to @yourdomain.com.

I highly doubt that google increases PR or search engine rankings based on using their email, but I haven't tested it.

Northern Cal? I graduated from HSU, so I totally understand that environment! My business partner still lives up there, though I'm in Reno.

I think that teaching people that a website is like an advertising campaign -- you don't just set it and leave, but update it based on the views of the target market's current interests -- is important. It seems like you do too.

I was told that if I used gmail for all my correspondence, Google would pick it up somehow and it would help my ranking. Any truth to this? Thanks again.

That's another one to chalk up to the "experts".

One rule to follow when reading "information" about SEs is:

If it sounds even slightly silly, never mind ridiculous. It will be wrong!