Before they begin to read your newsletter, your clients and prospects will be judging the value of your ideas by your newsletter’s design. Effective design pre-sells your competence and makes it easy for readers to understand your message. Design also helps set your newsletters apart from the competition.

Here are five of the 12 most common newsletter design mistakes that are made.

1.) Nameplate clutter: Design begins with the nameplate, or newsletter title set in type at the top of the front page. Nameplate problems often include:

• Unnecessary words. Words like ‘the’ and ‘newsletter’ are rarely needed. Readers will unconsciously supply a ‘the’ in front of a title, if desired. It should be obvious from the design and content of your publication that it is a newsletter and not a business card or advertisement.

• Logos and association seals. Your newsletter’s title should not compete with other graphic images, such as your firm’s logo and the logos of trade or membership associations. These can be placed elsewhere on the page, allowing the nameplate to emerge with clarity and impact.

• Graphic accents, like decorative borders and shaded backgrounds, often make the titles harder to read instead of easier to read.

2.) Lack of white space. White space – the absence of text or graphics – represents one of the least expensive ways you can add visual impact to your newsletters, separating them from the competition and making them easier to read. Here are some of the areas where white space should appear:

• Margins. White space along the top, bottom, and sides of each page help frame your words and provides a resting spot for your reader’s eyes. Text set too close to page borders creates visually boring ‘gray’ pages.

• Headlines. Headlines gain impact when surrounded by white space. Headline readability suffers when crowded by adjacent text and graphics, like photographs.

• Subheads. White space above subheads makes them easier to read and clearly indicates the conclusion of one topic and the introduction of a new
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  erstand your message. Design also helps set your newsletters apart from the competition.

  Here are five of the 12 most common newsletter design mistakes that are made.

  1.) Nameplate clutter: Design begins with the nameplate, or newsletter title set in type at the top of the front page. Nameplate problems often include:

  • Unnecessary words. Words like ‘the’ and ‘newsletter’ are rarely needed. Readers will unconsciously supply a ‘the’ in front of a title, if desired. It should be obvious from the design and content of your publication that it is a newsletter and not a business card or advertisement.

  • Logos and association seals. Your newsletter’s title should not compete with other graphic images, such as your firm’s logo and the logos of trade or membership associations. These can be placed elsewhere on the page, allowing the nameplate to emerge with clarity and impact.

  • Graphic accents, like decorative borders and shaded backgrounds, often make the titles harder to read instead of easier to read.

  2.) Lack of white space. White space – the absence of text or graphics – represents one of the least expensive ways you can add visual impact to your newsletters, separating them from the competition and making them easier to read. Here are some of the areas where white space should appear:

  • Margins. White space along the top, bottom, and sides of each page help frame your words and provides a resting spot for your reader’s eyes. Text set too close to page borders creates visually boring ‘gray’ pages.

  • Headlines. Headlines gain impact when surrounded by white space. Headline readability suffers when crowded by adjacent text and graphics, like photographs.

  • Subheads. White space above subheads makes them easier to read and clearly indicates the conclusion of one topic and the introduction of a new
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    Gone are the days of waiting until Saturday morning to get a bus into your local town to go to the record shop to buy the latest recording from your favourite artist.Today there are many new and exciting services provided via the Internet to make this task a whole lot easier and much more immediate.With a click of your mouse, your favourite music can be downloaded and in an instant loaded to your favourite iPod or whatever is your MP3 player of choice.The ability to download music and material is a dream come true for most music lovers. The simple fact that you can now access and download your favourite tracks and music onto your MP3 singly as opposed to the old days of having to buy the entire album. The satisfaction of now being able to enjo
    title, if desired. It should be obvious from the design and content of your publication that it is a newsletter and not a business card or advertisement.

  • Logos and association seals. Your newsletter’s title should not compete with other graphic images, such as your firm’s logo and the logos of trade or membership associations. These can be placed elsewhere on the page, allowing the nameplate to emerge with clarity and impact.

  • Graphic accents, like decorative borders and shaded backgrounds, often make the titles harder to read instead of easier to read.

  2.) Lack of white space. White space – the absence of text or graphics – represents one of the least expensive ways you can add visual impact to your newsletters, separating them from the competition and making them easier to read. Here are some of the areas where white space should appear:

  • Margins. White space along the top, bottom, and sides of each page help frame your words and provides a resting spot for your reader’s eyes. Text set too close to page borders creates visually boring ‘gray’ pages.

  • Headlines. Headlines gain impact when surrounded by white space. Headline readability suffers when crowded by adjacent text and graphics, like photographs.

  • Subheads. White space above subheads makes them easier to read and clearly indicates the conclusion of one topic and the introduction of a new
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    e borders and shaded backgrounds, often make the titles harder to read instead of easier to read.

  2.) Lack of white space. White space – the absence of text or graphics – represents one of the least expensive ways you can add visual impact to your newsletters, separating them from the competition and making them easier to read. Here are some of the areas where white space should appear:

  • Margins. White space along the top, bottom, and sides of each page help frame your words and provides a resting spot for your reader’s eyes. Text set too close to page borders creates visually boring ‘gray’ pages.

  • Headlines. Headlines gain impact when surrounded by white space. Headline readability suffers when crowded by adjacent text and graphics, like photographs.

  • Subheads. White space above subheads makes them easier to read and clearly indicates the conclusion of one topic and the introduction of a new
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    s of each page help frame your words and provides a resting spot for your reader’s eyes. Text set too close to page borders creates visually boring ‘gray’ pages.

  • Headlines. Headlines gain impact when surrounded by white space. Headline readability suffers when crowded by adjacent text and graphics, like photographs.

  • Subheads. White space above subheads makes them easier to read and clearly indicates the conclusion of one topic and the introduction of a new topic.

  • Columns. White space above and below columns frames the text and isolates it from borders and headers and footers – text like page numbers and issue dates – repeated at the top and bottom of each page.

  A deep left-hand indent adds visual interest to each page and provides space for graphic elements like photographs and illustrations, or short text elements, like captions, quotes or contact information.

  3.) Unnecessary graphic accents. Graphic accents, such as borders, shaded backgrounds and rules – the design term used for horizontal or vertical lines – often clutter, rather than enhance, newsletters. Examples of clutter include:

  • Borders. Pages bordered with lines of equal thickness are often added out of habit, rather than a deliberate attempt to create a ‘classic’ or ‘serious’ image. Page elements, like a newsletter’s table of contents or sidebars – ‘mini-articles’ treating a point raised in an adjacent article – are likewise often boxed out of habit rather than purpose.

  • Reverses. Reversed text occurs when white type is placed against a black background. Reverses often make it hard for readers to pay attention to adjacent text.

  • Shaded backgrounds. Black type placed against a light gray background, or light gray text against a dark gray background, is often used to emphasize important text elements. Unfortunately, the lack of foreground/background accent often makes this text harder to read instead of easier to read.

  Graphic accents should be used only when necessary to provide a barrier between adjacent elements – such as the end of one article and the beginning of the next – rather than decoratively or out of habit.

  Downrules, or vertical lines between columns, for example, are only necessary if the gap between columns is so narrow that readers might inadvertently read from column to