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Before I became editor in chief and took over production of the bi-monthly dev2dev Dispatch newsletter in April 2003, the audience response to the publication was, at best, tepid. We would send the newsletter out to 25,000 readers and not receive a single e-mail in return. The person who had been in charge of writing Dispatch viewed the task as a discouraging exercise in futility. Anyone who has ever written something for an audience and has received nothing but the sounds of crickets chirping in return — and I'm not ashamed (although I'm not all that thrilled, either) to say I'm one of them — would understand exactly why she felt that way.

When I started writing Dispatch, I decided to take a more personable, humorous, one-on-one tone with the newsletter. The response has been overwhelming. The subscriber base has increased by more than 30 percent over the past three months, which is directly attributable to a higher reader-retention rate — in other words, fewer readers are opting out. Additionally, I receive dozens of personal e-mails following the publication of each edition. While many of these messages comment on whatever pop-culture reference I've included in the latest newsletter, even more of them consist of actual comments or questions about the BEA product line.

By changing the personality of the newsletter and adopting a more reader-friendly tone, I've been able to initiate a dialogue with current and future BEA customers about our software. While I'm not egomaniacal enough to even suggest this new dialogue has done anything to encourage and increase sales, I do believe it has given many readers a more positive feeling about BEA and about the dev2dev site. If you ask me, that's a pretty good start.

I haven't replicated the entire newsletter below; the real thing contains links to several articles, online seminars, technical conferences, and promotions that are difficult to replicate effectively under the limitations of JacksonWrites.com's design. (I sure think this Web site is pretty, but it's also a colossal pain in the keester when it comes to adding content with unique formatting requirements.) Instead, I've simply republished the intro text — that gives you the best idea of the newsletter's editorial tone. To see what the entire newsletter looks like, check out the printer-friendly version.

Jason

.....

Dear Smedley Furd,

It's here, and it's better than ever. BEA WebLogic Platform™ 8.1 is available on dev2dev and is waiting for you to stop by, get your own free copy, and start using it today. There's more information about BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 below, but if (like me) you're an impatient person who only takes three licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, you can click here to get it right now.

Our marketing department has told me to say that BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 includes application infrastructure technology from proven BEA products that are used by thousands of customers worldwide and combine to offer a single, unified, easy-to-use infrastructure platform for application development, integration, deployment, and management, and that's all true. But let me to cut to the chase: BEA WebLogic Platform will save you an awful lot of time and effort when doing your job, and you can get both the software and developer license for free to start building enterprise-class applications right away. It's as simple as that.

This edition of dev2dev Dispatch also features information about our newly released XMLBeans 1.0, an upcoming webinar, a couple of user groups, and a chat with Tyler Jewell, BEA's director of evangelism, about the company's platform strategy. And, as always, we tell you exactly how to obtain your BEA dev2dev Subscription, which is scientifically proven to make you a better person. Maybe.

Thanks for reading! I look forward to hearing from you regarding your experiences with BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1, XMLBeans 1.0, and just about anything else. Your questions or comments are always welcome.

– Jason Jackson, Editor in Chief
   BEA dev2dev Online

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