? about yahoo groups

I belong to several yahoo groups such as beadshop and joolcrafting, and have
enjoyed them all. Some days all I get done is reading their email and
checking out sites and sales! I also have gotten a lot of cool ideas from
them and have been encouraged to try new things and buy new materials. So
I'm sold on the idea to begin with.

I maintain a mailing list of customers and interested people right now in
Outlook Express, but it is fairly labor intensive. Plus I'm thinking that
having a yahoo group might increase my exposure as well.

So I'm asking this:
1. Is using a yahoo group as a mailing list a good idea? Why or why not?
2. How hard (time-consuming) is it to maintain?
3. Would it be better to have a thematic group... although I'm not sure what
it might be beyond beading or jewelry making ... or should I just say it's a
group of people interested in my web site/auctions? Gee that sounds kinda
conceited...
4. Any other experiences or advice along these lines would be appreciated.

Thanks!
--
Karleen Page/Vibrant Jewels
Vibrant Jewels Online Bead & Jewelry Store
http://www.vibrantjewels.com/jewelry/welcome.htm
JustBead Auctions
http://www.justbeads.com/search/ql.cfm?s=21770
PayPal Merchant Account
https://www.paypal.com/mrb/pal=7XJ98L86Z7S2C

Karleen,

Yahoo groups are extreemly easy to set up and maintain. You have lots of
options as to how you want to let people sign up (eg you can let anyone
sign themselves up or you can make them go through an approval process
where you approve them) which makes the amount of work you have to do
somewhat variable depending on your own preferences.

The problem I have with Yahoo groups is that everyone in the group has
to become a Yahoo member (unless the rules have changed since I started
using them?). Once they are a yahoo member they can still set their
preferences such that the email goes to a different email account.
Although I already am a Yahoo member this annoys me. For a while I
refused to sign up for any more yahoo groups, but then I decided I
wanted to join orphanbeads and post on beadershaven so I did it.

marisa2

Karleen/Vibrant Jewels wrote:

I belong to several yahoo groups such as beadshop and joolcrafting, and have
enjoyed them all. Some days all I get done is reading their email and
checking out sites and sales! I also have gotten a lot of cool ideas from
them and have been encouraged to try new things and buy new materials. So
I'm sold on the idea to begin with.

I maintain a mailing list of customers and interested people right now in
Outlook Express, but it is fairly labor intensive. Plus I'm thinking that
having a yahoo group might increase my exposure as well.

So I'm asking this:
1. Is using a yahoo group as a mailing list a good idea? Why or why not?
2. How hard (time-consuming) is it to maintain?
3. Would it be better to have a thematic group... although I'm not sure what
it might be beyond beading or jewelry making ... or should I just say it's a
group of people interested in my web site/auctions? Gee that sounds kinda
conceited...
4. Any other experiences or advice along these lines would be appreciated.

Thanks!


--


================================================== =============

Teva Yafae Original Designs
inspired by nature

For unique jewelry or apparel, or to learn about having your
own Jewelry home-party or children's party, please visit:

http://www.tevayafae.com

================================================== =============

And we're glad to have you, Marisa

For a while I
refused to sign up for any more yahoo groups, but then I decided I
wanted to join orphanbeads and post on beadershaven so I did it.

Karleen, I think Marjean runs a yahoo group for this exact reason, maybe you
could ask her?


~Candace~
Orphan Beads Low cost and bartering for the financially challenged beader
http://snipurl.com/6s4t

Karleen wrote:

So I'm asking this:
1. Is using a yahoo group as a mailing list a good idea? Why or why not?

Yes, it can be. People will find you if you write your description to use
the important keywords that they might search by, such as lampwork or beads
or beading or whatever is relevant to your topic.

2. How hard (time-consuming) is it to maintain?

They can be virtually work-free, depending on your setup. The main thing
that may take a bit of work is moderating messages, if you actually want
messages or discussion. Due to the high rate of spam prevalent in the world
today, the best thing is to allow open membership but require all new
members to have their messages moderated or approved. That way you can see
if a person joined strictly to spam or is a valid member. Once they've
posted a message that's valid and relevant, then it's a matter of seconds to
set their membership to full posting privileges.

You can have archived files of pictures of your work or whatever, and permit
others to upload pictures too.

3. Would it be better to have a thematic group... although I'm not sure
what
it might be beyond beading or jewelry making ... or should I just say it's
a
group of people interested in my web site/auctions? Gee that sounds kinda
conceited...

Many people are using Yahoo groups as a focus for discussing their art or
other work. It's an easy way to get everyone in a central area for
discussion if that's what you want. Sometimes groups can get wildly off
topic, just as newsgroups do, but in a Yahoo group the owner/moderator has
the luxury of banning, deleting or simply regulating discussion and people,
which is the major difference between Yahoo and an open usenet situation
like r.c.b.

4. Any other experiences or advice along these lines would be appreciated.

I've moderated or owned a number of groups on Yahoo for years, and find them
an easy resource to use. It's still free, and if your members use the
digest form of receiving messages then they won't be bothered by ads. It's
also handy for hosting live online discussions if that's of use. One
needlework designers group I belong to hosts a chat weekly, and designers
from all over the world drop in for a 'chat', depending on time and tides.

-Su

Out of curiosity I just checked and there are 366 bead related groups on
yahoo. Many are simply mailing lists and many have only 5 members.
Wonder how many there are on MSN groups?

Got my answer, over 300 bead groups on MSN also.

Thanks for all the good info Su. I think I'll poll my current list to get
feedback on the idea too.

Thanks for everyone else's input. I'm still open for suggestions if you
haven't had time yet to "opine".
--
Karleen Page/Vibrant Jewels
Vibrant Jewels Online Bead & Jewelry Store
http://www.vibrantjewels.com/jewelry/welcome.htm
JustBead Auctions
http://www.justbeads.com/search/ql.cfm?s=21770
PayPal Merchant Account
https://www.paypal.com/mrb/pal=7XJ98L86Z7S2C
"Su/Cutworks" wrote in message
...
Karleen wrote:

So I'm asking this:
1. Is using a yahoo group as a mailing list a good idea? Why or why not?

Yes, it can be. People will find you if you write your description to use
the important keywords that they might search by, such as lampwork or
beads
or beading or whatever is relevant to your topic.

2. How hard (time-consuming) is it to maintain?

They can be virtually work-free, depending on your setup. The main thing
that may take a bit of work is moderating messages, if you actually want
messages or discussion. Due to the high rate of spam prevalent in the
world
today, the best thing is to allow open membership but require all new
members to have their messages moderated or approved. That way you can
see
if a person joined strictly to spam or is a valid member. Once they've
posted a message that's valid and relevant, then it's a matter of seconds
to
set their membership to full posting privileges.

You can have archived files of pictures of your work or whatever, and
permit
others to upload pictures too.

3. Would it be better to have a thematic group... although I'm not sure
what
it might be beyond beading or jewelry making ... or should I just say
it's
a
group of people interested in my web site/auctions? Gee that sounds
kinda
conceited...

Many people are using Yahoo groups as a focus for discussing their art or
other work. It's an easy way to get everyone in a central area for
discussion if that's what you want. Sometimes groups can get wildly off
topic, just as newsgroups do, but in a Yahoo group the owner/moderator has
the luxury of banning, deleting or simply regulating discussion and
people,
which is the major difference between Yahoo and an open usenet situation
like r.c.b.

4. Any other experiences or advice along these lines would be
appreciated.

I've moderated or owned a number of groups on Yahoo for years, and find
them
an easy resource to use. It's still free, and if your members use the
digest form of receiving messages then they won't be bothered by ads.
It's
also handy for hosting live online discussions if that's of use. One
needlework designers group I belong to hosts a chat weekly, and designers
from all over the world drop in for a 'chat', depending on time and tides.

-Su

Karleen wrote:

Thanks for all the good info Su. I think I'll poll my current list to get
feedback on the idea too.

My pleasure. It's just from personal experience, YMMV but if you have any
other questions feel free to drop me a line.

-Su