Web and e mail addresses pose a special challenge for writers and publishers of e-mail newsletters and ezines.

I do not know about you, but I find it frustrating when I have to copy and paste an address into a browser, or into a separate email window. Especially when I know how user friendly it is for the writer or publisher to put in live links that allow readers to reach a destination or to create a new e-mail message.

I also object to links that get contaminated by punctuation marks. I am referring to web and e mail addresses immediately preceded or followed by a punctuation mark. They mean I have to copy and paste the link, then eliminate the offending punctuation mark before I can go on.

Lets deal with that latter issue first: If you plan to include Web addresses and electronic mail addresses, utilize chevron marks, which you might also refer to as the less than < and greater than > symbols. By putting them around the addresses, you keep them specific and brain friendly to copy. It also reduces the likelihood you will add a punctuation mark right after the address, and generate it non-clickable.

Turning to the other issue, its also brain friendly to build your addresses immediately clickable. Do this by fully writing out URLs of Web pages and by putting mailto: before electronic mail addresses. For example, rather than writing www.managersguide.com , I would write http://www.managersguide.com . (note how I left a space between the address and the period that ended the sentence). This makes the URL immediately clickable; all your readers have to do is put their cursors over the address and click.

Turning to electronic mail addresses, put the word mailto plus a colon before the address. For example, mailto:info@yoururl.com rather than simply info@yoururl.com . When readers click on an address with a mailto: before it, a new communication automatically pops up in their e mail programs, with your address already in the TO field. That also has the advantage of reducing errors in transcribing or copying and pasting.

Also, be wary of URLs that split at the finish of a line. While the URL can not split in your email script, it may do so in the subscribers. I usually try to set up so URLs fall at the finish of a paragraph, and then put in a return before them, so they are on a line by themselves.

Finally, after youve emailed a test copy of your news letter to yourself, test the links on the copy that arrived at your IN box. Click each backlink to ensure your readers can get to your page or to their email code with just one click. No copying,. no pasting, no transcribing - just one click.

In summary, by taking these few simple steps, you might make your news letter more readable. And if its more readable, its more likely to get the response you want.