My pleasure Alyson, I usually don’t have much to say but I’ve been a web developer for 12+ years and couldn’t hold my tongue! Yes the one column is surely the best option if an artist is unclear on which to choose.

The benefit to 2 columns (or more) is just another way to organize your message…just like they do in say a newspaper or magazine. Reading long lines horizontally can be difficult to read. (I’m purposefully using line breaks in this response to make it easier to read!)

The css that controls the email’s style can be limited too ..geek alert!!! (ie: body{max-width:800px;}) Ultimately the choice also depends on what your audience is viewing on (more and more mobile these days).

Thanks for all the quality stuff you publish Alyson!

Tina: Apparently John (see below) has a different take. I’m sticking to my preference for single column newsletters.

Happy it will help, Gerri.

Good to know those things, Marcia. And good on you for testing. We can’t test our “read more” links because the blog post is published at about the same time the newsletter is sent. A pitfall.

Congratulations on getting that first newsletter out, Melissa.

Good point, Mckenna. I don’t think we use alt text in our emails. I’ll have to find out.

Jill: Read John’s comment above for more insight.

Carol: If your name appears once, you’re okay. It’s when it doesn’t appear at all that I have a huge problem.

Oh, yes, I realize the irony in that broken link in my email. The first one worked beautifully. Not so with the second one. Red faced!

The problem is that we can’t test our links because the blog post (where the link goes) isn’t published in advance. That’s why I try to sit at my desk right after the newsletter is delivered so I can nip any problems in the bud. I was about 90 minutes behind on this one on Thursday. When I found out about the broken link, we did a quick redirect on it to lead to the correct page. Still, the damage was done.

Yipes! How would you even know who you were following?