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Formatting Your Ezine - AOL + Hyperlinks
AOL is of course the world's biggest ISP, and for many ezines, AOL users
will form a substantial part of your readership. Unfortunately addressing
these readers may not be as easy as you might think.
AOL has an unusual way of interpreting both HTML and hyperlinks in e-mail,
and in particular doesn't make http:// and mailto: links clickable unless
you explicitly include an anchor tag.
- For most ISPs and e-mail programs if you include text like this:
Create Your Own E-Books
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
It will end up looking like this (complete with a clickable hyperlink):
Create Your Own E-Books
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
However the AOL users will see this (without a clickable hyperlink):
Create Your Own E-Books
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
- A simple work round is simply to include two versions of the hyperlink,
including one with an explicit anchor tag. So you write:
Create Your Own E-Books
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
<A HREF="http://www.ebookcompiler.com">AOL Users Click Here</A>
Most users will see:
Create Your Own E-Books
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
<A HREF="http://www.ebookcompiler.com">AOL Users Click Here</A>
But your AOL users will see:
Create Your Own E-Books
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
AOL Users Click Here
- A slightly different variation is to include extra spaces around
the hyperlink in the anchor tag. This makes both links clickable (kind of)
for your non-AOL users.
You write:
Create Your Own E-Books
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
<A HREF=" http://www.ebookcompiler.com ">AOL Users Click Here</A>
Most users will see:
Create Your Own E-Books
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
<A HREF=" http://www.ebookcompiler.com ">AOL Users Click Here</A>
And your AOL users will see:
Create Your Own E-Books
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
AOL Users Click Here
The other alternative that you might want to consider is make a specially formatted
newsletter just for AOL users. If AOL accounts a significant number of
your subscribers, this option is worth consideration,
as it allows you to serve both AOL and non-AOL readers better.
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