Answers to Your Questions About the PoolLetter
- Give me the BASICS!
- My PoolLetter focuses principally on residential pool operation and chemistry,
but I've also included brief articles on topics like water aerobics, choosing
swimsuits that last, competitive summer swimming, solar heating, bugs and
dead skunks in the pool, health issues, along with whatever other trivia wanders
out my brain. One thing I don't cover, though: spas and hot tubs. Sorry. .
. [Top]
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- Why are there two versions: why not just one FREE
newsletter?
- There are two reasons: money and safety! I want to expand the PoolSolutions
website beyond what you see now. But, doing so is expensive, in both money
and time. Also, some of the tips I want to share can be hazardous if you
don't follow instructions or if you try to apply them to the wrong pool.
The subscription process allows me to be (mostly) sure that these tips go
to competent adults who understand how to apply them safely. [Top]
- What is the difference between the FREE version
and the FULL version?
- The FULL version alternates with the FREE version. Subscribers get both.
The recipients of the FREE version get just the FREE version. In content
and layout, the email text version of both are nearly identical. However,
subscribers have access to an online version in fully formatted HTML, as
well as an archive containing the past year's letters. The subscriber version
also includes some information I'm not willing to publish generally. [Top]
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- Why is there so much irrelevant stuff in the
PoolLetter?
- I've gotten asked this question several times, and I suspect that many,
who haven't emailed me, have the same question. There's more than one answer
to this question, and I'll give you all of them. Still, I've made multiple
changes to the PoolLetter, to make it easier for you to find the parts you
are interested in, and to read only those parts. The HTML online version
of the PoolLetter is formatted with navigational 'jump' buttons specifically
for the purpose of allowing you to quickly and easily read just the parts
relevant to you.
But, to answer the question directly:
I deliberately include both personal information and commentary on non-pool
related events for two reasons. First, I'm interested in this stuff, and
it's easier for me to write about things that I'm interested in. Second,
I do it so you can get to know me somewhat. I've discovered, over the years,
that people who get to know me a little don't necessarily like me, but that
they usually do trust me. And, the information I provide for poolowners
will only benefit them if they trust me enough to try it.
Even so, I might have dropped all the 'other' stuff, except for one thing:
a lot of my readers like it. As incomprehensible as this may be to those
of you who find it a distraction and an annoyance, I get nearly as many
positive email responses to non-pool or personal information in the PoolLetter,
as I do for 'on-topic' material.
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- Of course there is another issue, too: what's off-topic to you, is on-topic
to someone else. My readers have vinyl, fiberglass or concrete pools, ranging
from 500 gallon K-Mart kiddie pools, to 1,000,000+ gallon commercial pools,
and are located in over 40 different countries. They use Baquacil, bromine,
chlorine, UV/peroxide, ozone, and other chemistries to sanitize pools that
are indoors, outdoors, or enclosed in a screen enclosure. These pools are
deep or shallow, and range from hardly used to to hardly ever empty, and
. . .
You get the picture, I hope! I'm trying to include material of value to
everyone, but this means that some material is only relevant to a portion
of my readers. [Top]
- Why is there a short "PoolLetter Notice"
each week?
- There are several reasons for this, too.
Partly, the separate letter allows me to segregate the personal note, from
the PoolLetter itself. This works better, for archival purposes, since the
note really doesn't need to be archived. Also, it makes it easier for you
to skip the 'irrelevant' parts . . . or at least I hope it does.
But the PoolLetter Notice has another important function. Some of my readers
-- especially those using AOL -- suffer from email systems that mangle or
even completely fail to deliver my PoolLetter. But, a shorter email tends
to get through more reliably. So, I've begun temporarily posting each PoolLetter
online, and including the link in the PoolLetter Notice, so folks using
half-donkeyed email systems can still read the PoolLetter. [Top]
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- How often does the PoolLetter come?
- During the pool season (April through September), either the FREE or the
FULL PoolLetter will come every week. Subscribers will get a letter every
week; those who have requested the FREE version, will get a PoolLetter every
other week. During the off season, the frequency will diminish, and there
will be no PoolLetters from mid November through the first of the new year.
[Top]
- How much does it cost?
- Rates depend -- on how long your subscription period is, and on who you
are. The details are on the PoolLetter rates
page. [Top]
- I don't understand the subscription rate. Is it
per year, or per month, or what?
- Your subscription gives you access to an entire volume of the PoolLetter
-- regardless of when you sign up. Volume 1 covers the period from July
1, 1998, through June 30, 1999. Volume 2 goes from July 1, 1999, through
June 30, 2000. The complications of trying to manage multiple beginning
and ending times for different subscribers is more than I can handle now.
But, since I am posting all back issues on the subscriber side of the website,
you won't miss anything. You can read any prior issues you missed, and more
in the back issue archive. [Top]
- Are rates the same for me? I manage a commercial
pool.
- No, you need to use the commercial pool application, and your subscription
rate will be $6 more than the residential rate. Besides the additional $6,
the major difference between the residential and commercial form is that the
commercial form includes language specifying that you understand that much
of the information I am supplying does not apply to commercial pools -- and
that it's your responsibility to figure out which is which. [Top]
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- How many issues of the PoolLetter will there be?
- The PoolLetter will come weekly (for subscribers) during the pool season.
Volume 2 (the 1998/99 volume) had 32 issues; Volume 3 was supposed to have 32, but only had 7, so I extended everyone's subscription. Volume 4 will have 32, if there's anyway I can manage it, covering the period
from July 1, 2000 through June 30, 2001.[Top]
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- Does my subscription include anything besides
the PoolLetter?
- Yes, once I have your signed form, and your check, I will email you a user
ID:password pair that will allow you to access the subscriber pages. These
pages include access to back issues of the PoolLetter and other subscriber
only webpages. [Top]
Also, subscribers receive a subscriber-only email address for me. Since
I mostly will NOT be answering non-subscriber email during the pool season,
this may be significant to you. However, this is not a guarantee that I
will answer your questions or be able to help when I do answer. [Top]
- Should I subscribe -- I mean, will it be worth it?
- Well it depends -- on you and your pool. Take a look at the stuff on the
PoolLetter index and ask yourself
what the information there has saved you, in time or money. Many people have
written to say that what they've learned has saved them far more than the
cost of a subscription.
I'm hesitant to recommend the PoolLetter yet to people who have home kiddie
pools, or who primarily use public pools. But, for example the issue of
June 27, 1998 might not only have saved you money, it might have helped
you avoid doctor or even hospital bills.
Ultimately, you have to make up your own decision. [Top]
- Yes, but can't I get most of the valuable information
for free, without subscribing?
- Unfortunately, no. As a general rule, once information has been placed
on the subscriber side, I never make that particular information available
in any other form.
Although, I will continue to include valuable information in the free version,
as a general rule, the more specific information will appear only in the
subscriber version. I'd like to imagine that you would subscribe even if
you didn't have to, in order to get the 'good stuff'. But when I try to
imagine it, my mind buzzes and reminds me if I were you, I wouldn't pay
for something I could get for free! [top]
- Why don't you just sell chemicals and pool
stuff on your site? Then you won't have to charge for subscriptions.
- I do sell some things, including the testkits and feeders I recommend.
But the primary reason for doing so is to make available things I've recommended
which you can't otherwise easily purchase. And, I'm trying to sell only critical items that take minimal amounts of time to handle
- Selling over the web is like selling locally. It takes time. Time
on the phone, time stocking and shipping your products, time following up.
And if I spend time selling product, I can't spend time expanding the site.
There are already 200+ websites selling pool stuff on the web. There are
only 3 sites which primarily provide information -- mine and two others.
Both of the other two are much smaller, and both largely stick to the pool
chemical company party line.
I may be wrong, but I believe that what I have to offer pool owners that
is unique is information, not product. So, that's what I want to
concentrate on. [Top]
- What are your plans for the PoolSolutions website?
- I have a number of new webpages to post this spring. In particular, I have
expanded some of the information that was in various issues of the PoolLetter
to create new pages. The big news is the discussion forum! And, I've got several
other sites I'm slowly developing which are more narrowly focused, including
www.PoolLinks.com and www.PoolBooks.com
.
Beyond that . . . I'm not sure that the things I have in mind are plans,
as much as they are dreams. So, let's wait and see what happens! [Top]
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