How the Make-a-Note Began

Once upon a time, there was a wife & mother who developed a reputation for being the one to call for information of any kind.  No matter where her family moved, this reputation seemed to follow.  She knew it was getting bad when in a single day, she had three referrals from three completely different people inquiring about things such as field trips, locating a long-lost friend, and the location of the nearest sheep farm in the area. J Her friends & family kept telling her that she should do her own newsletter & fill it with all the (hopefully) useful info that she came across.  But she had helped with newsletters in the past & knew the time involved could not be found in her schedule.  Then along came email & she thought that an email newsletter, an ezine, could be done.  So she sent out the first issue of the Make-a-Note on April 16^th, 1997, to all her friends & family online, and 35 people signed up to get it.   It slowly grew to 55 readers as friends & family forwarded it to their friends & family.   Then in August 1998,  a chance encounter with the editor of the Simple Times Ezine (see “Simple Living” under Links & Resources) , along with a subsequent article in the same ezine, brought the circulation up to 355 in just one week.  Thankfully, the Simple Times editor also connected her with a list manager to handle all the new traffic (God Bless them both!).  The circulation has continued to climb to over 37,000 people now, around the world, on every continent (with the exception of Antarctica).  Then people kept telling her that she should do a web site, and again, she really didn’t think she had the time.  But after a few years when she asked her husband how hard it would be, he jumped into it with both feet and so our web site was born.

What the Make-a-Note Is All About

The Make-a-Note is an email newsletter (now with the accompanying web site) that goes out twice a month and is filled with (hopefully) useful information on a wide variety of topics.    We try to have a little something for everyone in each issue...for parents, kids, singles, internet surfers, and email-only users, among many others.  No two issues are ever the same.  Knowing that most everyone has busy schedules these days, we try to keep the issues no more than three pages long.    Past issues have covered topics related to the home, yard, politics, medical research, alternative medicine, web sites, unclaimed money, child-rearing, and much, much more.  Each entry has a suggested “POST IT...” at the end.  In other words, where we recommend you put the entry to help you find it when you need it.  We are always open to special requests for future entries from our readers.   To subscribe to the Make-a-Note email newsletter, send a blank email to:  subscribe-make-a-note@ds.xc.org

Our Goal

The wife/mother above is me, and this incredible journey that began back in 1997 has never ceased to amaze me.  My goal has always been to share information that others will (hopefully) find as useful as I have.  If God has used me in some small way to do that, then I am eternally grateful for the opportunity He has provided, and the support of all my readers and now visitors to this web site.  So please explore the Make-a-Note site and let me know what you think.

God Bless,

Sharon Powell

Editor, Make a Note

^I^