In this article I am going to outline some of the benefits of subscribing to newsletters and list some of our favorites.
News
The first reason that you need newsletters is that the certification industry is very dynamic. It is important that you know the latest news on the certifications that you are preparing for. You would not believe the stories I have heard of people preparing for exams that had retired and other crazy situations. Keeping informed will help you avoid mistakes like this.
Site Updates
Many newsletters (like ours) include a list of updates and changes that have been made to the site. For example, when we launch a new free practice test or add a new study guide, this information is published in our newsletter. Subscribing to the newsletters of your favorite sites will keep you informed of free resources when they become available.
Special Offers
Putting together a regular newsletter is very time consuming. So why do you think sites like ours go through the trouble? The answer is simple: money. We sell advertising in our newsletters and we also send dedicated email blasts to the member list. What you may not know is that very often these advertisements contain special offers and discounted prices that you might not find at the advertiser's web site or anywhere else. It also keeps you informed when your favorite training companies release new products that you might be interested in.
Our Favorite Newsletters
Not all newsletters are created equal and it is important to find newsletters that you can trust will send you relevant, timely information while respecting your privacy. Below is our list of recommended newsletters.
We have to plug our own first. Our newsletter goes once per month and we send dedicated email blasts (ads) up to three times per month. That is a maximum of 4 emails per month from us. Our newsletter contains updates to our site, certification news, articles, product reviews, recent forum posts and more. Our newsletter covers news for Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco and CIW and other certifications. You can subscribe to our newsletter from nearly every page on our site.
CertCities:
CertCities.com is owned by 101 Communications which is the same company that owns MCP Magazine. Their weekly newsletter provides the latest IT certification news and advice. CertCities.com is dedicated to providing independent coverage of news, issues and technologies for over 80 IT certifications. In my opinion, their news is the most current, extensive and well respected in the certification industry.
Must Know Knews:
Cramsession's Must Know Knews provides excellent certification news as well as articles that highlight certifications and exams. The down-side of this newsletter is that Cramsession will send you a lot of advertisments.
Currently these are the newsletters that I have found to be the best. More will likely be added to this list as I am subscribing to many other newsletters in order to check them out. Updates to this list will be published in our newsletter. If you want to experiment and try out other certification newsletters, check out FreeTechMail.org. This is a directory of tech newsletters and they have a category dedicated to certification.
