vFlyer’s market is aimed squarely at the online marketplace advertising the ability to transform dull text-based Craigslist and Ebay ads into vibrant HTML flyers and track the results of your campaign. The service will also post your listing in a number of online marketplaces and offers the ability to download and print PDF flyers for an offline campaign. Let’s see what they’ve got cooking up under the hood.

1. vFlyer has a large focus on real estate and auto listings but a variety of options are available for the casual user as well. Our first step is to sign up for the service.

2. At the sign-up page we get a view of the different plans offered. vFlyer uses Google Adsense throughout the building process for the basic plan. Paid plans are ad-free and offer a larger quota, and have some extra customizing features for branding your gallery. We’ll be checking out the Basic plan today.

3. The registration form is fairly basic. We are continuing to see more companies offer the ability to create a subdomain to access the account and vFlyer is no exception. This is a nice feature that promises users a way of remembering where their flyers are located for easy access.

4. After registration we confirm our email address through a verification code. No problem.

5. Once we’ve verified our email address we are transported back to the main page with basic instructions on how to create our first flyer. The process is only 4 steps, or so they promise. We’ll see about that.

6. To give you an idea of sample flyers available here is an example from the featured gallery of users. It’s definitely a step above what you normally see in Craigslist so the service is already looking promising.

7. Navigating to the Flyer tab we choose the type of flyer to create from the drop-down menu. The interface feels a little clunky here and it’s not clear at first which menu I’m supposed to be using. From the drop-down I decide to do a Computer Services flyer since I don’t have a car or house (for sale that is, ahem).

8. The flyer editor is our next step in the process. Here we can edit all the details of our flyer, add in attributes, and upload photos. We also have the option of automatically publishing our flyer to a variety of services. I’d like to see all these options split up into a few screens. Perhaps I’m in the minority but in this case it’s a bit overwhelming to view every aspect of the flyer at once. The wording is also a bit unclear (what “Attribute” should I be listing, qualifications? degrees? equipment?) but otherwise most of the fields are straighforward and I’m one step closer to selling my computer services.

9. Adding an image is a simple process and I’m given the option up uploading a main image as well as a photo gallery with up to 24 images (there is no size quota but images will be downsized accordingly by the interface). Although for a computer services flyer a photo gallery is not necessary, I think it could come in very handy for housing and auto advertisements and the 24 photo limit is generous for a basic plan.

10. I’m done uploading my cheesy stock photo and I’m ready to preview the masterpiece that I’ve created. The look is professional and required maybe 15 minutes of time inputting all the information and choosing a template.

11. After publishing my flyer I’m given an external link for use in email and online advertisements, but the options don’t end there. vFlyer allows me to copy the html code optimized for specific auction and retail listings like eBay and use it. I can also download a PDF, send out an email, and track the activity. This is probably the best feature of vFlyer, the service doesn’t stop once the flyer is built and they’ve added a lot of functionality through the integration of other businesses.

12. To get the word out about my flyer I can send an email with the option of having the flyer inside the email, attaching it as a pdf, or linking to it in the body of the message.

13. From the tracking page I can see who has viewed my flyer and how many times (with the exception of Craigslist “by request” apparently). If pageviews and referrer information is important to your campaign (and it should be) you will find this page completely useful.

14. A new feature that was recently rolled out at vFlyer is the option to create website “Widgets” that can be inserted through html. Widgets are becoming very popular because they are a small and unintrusive but pack in a lot of information. Customizing options are limited in the Basic plan but the default look is not bad at all.

15. vFlyer has also partnered with RapLeaf to allow users to import their ratings directly into the flyers they create.

vFlyer has created an excellent product in terms of functionality and quality of results. The flyer I was able to make took little time and came out looking professional. The service would benefit from a few more options to customize the template (I’m not even sure the template was customizable in the paid plans) and the interface suffers from poor wording and design that could confuse users on how information will be displayed on the flyer. Perhaps an active preview of the newsletter, or a sample image of some of the more cryptic form fields would help.

All in all vFlyer delivers with top notch content, a variety of publishing options, and widget integration. If you’re selling something or need to place an online ad for services, I think y ou could do a lot worse than giving vFlyer a try.

• E-mail Address
• Optional Flickr Account
• Creative Imagination (or not really)

1. LetterPop advertises itself as giving the user the ability to create attractive newsletter’s in minutes. One of the first things I notice from the homepage is that I am not require to sign up for an account in order to begin creating a newsletter. Though a few features will be disabled, this still gives me a chance to testdrive their product without commitment, a great way of breaking down the barrier of new user signups.

2. After putting in the Title of my newsletter I’m brought to the Newsletter editor page. On the right sidebar I have the choice of many different templates and can simply drag and drop one onto the main area to see it in action. At the top I have the option of Saving, Emailing, Publishing, and Printing my newsletter, however the last three will require a logon to complete.

3. I’ve chosen my template now and they’ve even got the layout filled in with some basic information so I know where all the elements are.

4. The sidebar has a second tab for adding images to your newsletter. They have a few default images to choose from. In order to upload images of your own you will need to sign up for an account. For the time being I’ll just use one of their images for my newsletter. Adding it is as simple as dragging the image from the sidebar to the newsletter placeholder for the image. I can also zoom in or out on the image and rotate before confirming the placement.

5. It’s time to edit the text of the newsletter. As you might have imagined, to edit text I simply have to click on the appropriate heading or body text and an editor pops up for use. The TinyMCE editor used here is not the most attractive interface but pretty intuitive with all the basic functions needed for editing the font, size, alignment, color, and other options.

6. For elements like the subheading a more simple editor pops up with just the ability to edit the text and none of the other options.

7. After adding in some greek text for the main content section I’ve got a basic newsletter completed and it really did only take 5 minutes or so. The nicest feature was the drag-and-drop intuitive editing interface. The templates are also very attractive and more are being added each week.

8. Of course I didn’t want to end the demo right there because I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s more under the hood for users that signup, and being the martyr for the cause that I am I’m going to check it for the good of the community. At their login page we get the first hint that there’s a business model built in somewhere with the mention that I can sign up for a “Basic” account for free.

9. Just some basic information requested to sign up with the site, nothing out of the ordinary here.

10. After verifying my email address by clicking the link they sent me I’m authorized and ready to work with the other features now available to me. You’ll notice that LetterPop remembers the newsletter I previously created even though I didn’t have a login at the time.

11. The first thing I want to check out is the account settings under “My Account” to find out what restrictions there are and the difference between this “Basic” plan and others available. The account page spells out exactly what my quota is for a number of different elements: 10 Newsletters, 10 mailings, 25 contacts, and 25 image uploads.

12. I click on the “add features” link to find out what the cost of other plans will be. There are 3 tiers: Basic, Premium, and Business. Although the basic plan seems a bit limiting (the quotas represented are yearly, so 10 newsletters/year, 10 mailings/year, etc) The premium plan at only $10/year is pretty good deal. While the business plan has a lot to offer, it is quite expensive and really LetterPop is probably not aimed squarely at the business market insomuch as the personal and single owner businesses.

13. In the Image Management section I have the option of uploading images of my own but what I really enjoy is the ability to link my Flickr account to LetterPop. Now only can I save from the available Image Uploads in the basic account but I can use all the photos I already have with Flickr.

14. To access my Flickr pool of photos Letterpop uses the Flickr API to verify my account.

15. After clicking the link in Letterpop I am sent to Flickr where I am already logged in so I get the screen to verify access to my account to Letterpop.

16. After authorizing Letterpop through Flickr I am sent back to the Letterpop site and a message notifies me that authorization is complete and I now have access to my Flickr photos.

17. To see how that works let’s go to the Newsletter section and pull up the newsletter we created earlier.

18. When I open up the newsletter I see the same options except this time under the images tab of the sidebar I have a link to use my Flickr photos. Inserting one into the newsletter is as easy as dragging it from the sidebar, just as before.

19. LetterPop also has a featured gallery of other users with newsletters for inspiration and information.

I found LetterPop to have a good handle on their user interface and design. The templates were clean and polished, the drag-and-drop interface was simple to use, and the ability to create newsletters without the requirement of signing up ahead of time was golden. Their business model seems pretty fair with a minimal fee for a lot of extra features, though the high end business plan will probably not be purchased by many. LetterPop is a great option for users who are not tech-savvy or willing to fork over the money for Microsoft Publisher or Apple iWork Pages but want to create a sophisticated newsletter and send it out to friends and customers.