An Idea on E-mail Marketing/Newsletters

I want to do e-mail marketing. I hired one guy and learned a lot -- but he is too expensive for what I need.
I have started to subscribe to a much cheaper alternative. But the challenge is to create an e-mail newsletter that people find interesting.
If I do something about sales for my services, it's boring and there is not much I can do.
I am thinking of putting together a weekly e-mail of all types of articles/features. An eclectic mix of humor, how-to, ideas. It would be called MarketPlace of Ideas or something.
For instance, it could have some teaser copy about the Flexible Thinker and then a link to something on my site.

Something about -- or have Toastmasters submit articles! Good pr for everyone.

This would make something a soft-sell approach and hopefully not take a lot of time. Maybe something from the various authors. Not exactly a blog, not exactly a regular newsletter. There are a variety of formats that could be used. It's a simple matter of developing the strategy and coming up with a design to plug in.