Starting e-mail newsletter ?

[Brett2004]

Hello,

I'd like to begin compiling a newsletter e-mail list for my site. I've never considered this before, but I probably have 1,000 e-mail addresses from individuals who have contributed to our site in the past, and I see about 400k unique users per month to the site.

Can someone recommend the best way to begin building a database of e-mails for the newsletter?
Would simply putting an opt-in on the front page work?
Do I need to offer something as an incentive?

Sorry if I'm asking for answers to questions asked many times before- can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

[NathanSlow]

Are you going to be selling your list? If you are I'm interestead in purchasing/renting your lists. Please PM

[Steve_S]

Not to worry Brett It's a great question and you already have a jump start in some respects.

My thoughts which may certainly differ from others:

1. You said:"....I probably have 1,000 e-mail addresses from individuals who have contributed to our site...."

What you already have is not an email list/sub. Thats not something you should sell. Thats not something you should paste into a script and send them emails with your newsletter.

2. What you need to do is get yourself setup with a script and start collecting opt-in subscriptions via this script. Ideally it would be a double opt-in which means full disclosure with ALL the details before they join, then you require them to click back from the auto email you send them AND yoiu retain/capture the IP. At the same time you provide them with a prominent way to opt-out of the list which is not only totally automated but sends them a click back URL to complete the opt-out so it's not abused.

<wew>

3. I'm not near my data where I could find you a script to do this but hope my preliminary thoughts help you.

4. Folks are real sensative about their email address and also won't hesitate to file a SPAM compliant against you which may in fact get you shut down and or blacklisted. THey also have a VERY strong dislike for anyone either selling or giving their email address to another party. USA sites also need to deal with COPPA when they do this. You need to provide a very celar page on exactly what you intend to do with these email addresses.

Edit: and if you want either conformation or further advice on this issue, ask your web host about the procedure. Many of these folks are experts in the procedures that they and you should deploy because they have their "IP space" to protect so they don't want to see one of their IPs banned.

Good luck

[Brett2004]

Steve,

Thanks again for your great information!

I wouldn't be selling any addresses, that's for sure.

I was planning to use the newsletter to entice people to visit the website again, with new articles, information, and contests. I may at some point look into selling a small amount of ad space on the newsletter itself, but that would not be my primary reason for the newsletter at this time.

I'll try to do some research on the scripts necessary to accomplish the 'double opt-in' that you spoke of. If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it greatly!

[Brett2004]

Well, after some reseach, I've found (much as I expected) that there are numerous options out there, and the good ones are not free.

Can anyone recommend where I might find a reliable and user-friendly script for starting/maintaining an e-mail newsletter?

Thanks again!

[e_d]

Are you looking for somthing really fancy? heres what I found after doing a quick search:

http://www.ray-solomon.com/php/index.html

If that dosn't work for you I guess I could write you one (they are extremley easy to write). Anyways let me know how that works out for you.

[Chris Choi]

Definitely use an opt-in form to capture emails.
You might want to write a little salesletter to
get visitors to subscribe or you can also put a
pop-up on exit with a form and ask them to sign
up to your newsletter.