There are free newsletters on a lot of websites today. From the point of view of the person getting the newsletter, it can be a great way to get information sent to your inbox. You can just save the newsletter for later use, which is what a lot of people do. But from the point of view of the publisher, a newsletter is a great idea because it gives you a list of people who are interested in what you have to offer. Marketers know how important this is. But a newsletter is also a great way to keep in touch with users who may have only visited your website once. This is because a mailing list like this could help you make money. They might sign up for your newsletter out of the blue, giving you a way to stay in touch with them. You can also get information about demographics or opinions from the people on your mailing list. Want to add something new to your website and want to know if it will work? Ask the people on your mailing list what they think.
So, let's look at what you need to do to get your newsletter started.
Length
It would be easy to send your users a long, complicated email that they have to scroll a long way to read. But this doesn't work very well in real life. You want your newsletter to be as short as possible. If you send out a mailing with an article, keep it short and to the point. If the article is long, you could publish part of it and send people to your website to read the rest.
Size
The size and length of a newsletter go hand in hand, but since HTML newsletters are the norm today, it is possible to have very large HTML code that does the same thing as much less code. In short, make sure your HTML is efficient so that the kilobyte size of your newsletter doesn't get too big. Keep in mind that you are sending a lot of them (which puts stress on the server) to people who may still be using dial-up (slow download speeds).
Frequency
You need to decide how often your newsletter will be sent out. Most are put out once a week, twice a week, or once a month. If anything is sent out more often than that, make sure new subscribers know right away. If mailings come too often, some people will unsubscribe because they find it annoying. Also, if you say you'll do something every week, do it every week. If a newsletter is only sent out once in a while, people won't use it or respect it. But if it always comes at the same time, they will learn to expect it, and they will respect you for doing what you said you would do.
Format
Most newsletters come in both HTML and Text formats, and this is the best way to get them. HTML is what most people use, and it gives you more ways to get your message across. Text emails don't look very exciting, but they are smaller and can be read on any email client (some email clients still have a hard time with HTML). It is best to publish in both formats so that people can choose which one they want.
Sending Method
You need to do some research and figure out how to get your newsletter out there. Depending on how big your mailing list is, sending a lot of email can put a lot of strain on your server. When there are a lot of people on the list, most people use an outside newsletter hosting company to send out the newsletter. These companies have powerful mass email software and dedicated servers so that your newsletter will go out without a hitch. If you send the newsletter yourself and your list is big, you will want to pay attention to how the mail is sent. We use a PHP-based system that we made in-house that slows down outgoing email based on how busy the site is. This is how we control the rate of sending so that our sites don't slow to a crawl.
Promotion
When you start your newsletter, you'll have to find people to sign up. If you already have a lot of people visiting your site, your job just got a lot easier. Put the form to sign up on your website and start getting people's email addresses. The number of sign-ups will depend a lot on how many people visit your site. Sign-ups will happen as a result of this action, but the rate of new sign-ups may still be slow. You have to get them to listen. A popup window is a common way to do this, and it works well. Even though many users don't like pop-ups, this is a good way to use a pop-up because it works well. With just this, your subscription rate can easily double. Use a cookie when setting up the popup to make sure that a user only sees the ad once in a certain amount of time. You might even want to say this in the popup so that people who get annoyed more easily can calm down a bit. Set the popup to show up when they first visit the page or at some other time. Set the cookie when your code opens the pop-up. Your code will notice the cookie when the page is viewed again and won't open a new window.
Besides the popup, your subscription form should be easy to find on your site. If you have a forum, you might want to make it possible for people to join your mailing list when they sign up. Ask people to add their friends to your mailing list as well.
Double opt in and opt in
People can sign up for your mailing list by going to your website and entering their email address. Double opt-in means that when they enter their email address, the system sends them an email with a link that they need to click to confirm their subscription. This two-step setup is safer because you know the email address is correct and that the person signing up is using their own email address and not someone else's. With the opt-in method, the number of people who sign up will be much higher because they don't have to do anything else after entering their address. Double opt-in is safer, but some people won't bother to confirm, so the number of people who sign up will be lower. If you want to get as many addresses as possible, opt-in is the best way to do it. But this method leaves you more open to fake emails. If you use double opt-in, you may want to have a system that sends them a few reminders over time if they don't confirm. If you use opt-in, at least send them an email confirming their subscription and giving them the option to unsubscribe right away if they are not the ones who subscribed the address. You might even want to add the IP address of the person who signed them up.
If you haven't already, you should really think about starting a newsletter for your website if you haven't already.
