Bloggers Journal

Opt-in forms, or subscription forms, are common place on many websites which are there to serve the purpose of capturing useful information from your readers.  It is common practise to request a readers name (be it full name, or just forename) and their email address.  The purpose of this is two-fold.  By collecting your readers name, you immediately have a simple means to identifying with them when you get in touch.  Similarly, the collection of their email address serves the purpose of obtaining a method of contacting them – obviously with their permission.

I’ve recently started using email lists on two of my websites.  Here I share with you why you should use an email list, how to set up an email list for free, and how to integrate it with your website.

Why use an email list?

The reason that email lists are common place is they are a method used by many companies and businesses to engage with their customers.  As an example, when you first register and purchase an item from Amazon, you will receive information to your inbox with offers on similar products.  They do this to try and entice you to purchase through them again.

The same is seen in internet marketing where it is common place for bloggers to ask for your information.  To entice you into giving up your name and email address (most of us are security and spam paranoid – and rightly so!), you will see some kind of bait.  This will typically be a short training course, or series of emails about a particular topic.  Often the other approach is to offer something useful, say for instance an ebook.

When you register to receive this free gift, you consent that you wish to receive emails from the particular website making the offer.  Each website that you register with will be focused on a different topic, and will have a different approach to their marketing through emails.  Regardless, much like Amazon, were you receive updates on similar products to that which you purchased, websites will email you promotions or newsletters based around the topic of the individual website.

How to set up a free email list?

On the market there are a number of paid and free methods to set up an email list.  A highly recommended premium system is aWeber.  With this system you can get your first month of use for $1, and the subscription is $17 or so per month, thereafter.  Many hosting companies offer third party applications which can be installed for free on your webspace which are email lists.

However, without wishing to sound tight on the purse strings, I wanted a reliable alternative to aWeber.  Enter, MailChimp!  MailChimp, much like aWeber offers a premium service.  However, MailChimp also offers a free service, which is ideal for those looking to get started with little expenditure.

There are limitations to using your free MailChimp account.  Namely, you can have up to 1,000 subscribers, and you are limited to 6,000 emails per month.  If you look at the math, that’s 6 emails per month if you have 1,000 subscribers.  Or, if you’ve 100 subscribers, you can send out 60 emails.  Of course, this is going to be altered if you set up an autoresponder series.

A point to note, that correct use of your email list should mean that by the time you have a number of subscribers, your online earning should afford you the luxury to using a premium package enabling you to send more emails and boost your number of subscribers.

Let’s take action

So, a call to action, go ahead to MailChimp, and register a free account.  All you need is your email address, a unique username and a password.

In Part 2, you will learn how to set up your MailChimp account with the information needed.  It will also include an overview of the MailChimp user area.

Part 2 – How to set up your MailChimp account.