Build a mailing list

If someone visits your website or blog, that shows they're curious about what you have to offer.  If they like what they see they might want to return.  But with so much distraction on the internet, they may never get back. 

Wouldn't you want to keep in touch with these visitors - perhaps send them a newsletter or occasional tips? 

Staying in touch keeps your name and your expertise in front of people who are interested in your services or products.   In order to do so you'll need their email addresses.

There are a few ways to get people's email addresses:

1. Post your email address and ask them to contact you.  

For example: If you'd like to be on my mailing list to receive tips every week, please send me an email: [your email address]  

This method is OK, but it has some drawbacks:

• It requires that people copy and paste your email address, go to their email programs and compose a message.  With this extra work involved, a lot of semi-interested people will not bother.
• When you post your email address on a web page, spammers can use robots to capture the address and send you junk mail.  To avoid this, replace the @ in your email address with the word AT. 

For example: john AT trainyourhamster.com  

This will not be a link, but most people will know what it means, and know that they should use the @ instead of AT

2. Use a web form on your website.  You can create a simple input form that does not even show your email address.  Web visitors can simply enter their name and email address into the form, and the information will be forwarded to your email box.  

If you don't know anything about html (and don't care to learn) ask your web designer to add a form.  

If you'd like to create one yourself, there are many free "form wizards" and tutorials.  Here are a few links to give you an idea of what's available:

JotForm

Web-Source

eHow

Formgenics

You can also use Dreamweaver and other web design tools.

3. What do you do with the list of email addresses? In order to keep in touch with the people who submit their email addresses to you, you'll need to use some form of bulk mailing.  After all, you don't want to be composing 30 or 300 separate email messages!  

If you don't have many names on your email list, you can use your regular email program. Simply create a group within that program, and send a single message to that list.

Be sure to check with your ISP about limits on the number of emails you send at once.  My ISP limits it to 10. You can send up to 100 messages per day via gmail (and can make them look as if they came from one of your other email accounts) but if you exceed the limit, Google may freeze your account, because they don't want people complaining about spam.

Another option is to use a web-based mailing list program. I use aweber.  It allows me to have unlimited email lists. I can send personalized emails, so that Mary will get a message starting with"Hi Mary" and Bill will get the same message, but starting with "Hi Bill." 

I can also automate thank-you and follow-up messages, so that if someone signs up for my mailing list, they'll immediately get an acknowledgment by email.  And  aweber also provides a form wizard to create and customize the form to place on my website, where visitors will input their information, and be automatically added to my aweber mailing list.

--Pauline

4 ways to get people to open your emails

When emailing someone you don't know, it's quite likely that your message will end up being deleted without being read.

Here are 4 tips to increase the chances that your recipients will open your emails:

1. Use plain text, rather than HTML. Many email programs are set to assume that HTML messages from unknown sources are spam, and send them directly to the trash folder, so that your message doesn't even make it into the recipeient's inbox.
   
   
2. Make your subject line short, but intriguing. For example, which of the following would you open first:
   
   News article
   
   News about beating procrastination
   
   
3. Use your recipient's name in the subject line. When people see their own names, they pay attention. In either of the above examples, if you simply add the recipient's name, they will at least stop and notice. And if the subject line is interesting, they'll feel compelled to open the message.
   
   
4. Make the most of the "From" field in your message. Open the setup screen of your email account, where it asks you to type your name as you want it to appear in the "From" field of your recipients' inbox. Instead of just your name, try changing it (temporarily or permanently) to something like: Joe Blow, ADHD Expert. This gives your message an added layer of authority.