How To: Newsletters (I'm lost)

smackinyaup · #1 08-28-2007, 01:03 AM

Hello again everyone,

I am totally lost with this one. I would really like to start a newsletter for my site. I thought a simple little "subscribe" box that collected e-mails would be cake.

I've done everything myself so far and have invested $0 after my initial HostMonster investment. I am only getting like 20 visitors a day at my site so I was hoping I could try out a simple mailing list without spending any money.

The ultimate goal is to get a few hundred subscribers to the list, build some forums, and then include the exciting new feature in one of my newsletters. (side question - does this sound like a decent plan to build a solid community?)

I know a lot of you have newsletters at your sites, did you just pay for Aweber or is there something I'm missing? I don't know how far I can take this site yet so I was hoping to avoid the cost of third party hosting. I tried http://www.phplist.com/, a free newsletter thing, but it's incredibly n00b-proof.

If I'm asking for the easy way out, just tell me. I sometimes feel like I'm just asking all these basic questions without really offering any awesome insights myself.

Thanks for reading!

RCNastermind · #2 08-28-2007, 03:15 AM

I would spend the $20/mo on aweber. The time and hassle it saves you will be well worth the small investment.

mftpg · #3 08-28-2007, 03:42 AM

Agree that Aweber is a worthwhile investment - not tested any other autoresponders though.

Many people offer a 'carrot' of some free info to get people onto their mailing list... I've given away a SNG strategy ebook via both my blog and SNG Planet site - seems to work as the sign-ups appear on a daily basis.

Cheers, Mark

bahh · #4 08-28-2007, 06:59 AM

I'm using Inout mailing list. It costs $40 (one time fee) but it's worth it. It's easy to customize and has a great backend.

Notspot · #5 08-28-2007, 08:35 AM

I'm using PHPlist and find it very good once you've got it set up (there was alot of head banging on desk when I was installing it the first time). As it's free it's especially good if you're just starting out.

My new host has Fantastico so it was just a one-click installation with them (and their support talked me through transferring the database) - have you considered contacting your host to see if they'll install it for you? It would only take an experienced techie a few minutes to get it up and running? Just a thought.

Notspot · #6 08-28-2007, 08:48 AM

BTW, I've had numerous hacking attempts on my newsletter database, so remember to rename folders and database to something they'll never think of (the hackers seem to have bots trying to hack common and default names).

smackinyaup · #7 08-28-2007, 11:53 AM

Interesting...thanks for the replies. I'm going to look more into each one of these options. At the very least beatnolimit.com will be a hell of a learning experience.

ThePokerBank · #8 08-28-2007, 03:26 PM

I bought Aweber the other week. Its pretty simple to use and install and it looks good, I'm not getting an overload of sign-ups or anything so I can't really speak too much about sending out newsletters and autoresponders and such. However, everything looks real simple and I'm looking forward to using it more in the future.