How to Set Up a Mailing List on Your Website for a Newsletter

A newsletter with your Website allows you to keep in touch with your customers, increasing the revenue that you can earn from your site. Whether your have a small hobby-related information site or a large e-commerce site, it's easy to set up a mailing list on your Website for a newsletter. The hardest part is actually writing the content for your newsletter.

Create a welcome email. Write the email that you want your customers to receive when they sign up for your list. Follow the instructions from your autoresponder service to upload this message.

Decide whether you want your emails to be double opt-in. Choosing a double opt-in means that your newsletter recipients will receive an email after signing up asking to confirm membership. It's an added protection that the person wants to receive your email.

Generate the code for your sign-up box. Inside your autoresponder account, you will find the option to generate a code so that customers can sign up from your Website. You will be given the option to customize this box as you like, but you want to collect at least a name and email address. After you've designed the sign up box the way that you want it, click the button to generate the HTML code that you need to put on your Website.

Choose an autoresponder service. An autoresponder is the service that sends out your emails. While you can technically send out emails directly from your server, it's usually smarter to choose a professional service to do this for you. Only a few spam complains could shut down your site and block your email address from an entire group of people. An autoresponder company handles all spam complaints for you. It's a small monthly price to pay to ensure that your site stays online.

Test the sign-up box. When the sign-up box is live on your site, you can run a test by entering your own name and email address. Check your email to see that your message arrives.

Place the sign-up code on your Website. Copy and paste the sign-up code onto your Website in the area that you want to appear. Publish the new page.

Difficulty: Moderate