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Your email list is one of the most important marketing tools you have. These are visitors who have expressed an interest in hearing from you. You don't have to wait for them to visit your web site again. You can send your messages directly to them.

Make it easy to sign up
For your list to grow, you must make it easy for visitors to sign up. Don't make them give detailed personal information. Most will balk and never sign up. Start with the minimum information you need. This would include their email address, of course. Second should be their first name so you can speak to them personally. Last name, mailing address, phone number, and other detailed information is just too much for them to give out to someone they don't really know. After they have signed up and you have established a relationship, you can ask for more and they will be much more likely to provide it.

Give them a reason to sign up
No one will sign up to receive more email without a reason. They already receive too much. Visitors may find a newsletter a valuable source of information. If you sell digital cameras, offer photo tips. If you are not ready for a newsletter, offer an ebook. But find something they will find of value to exchange for their email address.

Use double opt in
Some time ago, my teen-aged daughter decided that her dad didn't know enough. She went about signing me up for lots of newsletters she thought I should be receiving. Needless to say, it wasn't appreciated. I get far too much email as it is. But this is a good example of why double opt in was created.
When someone signs up on double opt in, they receive a email explaining that someone has signed up to receive messages at that email address. To receive those messages, all they need to do is reply to the message. This verifies they did sign up. It also puts your email address in their address book. This helps prevent email blocking for most email clients. And it is your chance to remind them that they signed up to receive something. It also verifies their email address so you won't be adding bad email addresses to your list.

Your email list is shrinking
Getting new signups is important because your email list is constantly shrinking - even if no one is opting out. Email address go bad. If your list is not replenished faster than it shrinks, you may end up with no email list at all. There are a number of reasons email gets bounced. They generally fall into two categories: hard bounces and soft bounces.

Hard bounces

• The user no longer exists at that domain. They may have changed their ISP. Many people are changing to high speed internet service. This may give them a new email address.
• The domain no longer exist. This could result from an expiring domain or a site that has moved to a new domain.
• The message was rejected. This may occur as a result of spam filtering. You may also have email from your server rejected. If you (or someone else on the same server) send too many emails that are bounced at a particular server, your email may be classified as spam. This is a good reason to clean those emails that receive hard bounces.

Soft bounces
Your email may be returned for the following temporary conditions:

• The server is not responding. This could be the result of a server crash, server maintenance, or a cable to the internet getting cut during a construction project. A connection to the server may be restored after a period of time. Don't remove the email address from your list until after several tries.
• The user's mailbox is full. This is actually quite common with free email accounts. The recipient may have been too busy to check their email or perhaps were gone on vacation. You'll want to leave this address on your list for several more tries. If after three more emails, the box is still full, you may have an abandoned email address. Remove it from your list.

Care for and feed your email list
The law requires you to provide a way to opt out of your email list. Provide a way for them to update their email information as well. A web page containing a form for changing their old email address to a new one would be very useful. Few sites actually provide this. This is also a good time to gather additional information about the recipient. But make it optional.
You must constantly nourish your email list or it will wither and die. Actively seek new signups. Constantly prune the dead wood from your list. Keeping your list healthy and it will increase in value.