By Jessica Albon

If you’re ready to get serious about your email newsletter and start adding new subscribers to your list, try out these 24 approaches.

What to “be” for quality subscribers

1. Be Consistent. You spend so much energy creating a newsletter your subscribers will look forward to, don’t risk diminishing their enthusiasm with an unreliable
schedule.

2. Be yourself. Authentic newsletters are easier on the reader. They’re typically more interesting (because they’re unique to you), plus, you don’t risk a tone that swings from formal to informal.

3. Be honest. What are you sending out (product info, special deals, a genuine newsletter)? How often do you send it? How easy is it to unsubscribe? Do you sell reader’s names and email addresses? All of this should be addressed on the subscription page.

4. Be original. Write your own content. Collect your own resources. (Or hire someone to do it.)

5. Be relevant. Make sure you’re writing about topics that apply to your reader’s unique situations and experiences.

6. Be engaging. Invite your readers to participate by offering surveys and quizzes.

7. Be well dressed. Whether your newsletter is text or HTML, readers should be able to figure out at a glance who your newsletter’s from and what it’s about.

8. Be diverse. Offer both short and long articles to give both casual and more serious readers what they’re looking for.

What to “do” to grow a list

9. Set goals. If you don’t know where you’re heading, you won’t know when you’ve arrived–set goals for all aspects of your newsletter to keep yourself on track.

10. Entice them. More and more companies are finding that offering a newsletter isn’t enough to get people to part with their email addresses. By offering a free report or something else of value, potential readers may be more likely to sign up.

11. Offer a sneak peak. Take a look at those magazine offers you get in the mail and write something similar for your newsletter.

12. Post sample issues online. This way readers can see for themselves if they’re interested in your newsletter.

13. Make your website useful. Visitors will assume that if your website is helpful, your newsletter will be, too.

14. Make a one-time popup that invites subscriptions. You can get a one-time popup code at: http://www.web-source.net/popups.htm .

15. Make subscribing easy. Your subscribe link should be visible on every page of your site. Also, make the process as easy as possible (don’t make them fill out long forms, etc.). And, above all else, try the process yourself to make sure it works!

16. Archive issues on your website. This lets readers catch up and see what they’ve been missing. It also may improve your search engine rankings.

Advertise to get more subscribers

17. Set up a promotion station. Make a page at your website with ways other people can promote your newsletter–graphics, articles, testimonials, etc. (And let people know they can freely copy what they want to use.)

18. Promote it at ezine collection websites.

19. Advertise it in your signature file on all email with a description and subscribe instructions.

20. Find other related ezines that you enjoy and ask about exchanging reviews of one another’s ezines.

21. Ask other ezine publishers to recommend your newsletter on their “Thanks for subscribing” page.

22. Ask readers to forward the newsletter to a specific person. For example, write, “Please forward this newsletter to someone you know who’s recently complained about their printer.”

23. Gather testimonials. It’s not enough for you to say your newsletter is great. Get other people to say it for you. (Make sure you have permission to print the testimonial!)

24. Always offer subscribing instructions. (Of course, you always include unsubscribing instructions, right?)

By putting these 24 tips to work for your newsletter, you’ll be able to sit back and watch your newsletter list grow. Enjoy!