Sunday, June 24, 2007

More About Free Advertising

I couldn't help but notice that a ton of people are not using email lists to help promote there services. I guess this is alright if you are not interested in repeat customers, but what if you are? How do you go about adding this email list of subscribers to your website.

Well, first off this is another form of free advertising, because this whole system is free to set up. First you would make sure you site is up and running and that you have MYSQL server that you can run, preferably PHP, but ASP and some of the others will work as long as your Hosting Company is compatible. Next, set up a new database, if you have one already you can try to install this on the same database as long as the table names are all the same.

Go to hotscripts.com and look up Email under PHP scripts. Next find a free one as many should be, then install this on your FTP server. Sometimes this can be a bit difficult meaning you have to edit some vital information before uploading like a Database Name, Database Password, Database Host (generally Localhost- but you should check), User Name and Password for log in purposes. It might also ask for the domain you are installing this on. I don't recommend installing it under your main domain name as this is probably where your main website goes. I recommend creating a Sub domain or at least a new folder. Point that setup to the new sub domain or folder. Run the Install if needed, most of these come with directions as to make this really easy.

The next thing you will want to do is add the little snippet of code anywhere you would like your Email Sign up list to be. I recommend right after you explain your product or at the very top bar so that it is easily noticed. Then after a few weeks or months how ever long it take for you to get a few email subscribers start creating a general newsletter. This will keep people coming back for more every time you add a new product or the Internet changes and you think your subscribers would like to know about it. Basically you want to make sure that what you are sending people is related to what they signed up for.

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