I have been experimenting lately and I wanted to share something I have tried on my blog. I now require anyone who comments on my blog to sign up for my newsletter. I did this because of the sheer magnitude of spam comments I have been receiving lately. I found myself spending the majority of my comment review time removing bogus comments vomited onto my blog by bots and other types of software. This was even after my spam protection services filtered out three quarters of the spam comments to begin...

Commonly, not having a list is said to be ‘leaving money on the table’, and that much is certainly true.

Take the example of a conventional clothes store. Customers come, browse around, maybe buy something, and then leave. Once they’ve left, the store has no way of getting in touch with them, and maybe convincing them to come back again.

On the other hand, if the store had their contact details, they could notify them when they have a new stock of clothes on the rack,...