First opt ins

Just read a similar post to this and my advice is to give your list what it wants, and then tell them what they need.
This means giving them quality content that you said you would when they signed up, and then tell them what they need to do to implement it etc.

That's how I do it.

It's not as simple as "How do I disperse information?".

Many of the most worthwhile ways of keeping people on your list (as well as keeping them opening and reading your emails) relate to things you need to do before people opt-in, not after.

It's about setting expectations, establishing reliability and credibility, and earning people's trust.

These things all vary according to the traffic demographics, the opt-in incentive and maybe even the niche, too.

Some/all/many/few of the following suggestions might help, to some extent ...

(i) Explain really clearly to people that they're going to get regular emails from you, in addition to the "free report" or whatever carrot you're giving them in exchange for their email address;

(ii) Explain openly roughly how often you'll be sending these emails, and stick to what you've said;

(iii) Explain what information/materials will be covered in your emails, and why (obviously making the whole thing sound as attractive/appealing as possible);

(iv) Make sure that the "free report" is designed specifically to make sure that its recipients open and read the subsequent email series (failure to do this is a terrible missed opportunity and leads to unnecessarily low open-rates);

(v) Always use a reliable autoresponder with good deliverability, never a free one which may send spammy junk of its own out with your emails (opt in yourself, under a few email addresses, and see how they look and whether they reliably hit your inboxes);

(vi) Make sure there's as good a match as possible, in tone, style and presentation, between (a) what attracted people to your site in the first place, (b) what they saw when they got there, and (c) what you send by email (this can make a huge difference to keeping people subscribed and opening/reading your emails);

(vii) As well as all the more obvious things like reminding people who you are, why they're receiving it, how to unsubscribe and so on, put a little "feeder" in each email for the next one, so that it'll be expected and welcomed when it arrives (can also make a big difference);

(viii) Don't use people's first names when you send them autoresponder emails: marketers (often) love to do this, or at least the ones who are naive enough to imagine that people think it "makes it look more personal" - it does no such thing. People aren't stupid and they know that it's automated and means nothing. Customers often think it "just makes you sound like an insurance salesman" and it puts them on their guard - exactly the opposite of what you ought to be doing. (You can also build bigger lists by not asking for their names - an email address is all you need, and more people will opt in if that's all you ask for);

(ix) Don't try to give your emails "clever"/"tricky" subject-lines, or be misleading in any way in their titles: not only does this not work at all, but if anyone ever complains about it, your autoresponder company may (rightly) drop you like a stone.

Make sure that recipients know that, and understand clearly what you mean by "newsletter" and "other information" (I don't - so you didn't "set my expectations", there! :p ).

I put the first promotional link in the third email, usually.

People already know that I'm an affiliate and that I promote things, as they've found that out on my website and in the "free report" I've already sent them.

I put a link in every email I send, though. Most of them are links to valuable content on my own site. I want to get people used to clicking my links, expecting and finding something valuable and interesting.

The more effort you put in, at an early stage, to getting all this stuff right, the more dividends it pays in the long run ... don't become one of the people who wonders, 6 months later, why only 1 person in 5 on the list they've invested half their working hours in building is actually opening their emails. That must be incredibly dispiriting and disillusioning, but it's also relatively easily avoided at the outset. :rolleyes: