Adding a mailing list to your blog can result in a lot more visitors. But, is it easy? Does it involve a lot of effort and cost or is there a simple way to run a blog mailing list?

Putting a simple mailing list on your blog need not be that complicated. In fact, there are a few very easy ways to do this and to then make sure that you are getting the best from your efforts. There are a few steps to take to make sure that you are seeing the very best results.

Personally, I use two different ways to run mailing lists. There is a third way that people sometimes try thinking it is best, but in fact it turns out to be very problematic. And that is the manual approach. Do not try this! Some people think that if they have a simple contact form to collect email addresses and then send emails through outlook they can run a basic mailing list. Do not bother – it is doomed to failure through spam detectors and upsetting your ISP.

So, what are the realistic mailing list choices? Well the first is to install a plugin, such as the imaginatively titled Newsletter pluggin and to use that. It is very easy to install and set-up and really needs no explanation. The only issue is the bulk sending of emails might offend your ISP.

Therefore, the next best solution is a free mailing list provider. For this I use ymlp.com and sign up for their free service once the trial period is over. This is a good one to use, although there are plenty of alternatives. Again this is simple to install. You just tell them what fields you want to collect (for example name and email) and they give you the html for the form. Copy and paste that into a suitable page on your blog and you have your double opt in mailing list set up.

That is the sourcing of the mailing list sorted, but where do you collect the information? Ideally on every page! Within the side bar of your blog copy and paste in the mailing list form and this way every visitor gets to see the opportunity to join. But, will they be convinced? Probably not, so you also need a clear link to a page about the newsletter.

On this page repeat the sign up form and talk a little about the newsletter. Maybe mention how often you send a newsletter (with me, not very often!), make an offer or incentive for signing up (like my free ebook!) and promise not to sell or misuse email addresses. There is nothing worse than signing up for a mailing list and then getting loads of spam.

Maybe even, if you are using a service such as YMLP, link to earlier copies of the newsletter, this shows the quality of it and can convince more people to sign up. Also, tricks such as the so call slide ups (the new versions of pop ups), which show to new users can also make sure that plenty of people are joining your mailing list.

So, to put a mailing list on your blog, grab the pluggin or sign up for a free service, install the capture form in relevant places and make an offer that readers cannot refuse!

I have struggled for ages on this one, but finally Technorati has fully acknowledged my three blogs and I am listed!

What did I do? Well, I ignored it for three weeks, forgot about the system and got on with my own business. I just happened to sign on to look to see if by some miracle there had been an update and I was amazed.

So, out of all of the changes that I made to the three blogs that weren’t listed, which do I think helped? Well changing the RSS feed and the permalink structure was a waste of time – I only did that to one blog. Deleting and starting again did nothing – the same screen dump was used! And again, that only affected 1 blog.

The only act that I can explain that was applied across the board, was a Category Excluder pluggin. I am using that to remove from the RSS feed paid posts on the other 3 blogs as they, having decent Page Ranks, were getting a lot of paid posts. Now these paid posts were mainly off topic and, of course, included a link. So maybe there is a threshold that I crossed to the number of irrelevant links out you can have. I don’t think all links out are counted from looking at the blogs that link to me, so maybe it is those posts that are off topic causing a problem.

That is only a guess though. Who knows?