ForumsInternet/eCommerce

I don't see a way on your website to opt-in to the newsletter -- so if someone lands on your site as the result of a search, a customer referral, a direct invitation, etc. there is no way to sign-up and give you an e-mail address if they want to. Actually, there's no way to even know that you HAVE a newsletter. That's the first thing to attend to (before you consider paying for e-mail addresses, set up a way to get the ones people are willing to give for free).

My suggestion would be to have the most recent newsletter available on your site to view, so visitors can decide if they want to receive it regularly. Consequently, the newsletter has to provide more than just specials and new items for sale -- it needs to offer some interesting tips or brief stories (another fun option, given your product line, might be an extension of the garden gnome thing in the film AMELIE -- have customers send in their photos and post them in your newsletter). You have to make people WANT to get the newsletter. Offering an incentive (5% off first purchase or something) for signing up is another good option.

Hope that helps. Best wishes.

I own an e-mail marketing company. This is complete with the website code needed to generate a double opt-in list. You will be able to:
Build and Manage High Quality Lists
Launch Successful Campaigns
**Send and Track E-Mail
Create Targeted E-Mail Templates*

Unlimited Lists*
Unlimited Subscribers*
Import Lists*<br /Only pay for the e-mails you send.

go to http://www.complymail.com/features/main.htm any questions about the service send a support ticket to support @ http://www.complymail.com/support/users/tickets.php?op=add and state you are responding from this posting

I have updated my site. I added Garden Tips and a Mailing List link. If you have time can you please review? I appreciate your input.

JenJen

http://www.gardenmine.com

With email lists, you have two options:

1) You can be a little spammy. In that case, you can buy email lists, you can "mine" the internet for email addresses (i.e. look up companies/blogs in your target market, get the names of people you want, enter it into a database), and you can go REALLY spammy and get a spam program.

We really don't recommend these options a lot, as they are typically very inneffective (I mean, really, how often do you click on spam that lands in your email box).

2) You can get people in to your company/site enough to sign up for your newsletter.

Ok, so this is not as instant, but very do-able. Go find some blogs in your market (You can use Google Reader and search there for blogs to follow--and find a goldmine of blogs on any topic under the sun, complete with how many readers read it regularly). Approach them, contribute content, make special offers to their readers to sign up for the newsletter.

This approach depends on having a very good newsletter, however. People don't ussually write a "You have to sign up for this newsletter" blog post when it is just a collection of products.

On that note, if that is your newsletter and that is all you want it to be, that is fine. Then your best group of people will be customers/people who love your site/store.

Seth Stacey

Yes, I see that you added the tips and the "join our mailing list" invitation -- so definitely an improvement. Still, most visitors probably won't sign up. As time permits, you might want to create a newsletter that includes both seasonal gardening tips and your product-related specials/info -- and then have a copy of that on the site to view. Once you do, you can replace the "join our mailing list" with a "sign up for our Gardening Tips Newsletter." Visitors will be more likely to sign up if it means receiving both useful information and special offers, I think. As I noted before, if you can add content to the newsletter that is unique or fun (like photos or a video tour of a customer's garden that includes your products -- something like a "garden of the month" feature), you could really generate interest and participation -- and of course, customer contacts.

JenJen,
There is no way to get email addresses, this is not a practical way to go about increasing your sales. Here is why.
1. If you purchase email addresses, and the email address user has not give you permission to email him, this is called SPAMMING
2. If you purchase and email list, 95% of the time, they are not real Email addresses, and if they are... most-likely they are dummy email addresses.

The best way for you to increase your sales and Email Customers, is to Create a News Letter Sign up (Email Opt-in) on your web site. Open a Newsletter account with Constant Contact or intelicontact and have your visitors subscribe to your email Newsletter...

Start networking with other small business owners and tell them that you want to send them your weekly, monthly specials...

Good Luck...