The danger of this happening at YOUR site is that you just lost a great prospect. After all, I'm pre-qualified. I was already interested in what you had to offer. I likely found your site via a search engine, Web directory, advertisement, article, or another promotion. I clicked through to your site because I wanted to learn more.

But studies reveal that I'm most likely NOT going to take action first time I visit your site. Have you heard statistic that it takes about *seven* contacts before prospects are ready to buy? (That's a lot of times!)

So how can you get chance to contact me another *six* times? The answer is to CAPTURE me then and there — that is, get my e-mail address. To do this, you'll have to offer me something valuable in return. If you just tell me to "sign up for our mailing list," you're not going to get squat.

So what can YOU offer me? Here are some ideas that have been proven to work when done well. Of course, *content* for all of these should tie-in to your business focus:

1. A free mini-mail course.

These are becoming very popular right now. You simply create a few e-mails' worth of content to spread out over a certain amount of days. You'll need an e-mail autoresponder to do this, which allows me to sign up for your course automatically. Many sites seem to offer five- or seven-day courses, and many of them are awful. So here's a chance for YOU to stand out: Make sure yours offers really useful or interesting content that's more "how to" than salesy. Then in last e-mail, tell me how your services/ products will further help me --- lead me on to next step.

2. A free e-zine (e-mail newsletter).

1. Do they use MULTI-PART MIME technology?

You'll need this if you want to publish an HTML newsletter. Otherwise you’ll have to send out multiple versions for users who can read HTML, users who can't read HTML, and users on AOL.

2. Do they offer some type of ORIENTATION OR TUTORIAL?

If you're new to game and/or technologically challenged then you'll appreciate any type of help they offer for new clients.

3. What's their CUSTOMER SERVICE like?

Are they prompt to get back to you via e-mail? Can you call them if you have a problem? Are they available more than standard business hours? What about weekends? Contact them and see how long they take to get back to you —- if it's longer than 24 hours, definitely keep looking.

4. Do they NOTIFY list owners if there's a PROBLEM with their service?

If so, how, and how quickly?

5. Do they have CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS to share with you?

Or even better, client references? Contact some of these folks to see how their experiences have been.

6. Do other BUSINESSES LIKE YOURS use their service?

If most of their clients are large corporations, small businesses like yours may not get attention they deserve.

7. Is their interface EASY TO USE?

Meaning is it easy for you to setup and launch each issue of your e-zine. They should offer a demo or let you access 'mission control' area that you'll be using to test it out.

8. Can you MANUALLY ADD AND REMOVE people to and from your list if you want to?

Sometimes you’ll need to do this, so you'll want answer to be "yes" —- especially if you're moving over a list you've already collected.

9. Can you access SUBSCRIBER REPORTS?

How and how often? You'll want to know on a regular basis how many subscribes and unsubscribes you've had since last issue.

10. What appears in "FROM" field when subscribers get your e-zine?

You want it to be YOUR name if possible. Some spam filters screen out e-mail that does not appear to come from an individual person.

11. What appears in "TO" field when a subscriber gets your e-zine?