Federal Law now makes it a felony to engage in email marketing activities that we have all known are simply unethical, making attention to detail in your spam policy highly important. The new law is rather controversial and poses many problems believed to actually increase spam. However, clearly defining your intentions and willingness to fight against spammers, as well as promising never to spam anyone builds trust and credibility. What's even better is that it lends support and legitimacy to email marketing in fight against new laws.

So, what guidelines should be followed? Although this seems upfront like a no-brainer, it is specific wording that can be tricky.

(1) Stay away from what I call "lawyer talk". What's point if a potential subscriber has to go to library to figure out what you promise to do. Tell them your intentions in simple sentences. There is no need to use fancy wording.

(2) Explicitly state that you strictly prohibit spam. You must spell out your stance for your subscribers. There is no room for interpretation here.

(3) Promise to them that you will never spam. Seems silly to say this but remember point here: credibility, trust, and protection.

I use three primary ways to get interested subscribers to sign up for my ezine. Purchased leads and subscription services, ezine directories and article writing.

Purchased Leads/Subscription Services

Purchased leads and subscription services work with you to get subscribers to sign up for your ezine. You agree to purchase x amount of subscribers per month from a subscription service for a fee and they will advertise your ezine for you until they have filled amount of subscribers you have purchased. Most companies will always give you more than amount you purchased due to bad email addresses, removals, and undelivered emails. Subscription services are ideal for anyone that is first starting out as a way to get quite a few subscribers in a relatively short amount of time. You will also have a choice of single opt-in or double-in subscribers. Double opt-in subscribers actually have to reply to an email to validate that they are interested in your ezine, where single opt-in will get your ezine automatically. There are many subscription services to choose from and I advise trying different ones because every list is different.

EZine Directories

Ezine directories are websites that will allow you to submit your ezine to their website. There are free and paid directories. You submit your url for your ezine and a short ad about your ezine and that is it. Here are few examples of some ezine directories I use. http://www.bestezines.com http://www.ezineadvertising.com/ http://www.ezine-dir.com/ http://www.ezinelocater.com/ http://www.ezine-marketing.com/ http://www.ezinesearch.com http://www.ezine-swap.com/ http://www.ezine-universe.com/ http://www.ezinepublisher.org/ You may also do a search at http://www.google.com for more ezine directories.