Does anyone know of any free email signup software to add to a website? Something like contrast contact, where you can send out emails to your list from the people who signed up for your news letter. thanks
mail chimp gives you free to the first 500, however they do not allow any internet marketing to those lists. You would hate to start your list with them and end up losing it because of that. I would suggest aweber, they have a promotion that allows you to sign up for 1 month at $1. (not sure if this is still going on but you can look into it)
it is a little program on your website.. you can hire someone to write it for you... I would say $30 will do it.. but in order to send emails to those list.. you have to have another program.. it is called "sendmail" and you are all set.. search "free autoresponder" and I see a lot of options...
If you are looking for a self hosted solution, PHPList is a good standalone option. One of my clients decided to try out Pommo. On my Joomla sites, I use the YANC newsletter component. I've also bought the Acajoom component, but I stat tracking is almost nonexistent (YANC tracks more and is free.) But you will have issues with any type of platform you use in a self-hosted situation. When you subscribe to a mailing service, you are not only paying for the ability to email your list but their deliverability rate as well.
Aweber is the best...if you're not willing to invest in this critical part of your business then maybe you should give up now Free ones are notorious for low delivery/high bounce rates
What is the purpose of your list? If you intend to monetize it by sending out affiliate offers then you really should go for aweber / getresponse where people have to double opt-in to confirm they want your mails. Anything else is just leaving yourself open to spam complaints and trouble in the future. If you want free try emailaces has a hidden free trial, it's right down at the bottom of the page. Read the terms to see what you get in terms of numbers and adverts.
MailChimp is the shiz, I wish their service didn't cost so much. If you're looking for free try some PHP scripts like the ones listed above, they work wonders and can be run right from your website.
I would highly recommend you don't use software on your site. Instead I recommend that you use an autoresponder service. The problem with using software on your site is that if you have a few people mark you as spam (whether you deserve being marked as spam or not) your entire website could get blacklisted. Once you're blacklisted anywhere it tends to spread around the net. Next thing you know you'll have to completely abandon that domain because almost none of your emails will go out to people. Aweber or Getresponse are the only two I know of that have high quality relationships with most domains, better delivery rates, etc. http://www.aweber.com http://www.getresponse.com
WealthDealer is right. You never want to go free with your mailing list. The worst thing you could do that would cost you a lot of money in the long run is use a free autoresponder. I have no idea why people want FREE things when trying to run a BUSINESS.
Nothing wrong with getting free stuff, as long as it is totally free and you have full control over it. On the other hand, free hosting, free autoresponders etc are really not free. There is a price to pay for those.