I want to get email addresses from visitors to my site, and eventually start sending out newsletters once I've gotten a decent number of addresses. I don't want to give my site's address here, but it is on a host that has PHPlist. Is this what I want to use? I already installed it in my account, and it seemed to go ok, but what the heck do I do now? I tried looking at the documentation but it was so over my head. How do I go about actually putting a link/box on my pages for people to sign up? How are the email addresses stored? I assume they're kept on my server somehow, and that I don't have to build a list in Notepad or something! is this even a good idea? My site isn't commercial; it is content-driven with affiliate links, but I can make a good newsletter. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!
In an effort to respond to my own thread... I seem to be on my way, slowly but surely: http://docs.phplist.com/ConfigureSubscribePageInfo
PHPList is a start but you'd want an autoresponder later. What an autorespodner does is once you put in the message and the time you want the content sent out like 1 week after joining, it'll send the message out to everyone one week after they join. As such, there's less headache for you and it's best for running online tutorials etc.
What if you already have a list of email addresses and you want to contact them, what is the best way?
Its not as easy as they could have made it but i've used it. Here is a good source to look for allowing people on your homepage or whatever to sign-up through a form to your newsletter: http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=472&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=21cc4977ffcd290f2596d010528f350d Hope it Helps!