There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to identify visitors to your web site. 

A number of great programs now exist to help you create attractive forms to help you build your subscriber list.

Once again some simple guidelines will help you be more successful.

• Checkout www.campaignmonitor.com and www.mailchimp.com for simple to use forms.
• Ensure you follow regulations regarding privacy and provide an unsubscribe link.
• Make a genuine offer to attract subscriptions
• Only ask for a name and e-mail. Asking for telephone numbers or addresses will dramatically reduce your subscription rate.
• Follow up promptly and politely with a professional e-mail newsletter.
  

RSS syndication is the hottest technology on the web yet very few people understand how important it is.

The reason is simple, Internet Explorer 7.0 has RSS built in to its core technology.

RSS is the internet community's answer to spam e-mail, enabling users to choose to subscribe to the content updates they want using "live bookmarks" rather than e-mail.

The example above is from the BBC's site, however already businesses are using RSS to keep clients up to date without cluttering their in-boxes.

Blogs create RSS feeds automatically allowing users to subscribe to new content.

Advanced software such as Squarespace also "pings" search engines every time you add to your site.