eNewsletters, also known as eZines or email newsletters, are extremely popular with many websites providing the option for visitors to sign up to stay informed on the latest news, products, services and information on the business or the niche the business focuses on.

Many web based businesses offer free eNewsletters as a way of keeping their customers informed, however, some businesses have also been successful at developing paid eNewsletter subscriptions.

One of the requirements of the Australian SPAM Act 2003 (many other countries have similar legislation) is that you need to clearly provide the ability for someone to unsubscribe from your list. Many people start their email newsletter service with their email program and list of contacts; however, managing these un-subscription requests can get unwieldy once you start getting 50+ contacts for your eNewsletter.

Once you get upwards of 50 contacts it's better to move to a more automated system, such as AWeber which is an automatic newsletter and email list management tool that starts at US$19 (about AU$22) per month for up to 500 subscribers.

Email marketing tools like AWeber and built-in newsletter software on your website provide functionality such as:

• Email newsletter templates – pre-developed email newsletter templates that would otherwise cost you around $150-250 to have developed for you.
• Automatic subscription / un-subscription of users.
• Ability to add 'sign up' forms to your website.
• Auto responders – these are simply automatic emails that you setup to welcome people to your list or promote information. They can be setup in an automatic sequence. For example:
  • On subscription – send a welcome email
  • 2 days later – send a follow-up with some free resources
  • 10 days later – send a reminder of where your articles are located on your website and tell them how to subscribe via RSS
  • 20 days later – send them an overview of a product or service you provide.
• SPAM advice – with each email you develop they give you a rating on how likely it is to be blocked by SPAM filters and give you recommendations on changing the email to reduce the chance of this.
• Synchronise the email newsletter with Twitter (i.e. tweet the link to the new eNewsletter automatically).
• Analytics – such as who opens the eNewsletter, when, what they click on, which ad campaigns work the best etc.
• Shopping cart integration – if you setup a website shopping cart you can automatically subscribe buyers to your eNewsletter or automatically send them digital files such as eBooks once their payment is successful.