Newsletters are stories, tips, and news related to your website's subject matter that gets emailed to your visitors on a pre-determined schedule (monthly is common). For example, if you own a pet care website, your newsletter may be filled with tips on how to remove pet urine from rugs, how to reduce cat fur balls, and how to prevent doggy ear mites. Embedded in the newsletter can be links to products on your website or even affiliate links to other websites (where you can make a commission).

So, why is a newsletter so important? Assume you have 1000 visitors the first month your website is live. At this point 100% of those users are new users. Now assume the next month you again gain 1000 visitors. Of those, 90% are new visitors. Assume that pattern continues the next 2 months. After a 4 month period you've reached 4000 visitors, of which approximately 90% are new, or only 10% are returning visitors. That's 400 out of 4000 per month that keep coming back. You're essentially loosing 900 visitors per month! To improve customer retention and keep visitors coming back, you'll need to implement a newsletter. Newsletters are a reminder to users that your website still exists and has some great information, products, and services!

Consider newsletters as a customer retention tool rather than a traffic generation tool. You're goal with a newsletter is to keep the traffic you've already generated. Fill your newsletter with quality information, a nice design, and on occasional self-promotion and you'll keep your customers happy. Oh, and one more thing... do NOT force newsletters on your customers! Not only will this create a negative sentiment amongst your visitors, it can damage your reputation and land you in some hot legal water. Allow customers to "opt-in" to a newsletter either through a newsletter form or a checkbox in your website registration form (ex: [x] Yes, sign me up for the Free Links Direct Newsletter).

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