The Life Cycle of a Discussion List
August 23, 1999
Once you've selected a mailing list software package, and
set up and tested one or more mailing lists, the thing to
do is to promote the list(s), and try to get as many people
to join as possible. Every mailing list should have a
Web page associated with it, which explains what the
subject matter of the list is, explains any rules and
guidelines for posting, and describes in detail how to
go about subscribing and unsubscribing (for an example,
see
Mailing List Sign Up Form - Web Developer's Journal. This
Web page should be submitted to the appropriate search
engines and directories. There are also a couple of
directories of mailing lists, to which you should submit
your new list. See:
Yahoo! Computers and Internet:Internet:Mailing Lists:Web Directories
Liszt, the mailing list directory
Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists
Your Web site and your mailing list are separate entities,
but they should reinforce each other. Use your Web site to
tout the virtues of your mailing list, and include a
prominent link to the list's home page on your Web site
home page and navbars. To make it even easier for people
to subscribe, you can also include a text box on your Web
pages, allowing people to sign up for the list instantly
by simply entering their email address (for an example,
look at the left sidebar of any of the pages of
The Web Developer's Journal.
The major mailing list packages allow for a variety of
ways to confirm subscription requests. Most list admins
would agree that it's a bad idea to allow people to sign
up in a single step, because this allows people to sign
other people up without their knowledge, which can lead
to a big mess. Therefore, most mailing lists have some
sort of a confirmation message. When you first sign up
for the list, a message is sent to you asking if you do
indeed mean to sign up for the list. Only when you reply
to this message are you actually subscribed.
Since you want as many list members as possible, make the
confirmation process as easy as you can. Mailing list
software allows you to create very complex confirmation
processes, with usernames, passwords and so forth, but
this will discourage a certain number of people, and your
list will grow far more slowly. I recommend setting things
up so that one need only reply to the confirmation
message in order to be subscribed.
Some list owners deliberately make it difficult to figure
out how to unsubscribe, but this is a very bad idea, as
we shall see. Unsubscribe instructions should be clearly
posted on the list's home page, and should also be included
at the end of every message. You should also provide an
email address that goes directly to the list admin, so that
if the automatic unsubscription process doesn't work, a user
can contact a human who can figure out what went wrong.
Real Mailing Lists
Email-based Public Relations, or Mailing Lists for Web Sites
List Administration
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