[quietbritishjim]

> Strong promotion: ... collecting emails - launching to an email list of 10k-100k+

One thing I've often wondered about this: who are all these people posting their email addresses everywhere?

Even if I'm reading a blog post I'm so interested in that I'd like to read more later, I would never dream of putting my address in one of those "sign up for more" popups. I know many will comment that it's offensive that they popup over the page, but for me that's not even the main reason - email is just not the right place for that sort of thing, I already get enough cruft in my email account without adding blog post notifications too. I know not everyone is exactly like me but surely that is the rule rather than the exception?

[jashmenn]

Email fatigue comes from self-serving emails. When you get value from an email, it isn't a burden.

Context: We have 100k folks on our list, and our typical open rate is 25%. Almost all are web developers.

I think the key thing required to maintain this is to give value. I'll spend hours personally writing high-quality email tutorials. My friends and family are subscribers and so I treat each email as such.

I feel an obligation that if you open an email from me you're going to get value from it. I might send out 19 emails that teach before I ask for a sale on the 20th (but even then, I'm only going to ask you to buy something I think you might also find valuable).

[esrauch]

I'm not sure that the value can explain the 100k signups though; except for a small amount of word-of-mouth the vast majority of those must type in their email based solely on the website content and the promo?

[peterwoerner]

I asked that question, and then I realized I have subscribed to 4 or 5 free newsletters--currently money stuff, orbital index and stratechery.

And I have in the past bought books from peoples blogs as a way of saying thank you for providing great free content.

[pc86]

Even among technical folks you are in the minority. Especially among non-technical folks, who will toss their email into just about anything that asks for it for almost any reason.