The whole idea of collecting email addresses seemed a bit
outdated to me. We are living in the time of big internet and social media and
I can follow my favorite people on twitter, become friend on facebook and read
everything they would like to share instantaneously. So why bother with emails?
The only explanation I could come up with is it has a better
“delivery warranty”. I feel like if I have something really important to say, a
big announcement or perhaps a few words about closing my shop (just joking!)
how can I be sure that people I care the most – my customers, of course – will
read it? I’m personally following hundreds of people on twitter, but I check my
news feed only (!) a couple of times per day. So there is really big chance
that I can miss something important simply because the number of posts in my
feed is measured in hundreds per day! Emails, on the other hand, usually get
more attention and therefore could be trusted for a message of extreme
importance. I’m not going to abuse it, of course, but I feel that I need this
“priority” service.
I started looking for a simple email service, but could not
find anything better than what Lisa has recommended: Mail Chimp. Basic
service is
free and it allows registering multiple mailing lists. It also generates nice
subscription forms, which could be placed in blog or facebook. I have to admit
though, that as of this writing it does not really collect emails, but I have
already contacted them and hope this issue will be resolved soon.