Starting a successful newsletter is tough, no matter what type of site it’s for. Most people delete the majority of newsletters that hit their inbox without ever even opening them. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t run an email marketing campaign, it just means you have to follow a few important guidelines while doing so.

First, and probably the most important, is don’t buy subscribers. We’ve all seen the ads that promise tens of thousands of subscribers for one low, low price, but it’s still not worth it. The price might be affordable, but you probably don’t want the subscribers they’re tying to sell you. You can’t be certain how they got a hold of those email addresses, so there’s always a chance they were obtained illegally, or at the very least, by underhanded means. If they were all obtained on the up and up, you still have no way of knowing whether or not they’re active email addresses that get checked by someone regularly. Even if they do get checked regularly, you still don’t want them. There’s no way to guarantee that each email address you bought belongs to someone who is likely to be interested in your newsletter. You might be buying subscribers that are likely to flag your newsletter as spam, and hurt the overall reputation of your newsletter, and by proxy, your site.

Instead of paying for subscribers, ask for them. Put an opt in page on your site, and put an opt in box on the sidebar. Also, if you have a store, give your customers the option to sign up for your newsletter during checkout. By asking your customers to sign up, you won’t get as many subscribers as you would by buying them, but you’ll get subscribers with a genuine interest in your site, and your niche.

Once you have the right subscribers, it’s important to start sending them the right things. Don’t just send out sales emails, try to send out entertaining and informative content as well. If you can entertain your subscribers, they’ll be more likely to open and read all of your emails, including your sales emails.

A successful newsletter just comes down to sending the right information to the right subscribers. If you have subscribers that are interested in what you have to say, and you’re sending them meaningful content, your newsletter will perform well.