DO'S:
Collect e-mail addresses. Have a sign up sheet on your web site (this could be as simple as having them send you an e-mail if you don't want to get fancy). Announce from the stage before break that if someone has an e-mail address, you'll be happy to sign them up. You could even get creative and buy a cheap mailbox to put on stage, then collect business cards (obviously not going to work with every genre of music). The great thing about e-mail is it's FREE to send out a message. It's a greay wasy way to stay in touch with your fans.

Let the subscriber know what to expect. If it's daily, weekly, monthly, whatever. Set the subscribers exceptions.

Give them something for signing up. On my band's web site we give away a kitchen magnet with our logo (and phone number for bookings). It cost about $1.50 to create and send (I do it all on my computer with magnets bought at Office max). I've created screen savers for people to download (After signing up). People love gifts. Be CAREFUL THOUGH. If a "Freebie" site finds out you are giving away stuff for free, you may be listed, and LITERALLY will get 500 request in a day. This isn't good if you play in a couple of cities, and you're paying $1.50 (multiply that by 500) for some nine year old in another state who wants a magnet (speaking from personal experience). You may want to put a disclaimer.If you want to make your own Screen Savers from your favorite images. There are plenty of different software programs to createscreensavers. (Try customsavers.com )

THE DON'TS
(Failing to Conceal e-mail addresses) Don't send out a message configured so that everybody can see each other's e-mail addresses. One band I know used Hotmail to manage their list. I was added to this list (everybody saw my address), and very soon started receiving lots of unwanted mail. Unfortunately this was my "private/home" address, and now when I open that inbox, I literally get 96 messages of crap (this is WITH using Outlooks blockers). Think I'm buying this band's CD? (You need to have a package that sends out individual messages, that canceal addresses. - I havesome examples below). It's very easy. Simply enter all the addresses in the BCC field. If you do not have a BCC (blind, carbon, copy).field, click on the VIEW menu (its probably an option).

DON'T REPEAT YOURSELF
(Have Something to Say) OK, lets face it, you will probably send out a notice for your monthly schedule, and for that "Special" gig send out another reminder (we all do that probably). I guess we can live with that. HOWEVER, you will make people upset by sending them a weekly reminder. Typically this results in a message with very low content.

Unless your subscribers are expecting a weekly message, this may result in the recipient clicking on the delete key more frequently. I was on one bands list that would send "updates" that were identical to their last "update." If you don't have anything to say, why annoy your fans?

Dave Jackson
Moderator
Musician's Cooler
Author Get Your Band Out of the Basement (and keep them out of the asylum) www.musicianlibrary.com