Newsletters are still one of the main distribution and loyalty-building channels for much of the content published on the Internet. Their value for keeping an open channel with your readers and their potential for expanding your loyalt reader base is unabated.

Though I personally estimate the correct ratio between new visitors to a site and newsletter registrations to be around 5:1 in some very best scenarios, some companies, go as far as claiming (I would like to see some hard data backing this up) that if your conversion ration is below 1:1 you should start worrying.

Since most of the online independent publishers have a much, much lower conversion ratios than these, I do think that all efforts directed at improving and refining our newsletter offerings on our sites, are definitely worth their time.

Here are some good recommendations offered by Return Path, an online email/newsletter distribution service:

1) Streamline e-mail registrations.

2) Make sign-up easy.

3) Add a registration box or link to all e-newsletters.

4) Add a registration button or link to all e-mail correspondence.

5) Include a "forward to a friend" button.

6) Offer a sign-up incentive.

7) Partner with similar Web sites.