Story by Tom Cain (www.smallware.com):

Last year, I made a change to how I let people sign up for my email list that has worked really well. I thought I’d share:

I started the email list in 2002. There were links to a dedicated signup page throughout the site and in the order receipt. Signups were not that great, only a few thousand since 2002.

In July 2005, I changed the demo download from an HTML link to a form with a download button. I put a text input field right above the download button that lets them sign up for the list:

http://www.smallware.com/download/

In the six months since, my traffic, downloads, and sales have remained steady. But the size of my email list has more than doubled. I have gotten more signups in six months than in the previous three years by making this change. I believe it’s because it makes signing up easier — everything in one action — but I don’t know for sure.

Anyone looking to increase newsletter signups might want to give this a try. Two points that I think are important if you do:

1. Clearly mark the email field as optional.
2. Note that you won’t spam them.

I hope this info helps anyone looking to increase their signups. If anyone else has tips that worked, I’d love to hear them.