State what you will and will not do with the information you collect. You'll want to store the e-mail addresses in a handy form. At the very least, ask your website developer to help you collect the e-mail addresses in a simple online database. Cutting and pasting addresses from one e-mail after another is not my idea of fun. When a person subscribes to our newsletter, we immediately send a message telling him how to unsubscribe if he wants to, assuring him that we do not want to send any unsolicited mail.
Many lists have a two-step verification process to subscribe.
We haven't found that necessary, and it can be pretty daunting. You're sure to lose some subscribers who give up trying subscribe. Keeping your e-mail list accurate isn't easy. You'd be surprised how many Internet newbies don't know their e-mail address. If the visitor enters an obviously incorrect e-mail address, the program gently informs him of his error and asks him to correct it.