is a mailing list essential for a game?

[tolworthy]

Hi - apologies for starting two threads within one hour of being allowed to post. I'm just a keen newbie.
Several people have asked me to add them to my mailing list, but I don't have a mailing list. How important is it to have one? I have a website, blog and feedback forum, but this is my first game, it's not due for release until December 2007, and I have no experience with lists (but plenty of experience with spam!) Is a mailing list essential? And is there an easy and cheap to way to set one up without any experience? Though I did once dabble in real programming and databases, it was very superficial and a long time ago, and time is precious.

[tewe76]

My host (www.dreamhost.com) offers a free newsletter implementation, quite simple to setup. Look at your host, maybe they do also.
If not, you could try searching in this forum. There was a web...hum, i can't remember its name, but it offered free newsletter for less than 500 subscribers (or something similar, don't trust me much ;))

[tolworthy]

My host (www.dreamhost.com) offers a free newsletter implementation, quite simple to setup. Look at your host, maybe they do also.
Thanks. I hadn't thought of that. I will be looking for a new host sometime next year (my current host can't offer enough bandwidth) and I will definitely ask about that.

[Sharpfish]

Thanks. I hadn't thought of that. I will be looking for a new host sometime next year (my current host can't offer enough bandwidth) and I will definitely ask about that.

the free under 500 web service he was talking about is www.yourmailinglistprovider.com and many of us use it. It's best to go with something like this (as I was told AFTER setting up my own simple one) because of things like your domain getting flagged as a spammer and other reasons.

Just visit a few of the devs sites on this forum and see what they are using to get a taste of the many options available.

[tolworthy]

the free under 500 web service he was talking about is www.yourmailinglistprovider.com and many of us use it.
That's perfect. Thanks! It's exactly what I was hoping to find. Boy, this forum is good!

[Sharpfish]

Boy, this forum is good!

It's the best forum i've ever had the pleasure to post on!

[bard]

Mailing lists are a great tool, especially when your game isn't going to be released for so long. People can just drop their e-mail into a box on impulse and forget about the game. Until you remind them, of course. But don't go crazy on the messages.

And speaking of Dreamhost + newsletters, I LOVE their monthly mailing. Josh Jones writes it and I read it every month just because it's so well-written and humorous. Gotta reel in the readers.