How do I set up a subscriber email list ?

[plussize.co.uk]

I am a part-time amateur web-designer.
I have simple established web-sites which are getting good traffic.
I now want to set up an email database that I could send a monthly newsletter to.
I want it to be fully automatic, ie the viewer can subscribe and unscribe without my having to do anything, - and I want it to be simple to operate ie all I want to have to do is write a newsletter with embedded links and ' send to list/database/??? '

As I know absolutely nothing about how to go about this, what should I get ( software??? ), and where should I go to learn what to do ?

I design in html using Dreamweaver 4.

[DioBach]

I played about with the free newsletters you get on your hosting and that, and I was not overly confident of using it. Currently I'm maintaining my lists via campaignmonitor.com - it's very web 2.0, easy to use, easy to implement on your sites and you can customize reply pages and all sorts of good stuff. I like it lots - and I have very little to do implementing it which is always a plus.

I also found their pricing one of the best out there.

[MarkCo]

I use a great server and pretty good value as well

Its called The Autoresponer

Its a very good system and one of the best I have used, also the company is very felaxable and works with me to customise sections of it, for my needs.

[accelerator]

See also:

http://www.webref.eu/mass-email-software.php

Rgds

Accelerator

[Steved]

I second campaignmonitor.com. I use it for smaller campaigns (under 20 000 names)- very easy to create a web form and add to your site. It will manage all your subscribes and unsubs automatically. You can also personalise emails and it gives all the info you will need about exactly who is opening and reading your emails.

[Vrindavan]

use aweber