This widget does not have to be complex: a simple input field and submit button will do
the trick. Unsubscribe functionality and privacy statements do not need to clutter the
interface; those options should be available elsewhere on the site.
Two notes about the newsletter sign-up:
If your website offers a newsletter at all, the subscribe field should be on the
homepage??”making users search for the opportunity on any other page is going to
severely cap the subscription base. The action of subscribing can be spontaneous,
so make it easy.
If it is on your homepage, like in Figure 5-6, discreetly tucking it in a sidebar or
below the fold is perfectly fine for this tertiary content. Unless the e-mail newsletter
is a core marketing effort (certainly true for some companies), there??™s no
reason to shove it in people??™s faces when they hit the homepage.
We??™ll cover e-mail subscriptions and outbound marketing more thoroughly in Chapter 14,
but for now, consider the small subscription box a strong candidate for homepage placement.
THE HOMEPAGE
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Figure 5-6. The placement of the e-mail newsletter sign-up is out of the way, but still easy to use.
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