We're going to do a quick lesson on e-mailing-list etiquette. Mailing lists are a great way to keep in touch with your clients, connections and possible synergy partners. However, readers should be able to equally opt-in or opt-out. They should have some kind of connection to you so that your newsletters remain relevant.

Note: a connection to you does not mean that they handed you their business card once at a happy hour after you talked to them for five minutes. That's spam. I'm all about connecting, getting to know you and possibly getting business from you. But you are never earning my business if all the sudden one week later I'm on some random mailing list. The problem is, I might even like your product/service, I might have considered a business relationship with you... but when you cross the line into spam, I'm not going to support you. In fact, I refuse to do any business with spammers.

So what's the classy way to handle adding people to your email list? If you think someone could benefit from your monthly newsletter when you meet them, ASK. Its not hard. Just say, "Hey, would you mind if I added you to my mailing list? After our chat I really think its something you'd enjoy." (But only if it is. If you just talked about the weather, you probably need to get to know them a little better.) Or later, send them an email and ask. We handily call this permission-based marketing.

Be respectful. Don't spam.