I think I should be getting more of the visitors to my website to sign
up for my free newsletter.
I am averaging about 100 unique visitors/day, and about 115 total
visitors to my snowboard info webste per day. And only getting a new
subscriber about every 3rd day.

What kind of sign-up percentage is realistic to hope for, and how can
I improve mine?

The website is http://www.snowboardsecrets.com/
I offer a look at my past newsletters on the sign-up application.

From Oct. 7 to Nov. 7 my stats say I had 3098 unique visitors and 4052
total visitors, and about 15 newsletter subscriptions.

Am I doing something wrong that more people don't sign up?

<You are currently getting a sign-up rate of 0.48%.

According to CoolerEmail, an average subscription rate is 5%.
http://www.cooleremail.net/users/news/CoolerTips_CT49.html

There are several things that can be improved on your site to increase
your subscription rate.

There is a problem with the pop-up subscription page.
I clicked on the ?get newsletter? button from various pages and got
the newsletter pop-up however the page that I was viewing disappeared.
On closing the popup window all I was presented with was a blank page
with the word object in the top left-hand corner. Clicking on back
does get you back to your website. However you may be losing visitors
who fail to do this.

In addition the form that you get from the newsletter button differs
from the sign up on the home page. There is none of the yellow
highlighting that shows you do not require date of birth. Some
subscribers may be put off by having to give their date of birth.

The sign up for your newsletter is prominently displayed on the home
page and the newsletter page. However on other pages you need to
scroll down to the bottom of the page and not all your visitors will
scroll down. If you do scroll down, you see the flashing ?get
newsletter? button but there is no other information. Many visitors to
your site will not necessarily land on the home page and see the
prominent newsletter sign up box. A search engine search may bring
them to any page on your site.

The advert for the newsletter on the home page does not mention that
the newsletter is free (as on your newsletter page). The Get your own
free subscription to the Snowboard Szine as shown at the top of the
page on the newsletter page is much more prominent and noticeable than
all of the other adverts. It also has the added advantage that you
don?t need to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see it.

Using a pop-up gets a higher conversion rate than a form at the bottom
of the page. For example Web Marketing Today achieves a rate of 3%
from a pop-up and 1.5% from a form at the bottom of the page. However
it is becoming increasingly common for users to block pop-ups, so a
combination of a pop-up and a form at the bottom of the page may be a
better solution.

This site provides a case study where various elements of a sign-up
form were tested. Configuration C was determined to be the best which
is displayed at the bottom of the page.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wct7/wmt_sub_testing.htm


<Additonal links:>

<Average conversion rates>
<http://www.conversionchronicles.com/page.php?PageID=41&tracking=conversionbenchleft>


<Search strategy:>

<"newsletter" "average conversion rate" subscriptions>
<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=%22newsletter%22+%22average+conversion+rate%22+subscriptions>

<"average conversion rates">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22average+conversion+rates%22>

<Hope this helps.>

This answer was helpful and very prompt. If you have any other
suggestions I'd be eager to hear them.

Hi Lauren,

Consider me your 4053rd visitor. I have never touched a snowboard. 

Terrific site, colourful, easily navigable, lots of info including
"newest features and pages". Apart from 16 promised tips, why would I
subscribe to your newsletter? You have already given me all the info I
need. Maybe "newest features and pages" could be moved from your site
to the newsletter subscription area. Give the audience what they want,
but leave them wanting more.

Phil

Phil, 
thanks for the comment.
 I gave you all the info you could ever want without you having to
subscribe? It's a good thought, but There is endless info snowboarders
want.

Plus the newsletter contains timely info on events and what's
happening, that won't be available as quickly to regular readers of my
site. Maybe I should add that text.
thanks again for your thoughts.
Lauren

Hi Lauren,

My pleasure. Thanks for the acknowledgement. As someone who has never
snowboarded, I thought you might appreciate the other angle, like say
from a novice. It's an inviting, energetic and fun site. Well done.

Have you considered say special deals for subscribers? If you could
put that together, might it pay for your publication of the site as
you forward those people to your contacts? Give them another reason to
join up, to create that database of interested people.

Just thoughts, you have done a great job. I like it.

Phil