How to Email to a Mailing List

You can join email lists and send email to the members.

An online mailing list is a community of people who interact through email messages on the Internet. A mailing list is usually focused on one main topic and the people who join the mailing list are generally expected to keep the discussion based around the topic of the mailing list. Members can often choose whether they would like to receive each post to the mailing list as a separate email or a group of emails as a daily or weekly archive. In order to send an email to a mailing list you must first become a member of the mailing list group.

Things You'll Need

• Personal computer with Internet access
• Personal email account

Instructions

1. Join a mailing list that focuses on a topic that you enjoy. You can find mailing lists at sites such as Google Groups, Yahoo! Groups or Topica.

2. Allow time for your registration to be approved. Depending on how the mailing list is moderated, you may have to wait for the owner of the list to confirm your membership. Often, you may also have to click a link in an email to confirm that your email address is valid.

3. Save the mailing list's main email address in your address book. Usually you will receive a welcoming message from the mailing list that will inform you what email address you need to use if you want to send an email to the list. This information will also often be repeated at the bottom of individual emails that come from the email list.

4. Compose and send a message to the mailing list's main email address. You don't need to do anything special to the email to make it post to all of the members. The mailing list is designed to replicate any message that is sent to its main email address and automatically send it to all members subscribed to the list.

Tips & Warnings

• If you reply to a message sent through the mailing list, you will also send out an email reply to the entire list.

• If you send a message successfully to the list, you will usually get a copy of it in your inbox as well.

• Remember that your email will be posted to everyone on the mailing list. This may include people of all ages, even children. It's best to shape the content of your message for general audiences.

• Please be respectful and not send spam or unwanted email attachments to the members of the mailing list.

References

• Living Internet: Mailing List Use - Sending
• The Document Academy: How to use the mailinglist

Resources

• Google Groups
• Yahoo! Groups
• Topica