E-mail newsletters have become a standard communcation tool. There’s hardly a business Web site that doesn’t offer opt-in capabilities for everything from site updates to earnings announcements. Thanks to spammers, though, a hefty portion of your target audience may be turning its back on the opportunity to subscribe.

According to a study from Relemail seven out of eight people believe subscribing to an opt-in e-mail list will result in more spam. And 83% have said they avoid subscribing to a list when they don’t trust the publisher, while 78% said they just don’t always believe a company’s official privacy statement.

While 91% of the study respondents said they are more likely to do business with an organization that adheres to ethical e-mail practices and respects their privacy, it will be increasingly difficult for people to determine which organizations fit that bill. Subscribing to an RSS feed, on the other hand, eliminates the potential for spam and privacy abuse. RSS doesn’t provide communicators with the kinds of metrics you get with e-mail list programs, there are[/url] ways to measure its effectiveness. But being able to measure a channel whose star is fading is a waste of time in any case. Move those lists to RSS.