I am not sure what you'd call it. I have been searching hotscripts trying to find a program that will allow me to leverage my members email list.

I have been approached by some of my advertisers to buy my members email list. Now I haven't promised that I wouldn't to my members but my better ethics says I shouldn't. But on the other hand If i had control of what is being sent to my members and they have a way to opt-out and I can generally protect my members from spam abuse. I would like to get a piece of the action. Members gets products at a discount, advertiser gets a new customer, I get % for sales, residually...

What type of script should I be looking for? how would I best approach this task?

If there is something out there how could I hook it in to my members db to automatically hook em up - once they are in this other script it should be able to "manage" them from there?

Any suggestions.

Hmm, I don't know if I'd be selling my email list. It might be ok if only the intended party uses it, but who's to say who you sell it to won't sell it to someone else, and etc etc.

I would keep it under your 100% control if I were you. For instance, you can send mass emails to all of your members if you want, and the user hasn't opted out, correct?

If this is the case, how about you tell your advertisers that you can send out monthly newsletters, and they can buy space in each newsletter, advertising their product, service, etc.

This way, you are in complete control of your member's addresses, you are in complete control of the content in the e-mail, and by ensuring it comes from you, your users will likely not consider it spam.

Just my two cents.

That was my gut feeling too.

To do news letters I can find a Mail List software like phplist... but how would I be able to track revenue and get residiuals from purchases from advertising within?

And the other issue is the opt-out (most mail list have this feature...) perhaps the email will direct them to a web page and on the web page yet another script is running that manages the adverisers?

Just thinking out loud....

It depends on what you're selling and what kind of email you're sending out. If you're sending out an html email, you should be able to track click throughs and ad views.

Also, remember, simply using the threads admin email function will still allow users to unsubscribe to the admin emails.

I certainly would not sell my email list...EVER! Let them pay you to send out an email to your users, don't give them the list! If you do, you will lose a lot of members and you sold them out, so trust is gone as well! You should be representing their best interests.