Blue_Fin - 11:56 pm on Dec 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

I rather doubt there will be any negative effect, but if you are not getting a full complement of ads in whichever ad format you are using and/or you are getting a very low EPC, then that could play a factor, but it's more likely something else. That said, I don't think it's necessary to have the words "free" or "no cost" anyway. It's generally known that email newsletters are free anyway.

We published a newsletter and had a signup link on our site until last month when we discontinued our newsletter. We didn't have the word free, but we had plenty of signups and it had no impact on our AdSense ads.