Email Marketing - Your thoughts please

Hi all it's been a while since I wrote a blog so I thought it was about time I did so and what better time to do it now, when I am considering the next step for my website. I am considering setting up a subscription form to build an email list and using an incentive to do so.

I briefly chatted to Kyle about it and he said I wouldn't need to start thinking about it until I hit about 100 organic visitors daily but I my thoughts on email marketing is that it will generate return traffic regardless and therefore build site trust in the eyes of google so I am looking at getting the wheels rolling on it at least. I have a few questions for everyone and will order them and number them to make life easier.

1. I am a gaming product niche so I am considering writing a small PDF as a freebie/incentive discussing proven set ups to help people set up a gaming room or gaming area, catering for maximum performance as well as considering portability or space available and recommending certain product types for certain situations. As well as that I was considering a monthly newsletter. Some feedback on this idea would be appreciated.
2. What programs does everyone use as a list builder and auto responder? I have heard of mailchimp and listwire however I am a tad skeptical of listwire. Kyle has recommended Aweber and Getresponse but I am completely new to all this, I am also not making money yet so would prefer a free one if possible to get the features that would be required.
3. Is any time a bad time to set up a subscription form? I know my traffic isn't the best but I figure if I am capturing at least a few people every so often its gotta be better than nothing right?

From what I have read so far, email marketing seems to be something that I really need to master and I know from being on the consumer end that it does work as I subscribe to local electronic stores and buy from them from time to time.

My biggest difficulty I suppose is learning new things. Every time I feel I need to further myself I go back to writing content and posting a new page because its easier (lol) but I know as much as more content is great, I need to push forward and learn other aspects to help my website.

Thanks everyone in advance, some feedback would be greatly appreciated.