I finally got my automatic responder (AKA autoresponder) for my sites a few weeks ago. I've seen numerous reviews from online marketers. I ended up reviewing 3 companies, and they happen to be the most popular ones in the industry.
Usage:Autoresponders are used to automatically reply to requests (ie. newsletters subscriptions, forums messages, etc.)
It took me a while to buy into the whole idea. In the past, I set up a simple PHP or cgi script in my websites, and sent the responses directly to my email. That was fine when I only had a few dozen subscribers. It later became a hassle as more people came on board.
Another problem I faced was SPAM filters. The free email accounts like Yahoo and Hotmail sent my email directly to the bulk mail. I thought that I would be doomed forever.
Another issue I faced was using scripted Autoresponders on a Windows web server(IIS). My hosting service did not allow SMTP (outgoing mail) access. I could understand that, especially with the high levels of spamming and abuse.
A year ago, I read Yanik Silver's 33 Days To Online Profits. He talked about autoresponders and using them to automate business online. At that time, I thought it was a good idea, but I didn't do anything about it. Not until recently did I feel the pains of taking care of the mailing lists myself.
With an Autoresponder, you could preload your messages. Let's say you were going to take a trip to Hawaii for 3 months. You could preload weekly newsletters and schedule them to be sent at certain intervals. Even if you took a vacation for 2 years, you could use the same strategy. Even though things are pre-programmed, it's highly transparent to the reader. You could even set up automatic responses. There has to be some human intervention if your responses could not answer the questions properly.
As some of you know, I read Rosalind Gardner's book and went through Corey Rudhl's course recently. Both of them really pressed on list building. It made sense. People who go into your site initially may not purchase anything.
By building a list, you can keep contact and build the relationship further. As time progresses, the viewer will more likely think about the site they had recent contact (or the most contact) from. When your site comes to mine, your chances of making a sale have increased.
So I first started with an autoresponder called Sendfree. I remember talking to Bob Leduc, a very popular offline marketer, a year ago. He raved about his Sendfree responder.
For simplicity, I consider Sendfree the best. They allow you to send 30,000 reponses a month with no daily limit. It was really easy to set up the system and their wasn't much clutter. That's the benefit of simplicity.
The next one is Aweber.com. They're the most popular autoresponder out there. Many of the popular marketing gurus use their service. They have plenty of advanced features as well. I ended up not using them. If you have a list over 30,000, I could see the huge benefit. Each additional 10,000 subscribers costs an additional $9.95/mo.
I think any average marketer with 30,000 suscribers is making good money. Once I get up to the upper realms of readers, I'll probably switch over to them.
The last one I reviewed was GetResponse. They have a lot of advanced features. One of the things I integrated was receiving messages via RSS through an autoresponder.
GetResponse has so many features that it could be quite overwhelming. I know some basics, but still, I'm still overwhelmed.
The benefits of GetResponse is that they have some of the great features of Aweber and they don't charge additional amounts for a high level of subscribers. This sounds great and it's the reason why I'm using GetResponse. If you're above the 30,000 subscriber level or timing is a critical issue (they have a 1000 message limit/day per autoresponder), you're better off going to Aweber or selecting GetResponse dedicated servers. Updated 3/11/06: I heard that this might have changed recently, please check out GetResponse's current pricing.
With Aweber and GetResponse, you get a significant savings if you pay annually versus monthly.
Usage:Autoresponders are used to automatically reply to requests (ie. newsletters subscriptions, forums messages, etc.)
It took me a while to buy into the whole idea. In the past, I set up a simple PHP or cgi script in my websites, and sent the responses directly to my email. That was fine when I only had a few dozen subscribers. It later became a hassle as more people came on board.
Another problem I faced was SPAM filters. The free email accounts like Yahoo and Hotmail sent my email directly to the bulk mail. I thought that I would be doomed forever.
Another issue I faced was using scripted Autoresponders on a Windows web server(IIS). My hosting service did not allow SMTP (outgoing mail) access. I could understand that, especially with the high levels of spamming and abuse.
A year ago, I read Yanik Silver's 33 Days To Online Profits. He talked about autoresponders and using them to automate business online. At that time, I thought it was a good idea, but I didn't do anything about it. Not until recently did I feel the pains of taking care of the mailing lists myself.
With an Autoresponder, you could preload your messages. Let's say you were going to take a trip to Hawaii for 3 months. You could preload weekly newsletters and schedule them to be sent at certain intervals. Even if you took a vacation for 2 years, you could use the same strategy. Even though things are pre-programmed, it's highly transparent to the reader. You could even set up automatic responses. There has to be some human intervention if your responses could not answer the questions properly.
As some of you know, I read Rosalind Gardner's book and went through Corey Rudhl's course recently. Both of them really pressed on list building. It made sense. People who go into your site initially may not purchase anything.
By building a list, you can keep contact and build the relationship further. As time progresses, the viewer will more likely think about the site they had recent contact (or the most contact) from. When your site comes to mine, your chances of making a sale have increased.
So I first started with an autoresponder called Sendfree. I remember talking to Bob Leduc, a very popular offline marketer, a year ago. He raved about his Sendfree responder.
For simplicity, I consider Sendfree the best. They allow you to send 30,000 reponses a month with no daily limit. It was really easy to set up the system and their wasn't much clutter. That's the benefit of simplicity.
The next one is Aweber.com. They're the most popular autoresponder out there. Many of the popular marketing gurus use their service. They have plenty of advanced features as well. I ended up not using them. If you have a list over 30,000, I could see the huge benefit. Each additional 10,000 subscribers costs an additional $9.95/mo.
I think any average marketer with 30,000 suscribers is making good money. Once I get up to the upper realms of readers, I'll probably switch over to them.
The last one I reviewed was GetResponse. They have a lot of advanced features. One of the things I integrated was receiving messages via RSS through an autoresponder.
GetResponse has so many features that it could be quite overwhelming. I know some basics, but still, I'm still overwhelmed.
The benefits of GetResponse is that they have some of the great features of Aweber and they don't charge additional amounts for a high level of subscribers. This sounds great and it's the reason why I'm using GetResponse. If you're above the 30,000 subscriber level or timing is a critical issue (they have a 1000 message limit/day per autoresponder), you're better off going to Aweber or selecting GetResponse dedicated servers. Updated 3/11/06: I heard that this might have changed recently, please check out GetResponse's current pricing.
With Aweber and GetResponse, you get a significant savings if you pay annually versus monthly.
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