Tips For Mailing Your Visitors

One thing a lot of new webmasters (and many experienced ones) want to know is what is the best way to send e-mail messages to your website visitors?  Well, you basically have three options.  You can:

1. Use your e-mail client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc) to manually send e-mails to your visitors.
2. Use a script to automate the process and send the messages directly from your website’s server.  And. . .
3. Use a paid service.

Let’s take a look at each option so you can decide which one is best for you.

Option 1 – Using Your E-Mail Client: This option may be OK if you are e-mailing a small group of people (say less than 50).  Once you are sending out messages to more people than that, it gets to be a real headache.  First off, you have to manage subsciptions manually and make sure that you remove people promptly when they unsubscribe – unless you want to be in violation of numerous laws.

Secondly, you are likely to run into trouble with your ISP (Internet Service Provider).  Most ISPs limit the number of people you can send a message to.  This limit is usually around 50 recipients, but you should check with your ISP to make sure. 

Thirdly, this process can take a long time to complete, depending on the number of recipients you have. 

Additionally, if anyone reports you to your ISP for spamming (sending unsolicited commercial e-mail), whether you are or not, you could find yourself blocked out of your ISP.  Ouch!  That’s not a good thing.

So, I would say that this might be a good option if you are running a small, personal site and you are only writing to 25-50 people at a time.  I certainly would not recommend using this for business.

Option 2 – Using A Script On Your Website’s Server:  This is a better option to be sure.  Many webhosting providers offer some great scripts preinstalled, such as PHPList for example.  These scripts automate subscriptions and removal requests and send the messages.  Whether this is a good option depends, in large part, on your hosting provider.  Like most ISPs, many hosting providers put a cap on the number of recipients you can send an e-mail message to at one time.  This is to avoid spam complaints.  As with ISPs, webhosts may also terminate your service if you receive such complaints.

An additional downside to this is that most of these scripts are somewhat difficult to configure, even the pre-installed ones.  If you don’t get the settings just right, your messages may not go anywhere, or, if they do, they may not look as you intended. 

Even if you find a script that is easy to use and your ISP has a pretty good cap on recipients, you have to ask if the system has room to grow.  Again, this isn’t so important if you have a small list for a personal site and know that it will never grow very big.  On the other hand, if you are using your site for business, this is a very big concern.  What happens when you get 10,000 subscribers or more?  Well, a list that size uses up considerable resources.  In order to keep your site from dragging down the performance of other sites that share the same server, your webhost may require that you move to a dedicated server.  This will greatly increase your hosting bill (possibly by 1,000% or more).  That smarts. 

Even with all the negatives, this may still be a good option if you’re:

• …running a large site that is making good money so that the increased hosting fees don’t hurt too bad.
• …a techy type who likes to tinker with software and wants to have total control over the process.

For most of us, the best solution is going to be number 3.

Option 3 – Using A Third-Party Service:  This is the option that I highly recommend for people running business sites, especially those who either have large lists, or aspire to someday.  The reasons are quite simple:

1. The software is already set up.
2. Your list is managed by professionals.
3. Each subscription request is recorded (including IP address).  This comes in handy if you have to fight spam charges.
4. The subscription management process is totally automated.  You don’t have to manually add or remove subscribers.
5. You won’t get in trouble with your ISP or webhost for sending out too many e-mails. 
6. Your e-mails will look more professional because most services offer very professional templates that you can use.
7. You get the option of sending plain text messages (which work with most ISPs, but are not too pretty on the eyes) or HTML messages (which look like mini websites) or a combination of both.
8. Most services allow you to have multiple lists at no extra charge.

This is the option that I have used for sometime.  If you are running a business site (or even a large personal one), this is the option that makes the most sense.  Once you decide that this is what you want to do, you then have to find a good service.  Here’s where you want to be careful.  If you choose a fly-by-night operation, and they fail, you lose all of your subscribers, or, at the very least, you’ll have to contact them and ask them to re-confirm when you move your list somewhere else.  People really hate that.

You also need to watch out for services that overprice their service.  There are companies out there charging $100 per month or more for “e-mail marketing.”  That’s just “name brand crazy.”  I wouldn’t suggest paying anywhere near that for the service.  In fact, I think $20 per month is usually too high.

For stability, service and price, I recommend two services: AWeber and GetResponse.  I’ve used both over the years and have found them both to be excellent.  When I first started creating e-mail newsletters and lists (several years ago), I used AWeber and I found them to be great and full-featured and they still are.  Then, one day, a friend suggested I try GetResponse using their free option and I did.  I really liked it.  It had many of the same features that AWeber offered, plus a few additional ones and the paid version was a little less expensive than Aweber.  So, over time, I made the switch and we’ve been with GetResponse ever since.  That doesn’t mean that you have to use GR. 

Both services offer a great value for the money.  What I suggest you do is visit each site, look at their features and costs and decide which service works best for you, your site and your business (if you have one.)

Click here to check out GetResponse.
Click here to check out Aweber.

Happy e-mailing.

Tim

BTW,  Aweber offers a free “test drive” of their service.  As for GetResponse, they offer free acounts (with some limited features) so you can test their service as well.  I’ve included sign up boxes below if you would like to sign up for one course or the other (or both).  Enjoy.

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