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Written by Tom Connelly
March 17, 2006 Hello All,
I'm the organising secretary of a UK society (British Society of Clinical Hypnosis) and as such have been sending out short email bulletins to members. It usually amounts to about 700 emails per month.
I used a piece of software called 'Worldcast' to do this and this has worked well for a year or so. However, my ISP has now put a restriction on the email server which stops me from using this software. It's a pity and I can understand the action they are taking - spam is a serious problem (having been on the net for some years with an email fixed by the society I regularly get 7 spam emails for every wanted email) but all my emails are very much wanted by members and I need to find a way to send them.
Can anyone suggest a possible solution to this?
I know there are some services that allow newsletters to be sent from the web browser but these do not seem to fit the bill. This is because they work on a 'subscribe to email' system but I need to be able to upload a list of emails, the content of which may change slightly each month as members enter and leave the society.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Tom Connelly
bsch.org.uk
Written by Val Waldeck March 20, 2006
Take a look at Yahoo Groups. People do have to subscribe, although you are allowed to add ten per day, but this is a great service and so easy to operate.
Val Waldeck
valwaldeck.com
Written by Donald Nelson March 20, 2006 Dear All,
Tom Connelly's problem in sending email to a list of 700 members is
probably shared by many. Many ISPs and even the hosting companies where
your site is located do not allow mass mailings, even modest ones. I
found this out the hard way when I learned that my host does not allow
more than 200 emails to be sent per hour from mailing scripts installed
on my site.
An expensive way around this is to host your mailing list with a company such as AWeber. If you are doing serious marketing work, then this is a good alternative.
However if you just have a small list like Tom's then a solution
is to install inexpensive software that lets you bypass your ISP's SMTP
server. One such software is sold by softfolder.com, their Easy SMTP Server script allows you to send out an unlimited
number of emails (using programs installed on your computer, such as
Worldcast or even Outlook Express).
I would also like to hear about other inexpensive solutions to this common problem.
Sincerely,
Donald Nelson
a1-optimization.com
Written by Chris Allen March 20, 2006
Tom:
We use Streamsend for our occasional emails to customers.
Once, many moons ago, in a classic rookie maneuver, we used a mass
mailing on our own domain's email server to send about 300 holiday
greeting emails to our customers. Boy did we pay for that! We spent
the next week or so (during heavy holiday sales season) recovering from
being labeled a spammer by the AOL's and Earthlinks of the world. We
couldn't even do basic emailing to customers, suppliers, etc. We
finally had to abandon our email server for another before we could get
basic functionality back. Ouch!
After steering clear of mass emails for a while, we decided to try
Streamsend to do the sending for us. It has been a good experience.
It's web based, and has some neat features, including the ability to
upload emails, manage HTML email templates, and let recipients
self-manage opt-outs, etc.
It's not free, but the features make it convenient and it might fit the bill for your newsletter. Good luck!
Chris Allen
gentlemansemporium.com
Written by Anthony Kirlew March 21, 2006
Constant Contact is a very effective managed email marketing tool that does not cause any ISP conflict because they own the servers and you are not sending emails using your ISP. They offer a free 60 day trial and then prices start at $15.00 per month for up to 500 names and allow you to increase your level of service as your list size increases. I don't think there is a limit on how many emails they will send, and also they have the tools in place to make sure you are CAN SPAM compliant.
Best,
Anthony Kirlew
Web Traffic Team
Written by Rick Gortatowsky March 21, 2006 Hi Tom,
Quite a bit of bulk mailing software ends up using your ISP's mail
server. What you want is a bulk mailer that has a built in SMTP server.
A excellent and very easy mailer that accomplishes just what you want
is called AutoMailer. It's free to use for like 50 emails at a time or less. I would suggest purchasing the full edition, its very affordable.
Automailer allows you to use your ISP's, Website(s) or internal SMTP
server. It will send both HTML and/or Text email. It uses a extremely
simple .CSV file to setup the mailing list so you can use any
spreadsheet software, a text editor, database etc. to do this.
Rick Gortatowsky
Written by Martha Retallick March 22, 2006
Permit me to recommend Campaign Monitor.
You can use it to send anything from plain-Jane text e-mails to those
fancy HTML e-mails. Count me as a happy Campaign Monitor customer.
Martha Retallick
Western Sky CommunicationsComments (0)
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