MAILING LISTS

A mailing list program helps to collect emails of subscribers via a opt-in box, informs you when someone sign up, helps you to send out your newsletter to everyone on your list and lets you manage your subscriber database. You may also key in your existing subscribers to their database or import your list from any existing database.

You may send out your newsletter directly from your email program residing in your computer as oppose to sending it out from the mailing list server. However, if you do that, you won't have automatic email collection via opt-in box as well as when your subscriber base becomes too big, it takes a long time to send your newsletter to everyone.

Your mailing list program simplifies all that for you. You only need to upload one copy of your newsletter of the mailing list server and specify when to send. You may also customize your newsletter by inserting names of subscribers as provided to you during the opt-in. The mechanics of doing so may differ between different programs and you will need to refer to the manual / documentations. Mailing list programs also allow you to archive your older issues.

In many aspects, the mailing list program is very similar to an autoresponder except that the mailing list doesn't have repetitive mail outs based on preset time. If you are collecting your database from autoresponders, you can instead use the autoresponder to send out any announcements / messages. Most autoresponder programs have a separate manual section called the mailing list which allows you to import selected subscribers or all subscribers from the autoresponder database.

Below are some mailing list programs. Some are free and in most cases are limited and restricted versions of the full pro version. The restricted version has limitations such as unable to import database, plain text instead of html version, inclusion of advertisements and many more. You will need to decide if the free version is good enough for you. Otherwise you may upgrade for a fee. Go to the sites below to give yourself a feel on the features of the different program :

#1 Your Mailing List Provider

#2 Get Response

#3 Listbot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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