Well, bear with me and I will tell you a twisted tale of virtual intrigue about autoresponders (and if that doesn't work, I'll see if I can get hold of those hoe-handle projections).
There are basically three ways in which you can send out regular emails to your people:
- From your own computer
- Via an autoresponder service installed on somebody else's server.
- Via an autoresponder service that's hosted on your own server.
Doing it all from your own computer is the most obvious way of doing a mailout. It's also the most laborious, and once you've got a significant number of subscribers on your mailing list, it becomes virtually impossible to keep it all organised without some dedicated software to help.
There is some sophisticated software available that will turn your PC into a fully-fledged sequential autoresponder (such as Cory Rudl's 'Mailloop'). Nowadays though this is not considered an ideal approach, largely because it means tying up your PC 24/7 as a dedicated mail server.
The more popular approach nowadays is to use an autoresponder service hosted on some remote server. There are any number of such services currently available on the Web, and many of them can be used free of charge.
In exchange for the free service though, you generally have to put up with a little add at the bottom of every email you send out. Add-free services can cost anywhere from between $5 and $35 per month. I have tried a number of these services over the years. Getresponse and Aweber would be two of the most reputable and relatively economical.
One problem with some of the cheaper 'remote server' options is that you can end up with an autoresponder email address that bears no relation to your product or domain-name.
When you receive an email from me, the 'from' field should read 'Rev. David B. Smith' and the sender's email address should read 'dave@fatherdave.org'. If I were using 'Joe's Discount Autoresponder service', you might be receiving your emails from 'dave@joesautoresponder.com' or something similar.
This is particularly significant if you've got a domain name that you're working hard to brand into the minds of your subscribers. Not all of the online autoresponder services have this limitation, but it's worth checking this out before signing up with anyone.
The other problem you've got with using an autoresponder on somebody else's server is that you're dependent upon their servers to be working all the time in order for you do be able to do your work.
Everybody's server goes down at some time or another. It's frustrating when your own site's server goes down, but once you've integrated your site with an autoresponder service hosted on another server, you are dependent upon both servers being up and running all the time! This doubles any downtime problem, and was once a constant headache for me. Of course, with the more expensive autoresponder services, this is less likely to be problem, but the more costly the monthly autoresponder service, the cheaper it becomes to host your own!
Let me cut to the chase. If you have your own web space, consider installing your autoresponder scripts on your own server. I installed Add2it's AutoRespond Pro and Add2it Mailman Pro some years ago now for only a couple of hundred dollars, and I have never looked back. I recommend Add2it to everybody. Why?
- Because it is more flexible than any of the online autoresponders I've seen
- Because I no longer pay any monthly fees for an autoresponder service
- Because Frank Bauer, the author, is the most committed after-sales tech support person I have ever met.
Don't underestimate the importance of the after-sales support service, particularly if you're a non-programmer. Frank has a live chat facility that he uses to solve any technical issues you might have with his system. I used this a lot initially, while I got used to the system, and he never charged a cent for his time!
Anyway, let's summarise the pro's and cons of the different options again:
