newsletter software

Status
Not open for further replies.
byronyasgur

byronyasgur

New Member
i have a part time project which uses an email list ( currently around 300 ) ... before i used to just send out a basic email with a couple of images in it but the latest one i did in a newsletter style and built a template in thunderbird .. however i got into huge difficulties ( i wont bore you with all the details) and i am now under the impression that what i need is mailing list software. Any ideas or guidance appreciated. (i know someone will say that i need to just go and research this myself but i would really appreciate any help and i just thought that people on this list would have plenty of experience with all this - i have already spent may hours longer than i thought i would have to and the mail was suppoed to be sent yesterday)

here's what i need ( and i know this is possibly a tall order but if it out there great and if it's not then obviously i will have to compromise somewhere )


  • it has to be 100% freeware - (that's free not cheap thanks -there is zero money available unless it's the world on a string for a fiver or something )
  • this is the most important - it needs to be capable of importing and exporting lists, preferably csv but i'd settle for anything
  • the software needs to be able to handle "dead" email addresses without dieing itself ( thunderbird seems to be not able to manage this - it errored out on some slightly non descript error for one of the emails on the list and didnt tell me whether it had sent the mail to the others on the list - i need to know what's been sent, what errored out and why etc.
  • i need something that will allow me to build an email in it ( ie table layout with images etc ) wysiwyg is great but if there was an editor as well then that would be too good to be true
  • needs to be reasonable at cross client formatting so that people who use gmail, outlook, yahoo etc will all see roughly the same thing ( thunderbird was a little bit hairy on this front i think )
  • it would be great if there was some kind of way of managing unsubscribes
thanks

ps finally i may well be missing some important point so please feel free to point it out to me

in case anyone wonders why i am going the desktop software route i have found that thunderbird despite how much i love it does not work that well, online systems are limited to 500 and 1000 users and though our list is only 300 we really hope to grow it and i dont want to have to move, or get people to resubscribe to another system. I did think of using a mailing list on a wordpress installation but im not convinced that it's the best way to do it either
 
byronyasgur

byronyasgur

New Member
thanks - i will try those out - but they both look like they run on the server - was thinking i needed something running on my local machine ( mainly for ease of install i suppose - but i'll try them out anyway- thanks )
 
mneylon

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
byronyasgur said:
thanks - i will try those out - but they both look like they run on the server - was thinking i needed something running on my local machine ( mainly for ease of install i suppose - but i'll try them out anyway- thanks )
Click to expand...
You said you didn't want to pay anything, so you limited me a wee bit in my choices :)
 
byronyasgur

byronyasgur

New Member
i know thanks :eek:
i suppose i just assumed there'd be a ton of freeware desktop apps out there or something - have installed phplist anyway - looks like on server is the way to go too - thanks again -
 
byronyasgur

byronyasgur

New Member
ended up doing a u turn and went with mailchimp - ( phplist looks powerful but there were a lot of settings in there and i didnt like the default template ) -- mailchimp is excellent but i still have the problem that my (for free) list is limited to 500 but they have a pay as you go plan which might work for me when i get to that level as hopefully there'll be a bit more budget then and i dont send out mails that often

thanks for help everybody
 
U

UTD Web

New Member
looks like 50/50 between dada and phpmail...

anyone with a decisive vote???

I too am looking for a decent system that I can integrate with an existing database if possible...

any and all advice appreciated.
 
byronyasgur

byronyasgur

New Member
yea - i really do like mailchimp but after 500 users, 30 per month is a bit steep for me....i think i'll just cheat and use it up to 500 and then bite the bullet and sort out a server based system which i'd say is the best in the long rung

... i think the advantage with mailchimp is supposed to be that you DONT get your email address blacklisted, whereas this apparantly CAN happen when you do it on your own server - but to be honest im a bit confused i'm a bit of a greenhorn here but i cant see how you could protect from being blacklisted either way - any ideas anyone ?
 
Forbairt

Forbairt

Teaching / Designing / Developing
up to 500 users free ...

500 - 1000 users $30 per month (unlimited emails) ... BUT ...

if you're only sending one email a month ... thrown $100 quid into the account as a pay as you go and only get charged per email sent ... makes "cents" .. to a certain point :p

get charged $0.02 per email ... thrown $250 in get charged 0.01 (12 months x 30 = $360) ... and the credit rolls over per month so ...

1000 emails a month = 10 quid or $120 a year

However if you've got that many people signed up to the newsletter and its not giving any return ... then you're doing something wrong
 
K

Kieran

Guest
I second mailchimp and what forbairt has just said. It is very powerful handles bounces, gives good reports and is customisable.

I dont actually use it to make money but for communications for some club news letters and for another group that I am involved in for managing communications.

However when I 'write' my ebook on How To <insert best selling topic> I will bombard the world through e-mail and eventually some fool will buy it for the last minute price of $69
 
D

developsb

New Member
mailchimp

Hi byronyasgur,

(and hello to there rest of the forum :))

So ho is the mailchimp working out for you? I've used it twice so far for very simple newsletter and now i would like to start putting together more professionally looking one.

Do you have any suggestions what would work the best for me if my html skills are far behind my graphic skills :)
 
byronyasgur

byronyasgur

New Member
i thought it was great - but i've only sent out one newsletter so far with it - i dont remember the process of building the mail exactly ( but that's probably a good thing ;) ).... i think they had a good selection of templates ..... they have a very good system for tracking/stats etc ..... only real problem is that you have to start paying when you reach 500 contacts and it starts to 30 p.m which is a slightly steep ( some of the others let you pay a good bit less for the first band) .... but then most dont allow you to have 500 for free ... also they (MC) have a pay as you go option

overall i think they're really good - very friendly website and lots of video tutorials i think from memory ... i'm staying
 
D

developsb

New Member
Thanks for the reply.
Yeah, i think the tracking/statistics options are amazing! but finally i wanted to releases nice looking newsletter rather than just plain text as i did so far :confused:
 
J

jimsmithusa1

New Member
about newsletter software

Omnistar Email Marketing Software is one of the most popular web-based newsletter software packages available. It is entirely web-based and includes features such as autorespondors, built-in customer surveys, split testing, segmenting via their target list manager functionality, advanced triggering options, and private labeling. This package boasts approximately 30 features that will assist you in making your email campaigns effective. This is one of the most cost-effective packages as well.
-
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top