If you're looking for just a pure autoresponder, look no further than Aweber. If some of the other bells and whistles offered by GV take your fancy, and you're willing to accept some kind of trade-off, give GVO a whirl.
mailchimp is a great newsletter client, and their free account actually allows you to carry a 2k member list.
I have always used Aweber and do not have a problem. They are certainly not the cheapest but they are the best. If you are using Aweber make sure that you delete all your unsubscribes because you will get charged if you don't.
Yes, bettaone and axxil - For day-to-day emailing I don't think Aweber can be beaten. In fact, I was just checking around for reviews of another product (Premium Web Cart) and one of the posters there with huge experience said that Aweber's deliverability could not be beaten. (This is something a lot of people overlook – not just how easy a system is to use, but how many emails actually get through. For example, another system mentioned in this other post got zero deliverability for .) Anyway, if it's deliverability you are looking at then Aweber is the one to go for, I hear repeated over and over again. However, if your needs are for more sophisticated mailing – I don't mean to be rude here, it's just that so few marketers investigate "segmentation" – then there are really only two options: Infusionsoft (complex, expensive) or OfficeAutopilot (easy to use, pricier than Aweber but a lot cheaper than Infusionsoft). Malc
Oh wow Malc, you found the system I was looking for, so thank you. I think I talked to these guys several years back & never had their URL. When I went to look b/c I wanted to switch from 1SC, they didn't come up in the SE (their SEO has always been terrible), so thank you for that. Did people say their mail wasn't being delivered? As for Aweber, I used to be with them & while yes, they are top of the line, the one thing they refused to fix that I asked to be fixed (repeatedly) was how the e-mail looks when someone new subscribes to your list. They allow for code or whatever it is in the e-mail, the fields are also duplicated twice (I think) & the fields aren't bolded, so it's VERY VERY hard for me to read. When someone signs up, I skim the e-mail to see where they are from. With 1SC (who I'm STILL using now unfortunately), their e-mails are perfect. Very easy for me to skim within 3 seconds. With Aweber's, I have literally had to study the e-mail just to make out the data I'm looking for. Things should be made easy, not difficult. I take it the reason others don't complain is they don't read these e-mails like I do. I have some extra questions in my signups, while most list managers don't. Again, I asked them to fix it like 6-7 years ago, then again, then again & they just have no intentions of doing that. So I quit them. I also find their system complicated when setting up a new list, but that could also be b/c I didn't use it as much as 1SC's. Sad, as I did want to stay with them & yes, they are very expensive if you have tons of lists which I do. Michelle
Michelle - you mean you like Office Autopilot? Yes, you will get a lot more flexibility with how you can edit their emails, and hopefully they will do what you want with the extra fields and readability. Yeah, AW are a big corporation that you feel are pretty rigid. They keep updating the product but not necessarily in the way you want! Malc
What's Office Autopilot? LOL I was talking about Premium Web Cart. I didn't realize that AW was such a huge corporation. I hate it when they fix things that don't matter & don't fix anything I want. I had that problem with 1SC & now I hate them. I'm shocked they haven't been kicked to the curb already. The only reason I haven't left them, is lack of funds to make the move to Magento. It costs a lot to make a move when you've been with one all-in-one system for years. Their code is archaic, every step requires 2-3 clicks instead of 1. Even their ticket system is terrible. I can only pray that this year I'll be able to switch finally. The problem with moving to Magento has always been: 1. the AR system. It's too expensive to go with AW, so we figured out I would have to run my own list which is somewhat scary b/c of spam. 2. Magento doesn't have a recurring billing system & everyone wanted to charge me $400 to create the add-on the way I needed it. Such is life in the fast lane LOL Thanks Michelle
Gosh - you cover a lot of ground, Michelle! And you hate a lot of stuff! And now you are considering Magento - gosh, you'll hate them too! ROFL First: Premium Webcart. Well, I looked at that recently and ran a mile. And my pal was then looking at it and he ran a mile. Reason? Hastily developed, poor training, support questionable. Google it! Next - Magento: I am runing a site with 200 products on Actinic shopping cart. It's not pretty. Considering a move to Magento. Concerns: very flexible - IF you get the right people on it and are prepared to spend money. It's not cheap. Google that too, anyone ;-) 1SC is not going away any time soon. All the autoresponders and sales platforms are clunky and how they work changes rapidly. We just have to work with that! AW has a good deliverability rate and that is worth a lot. One thing you have to do with any AR system is prune your non-opens regularly. Just recently Hotmail is moving to spam emails from any source where there have been no opens for 4 months or more. So, prune your list regularly to keep your deliverability up, and don't use your own emailing system if you can acoid it.
Well my Vote will also go to Aweber,. I have been using it from last 1 year and i am really happy with them. Its Easy to use, you can create unlimited lists, huge library of templates.. and above all you can give it a try for only $1
Really? While I don't call their support often & like I said I don't like the fact that they refuse to change their e-mail setup, they always seemed polite to me, but now that I think about it, I did have to ask to speak to a manager once. What did they do to you? I assume it's happened more than once, as most people don't get angry about one small incident. Michelle
And you tell me I cover a lot of ground? LOL I think you beat me dear. Yes I heard about that feature you mentioned with OA, but does it work on ALL AR software? I know that I lose a lot of money b/c I don't know all the tricks of setting this up & that it's very time consuming. Right? Can be technical too I'm assuming. Thanks Malc Michelle
Yes, I hate everything - NOT. I just dislike things where people are only in it for the money, they don't care about quality & they run the same bloody setup or code that they started with back in the 90's or even 2000. That shows that they don't know what they are doing & don't care about their customers. If I were running companies like theirs, I would listen to my customers, but that's just me. I know they can't change everything, but these companies tend not to change ANYTHING. Or if they do, it's the cosmetics, not the machine that runs it which is the code & GUI. What amazes me, is that tons of these sites make millions (I assume) & they get away with it. CJ finally changed some things on their backend (or was it only the front end?) after years of me complaining b/c I couldn't log in using Fx. Oh & now their customer service is better whereas before they were arrogant & condescending. It's not that they don't have the money to get it fixed, it's that they are greedy. If these were small companies on a tight budget, okay, I could sympathize & understand, but they aren't. Thanks for the heads up on Premium WebCart. Yes I know it's a lot of hard work making the move to Magento, that's why I'm nervous about it. If you make the move, please let me know how it goes. You know what they did????? I'm soooo excited by this. They partnered with a digital signature company (sorry can't remember their name, but I did speak to them on the phone) & so now anyone who uses Magento (or that add-on), can get a signature from every customer so it will be an extra layer of protection from chargebacks & friendly fraud. See the problem is that I'm a visionary, so I am always thinking 10 steps ahead of the market & something like that should have been done years ago IMO. It's not like the net started yesterday. It's been what now? Almost 20 years since it was noticed in mainstream society back in '94? Longer if you were a Geek. But such is life, society is slow with many things unless we are talking high tech toys. They seem to be the only ones who are TOO fast. Aahh, but that's to get people to buy another version of the same product LOL Later Michelle
I like aweber, but I don't there's reason to compare the two... there' just the two best ones. If you have some particular needs say a feature you really need make sure they have it - but apart from that I see no reason to prolong your choice. Many successful business use aweber or the other so both are good
GVO is good for the autorespounder services. But I have reservations for the webhosting services. I have heard complains for the technical support.
Ha ha! They got you too. I remember that first time I charged $50 thinking I was going to be charged $30. I was sure I was going to call them and they were going to straighten up everything. I have both of them actually. Aweber is definitely the best autoresponder but GVO is good because they have so many features that come with paying just $10 a month.. Truthfully, if I hadn't built my business around Aweber, I would have started with GVO... Because they offer the best overall value for a little money. They both offer great education to teach you how to build a profitable online business Dennis "The Marketing menace"
There is no comparison ! I couldn't even find that GVO when I Goggled it ! It was on the second page for it's name. That should tell you a little something right there. Then look at the website 'My God" If the site looks that bad I could imagine how the user experience is ! Hey I could be wrong I never used it ! Just ranting ... AWeber is the undisputed best there is. Warning : When you start to get like 20,000 and more subscribers it could be a little pricey.
Michelle - I think the problem with many companies - big or small - is lack of good systems. For example, if you had a good system of managing customer feedback this would be arranged to feed back into the design team of your product/service. (Feed... back - see what I did there? ) And also big firms tend to have sloth built in. Magento - I think you need a team to manage this. So factor in building it, then maintenance. That's what I will do when I price up Magento vs staying with Actinic. Cheers for now!
Deliverability? In other words, how many of your emails actually hit an inbox? This is what AW focus on bigtime. And GR. And Office Autopilot. Infusionsoft? Maybe they are OK now - but (apart from being complex and expensive) in the past I heard reports of bad deliverability rates for them. Anyway, point is you need to factor in deliverability when you are assessing how good an autoresponder service is. When starting out, it's not so important because you only have 50-100-200-500 email addresses anyway. But when you are earning good money from emailing, cutting your deliverability down by 20% or whatever is a big chunk of change. I have not checked out who has tested GVO and come back with some figures but I'll bet they are not as good as AW or OA. Just an important factor to bear in mind as you scale. Malc