Any suggestions on how to affordably clean a large Email list to make sure all emails are valid and will not bounce back?
Out there there are software programs now that you can find and use to clean your list, though due to things as network connectivity issues, server load, and just the software not covering all the bases necessary to produce clean results this might not be a way to go.
Is your list in an auto-responder? if not, i strongly suggest you import your list into an auto-responder and send a newsletter. The auto-responder will automatically remove emails that bounced and you will be able to see who opened your email and who didn't respond. There after, you can delete those contacts/emails that are not responsive.
Another variant of this would be to include a tracking pixel in your email, this way you could see which email is active, I would give it a week, then remove the emails that did not view the email you sent.
An autoresponder is pretty much just a way to manage your email list on the web, you sign up for it, creates a mailing list, And you get an html form that you place on your website, when the user signs up they will receive an email telling them to confirm their subscription, after than you can create brodcasts(emails to be sent out to your list). That is pretty much what an autoresponder is. I recommend either AWeber or Mailchimp. Here are some tutorials for AWeber http://www.aweber.com/blog/videos
It is a online platform that helps you to manage your email list and set emails to send out to your list at your designated time. But the most useful thing about it is that it helps you to collect and store all your leads from your website as well. Aweber, getresponse, both are fine.
To clean your list: Click on the Contacts menu. Click on the list name you want to clean. You can find the Clean List link in the top right hand box titled "Contact List Activities". click on clean list In the next screen, you need to select which contacts you wish to clean out. Click Submit
As already said.... Get an autoresponder asap! Its the best way to clean up your email list on a regular basis.... You said that its 2 years old list. So were you being active with your subscribers or its a dormant one?! Becoz 2 years is a pretty long time. If you didn't nurture your list well, the probability is that they won't respond to you anymore & the worst is they will just mark your emails as spam, as they won't remember you. The best way is to offer your whole list a good valuable freebie and ask them to sign up to your new autoresponder list. Make sure you do not pitch them in this few few emails. Just give them some awesome value and try to re-connect with them. If you have a blog or something like that, make them visit your site. Having your picture or a short video by you will do good in building the connection. Let them know that you will be deleting those emails who don't respond to this & let them know what they are going to lose if they get out of your list. This would automatically get those active subscribers back into your fresh list. But first, get an autoresponder! Aweber is a decent one. You probably will also get a 1 month trial with them. Hope that help!