While looking for a cheaper service like aweber... I came with the idea of build my own and offered to the public. do you guys think it may be a good business model? let me know your sugestions...
Hi Weput, Building your own autoresponder would be good if you ready to handle all the hustle your own i.e: installation, spam related issues, backing up your opt-in list, etc. There's quite number of paid and free autoresponder / newsletter management script out there. My suggestion is if you're tech type person then start your own, and only after you're mastering it, you could offered the service to public. Otherwise, aweber is good solution. GoodLuck!
I think xenergy has given you some good tips. I think it is a good model. Make sure that you can handle bounceback and spam, you monitor your user activity closely, and that you have a good software developer to create the application for you.
Wow thanks for your reply guys.. I apreciate it. yes I am a "tech person" after all... and I never said i'll offer the service to the public right away. I just tough it may be a good business model; but after all,.. I've been wrong before. I'll get my dashboard and start building my scripts. I think i'll do it in perl
Email marketing is not for the faint-of-heart. I have been selling and supporting an email-list management script (ListMailPRO) for about 5 years now. I have installed my software on dedicated servers, shared hosting, etc. On your own servers, complaints and delivery issues are a full time job. On shared servers, delivery can be off-and-on, depending on your actions and the actions of others on the same server. If you have little technical experience I would say forget selling an autoresponder service and recommend my script instead (earn 33%). Please see the ListMail forum, "Email Web Hosting" section if you are interested in a shared host with a fair email policy. Please let me know if you need any more advice on email solutions. Regards, DW
There are many "free " autoresponder services and scripts available online. The real challenge is getting your emails delivered. Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo routinely reject / delete mails they consider spam even before it reaches the subscribers inbox, and can slap your ip with a spam blacklisting. The tech part isn't the problem. It's the rest of it.
On 3 servers each running mailings for up to 10 clients per server with total mail load running under ~100k/day there are very few problems with delivery to AOL and HotMail. Yahoo, however, seems to have recently implemented a rate-limiting feature which restricts email to Yahoo to 10k-20k/day. This Yahoo feature can cause problems on servers with large lists and frequent mailings, because the mail queue builds up to abnormal proportions. Proper optimization of the mail server is required to prevent some known problems. I have not seen evidence about emails to people who have not complained being automatically deleted. The junk mail folder, however, can be difficult to get out of after just a few complaints. There can be periodic delays delivering to AOL and there are sure to be delays to Yahoo. Please tell me more about your experience. Whether on your own server or a shared one, a good system administrator who knows how to check the system logs for blocks and the mail queue for problems is a must. It's a good idea to subscribe to AOLs feedback loop at postmaster.aol.com and use a script to follow "remove links" in your opt-in mailings to remove complainants. Never, ever email a purchased or otherwise obtained list and always keep an eye on your signups to make sure someone isn't attempting to subscribe spamtrap or bogus/non-existent addresses that can ruin your server's reputation. Regards
well guys thanks for your tips and everything... this email marketing services is a complicated thing from what i can see there... how much do you guys think I must charge??\ what will be a fair price?