List of FBLs
Here is an updated list of feedback loops for the major players in the ISP space. This is catered more to the people who want to go through the process of setting up their own email marketing system. I might add this as a page on the actual site since it’s a rather important list. I do have a more detailed version of what to put on the form for each ISP etc. If you want that list email me and I’ll send it to ya.
Abuse.net
update@abuse.net
AOL FBL
http://postmaster.aol.com/cgi-bin/fbl.pl
Excite.com FBL – Myway.com FBL – iwon.com FBL
Excite has outsourced their web mail to bluetie.com
Hotmail / Windows Live JMRP
http://postmaster.live.com/Services.aspx#JMRPP
Road Runner FBL (SUSPENDED TILL: 2009 Q1)
http://security.rr.com/spam.htm#FBL
Yahoo!
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/postmaster/bulk.html
United ONLINE WHL
http://www.unitedonline.net/postmaster/whitelisted.html
USA.net
http://fbl.usa.net/
Comcast.net
http://feedback.comcast.net/
Earthlink.net
fblrequest@abuse.earthlink.net
AT&T
http://worldnet.att.net/general-info/block_admin.html
Verizon WHL
http://www2.verizon.net/micro/whitelist/request_form.asp?id=isp
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Choosing Newsletter Software
One of the biggest drawbacks in getting into email marketing is knowing what software is ideal for your solution. In affiliate marketing, I needed a platform that could deliver at a high rate of speed and could optimize high volume mailings. I decided the best route to go is setting up my own mailing system to cater to my needs. Deliverability was a huge issue because I had to setup all my antispam measures, whitelisting, and mail settings myself. To say the very least, it was a very difficult treading. However, the experience was a valuable lesson in the ins and outs of email marketing.
When I decided to start Austin Inbox, I wanted to see what my competition had to offer for their newsletter solutions. This was a huge part of my research into the market. I learned a tremendous amount of information about the industry which helped me decide on the features for our solution. While I am a little biased in terms of the solution to use, I believe ours will be the best!, I’ll give an unbiased review of the solutions I tested.
Constant Contact - Probably the most widely used solution out there. I really got to understand this software after helping setup this email marketing solution for a company I worked for at the beginning of the year. Pros: One of the cheapest around, access to unlimited mailings (pricing is based on # of contacts), very easy to use, well designed templates, they can customize just about anything for you, well defined community of users. Cons: Deliverability starts to be come an issue after growing your list based 5k, Doesn’t do a great job of helping you get the best ROI on your list, aggressive sales team will call alot during free trial period and after.
iContact - iContact is another popular newsletter choice for small businesses. They have advertising everywhere these days. I didn’t do much research on their support as i was able to accomplish everything I needed without their help. Pros: Many templates to choose from, cheap, handles higher volume great, great community, customizeable features, easy to use. Cons: Stock templates don’t have as clean of look as Constant Contact’s, small storage of files.
MyEmma - I had heard a little bit about these guys from SEO/PPC events I attended but had never looked into their product. Out of all the solutions I have used, MyEmma has the most helpful/friendly support. Pros: Outstanding support, cheap customized templates, optimized for great ROI on list. Cons: Pricing is based on number of emails sent, layout a bit girly for my tastes, not a big fan of stock templates, no free trial.
EliteMail - I wasn’t able to do huge volumes of testing with EliteMail. Their free trial, however, is great. Allow for up to 1,000 emails over a month and unlimited image hosting. I still need to do more testing to get a real accurate measure of this solution. here’s what i came up with. Pros: Low cost, unlimited image hosting, easy to use. Cons: Not a big fan of their stock templates, low cost but not if your doing many campaigns a bunch (pricing based on emails delivered).
MailChimp - MailChimp is one of the big up and commers in the industry. They do a great job of integrating their technology with other forms of online marketing to help grow your database of users. Also, in doing my research for my lastest presentation, I was able to pull valuable charts and graphs related to statistics in the email marketing industry for free. Pros: Pricing based on # of contacts, great custom features, helpful learning center, excellent to use in conjunction with blogs and other forms of online marketing. Cons: Stock Templates aren’t as clean as some of the other solutions out there, add-ons a bit pricey.
Bronto - Bronto was one of the more impressive email marketing solutions I tested for one reason, their stat tracking. Hands down the best statitsics reporting in the industry. They have so many features in place to really optimize your mailing experience to get the best ROI possible. The only thing holding Bronto back is their pricing. They are one of the more expensive solutions out there and sell themselves as a higher end email marketing solution. Pros: Reporting, superb customer support, great deliverability for higher volume. Cons: Expensive.
I left off a few other solutions because I ddin’t feel like I recieved an accurate portrayal of the product. I will probably update this list sometime down the road with more reviews. The great thing about the email newsletter solutions out there is that almost all of them have some sort of free trial or demo. I highly reccomend you take advanatge and test them out for yourself. What works for me might not necessarily be the best option for you. Along the way you’ll be able to educate yourself to make an intelligent decision.
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Austin Internet Marketing Presentation
Here is the powerpoint presentation for the talk I gave on developing newsletters. Thanks to everyone who made it out!
Filed under: Email Marketing Events, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Top 10 Spammers of All time
Someone on a forum I am part of posted this. The article is found here.
This list looks like something out of America’s Most Wanted. I’ve met two of these people on this list in person. These are the guys who have done some real crazy scammish forms of marketing. Two of the guys on here are dead while another 6 are in jail or about to be jailed. I know that this list is not complete because some of the bigger spammers haven’t been identified.
Enjoy, fascinating read
Filed under: Email news | 1 Comment »
All About Autoresponders
What are autoresponders?
Autoresponders in a nutshell are email responce programs. Any email sent to you that gets an automatic reply is an autoresponder. For example, when you send in a ticket for a support or sales inquiry to an ecommerce website, the bot that sends you an email saying that your ticket is recieved is an autoresponder. Pretty simple.
Other uses
- Auto reply when you subscribe to a newsletter
- Auto reply when you unsubscribe, confirming your opt-out
- Used as a FAQ when people write in questions
- Build campaigns and have them sent out automatically over time
Benefits
The benefits are endless, but the main one would be saving time. Developing a solid campign that can go out automatically without you having to monitor frees up your time to work on other marketing efforts. the questions and requests that cannot be anwsered via autoresponder can be anwsered by your reply. this weeds out alot of the common frequently asked questions.
How to setup
Most newsletter software systems, well ALL that i’ve seen, have a feature that allows you to setup an autoresponder. You can set up different autoresponders for replies and campaigns. I am going to talk about how to setup your autoresponder for email campaigns.
- Create a normal newsletter campaign - Develop your message as if you were going to deliver it now. Save as a draft or template.
- Develop additional campigns - After your finished with the first campaign, create the follow up messages you want your consumers to recieve and set them in equal intervals apart. For example if you have a 5 week program, set the autoresponder to send one campaign a week for 5 weeks. Refrence your calander to make sure you have the timing down right.
- Test and verify - Make sure that all your links work and content is to your liking. This is the most important step. A bad setup hurts your credability as a marketer
- Schedule and monitor ever so slighty - Are people clicking and opening your message? Monitor your statistics and make changes accordingly. Notice the trends.
Autoresponders are a great tool to use in conjunction with your email marketing plan. They ehance the quality of your newsletter and cut down on time for FAQ, support requests, and developing campaigns. If you aren’t using them already you should be!
Cheers and happy marketing.
Filed under: Inbox Truth | 1 Comment »
Tools to Enhance your E-Marketing Experience
Listed below are websites and online tools that I reccomend to go in conjunction with your email marketing experience.
- DNSSTUFF - Highly reccomended. Absolutly worth the $50 per year fee. Allows you to check everything from rdns records, spf, and aganist the top anti-spam sites on the internet. A life saver!
- Senderbase - Great for checking the volume you are mailing. Also can spy on other people to see how much they are sending daily/monthly/yearly
- MxToolBox - Awesome blacklist checker. Scans aganist all of the biggest anti-spam sites and the lesser ones as well. free to use
I use these three websites on a daily basis to make sure I am in complete compliance with everyone on the internet. Highly reccomended if you plan on dwelling into higher volume email marketing.
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Austin Internet Marketing Meetup
This is to all you fellow Austinites.
I’ll be talking about email marketing with focus on newsletters Wednesday Nov. 5th at 6PM at Spaghetti Warehouse on 4th ST.
Come join us for a wonderful event full of good conversation and food!
RSVP here: http://www.meetup.com/seo-austin/
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Innotech Conference in Austin
I must say that after attending the Innotech Conference out here in Austin I was quite impressed. Innotech is an annual event that dicusses the new technologies within the industry. There was a nice mix of small and large companies yet still maintained that local Austin feel that I have come to enjoy. The emarketing summit is the reason I attended the conference. The emarketing summit went over internet marketing strategies and changes within the industry.
I really enjoyed the Email Deliverability Secrets presented by Josh Baer of OtherInbox and Dennis Dayman of Eloqua. Both have a tremendous amount of experience in email marketing and it was very humbling learning from them. I imagine maybe a handul of people in the room had any idea on what they were talking about. For the novice email marketer it would have definately be tough to comprehend the value of the presentation. I, however, really enjoyed the presentation and learned some neat insights. Of all the conferences I’ve been to in regards to internet marketing, this is the first one that went into detail on email marketing. Email has the biggest ROI of any internet marketing verticals, thus should be taken more seariously!
Other highlites inlcude the landing page presentaton in which a friend of mine, Laura, was part of and Brett Hurt of BazaarVoice’s presentation on Social Media. Brett is a true inspiration in growing a company. I can tell he values people and his business proves that.
After the event there were further networking oppurtunities. I ended up going to a happy hour at Six Lounge on 4th St. I was dissappointed to learn that there was a cover charge to enter. I was under the assumption that this was part of the emarketing summit as were many of the other attendees. Oh well, I paid the petty $10 and stayed for maybe an hour to do some networking and chill with some of my good friends.
Overall the event was fantastic! Great bang for the buck for the value of information and networking oppurtunities. (I paid $75 for the all day event). I will definitely be back next year.
Filed under: Email Marketing Events | 1 Comment »
Structuring Your HTML Campaigns
Question: I was wondering if you could elaborate on your process of developing html emails. I am good with tables and what not but I still have a hard time developing emails that look very sleek.
The process of developing highly effective, appealing HTML campaigns is an art in itself. As with designing webpages, the development of email creatives takes skill. They are comparable and a solid webdesigner should be able to develop well designed email creatives. Like a webpage, HTML messages can display images, graphics, colorful fonts, etc. Load up your favorite design software, Dreamweaver, Front Page, etc and start playing around. The key here is testing. You don’t want to overload the user with a multitude of images and graphics that take away from the purpose of the email campaign. The ability to track just about everything is why I love email marketing so much. You can hone and test to see which campaigns work best.
Personally, I go a different route when sending out my newsletters. Instead of having to create a new design for EVERY single email drop, I prefer my designers to create HTML templates. Templates are great because they are easily modified and can be used over and over again. At AustinInbox, we have on file numerous template structures that make it easy for the novie user to modify. The biggest benefit is that it cuts down on time and we can use the higher performing templates more effectively.
The drawbacks of using HTML vs. text messages include image blocking and load times. As mentioned in previous posts, most of the bigger ISPs and email clients like Outlook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, and Gmail automatically block images. A good designer, however, can get by most of the image blocking and still develop sleek, appealing emails. Load times can be an issue as well, especially if you are targeting foreign users who don’t have access to the fast internet speeds we enjoy in the U.S. Know your audience and always test the campaigns. If the load times are slow, get rid of unnecessary images and modify until you are satisfied.
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Questions
Have any questions that you would like me to anwser?
Email: jason@inboxtruth.com
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »