Autoresponder Series - getting them ready in advance

[Jennifer Nalleweg]

Hey everyone,

I've been focusing lately on my autoresponder series, getting it ready for my launch and creating the series for the people who sign up on my squeeze page, and another series for people who bought my product.

I know that it is important to try to send messages approximately as often as others in your niche (in my case it is normal to receive newsletters only once or twice a month - I'm in the fishing niche) because that's what the market is used to getting, so I'm going to stick to that schedule.

Is there a good rule of thumb as to how many newsletters I should have ready in advance of my launch? I've got about 8 done for my pre-purchase series and was wondering if that's a good number for now and to turn my attention to other things so I'm making the most efficient use of my time, or if there's a number that most people tend to create for each series so they're covered?

What do you usually do? Create them all at once, or add to them later, after your big launch has ended?

Thanks,
Jennifer

[Richard Legg]

Hi Jennifer,

The great thing about an autoresponder is that you can add content as you go.

It seems you've got enough to start off with anyway, especially if you're mailing out less frequently than in the IM niche.

What I do a lot of times is whenever I mail out a content piece to my list, I'll also go in and add that to the end of my prospect follow-up autoresponder series. (It always helps to have a link back to your sales site though if this is just a prospect list)

Pretty soon, your follow up series has grown to months or even a years worth of content that goes out automatically.

So all you really need is the initial few pieces of content and then just add the rest as you go.

Richard

[charleskirkland]

I agree with Richard on this.

But one question are you going to use single or double opts for you launch?

Thanks
Charles

[Jennifer Nalleweg]

Thanks Charles & Richard - sounds like a great plan to me.

Charles, I'm using double opt-ins at the moment. Feel that that's the best way to ensure that I'm not spamming people and that they're more of a qualified lead for me.

What's your thoughts on this?

Jennifer

[charleskirkland]

I'm stuck on this one issue.

I know it is better to have a double opt in then a single. But a lot of well meaning people just don't optin for what ever reason. I know I guilty of this for things I do want to know about.

I like single optin because the list will get bigger faster...more sales in the long run. But you will have a higher spam rating.

People always talk about you will have a higher value per vister with double optins...but you have fewer leads so that makes sense.

Case in point...learn from my mistake.

During the seocodebreaker launch I used single opts. Now I can't send any email with out getting at least a 0.40 spam complaint or higher. This means about 4 out of every 1,000 people think I have sent them spam.

Awber made me change to double optins for everything. I mean EVERYTHING.

I had been told by the sales rep that Awber was looking at making everybody get to double optins in the future.

There are times when I don't want a double optin and sometimes I want a double optin.

So I'm going to change to GR, ARP, EA or something else who is not so quick to force you to double optin.

[Jennifer Nalleweg]

I use 1shoppingcart for my autoresponder and they don't force you to double opt-in.

Yeah, it's a tough call on that one - faster growth vs. more spam complaints. Guess I'm a slow and steady wins the race kind of a gal ;) Having to constantly switch services to keep ahead of the game sounds like too much of a pain for me. I like having all my things in one place for ease of use.

Jen

[Chris Douthit]

I prefer to use double opt-in on most of my sites. It is true your list will grow as much as 33% faster with single opt-in, but down side is your going to have more spam complaints and more bounce backs.

Personally I hate getting spam complaints, they are always a pain to deal with. Bounce backs can also begin to be a problem depending on how much server power you have.

Charles, that’s another reason why I don’t really like Aweber, when running your business having another company tell you how to do it rubs me the wrong way.

[Jennifer Nalleweg]

Which autoresponder do you use Chris?

[charleskirkland]

I have 2 Aweber acounts all IM related

I have 2 1shopping cart acounts. by the way there email deliverablity if very bad. This is for my niche sites

I just got a Getresponce account a few mins ago to replace my 2 aweber accounts.

Plus 1 email aces acount that I have never done anything with.

Charles

[Chris Douthit]

I run ListMailPro software on my own server. It allows me to do pretty much anything I want. Emails getting though also have a far higher success rate as they are coming from your own domain and not a pre-flagged mass email sending company.

Another reason why I like ListMail is because I can build my own opt-in form anyway I want, for example inserting into a flash application. That type of thing is banned in Aweber.

[charleskirkland]

Chris

How dose it work on your own server, do you have to deal with spam compliants, and such?

Thanks
Charles

[Chris Douthit]

I have a rather complex setup where I have 2 servers, one hosts the websites and the applications on that site. The other is just a qmail server which I connect though the SMTP to send the emails. So the second server handles the burden of email sending and wont effect the bandwidth of the sites themselves.

This is actually pretty easy to set up, but probably not necessary unless you’re sending 50,000+ emails a day. I have some other special needs which I use the second server for as well, so it just makes sense for me to do it that way.

You can just install the software on your own server and send though localhost if your just sending once a week.

I use mostly double opt-in and include opt-out links on all emails and because of that I get almost zero spam complaints with the software. In fact, I cannot even really remember the last time I got a spam complaint from my own blast. Almost all of my spam complaints are from affiliates sending and including my affiliate link in their email. Then I have go explain how that was not an email I sent, that it was from an affiliate promoting my site. They are a pain, I have received 2 of those this week.

[charleskirkland]

Chris

You are the MAN!

Has anybody used this program before?

http://confirmationrocket.com/

I was thinking of buying it if somebody has had good results with it.

Thanks
Charles

[Chris Douthit]

I just took a look at it, I dont really get what he's selling? It looks like it just detects what email you use and gives you a link to that email login.

[Ralf Skirr]

Whether to use an autoresonder service or a self hosted solution is always a controversial topic. In the IM niche many recommend using aweber (or other hosted services) like a mantra, often also those who have no clue but simply repeat what they heard from others.

I used aweber for a while for my English speaking lists but had trouble with them several times. Most of the times I was able to solve it quickly, but once they suspended my account due to their fault and did not respond to my support ticket for several days. Then I decided that it is not good to have my most important business asset dependent on other people.

Hey, online marketers, I hope you are aware that your list is your most valuable asset. :)

I canceled aweber and switched to a self hosted solution using autoresponse plus.
At that time I already had been using ARP for my German business for several years and was quite happy with it.
(although he could put some work in adding features and enhancing the software, not much going on for years)

Having tried several autoresponder services in the last 5 years today I only recommend to host your lists yourself, just as I recommend to always have backups of your web sites, blogs and databases not only on your web server, but also on your local machine. You never know what could happen to your auto responder service or hosting company behind the scenes. If a hosting or AR company has problems they won't tell you upfront and imagine your host would go out of business tonight....

Bottom line: Always be in full control of your business assets.

Ralf

[affiliaterockstarx]

Great advice.

[Jeffrey Dean]

chris,

I've been thinking about switching over to ListMailPro from Aweber to get away from the monthly fee. My only concern is will this increase the amount of time to spend on email maintain it well? ie edit out spam trouble and other issues that might come up or have you found ListMailPro to be as user friendly as Aweber?

Jeff

[Sean Clark]

Chris

You are the MAN!

Has anybody used this program before?

http://confirmationrocket.com/

I was thinking of buying it if somebody has had good results with it.

Thanks
Charles


Charles, check out SellWide.com - (demo - http://www.sellwide.com/follow_up_email_autoresponder.shtml#demo) They have a free follow up autoresponder that works integrates into your web site. You can use it for that web site, or for any web site that is on the same server as the script.

I use it for one of my sites. You can create as many messages as you want, and have them delivered when you want. For example - message 1 - day 1, message 3 - day 7 etc. It is easy import and export the leads, and only took me about 20 minutes to install the script. However, there is not a double opt-in feature. You can also have the option to enable and disable the opt-out link and the admin report. And, you can state who the email came from "Charles" and the address "charles@mail.com" - even though the script will use whatever address you installed it with. It's a great script.

[pslreale]

Holy Crap..You're right..:) I better back my stuff up, I generally just depend upon the hosting service & aweber.



Having tried several autoresponder services in the last 5 years today I only recommend to host your lists yourself, just as I recommend to always have backups of your web sites, blogs and databases not only on your web server, but also on your local machine. You never know what could happen to your auto responder service or hosting company behind the scenes. If a hosting or AR company has problems they won't tell you upfront and imagine your host would go out of business tonight....

Ralf

[charleskirkland]

Hi Sean

I have used the SellWide.com clickbank manager on a few sites and it ROCKS. I will check out the other porgrams they have.

Thanks
Charles

[Sean Clark]

yes they really have some great scripts! :)

[Dirk Dupon]

Hi Ralph. I've been using Aweber for many years, just like so many of the big marketers here, and I never had any issues with them. Their support service has always been very helpful to me, and I never hear any complaints. Weird...




Whether to use an autoresonder service or a self hosted solution is always a controversial topic. In the IM niche many recommend using aweber (or other hosted services) like a mantra, often also those who have no clue but simply repeat what they heard from others.

I used aweber for a while for my English speaking lists but had trouble with them several times. Most of the times I was able to solve it quickly, but once they suspended my account due to their fault and did not respond to my support ticket for several days. Then I decided that it is not good to have my most important business asset dependent on other people.

Hey, online marketers, I hope you are aware that your list is your most valuable asset. :)

I canceled aweber and switched to a self hosted solution using autoresponse plus.
At that time I already had been using ARP for my German business for several years and was quite happy with it.
(although he could put some work in adding features and enhancing the software, not much going on for years)

Having tried several autoresponder services in the last 5 years today I only recommend to host your lists yourself, just as I recommend to always have backups of your web sites, blogs and databases not only on your web server, but also on your local machine. You never know what could happen to your auto responder service or hosting company behind the scenes. If a hosting or AR company has problems they won't tell you upfront and imagine your host would go out of business tonight....

Bottom line: Always be in full control of your business assets.

Ralf