jedhanlin208

I just wanted to get everyone's opinion. Are there any quality free autoresponder programs out there or should I man up and pay for one?

Janet Sawyer

You could take a look at listwire it's newish to the market and it's free.

Derek Thomas

Get Response also offers a free version.

http://www.getresponse.com/create_free_account.html

However with any free resource you have to consider the limitations they *may* place on you (number of subscribers you can have, number of messages you can send out, advertisements, etc.).

If interested in a paid autoresponder, I cast my vote for Aweber.

List Wire, as recommended above, seems to also be a nice option though.

Best of luck,
Derek

Chris Worner

This is one area of your business you don't want to cheap out on. If you cant afford $19 a month for Aweber, then you should not bother with trying to make money online. Your list is your most valuable asset, you want to do it the right way from the beginning.

Because if you later decide to move to a paid option, you will have to ask your subscribers to re-subscribe, in the process, losing 90% of your list.

Chris

Anup Mahajan

Getresponse's free version is limited to just one campaign and the number of subscribers allowed is a whopping 10. Not worth the effort IMO.

I second that Aweber is the best if you are going for a paid autoresponder. However they don't support Payment through Paypal.

Regards,
Anup

mrdomains

I use MailChimp which has good deliverability. They also have a free step-in if you are just starting.

Anup Mahajan

Never heard of that one. thanks for the share

Simon Grabowski

GetResponse offers you a free account for up to 100 subscribers, without any ads:

Create free account ? email marketing - GetResponse

Once you grow beyond 100 subscribers, we've got a dynamic "Pay-As-You-Grow" pricing that starts at $9.95/month for up to 250 subscribers.

Best,

= S

cindybidar

Just FYI, MailChimp's TOS forbid affiliate marketing.

CianMcCarthy

Couldn't have said it any better

MemberWing

Mailchimp has free account for <500 email addresses - which may be a good start to test if email marketing works for you.

AWeber does not have free account and biggest disadvantage of Aweber is that they don't have API to speak of, so it's hard to impossible to do custom integrations if your business grows. I had a good experience with Aweber until this year's exposure to progressively negative customer service experience. I no longer recommend Aweber.

Mailchimp is great and has it all - but a big blunder as well - they don't do proper management of campaigns sent to multiple lists. Which means Mailchimp is best suitable only for business with one list. In other words if certain person belongs to multiple lists and you send broadcast to all - some people will get duplicates. Unfortunately mailchimp sees that as a great feature and so far is not willing to fix that flaw.

I heard iContact is great in terms of API offering and flexibility. But i haven't tested it yet.

Gleb

sirtiman

I can't find mailchimp's follow up. Maybe hidden somewhere, Please tell me if you know.

thebitbotdotcom

You can try PHPList. It is a PHP mailing script and list manager similar to Awebber or Get Response. If you have an account with HostGator, they allow you to use is with lists up to about 5000 for no charge if I remember correctly. Google it.

MemberWing

Half of self-sent emails will go to spam folders of addressees and will never be seen.
Professional autoresponders is the way to go.

Gleb

Owen Smith

If you are running a wordpress forum, GWA autoresponder is a great little plugin. It works brilliantly, it has a free period, I think you can add up to 500 contacts.

Gary McCaffrey

List Wire - The world's best FREE Autoresponder!

Tigerpaw

This isn't free, but, it's close.

A member site of http://Redirect100.com Free URL redirection

This is not an endorsement, since it just appeared in my box today and is likely on it's way to yours in nothing flat. ('View Testimonials' link was not active!)

tigerwar

Hi jed,
Take a look at the free one in my sig, it works great and is integrated in WP including tracking, no extra software

Best regards
Tigerwar

Gary Pettit

My Votes for MailChimp....been using it for awhile and love it! Plus they have free MailChimp University with training videos. First rate Autoresponder service

Braveheart2009

Listwire is full of ads I thought it was the biz until full ad page poped up infront of my own website put me right off.

Charles Harper

Aweber's flaws aside, if you are just getting started, I don't think there is an easier solution. You wlll have a good solid product. I don't think that you should even be considering a free autoresponder if you are spending money on anything else.

Korona Studio

I've used free and paid option. Believe me, the free ones is the one you'll curse when something is going terribly wrong.

But if you're working on a tight budget (no shame bro. We're all there at some point), try TrafficWave. About $18/month, don't care how many subs you have

mario3

Sorry guys but how can Aweber be the best when they don't take PayPal payments? They should be ashamed...

Randy Smith

WizardResponderPro can be paid using paypal - and it is a very affordable option compared to many


Randy

IMChris

Don´t use Mailchimp. Let me quote from their Terms of Use


I have heard from a quite successful MLM Marketer with a 15xxx list, that got shut down from one day to the other. You definitely don´t want this to happen.

Gary_The_Ace

Full of ads? Come on ... let's at least be fair.

We show one ad, one time, and that's it ... so, your subscribers would see one ad, ever. Then, you can mail to them from the day they subscribe, until the day they remove, without ever seeing another ad at all.

If it wasn't for you, that's fine, but at least be fair and honest in your review ...

-Gary Ambrose
List Wire

P.S. All the stuff about "don't use free autoresponders" used to be true, I'll leave it up to you to use the search, and find my past posts on why this is no longer the case.

I'll put List Wire's delivery rates against anyone in the business, free or paid, and we'll end up just fine.

freedomguy

Gary

Are you still running Email Aces as well as List Wire? I used email aces free version when I was first starting with AR and found it very easy to use and the only ad was a text plug for email aces at the bottom of each email which was barely noticeable. I seem to recall the pro version was also good value.

John

Searchedterms

I am using list wire ,it seems to be working ok.When you initially sign up they owner does a video selling you some of his marketing stuff .Thats only when you log in for the first time after that i do not see any other ads etc.

Jamus McKenna

Aweber is only $1 for the first month. You can even have them host your subscription page so you do not have to worry about a domain or website just drive the traffic to the link.

If you work smarter then harder you can have a list that is bringing you in money, which you can use to pay the next months $19. I always recommend people to sign up for the $1 trial then if they like it jump on the 12 month plan as it saves money. This is not a lot in the *BIG* picture ($35 or something) but I always believe it is better in my pocket then anywhere else.

Like many have posted by paying for a service you have certain "protection" you do not get from free products.

Braveheart2009

it will just drive your list literally away from your own website.

Sumit Menon

Parabots autoresponder is Free.. But, you need hosting make it run.. Have a look at it here: Parabots Autoresponder System

Gary_The_Ace

I have no idea what you're talking about ... have you even used the system?

-Gary

tschlotter

I need to add a subscription box to my Wordpress blog and have been reading through this thread to decide which way to go.

Mailchimp is out because of their TOS, i.e. 'no affiliate marketing', Aweber is out because they don't accept/process paypal payments. I'm considering the GWA for Wordpress Professional option which allows installation on unlimited blogs and unlimited subscribers for $27 (that's the OTO). Has anyone tried that product?

Thanks,

Tina

Zacman

The only free autoresponder I can recommend comes free with an SBI hosting account.

65% of SBI sites are in the top 3% of all sites for a reason.

Many more features come with this all inclusive hosting account far too many to list.

Cheers,
Zac

tschlotter

Thanks Zac - SBI is an amazing system in general and I probably should have built my site using it as opposed to taking forever to get things going. As it stands right now though, I already have hosting through GoDaddy, have installed my blog and numerous other things there, and am trying to add a reliable autoresponder to what I already have. Unfortunately, SBI isn't an option for me right now, but you're right - there's a reason 65% of SBI sites are in the top 3% of all sites!

Simon Grabowski

Have you checked out GetResponse? We have a free account.

JamesTWL

Hi Simon,

I had just sent you a PM. Hope to hear a reply from you.

Regards,
James

fullmatrix

Listwire for free service, you might want to check on Imnica mail offered here by warrior, try to search n the WSO forum. It's very affordable.

If you are not intimidated with installing php script, you may consider free autobot. But for an autoresponder, I prefer hosted service because of the deliverability.

tschlotter

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I'm in the process of installing the GWA Autoresponder on my blog and ran into a little glitch which I'll hopefully be able to figure out today, otherwise it seems to be running smoothly.

Imnica does seem like a great deal though - if it takes me too much time to figure this problem out, I may give them a shot before setting up messages, subscribers, etc. and commiting to the other service. The only hesitation I'd have would be that Imnica mentions at the bottom of their page that they're in the process of changing servers.

I'd totally forgotten about freeautobot though! They've been around for years and probably provide an excellent service just based on their experience and longevity.

Richelo Killian

NOT changing servers. We've had some issues with our hosting co, which has been sorted. We're adding servers with other hosting co's for redundancy.

Tina Golden

I'm using Imnica now and I like it better than Aweber. My emails are delivered faster, for one thing, and the interface is better for me. And it's far cheaper.

Now I'm trying to figure it out if it's possible to integrate it with PayPal so that when someone buys, they get added to my customer list.

Tina

Joshua Bretag

Hey Jedhanlin208

I Don't want to be mean or rude so I am going to give you the facts. If facebook collapsed and google disappeared or slapped your page and you had no way of getting new traffic to your site to build your list then wouldn't you list be the most valuable asset to you online?

What I am trying to show here is that you cannot control the external environment of what other companies do I mean look google has just brought in there instant search engine tool which is killing long keyword search results in favour of 2-3 phase words. It's an un-predictable playground out there and we are just bark chips on the ground to these giants.

Now when it comes to your list don't you think it would be better to stick with a paid service that you know works and you can get 24/7 support like aweber. As compared with these free options which not only have some got black listed IP address for spamming and other black hat marketing techniques.

For $20 a month for up to 500 subscribers you really only need to sell 1 product to make back your money on fees. And if you use optimzepress to make your squeeze pages on wordpress CMS that should not be too hard to get leads.

YOur list is golden and so you should treat it by using one of the best most affordable paid email marketing autoresponders out there aweber. Why skimp out on what is so important to building and online passive income?

Regards
Josh

The Crazy Email Marketing Professor

P.s Be a man and get a paid one!!!!!!!!

Jassim

Hey Tina,

This could be easily done by placing an opt-in form after purchase through paypal. I mean, to get the actual product after purchase through paypal the re-direction link(once the customer click PAY in paypal) should be your final landing page where you have opt-in form asking for email address to deliver the product or product available location via email so that they get added to your customer list automatically.

Hope this helps you.

Jassim

jerodrx

Almost everyone who had succeeded in internet marketing
teaches that you have to make a list, and if you manage your
list with a free service you are in serious danger to lose that list.

Imagine this scenario: After a couple of months, you put all your
efforts in getting a list of 200 subscribers, and the next day your
email service provider decides that your list is not really your
property, because you're not paying for their services, and they simply stole it, or start sending spam messages to that list.

Conclusion: Your business will be in serious jeopardy if
you use free auto responders or free hosting, if anyone has been telling you that you can rely on these services, that person has been lying to you.

Just my opinion

http://signatures.mylivesignature.co...57E3A03B29.png

Gary_The_Ace

It sounds to me like you're a conspiracy theorist ...

You could also say ... what if Google decided the they owned all the Blogger.com blogs, and they were going to start posting content on them as through they owned them? Or, what if YouTube changed all the links included in their videos...

The fact of the matter is that technology that was once expensive isn't so expensive anymore, and hardware costs have dropped dramatically too...

Things change. In the past, using a free autoresponder may have been a bad thing, but it's not anymore. Just like free video hosting wasn't an option in the past, it now is ... the same goes for image hosting, blogging, and a number of other services.

This isn't 1999 anymore.

-Gary Ambrose

willster74

My advice is to pay for a quality service such as Aweber. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys!

best,
Dave.

Deligiannis.Alex

Hey Chris, Alex here...

I wouldn´t go so far saying: "If you cant afford $19 a month for Aweber, then you should not bother with trying to make money online"....we dont know this guy, either him or his financial situation. Many of us got into Internet Marketing because we didnt have money to do anything else!

Of course he can make money online without having 19$ to spent on Aweber, maybe he wont be rich but he can have something to start, dont you think?

Deligiannis.Alex

Hey, I´ve heard quite good opinions on GetResponse, I think Ill give it a try to the free version on one of my blogs...Just to try it .

Thanks for the info!

bradlean

Yeah I agree! Due to financial reason. That's why we are here and start making money. Well, for starters if there is a chance for me to be get rich quick, I would certainly buy all those product that is really helpful to grow for me as an internet marketer.

Anyway, there are free autoresponders out there. I use freeautobot. It's free to use 100% surely free. For those in tight budget try that services.

The only downside is, it has a lot of annoying popups. It might mislead your prospect.

But anyway you can still collect the email addresses and follow up some message using those free autoresponder services.

Cheers! Merry Christmas guys!

Michael Wiechert

IMHO don´t ever use a free autoresponder, this is something strategic to your business where you should not save money.