Any Free AutoResponder Service Liek Aweber?

Nobody actually "needs" a free autoresponder.

People only imagine that they do, and that there'll be some long-term benefit to starting that way, and that in some meaningful sense it'll be better than not having one at all.

Aweber charges $1 for the first month and $19 per month thereafter. If you're not covering $20 in two months, the reality is that you don't have a business at all, and that's not something that using a free autoresponder is somehow magically going to correct.

Sorry - am being honest and realistic, not critical, I hasten to add.

In my opinion, using a free autoresponder is one of the very most ill-advised and misguided things one can do, in internet marketing.

Few people are more keen on list-building than I am, but I think for most people it's better to start without an autoresponder, temporarily, than it is to use a free one. And (unlike the situation with regard to free hosting), with autoresponders it IS specifically the fact they're free that causes the potential disasters/risks, in my view.

The question you have to ask yourself is whether it can possibly be wise to entrust the safe-keeping and security of your business's greatest, most important and least replaceable asset (your list) to a company whose business model is that of being a free autoresponder. I think that it's generally right at the start of their internet marketing careers, when people understandably have the least judgement about such situations, and the least awareness of the facts and realities involved, that such mistakes tend to be made.

I suspect that people imagine something along the lines of "Well, I can always start with a free autoresponder until I've made some money, and then make the switch to a better one". Usually, one can't easily do that. Moving established lists from one autoresponder company to another is typically hugely difficult, and very commonly results in all one's subscribers needing - at best - to opt in all over again. Many Warriors have commented here that they've lost between two-thirds and three-quarters of their lists, this way!

Some people just shrug and say "Well, you can always back it up regularly, can't you?". Easily said. What are you going to do with it, after you've "backed it up"? How are you going to import it elsewhere? Who's going to allow you to import it elsewhere, and under what conditions? (People don't always think about these problems. But the experience of Warriors who have actually had to try to do this seems to me to point to its being something of a nightmare and a disaster).

In the case of Mailchimp, obviously enough, the situation's very clear to anyone willing to make the effort to read their Terms of Service. In the case of other "free autoresponders" (of which there are several), it's usually very much less clear, unfortunately. Typically, those recommending one, in my opinion, are only recent list-builders themselves and may not yet be aware of some of the longer-term pitfalls.

Some of these companies even attach to every email their customers send out to their lists a clickable link advertising their own free service! :p It's literally the autoresponder equivalent of having a little website advising people about <whatever> sitting at Yola, with a big clickable link at the bottom of the page advertising "Get your free website here with Yola".

How professional does that look?!

Some of these companies also don't yet have a very well established business model. Who really knows if they're still going to be there 3 years later? But if they're not, that can be an absolute disaster to your business!

On previous occasions when I've made that point, someone with a financial interest in a "free autoresponder" business has replied, mentioning that I don't know that Aweber or GetResponse will still be there in 3 years' time, either. I honestly think this a pretty silly argument, because it should be clear to all of us that the odds are stacked in one's favour if one uses Aweber (for example) and against one if one uses a "free autoresponder".

If necessary, I'd make a sale or two without having a list, and then start with Aweber when one has $1 to spare.

The set-up costs even for internet marketing businesses which do everything professionally, right from the start, are absolutely minuscule ...

My perspective only - there are others who disagree, of course. One or two of them are owners of free autoresponder businesses.

And some others, I think, are pretty inexperienced and have maybe not yet encountered any problems - in contrast to others here whose warning-posts can readily be found with the search function, by those willing to look.

That's exactly what many Warriors have said, who've later lost their lists there, Stan. Just read the terms of service VERY carefully indeed!

If you do affiliate marketing (or any of the other things they don't like), even if you don't do it/them at Mailchimp and only give out free information there, you can still lose your account there, as explained here.

This thread, and this thread, and this thread will also perhaps be very highly relevant to you.

Good luck!

Does a better autoresponders like icontact or GetResponse (Not Aweber) allow us to import our existing

customers / buyers email to the list? We need to update out buyers with new updates.

Stan, if they find that you do affiliate marketing at all, even if you don't use their service for anything connected with it, you may lose your account and all your lists (as explained in Tina Golden's post linked to above).

It's not about "whether you use their service for affiliate marketing".

It's about whether "you are an affiliate marleter".

Really, it's crystal clear from your questions that Mailchimp's service isn't suitable for you.

Gary Ambrose's List Wire - List Wire - The world's best FREE Autoresponder! is Free and is said to have as good deliverability as Aweber.

It's unlimited too.

Gary has been in the email deliverability game for quite some time, so if free
is all you can afford right now, this will be your best option.

- Jason

I-Contact has a free version and they are pretty decent. Still, for me, AWeber is KING

That is really affordable.

What are their delivery percentages like? Right now I have like a 0.4% bounce rate with Aweber, though I understand some may be goin in spam boxes too

What ads are those?

ListWire includes no advertising in your messages, we just use a small footer link on the bottom of your messages... just like many of the paid services do.

There aren't any ads in the members area, in your messages, or otherwise. All we do is send you, the account holder, an email a day...

-Gary Ambrose
List Wire

If your plugin supports any kind of form code, List Wire will work just fine... and yes, that's most plugins.

-Gary Ambrose

We're not going anywhere... I've been in this space longer than 99.99% of the people on this forum, and was one of the original 100 members of the forum.

ListWire has been online over 2 years at this point... if it was going to fail, it would have done so a long time ago.

-Gary Ambrose