plainwords

I've recently signed up with YMLP's email marketing and autoresponder service.

So far, I've been very impressed. Of course, one of its big attractions is the price, which is considerably less than Aweber if you have a large list. Monthly cost is:

$3.75 for 0-500 subscribers
$7.50 for 501-2,500 subscribers
$15 for 2,501-7,500 subscribers
$22.50 for 7,501-12,500 subscribers
$30.00 for 12,501-20,000 subscribers

They will also allow you to import a list without the subscribers having to confirm. This is a major plus in my mind.

Delivery to the inbox seems pretty good as far as I can see. The backend stats, open rates etc are all great. It's a very user-friendly interface.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a budget price autoresponder and email marketing service, I'd recommend YMLP.

xxxJamesxxx

I used them way back in 2006 when I first started out but I found they didn't have the features I later found in Aweber.

Obiously that was 2006 so a lot could of changed.

James Scholes

Alexa Smith

Without the subscribers having to reconfirm?! http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/sp...smiley-020.gif

Please excuse the observation that, to me, that would be the most huge minus. http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/sp...smiley-009.gif

In fact I simply wouldn't be willing to use an autoresponder service that allowed its customers to do that, because I'd know very well that what would eventually happen to its service would inevitably be exactly the same as what's happened to every other autoresponder company which has allowed that. For all the obvious and entirely predictable reasons. http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/sp...smiley-035.gif

Believe me: even if you're right about that now (though I don't actually know how you can "see" that at all), it won't be, eventually, if they allow people to import lists without requiring a re-confirmation. How could it possibly be?! http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/sp...smiley-034.gif

I hope it works out well for you, but I won't, myself, be entrusting the safekeeping of my business's greatest and most important asset to a company with such a business model.

cypherslock

Imnica Mail allows you to import your list with reconfirms BUT you have to have the date each person signed up and their IP address. Without those two things, "no soup for you!"

Shaun OReilly

Before deciding to build your list using a particular
third-party service, you can use a site - such as
the one below to get an idea of their server reputation:

Network Tools: DNS,IP,Email (no affil.)

Get the IP address of the e-mail sending server and
then do a Blacklist search at:

Email Blacklist Check - See if your server is blacklisted (no affil.)

You can ask the vendor for the IP addresses of their
sending servers or look in the header information of
the e-mails you receive via your account.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

fluffythewondercat

I suppose it won't do any good to point out that scraped (non opted in) email addresses aren't likely to make you any money anyway.

Most people seem to understand that, say, landing pages need to be relevant to an ad or that an article needs to relate to the keywords you're trying to rank for, but their tongues loll out of their heads when they see an opportunity to use a huge scraped list for email.

fLufF
--

JohnMcCabe

Alexa, besides the tools Shaun mentioned, you can also get a general feel for deliverability by seeding your list with emails from several of the more popular email services.

Hotmail is a disaster; I don't even check those anymore.

I do seed with emails on Gmail, Yahoo, Verizon, and a few more.

If the seeded addresses receive the email, others using the service should as well.

sandrasims

I have used YMLP for years and continue to do so for a women's club I belong to. We have about 200 people on the lists. It works well for our purposes. Though there was a local ISP that would never get our emails. Most people quit using them anyway.

However for my business I use aweber. More reliable, more features and benefits.

BloggingPro

Nice post. I've been looking to try a new autoresponder to see how it compares to Aweber, so this should work out nicely for what I wanted to do.

inspiredguy

I agree with Alexa. Long term, you don't want to risk losing your hard earned list. However, if you're just testing or lacking funds, mailchimp is free for the first 2000 on your list.

tpw

LOL

I am considering a secondary autoresponder company as a complement to Aweber.

The secondary autoresponder company is going to be iContact or Constant Contact.

I have been led to believe that both allow this feature that you claim to be "a huge minus," and that is the reason I am considering the addition of one of those services.

You know I am a smart guy, and you know that I am opposed to spam of any sort, so you have to ask yourself why I would consider choosing a service that operates that way...

Well, let me be clear about this...

I have started working with local businesses in my area... I started out doing Local SEO and I am now migrating into other services... One of those services will be mailing list management for local businesses.

When a business at the local level asks customers to sign up to their mailing list, then the consumer usually fills out a print card with an email address.

To get those email addresses into an autoresponder / newsletter service, the offline consultant needs to be able to manually input those email addresses into the database.

With Aweber, the local offline company will be forced to send customers to a web page to sign up!!

With Constant Contact, iContact, and now YMLP, you can manually add those offline contacts to your mailing list.

If we were forced to send a customer to a website to opt-in to the email list, then offline companies would be seeing fewer than 1-in-100 getting on the list.

Why should consumers be forced to go to a website when they can opt-in through printed materials? They shouldn't.

Constant Contact and iContact have been designed specifically to work with offline companies, so this feature (your "big minus") is almost an essential tool for offline marketers and offline companies.

The reality is that the offline marketplace is bigger than the online marketing marketplace, and services that represent the offline marketplace can be far more profitable than their online counterparts.


.

Alexa Smith

Exactly my current position, Bill.

I'm close to deciding to try GetResponse.

Well, fair enough: we're each selecting one for very different reasons, I'm sure.

Understood - thanks, Bill.

"Offline" isn't relevant to me, and for myself this post and especially this little thread highlight a couple of specific problems about iContact which, between them, exclude it from my own list of possibilities.

tpw

Actually, my research is pushing me towards Constant Contact...

iContact was only on the list because someone pointed out to me that they could do the same.

demiller

I've used YMLP for about 3 years now, and I love it. The reason I started to use them was because of the fact that you can import lists without re-confirming.

It gives me a leg-up on the competition because I can take a client's existing list, upload it and send out a mailing the same day. When that client asks my competition to do this, they of course get shot down, or told that they will have to re-confirm the list.

I recently imported a list of over 20k and have mailed them twice per month without a hitch. At this point I have uploaded about 15 different client lists and haven't had a single spam complaint.

The company is out of Belgium, so maybe that's how they get away with it?

Anyway, I highly recommend YMLP for consultants, but probably not for your average IMer. Aweber is still best for that.

plainwords

I should have noted in my original post that I work mainly with offline businesses and that's why YMLP's ability to import lists without reconfirming is such a big plus.

When a client comes to me with a mailing list, I can't import them into aweber without them having to reconfirm. It's a nonsense for an offline business owner who has already gone to great effort (in most cases) to build up a customer list to be told he can't use it unless they reconfirm.

fluffythewondercat

Careful with Constant Contact.

My online bank decided one day "for security purposes" to shut down my card and send me a new one with a new number. I had about 25 automatic payments on that card -- one was Constant Contact. They tried to process the next month's payment *even though the current paid-for month hadn't ended yet* and when the charge failed, they locked my account.

They had no right to do this. I had to give them a new card number just to get my lists back.

There's no worse feeling than having your lists confiscated. And yes, now i back them up.

fLufF
--

Gary336

I was using YMLP for for a few months because of the price and it is a good service in my opinion. However, I outgrew the features pretty quickly and decided that Aweber is definitely worth the few extra dollars.