Free autoresponder - Pros and Cons? | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Rho

My question is......what are the drawbacks of using a free autoresponder?

The drawbacks of using an entirely free autoresponder
are many.

The most significant drawback is that once you've
built your list to a bigger size, reputable third-party
autoresponder services won't let you import your list
without having them reconfirm. (You'll likely lose half
to two-thirds of your list in the transfer).

Plus, many of the 'free' solutions force you to have
other ads in your outgoing messages.

Don't be a tight-wad and invest in one of the most
important tools for your Internet business.

(Unless you're not serious of course).

Dedicated to your success,

Shaun

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Rho 14 years ago

Thanks Shaun, I appreciate it, I have about $39 working with just now, so I am trying to find the best way to spend it.

Your response is much appreciated.
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- Shaun OReilly 14 years ago
  
  An option is to have a $1 trial of AWeber so that you
  can build your list the right way from the start.
  
  Email Marketing Software, Email Marketing Newsletters & Autoresponders by AWeber (no affil.)
  
  The following month it'll then be $19 for your first 500
  subscribers.
  
  This may give you time to build your list and your income
  in time for the following month.
  
  Good luck.
  
  Dedicated to your success,
  
  Shaun
  
  Thanks
  
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Brad Gosse

14 years ago

You can use feedburner if you just want to email your blogger updates.

I made a video showing how.

YouTube - How To Set Up a Free Email Newsletter...

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Rho

14 years ago

Thanks again Shaun, I will look into that option, Moonfish and Brad, I will also explore your suggestion. Gracias

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coluden

14 years ago

Go get an account at trafficwave. It cost 17.95 but you will not pay for 30 days! Cool. By then you should be earning some money. I am just setting up with them for the second time and I have to say I regret leaving the first time...don't know what I was thinking.

TW has good support and some excellent free follow-up series that you can just start using in 10 minutes. Forget the free ones, as you now know the disadvantages with them, out-weight the advantages by far.

Best wishes with your biz.

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Rho

14 years ago

Originally Posted by coluden

Go get an account at trafficwave. It cost 17.95 but you will not pay for 30 days! Cool. By then you should be earning some money. I am just setting up with them for the second time and I have to say I regret leaving the first time...don't know what I was thinking.

TW has good support and some excellent free follow-up series that you can just start using in 10 minutes. Forget the free ones, as you now know the disadvantages with them, out-weight the advantages by far.

Best wishes with your biz.

Thanks Coluden, are you from Kingston Jamaica?

Thanks
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bobby_shahzad 14 years ago

Problem with feed burner is that you do not have a WYSIWYG editor to create your email campaign. You have to update your blog to send email to your list. And email your subscribers will get will only contain short summary and link to your blog while most affiliate marketers would want to send people directly to their affiliate link. They dont want too many clicks
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moneyphul 14 years ago

Originally Posted by coluden

Go get an account at trafficwave. It cost 17.95 but you will not pay for 30 days! Cool. By then you should be earning some money.

Exactly. The trial offer has all the features of the paid offer except list import, which, I think would be irrelevant in your case.
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Andrea Wilson

14 years ago

Got a couple of suggestions from our fellow warriors before and they recommend MailChimp. I find their site professional-looking enough but I have not tested their service though.

Andrea

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Shaun OReilly

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Andrea Wilson

Got a couple of suggestions from our fellow warriors before and they recommend MailChimp. I find their site professional-looking enough but I have not tested their service though.

Andrea

I would have recommended MailChimp myself but their
Terms of Service do not allow heavy affiliate marketers
to use their service.

(The OP stated that he was using the list for affiliate
marketing).

Dedicated to your success,

Shaun

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Paleochora

14 years ago

Listwire.com is the only serious free alternative to the paid ones. Great features and functions. Check it out.

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Shaun OReilly

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Paleochora

Listwire.com is the only serious free alternative to the paid ones. Great features and functions. Check it out.

It's not the only serious free alternative at all.

I wouldn't trust my list with a new service such as ListWire
because its a new idea and as yet the model is unproven
long-term.

MailChimp is a great free solution because you can have
up to 1,000 subscribers FREE... forever and they have an
inconspicuous ad for MailChimp in the footer of each e-mail.

Their only limitation is that they don't allow heavy affiliate
marketers - but they will allow affiliate links in certain cases.

Dedicated to your success,

Shaun

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Gary_The_Ace

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly

It's not the only serious free alternative at all.

I wouldn't trust my list with a new service such as ListWire
because its a new idea and as yet the model is unproven
long-term.

MailChimp is a great free solution because you can have
up to 1,000 subscribers FREE... forever and they have an
inconspicuous ad for MailChimp in the footer of each e-mail.

Their only limitation is that they don't allow heavy affiliate
marketers - but they will allow affiliate links in certain cases.

Dedicated to your success,

Shaun

Shaun, you obviously don't know me very well ...

ListWire isn't a service that's going to be here today, and gone tomorrow ... I've been in this field longer than 99.9% of the people on this forum, and have a great reputation for a reason.

ListWire was first mentioned in an interview I did with Mike Filsaime almost 5 years ago, and we spent years on development to make sure it's a solid service ... and, I'm an email marketer myself, have spoken at numerous big events in the space on email marketing and list building, and we're already running on multiple servers.

ListWire may not be right for you, but there are tens of thousands of people who can't afford to spend anything when they're getting started ... not a dime. In a perfect world, you'd hope people could spend $20-$30 a month on an autoresponder, but we've had thousands of people cancel at EmailAces for $8.95 a month who specifically cited the cost as the reason. (we ask everyone who cancels to tell us why, and it's a required field to cancel)

Anyway, I'm really getting tired of being lumped in with all of the old free autoresponder systems out there that were simply garbage ... times have changed, hardware is cheaper, and there are free services now that are more valuable than any paid service online. (YouTube, Flickr, FaceBook to name a few)

And just to be clear ... there are NO ads in our outbound emails.

-Gary Ambrose

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CrhisD

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Gary_The_Ace

Shaun, you obviously don't know me very well ...

ListWire isn't a service that's going to be here today, and gone tomorrow ... I've been in this field longer than 99.9% of the people on this forum, and have a great reputation for a reason.

ListWire was first mentioned in an interview I did with Mike Filsaime almost 5 years ago, and we spent years on development to make sure it's a solid service ... and, I'm an email marketer myself, have spoken at numerous big events in the space on email marketing and list building, and we're already running on multiple servers.

ListWire may not be right for you, but there are tens of thousands of people who can't afford to spend anything when they're getting started ... not a dime. In a perfect world, you'd hope people could spend $20-$30 a month on an autoresponder, but we've had thousands of people cancel at EmailAces for $8.95 a month who specifically cited the cost as the reason. (we ask everyone who cancels to tell us why, and it's a required field to cancel)

Anyway, I'm really getting tired of being lumped in with all of the old free autoresponder systems out there that were simply garbage ... times have changed, hardware is cheaper, and there are free services now that are more valuable than any paid service online. (YouTube, Flickr, FaceBook to name a few)

And just to be clear ... there are NO ads in our outbound emails.

-Gary Ambrose

I think a lot of people would be worried about the long-term sustainability of a completely free autoresponder.

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Shaun OReilly

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Gary_The_Ace

Shaun, you obviously don't know me very well ...

ListWire isn't a service that's going to be here today, and gone tomorrow ... I've been in this field longer than 99.9% of the people on this forum, and have a great reputation for a reason.

ListWire was first mentioned in an interview I did with Mike Filsaime almost 5 years ago, and we spent years on development to make sure it's a solid service ... and, I'm an email marketer myself, have spoken at numerous big events in the space on email marketing and list building, and we're already running on multiple servers.

I don't know you personally Gary, but I have seen you speak
at a number of Internet Marketing events before.

I'm also aware that you also own EmailAces as well as having
many other Internet ventures.

In my eyes, ListWire has an unproven business model in the field
of autoresponders long-term.

Novel? Sure.

Sustainable? Unproven.

It's neat that you're trying something new to allow some users to
have a free autoresponder.

Only time will tell whether the idea and approach will last long-term.

I wouldn't put the most valuable asset of my business in an - as yet
- untested business model.

Mentioning your business idea on a phone call 5 years ago doesn't
guarantee that it will last long-term nor does years of development.
Only time spent putting the business model to the test in the
marketplace will prove if it works and will last.

I believe in paying money for the most valuable services in my
business so that I can hold the providers to account and make
sure that they deliver what they promise.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

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Gary_The_Ace

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly

I don't know you personally Gary, but I have seen you speak
at a number of Internet Marketing events before.

I'm also aware that you also own EmailAces as well as having
many other Internet ventures.

In my eyes, ListWire has an unproven business model in the field
of autoresponders long-term.

Novel? Sure.

Sustainable? Unproven.

It's neat that you're trying something new to allow some users to
have a free autoresponder.

Only time will tell whether the idea and approach will last long-term.

I wouldn't put the most valuable asset of my business in an - as yet
- untested business model.

Mentioning your business idea on a phone call 5 years ago doesn't
guarantee that it will last long-term nor does years of development.
Only time spent putting the business model to the test in the
marketplace will prove if it works and will last.

I believe in paying money for the most valuable services in my
business so that I can hold the providers to account and make
sure that they deliver what they promise.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

Hey Shaun,

You're welcome to your opinions, of course, but I wouldn't have put this much effort into a business that I wasn't sure would succeed ... and based on my history, it's a pretty safe bet.

That said, List Wire isn't going anywhere... we're already profitable without really trying, and serving more than 15,000 account holders.

And, at one point YouTube was an unproven business, so was FaceBook, Twitter, and Flickr to name a few.

We're not going anywhere...

-Gary Ambrose

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susinggih

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Gary_The_Ace

Hey Shaun,

You're welcome to your opinions, of course, but I wouldn't have put this much effort into a business that I wasn't sure would succeed ... and based on my history, it's a pretty safe bet.

That said, List Wire isn't going anywhere... we're already profitable without really trying, and serving more than 15,000 account holders.

And, at one point YouTube was an unproven business, so was FaceBook, Twitter, and Flickr to name a few.

We're not going anywhere...

-Gary Ambrose

Hi Gary,
just now I found out that my account at Listwire has been cancelled. I got complain from one of my potential subscriber that he can't subscribe to my product. Pls kindly help to check. I just sent you PM.

Thanks!

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Gary_The_Ace

14 years ago

Originally Posted by susinggih

Hi Gary,
just now I found out that my account at Listwire has been cancelled. I got complain from one of my potential subscriber that he can't subscribe to my product. Pls kindly help to check. I just sent you PM.

Thanks!

The only reason your account would be canceled would be if you canceled it yourself... which it appears you did. (on accident I'm assuming)

You clicked a link in one of our emails that clearly said that removing yourself from that list would also cancel your account with List Wire. It was in big, bold, bright red text on the page... but, you clicked to remove, and cancel anyway.

Email support (a t) listwire.com if you want it opened.

You weren't closed for spam complaints... we'd have notified you before doing so. ( and, we've only had to close one account to date )

-Gary Ambrose

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Shaun OReilly

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Gary_The_Ace

Hey Shaun,

You're welcome to your opinions, of course, but I wouldn't have put this much effort into a business that I wasn't sure would succeed ... and based on my history, it's a pretty safe bet.

That said, List Wire isn't going anywhere... we're already profitable without really trying, and serving more than 15,000 account holders.

And, at one point YouTube was an unproven business, so was FaceBook, Twitter, and Flickr to name a few.

We're not going anywhere...

-Gary Ambrose

I've been in business for over 10 years and long enough to
know that not all business ventures succeed - no matter
how good the idea or how strong the company.

Google Wave is just one example.

For every Twitter, Facebook and Flickr there are many other
businesses that launched at the same time that didn't make it.

It's the MARKET that decides if your business idea succeeds
or fails and - as yet - Listwire is UNPROVEN in the long-term.

Time will tell.

Again, I wouldn't trust the most valuable asset in my business
with ANY free service. Period.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

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xaban

14 years ago

The best solution is not to use a free hosted autoresponder, but to install (or have installed) an Open Source one on your own web hosting.
I've been using Infinite Responder and can recommend it.

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captpower

14 years ago

Originally Posted by xaban

The best solution is not to use a free hosted autoresponder, but to install (or have installed) an Open Source one on your own web hosting.
I've been using Infinite Responder and can recommend it.

Ok! I've tested the Infinite Responder on Aaron's site and the email ends-up in the inbox. Good!
Then I installed the script on a webhost, done a test optin, and the email ends up in the spam folder. Bad.

What I want to know now is how did he configure his script to send messages to the inbox and not to the spam folder. Anyone knows?

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benkin

Banned 14 years ago

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Bingo123 14 years ago

Yep have to agree with the others on this one. The one thing I do know about in internet marketing is autoresponders, and the FREE ones usually don't work out if you are serious about your business. Rather treat your business like a business and invest in probably the most powerful tool you can use as an internet marketer.
Good luck
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Luis Medilo 14 years ago

A free autoresponder is just like free webspace. You get what you pay for. Oh wait, you paid zero cents.

I suggest that you get a paid autoresponder such as Aweber or GetResponse. Your first month in Aweber is only $1. Since you already have the squeeze page in place, you can get started as soon as possible and be able to pay for your monthly fees after your first month.
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paulie888

14 years ago

I'm just not sure if you'd want to trust one of the most valuable assets of your online business (your list) to a free autoresponder service; so many things can go wrong and since you're not paying them a dime to use their service, where is the accountability here? They really have no obligation to support you or fix any issues you may have since you're not paying them to use the service.

In addition to that, you'll have to do a double opt-in confirmation if and when you decide to switch to a reputable paid autoresponder, and this will cause you to lose at least some subscribers.

I'd recommend reconsidering about starting off with a free autoresponder, this is something you can't really undo once you have started listbuilding.

Paul

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donhx

14 years ago

Yes, I think Shaun OReilly has it exactly right. Your list is your most valuable asset, and you want to put the gold in the best possible bank. To me, that means aweber.

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paulie888

14 years ago

Originally Posted by donhx

Yes, I think Shaun OReilly has it exactly right. Your list is your most valuable asset, and you want to put the gold in the best possible bank. To me, that means aweber.

That by definition would also include profollow, as it is Jeff Walker's white label version of aweber.

Paul

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David Maschke

14 years ago

Look at my picture, I'm not the brightest guy in the world.

But I do know the last thing I want to do is take on a higher monthly
debt load now, so I signed up with ListWire just now.

Within a few minutes I had my very own autoresponder account. I strolled on over to his forum, and there was a perfect explanation on how to integrate the Butterfly Marketing script with ListWire.

I tested it and it worked fine.

Let's say it does shut down, there is an export feature, and there are plenty of autoresponder services with an import feature.

Either way, I will not let fear of losing a list that I don't have yet drive my monthly costs up now.

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Alexa Smith Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Worner

In business, free/cheap, often equals more expensive in the long run.

^^^ This - exactly.

I'm with Sean in this debate: I always believe in paying money for the most valuable services in my business so that I can hold the providers to account and make sure that they deliver what they promise.

It only matters (much) when something goes wrong. And when something goes wrong, you want the best customer service you can get. And in my experience that comes from being a paying customer.

I'd be extremely nervous of entrusting my business's prime asset to a service which, with the best will in the world, has a not-yet-long-term-proven business model.

Originally Posted by David Maschke

there are plenty of autoresponder services with an import feature.

Good luck with that! Have you ever tried to find one with very reliable deliverability which will allow you to import a list without them opting in again?! I'm not saying it would be impossible, but it wouldn't be a pleasure, you know? Switching autoresponders is the very last thing you want to have to do, in an internet marketing business.
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