I've had an online newsletter for around 6 years and have known about Aweber for almost that long. Unfortunately I didn't start my newsletter using the Aweber autoresponder service.
You see, like most people who start an online business I was short of cash and didn't really understand the importance of building my list on a reliable service so I wouldn't have to move it. But believe me, I've learned my lesson because moving your list from 1 service to another is a gigantic cost!
In fact, the cost of moving my list is 1 I've learned 4 times. and I can't even imagine the amount of money it's cost me!
In a nut shell here's the story behind my recommendation to use a well established autoresponder service like Aweber when you're starting your first list.
- Started my 1st list with a free service. When I started making money I could have stayed with it but decided it was time to be more professional and go with a autoresponder service that had more capabilities and it would look better to my subscribers. I moved my list and lost about 98% of them.
- The new service I was using was a good 1 and didn't cost as much as Aweber (still trying to save a buck). I was using double-optin for my new subscribers but unfortunately many others weren't. As a result the autoresponder service started getting almost all the emails they sent blocked by most of the big mailbox providers like Yahoo, MSN and AOL.
- Having your email not get through is not good so I move my list again with an almost 100% loss of subscribers since I couldn't tell them I was changing services.
- This time I chose a service that had been around for several years and didn't cost as much as Aweber. (Yeah, I was still trying to save about $5 a month.) The service was good and they stayed on top of things to get the emails through. Unfortunately the job got too big for them and they decided to shut down the service after I'd built my list back up.
- I was able to warn my list so only took a 96.7% loss of subscribers when I moved to an autoresponder service that was part of a membership site. (Now I was saving even more money and only members could use the service.) The autoresponder had only a few features that were time consuming to use but it was sufficient to rebuild my list.
- Unfortunately, the service lost almost all my subscribers! Yes, you read it right. When I didn't receive a copy of my newsletter I checked my list and found that almost all my subscribers were gone. The only ones still in the system were those who had subscribed within the last couple of days. I notified the service but they couldn't find my list even though I sent them copies of both my backups and some of the subscriber email notifications they'd sent to me.
- At that point I decided I'd lost way too many subscribers and too much money trying to be frugal. I bit the bullet and joined Aweber who allowed me to import my backups and edit the confirmation request that would be sent to my existing subscribers. Now I still lost subscribers but this time only around 80.35% didn't click the confirmation link.
From my experience I highly recommend going with Aweber when you start your list and moving to Aweber if you decide to move your list. I can not prove that they get more messages through however since I lost fewer subscribers sending an explanation in my confirm message, I think they must get more email through to the inboxes. And while I've only been using them for a few months and still have a lot to learn about some of their features, I can tell you I have used both of the ones shown in the video below.
Here are the features I've used in the few months I've had Aweber:
- Modify the confirmation message: Create your own personal message for new subscribers.
- Blog broadcast: Create broadcast newsletters automatically from existing blog RSS content feeds or other sources of RSS and XML content.
- Spam Score Analyzer: A popular spam filtering tool called SpamAssassin is used to check your message and display any key areas that are being caught by the filter.
- Link Tracking: Track the number of times the links in your email get clicked.
- Mail to Multiple List: You can send your broadcast message to multiple lists by simply selecting which lists should get that message.
- Auto Format: For text emails you can automatically format it to a good line length with the click of a button.
- Personalization: The list of personalization options is longer than any I've seen on the other services I've used.
- JavaScript Form: JavaScript forms allow you to modify the autoresponder signup form without changing your web page.
And while I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet, they also allow you to share your autoresponder messages both with your other lists and with other Aweber users.
So while there are less expensive autoresponder systems I still enthusiastically recommend AWeber to collect opt-ins, manage your lists, and send newsletters.
To Your Success,
Susan
Tags: aweber, email newsletter, email, good autoresponder, aweber review, autoresponder review, autoresponder service review