In my EOA notices and on my website, I have links for "sign up for e-mail notifications." I've collected about 1000 e-mails from customers, and each week I send a list of items for sale/auction. This is a completely OPT-IN list, I hate SPAM as much as anybody.
I've used the software for LISTBOT for several years now, but today I got an e-mail that they are going to discontinue service. Well, discontinue FREE service anyway, they now want $149-$249 per year, which is ridiculous.
I know eBay recently ruled that you can't have sign-ups within your auctions, but I know plenty opf people on AW much have their own mailling lists.
What other e-mail list services do you recommend?
A) Free or low-cost is preferred.
B) I would need the ability to IMPORT my current list, and EXPORT a backup list of addresses.
C) If it's free, I don't mind a small ad tacked on the end, but if I'm paying for it, I don't want their ad.
posted on August 2, 2001 11:44:18 PM
I'm part of a network of live-action roleplaying games, and we make extensive use of Yahoo groups for email purposes. They're easy to create and join. Of course, you are going to get the annoying ad at the end, but what'd you expect for free?
One "poor-man's list" method if you're only sending out announcements is to create a group in your Address Book for your favorite email client. Rather than going through and clicking each individual name, you just click the group name and it goes to every person.
A strong suggestion if you use this method: Send the email to yourself, and place the group in the BCC field. BCC is "blind copying," which means that the list of recipientes will not be included with the message as it would be in the To or CC field. That way you don't risk revealing all the emails on your list. Besides being common courtesy, it also keeps your carefully harvested information out of the hands of competitors.
If you're willing to shell out a couple bucks, shop around web hosting companies. Quite a few will offer the ability to run listservs off of your own domain name. Prices can be pretty cheap too -- I pay less than a hundred bucks annually for my web hosting, which includes unlimited email accounts and listservs with POP and web-based access. And if you're a professional seller, there's a certain prestige factor in having your emails come from (YourUserID).com.
