e-Business-Formula Internet Marketing Discussion Forum

[kellylowe]

I was reading the ebook that you recommended Steve. It was "Wisdom2005" by Sherpa Marketing.

In the first part of the ebook, they keep mentioning "open rate." Now, I assume this means the number of people who actually open the email. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

However, if my definition of this is correct, PLEASE tell me how you can find out how many subscribers are actually OPENING your newsletter???? I would LOVE to have this information!

Thanks,

Kelly Lowe
All Business Publishing
http://www.allbusinesspublishing.com

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Kelly,

What many publishers do is use a small invisible .gif file linked to a click tracker. Of course in order for this to work you have to send your newsletter as html.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[Lynn Terry]

Some mailing list managers offer this feature. I use Aweber, and they will track your open rate, as well as click-through rates on any links you include. It's really great data to have in your hands, as you can get an idea of what generates the best response. They also allow you to split test subject lines and such

[LizTomey]

Lynn has been talking about Aweber for a while now. Each time I see her say something REALLY cool about it. I love my autoresponder, but Aweber is looking better and better.

Lynn, have you had any trouble with them? Down time and such?

Liz

[kellylowe]

I have unlimited autoresponders that come with my hosting packages...but I've never really used them. I use one for when people request information on the Home Business Spotlight. Other than that, I've had some thoughts, but I've just never set them into motion.

I'd be interested in hearing how others make use of their autoresponders, and what kind of results they receive.

Thanks,

[LizTomey]

OH, Kelly!

You have got to get the info on autoresponders.

With your writing skills, you could write some killer ecourses and promote all kinds of stuff using the ecourses. They don't even have to be a course. They can just be some type of information series. Promote things that are related to what you are writing, and you've got a really good marketing method going.

I'm working on an audio/video course on autoresponders for my subscribers right now, and the reason I like marketing with autoresponders is because no matter what you are marketing, you can use them and they do work. There's a load of information out there on them. I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but as soon as I get my tutorial done I could send it to you if you'd like.

Hope that helps!

Liz

[kellylowe]

Yes, please send it when it is finished!

Thanks,

[Kevin Robb]

Hi All,

Autoresponders are the lifeblood of any online business...you simply can't do without them.

I used a very well known provider for almost three years but about 12 months ago their email delivery rates declined to where I believed that only about 35% to 40% of my mail was being delivered.

I changed to Aweber and have been very happy with their service, they have a really functional control panel and their delivery rates are good as well.
They have also recently incorporated RSS in their system as well so they are quite advanced.

I recommend them, if you want to sign up with them you can use my link, no pressure, it's here if you want it: Aweber

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[Lynn Terry]

[quote="LizTomey"]Lynn has been talking about Aweber for a while now. Each time I see her say something REALLY cool about it. I love my autoresponder, but Aweber is looking better and better.

Lynn, have you had any trouble with them? Down time and such?

Liz[/quote]

Hey Liz - Sorry it took me so long to respond I've been in "catch up mode" what with the move this month and all.

Back to Aweber... no, I havent had any type of problem or downtime or anything like that at all in the year or so that I've been with them. I switched in January 2004 - and have been VERY pleased so far.

Like James mentioned, they now offer an RSS Feed and HTML Archiving with just the click of a button (you select the option when you are publishing an issue). They continue to impress me!

[Chris (cat)]

Hi Guys,

These stats are from about a year ago but probaly still close to the mark

AWeber.com - 93% delivered.

bellsouth.net 100% missing

Proautoresponder.com - 35% delivered.

aol.com 100% missing
cs.com 100% missing
excite.com 100% missing
hotmail.com 100% missing
mail.com 100% missing
msn.com 100% missing
netzero.com 100% missing
sbcglobal.net 70% bulk/spam folder, 30% missing
usa.net 100% missing
att.net 100% missing
yahoo.com 100% missing

Getresponse.com - 63% delivered.

aol.com 100% missing
cs.com 100% missing
excite.com 100% missing
netscape.net 100% missing
netzero.net 100% missing
verizon.net 100% missing

Emailaces.com - 78% delivered.

excite.com 100% missing
mail.com 100% missing
hotmail.com 20% bulk/spam folder
yahoo.com 100% bulk/spam folder

I swapped from getresponse when at least 40% of my braodcasts were not being delivered.

Tom Kulzer (owner of Aweber) is on Micheals Greens forum a fair bit and always goes out of his way to explain things.

At the end of the day, features are good but getting my email delivered is what I'm paying for.

Here is another site to have a look at.

http://www.deliverymonitor.com/


The only thing I would like aweber to introduce is rss delivery. With spam software, hosting spam software, text & html cross over problems and the like, I am now starting to use rss in a big way.

If you can introduce clients in the right way to rss (benefits to them), your profits are definate to increase with rss due to the 100% deliverabilty and all in html pages.

Still offer email, but having two options is definaitely better then one especially with clients who like rss.

And just another point. (I think I'm getting off track!)

SE rankings. I placed my company blog which could by all means be a monthly newsletter, online 5 or 6 days ago. No inbound links, 1 post and already I am 6th place (yahoo) for what is classed as "intermediate" in terms of how hard to rank on SE's.

The competition for this phrase on yahoo is about 441,000 pages and I have only just put it on the SE's.

So, if you've got newsletter or list I honestly suggest to start having a good look at adding rss to your marketing mix.

If you didn't get this freebie, here it is again. I have just finished the book itself, excellent read for all those who are interested.

http://www.catdynamics.com/rss_the_business_case.zip


Cheers, Chris
Anam cara

[LizTomey]

Hey Chris,

May you are just full of information. I was actually just discussing email delivery rates with a friend of mine. We were wondering how we could see what percentage of our email was being delivered. The service you suggest looks great, (had to hunt for their order button, think they need a marketing department ), but man it's not cheap for what it does. Or I should say what it ONLY does.... Any other suggestions on a service like this?

Liz

[Mrs Wolfie]

I have never heard of such a thing! I'm in start up mode for my business (well, I have to actually define waht I love to do in hobby format into an actual business but details details) and it sounds like this auto responder would be a dream come true. Do customers get upset with the "canned" response?

[jimmys devoted]

I had tried aweber and others a while back when i had my magaazine. what I discovered thanks to my customers that aweber versus bellsoutha nd yahoo, were phised for email addresses.
I prefer to have ultimate control at this point.
Autoreposners and so on are great but my customers were my best resource to let me know just how bad they were too. My experience may not be typical but it sure is interesting.