“I just received a ton of bounced emails that aren’t written by me. The email address is mine, but honestly, I did not send them. Has my email/website I been hacked?”

While hacking is always a possibility and I do not want to discount that at all, the reason is probably not that but rather email hijacking. You see, it is easy to change the “From” address. All you need to do is change it in your email program. Instead of your name and email address, you can change it to just about any email address. That’s what they are doing. They aren’t sending emails via your account or your server. Just using your email address as the “From” address. Because bounces go back to the “From” address, that’s why you are receiving them.

For a long time, there is really little you can do about this. I can send an email pretending to be you and vice versa any time. But if your web host supports DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), you might want to have it turned on. What it does is only allow email to be sent from specified domain. This way, a hijacker who always sends emails from his own or any spoofed/fake domain, is prevented from sending any mail. The thing you need to watch when turning this on is to make sure that any other domain you may be sending email from is in this ‘whitelist’ or your own emails won’t go out either.

How do I build a mailing list?

That is a big, objective question with many different tangents we can go off into, but we will focus on the technical process. The overall big picture is quite simple actually. First, you will need a system (software) or service that lets you send emails out to the masses. Next, you need to create a ‘list’ within that mailing list system you are using. Depending on what you are doing with the list, but it is recommended you then create a welcome email inside that list. This will be the first email people get when they join your list. Finally, you get the code which will give you the sign up form and put it on your website. That’s all in a nutshell.

What can I use to build a mailing list?

There are a lot of email list systems out there. Some well known examples are, Aweber, iContact, Constant Contact and Mailchimp. These are all fully hosted, web based services. Which means you will have a monthly cost involved, but at the same time you won’t have to worry about what percentage of your emails get delivered (also called deliverability), you won’t have to worry about the software or emails slowing down your web site. I highly recommend the post Is Saas For You to get a better understanding why it actually costs you less in the long run to pay someone a monthly fee for mailing lists.

Why can’t I just use my current email account and send through Outlook/Thunderbird/Mail/Gmail?

The answer couldn’t be simpler. Because your Internet Service Provider who gave you the email account, Gmail, Yahoo or any other email account providers often have fine print in their terms of use that restrict you from using your account for mass email purposes. Sure, you can email your group of 20-30 friends and family without problems and they are often OK with that. But surely when building a mailing list for your business, you want as many prospects and possible. Besides, any business, no matter how small, you will find, hitting hundreds if not thousands of subscribers is not difficult to do. Once you start getting numbers, that’s when mailing through any of these accounts will violate the terms of use.

Ultimately, this means you could lose your Internet or email service. That is not what you want.

My web host includes an autoresponder. Why do I need to pay for another autoresponder service?

Because they are different animals altogether. One is simplistic, the other one is a little more intelligent. The one that comes with most web hosting accounts is simplistic. The only thing it can do is kick back a reply automatically when someone sends the address an email. You still see some people asking you to email them at a certain address and you will get a report or download instantly. It cannot capture the name and address of whomever is emailing it and put it in a list and it cannot follow up with the person who emailed at a later date. Autoresponder services often give you what’s called a sequential auto responder. Which means, you can create a series of messages – however many you like and tell it to follow up with the individual who subscribed to the list based on intervals that you set. Maybe you want to email the prospect everyday for a week or once a week for a year, or everyday for a week and 5 day intervals after, you can.

Big difference in features don’t you agree? There are some hosts who are exceptions to the rule because these hosts understand marketing online. Some hosts do give you web hosting accounts with sequential autoresponders so if unsure, always check with your host. Most of the time though they don’t.

What is a broadcast?

A broadcast generally refers to the feature that allows you to send emails to everyone on that list. Some services even let you schedule when the email is to go out.

I already have an Aweber account, do I need another autoresponder service or software?

Nope. Aweber can do both autoresponse and broadcast. In fact, many of the bigger names can do both but if you’re not sure, check with their help desk.

I’m sure you will have more questions as you dive into the process of building your mailing list. If you don’t there’s something wrong! If you find yourself confounded with technical road blocks along the way, feel free to ask me.

Image by T. Al Nakib

One of the things he has to learn to do is to edit websites I created for him in the past, learn to manage his own mailing list, shopping cart and so on. It is a lot. Some of the things that are so common place to me and most of the people I deal with on a daily basis, feels like rocket science to him. He knows it isn’t of course, but it can feel like being in a massive maze. At the same time, as we work together, it amazes me how much knowledge I have accumulated over the years. Thankfully, he’s such a trooper. Which leads me to think, maybe some of you too are brand new, just starting out or have begun and still feel some areas are ‘too much to handle’.

Then, this week is a good one for you as we go back to the basics. I’ll be covering some technical jargon and concepts that you may encounter running your own business online. We will begin with Websites, followed by Autoresponder basics and end the week with an intro to shopping carts.

While I can’t possibly cover every aspect of those topics, I will strive to help you build the foundation so that, at the very least, you will know what people are talking or writing about and be ready to move on. I hope you will join me as we begin this mini-series tomorrow.

Image by gerard79

So what changed? Did I just start making more money and that suddenly meant I had to spend it monthly on software? No. If that is the case then it isn’t very good cash flow management. The sad fact is, it took a big loss for me to re-think and appreciate the value of using hosted third party applications and this is a story I tell people often. Not because I think you should always opt for software as a service solutions but because it really happened to me and I want to help you avoid a similar situation.

What happened?

It was simple. I installed a mailing list script on my web site one day and within an hour, it flooded the web hosts’ email servers to the point it almost crashed. The web host tried contacting me. But of course I had to burn the midnight oil and had went to bed after the install. He unsuccessfully tried to email me for hours and eventually, shut my account down and deleted all my web sites. All in all, the script started sending thousands of emails every hour and I hadn’t even started building my list yet.

Imagine the horror and humiliation when I started work the next morning. Here I was, thinking I was so smart, by hosting it myself and saving a monthly payment. I realized then just how little $20 a month was compared to what was at stake. Many years have passed since but that memory is still fresh and raw at certain periods today.

• If you are in the same boat, considering a hosted software versus one you install on your own web server, consider these points.
• You don’t have to spend valuable time upgrading the software, better spend time marketing.
• You don’t have to worry about people hacking it – and the many hours cleaning up if they did.
• You don’t have to think about the software being compatible with the server or crashing it – a biggie.
• When the system goes down, you have someone in the know to ask and demand for answers – it is a good feeling to be able to let others work out a problem.
• When the system goes down, you don’t have to upset my schedule and delay projects to fix it.
• You also don’t have to hire people to fix it. You know that they have properly qualified developers working on their system, people whom we on our own may not able to afford to pay.

Does that mean you should completely outsource your software? That’s going to be a lot of monthly payments.

Absolutely not. What I recommend is, outsource those that you won’t normally have sufficient technical knowledge to handle yourself or you don’t have someone technical you can hire on a regular basis. If you’re getting started and don’t have much money to invest. I understand you won’t have that option. But at the very barest basics, for your mailing list or autoresponder, sign up with a reputable service. If you don’t spend on anything else, spend the  money on that.

Image by Karl-Erik Bennion

The reason is simple. Direct response marketing works.

I’ve worked with several email marketing providers over the years, and choosing the right company or system will be based on your marketing goals, customers and your business model. All of these solutions are best for smaller businesses, because larger business will usually require a custom solution.

All of these email marketing solutions offer:

• FREE trials to help you determine if they are the right product for your needs
• Built-in CAN-Spam compliance tools

For Simple Email Marketing Needs

Most providers either charge on a monthly or per-email basis. But if you have a small list that is geared more towards client retention or education, the return on investment for ongoing fees may be difficult to justify.

TemplateZone’s High Impact Email Basic and Professional are the perfect solution. The one-time cost is easily justifiable and the program walks users through the campaign creation process step-by-step. It also plays nice with Microsoft Office, so you can mail merge. With templates and drag and drop file creation, this is one of the easiest tools to use.

Check with your ISP’s (internet service provider) terms if you plan on sending more than 250 emails a day. All ISP’s have some restrictions on how many emails you can send at one time/one hour/one day to ensure you aren’t spamming.

TemplateZone offers a 30 Day Free Trial

For Intermediate Email Marketing Needs

I’ve written before about how much I like Constant Contact. They charge customers based on how large your email subscriber list is, so it’s a very affordable solution in which what you pay is commensurate with what you’re likely receiving in profits. Plus, until you have over 100 subscribers, you won’t pay a thing.

Constant Contact’s product is super-easy to use, and I actually prefer their response tracking and reporting over that which I get from my current provider. Additionally, they have an extensive free tutorial section on their site, which has beginner to advanced level tips for optimizing your campaigns for the best possible results.

Constant Contact offers a 60 Day Free Trial

For Advanced Email Marketing Needs

When your needs have grown beyond sending newsletters, then consider the following two companies. Both of them are slightly different but highly recommended and respected in the industry.

AWeber

AWeber is a combination of regular email marketing and autoresponder services. An autoresponder is simply a delivery system that automatically delivers emails on a schedule or based on a customer action, such as when a new subscription launches a pre-written series of emails.

Although a little more challenging to learn and set up, using autoresponders is a seriously cost-effective and time-saving way to keep in touch with clients, because most of the delivery is automated. AWeber has all of the niceties of Constant Contact (including the swanky reporting) along with unlimited delivery of emails, autoresponders, and whatever you want to send.

Since some of the biggest names in internet marketing use AWeber, I can unquestionably recommend it. If they offered an integrated shopping cart such as Professional Cart Solutions below, I’d be mighty tempted to use them, too!

AWeber offers a 30 Day Free Trial

Professional Cart Solutions

I love Professional Cart Solutions, and I use their products on my own sites. Not only is it a full-blown email marketing and autoresponder service, but there is also a shopping cart feature that allows individuals to sell their own products and services and the entire transaction is handled automatically – including follow up emails to customers.

As an added bonus, their cart also has a built in affiliate program – so that it is easy to set up a process to have other people sell your stuff. The only drawback I’ve found with this company is that if I want to track specific click-throughs in emails, I have to do that on my own by using redirects or a service like TinyURL.

Again, setting up the emails and autoresponders with Professional Cart Solutions and AWeber is a little more work than the first two solutions, but the added functionality makes it worth it to save so much time further down the road. This service is also the one with the most scalability, meaning that as I grow my business, I know that whatever I need to do can be done with Professional Cart Solutions.

Professional Cart Solutions offers a 30 Day Free Trial