Years
ago, when I set up my first mailing list,
I started out by using the newsletter script that my web
host provided with my hosting account. At first it seemed
to be okay - I had 100 subscribers, then 200 subscribers,
then 400 subscribers...
But
I found out that the system gets quirky when you get up
around 1,000 subscribers (actually 800 or more). ALSO, you
should know that you are using your hosts "mailservers"
to send out those emails to your list. What I didnt know
at the time was that most host's mailservers get "blacklisted"
all of the time.
And
you know what? They are not in the email marketing
business, and they dont really care. In fact, most
of them will tell you straight out "that is a 3rd party
script and we dont offer support for it" (ignoring
the fact it is THEIR mail servers causing the problem).
To
make a long story short, I found out that the majority
of my subscribers were not getting my emails at all.
As for Constant Contact and Topica, they have been blacklisted
by certain major ISP's for years. Unless you have a close
friend that signs up for your list and then TELLS you that
they didnt get your email, you'll likely never know who
isnt getting it.
When
I switched to Aweber
a couple of years ago, well - I was skeptical about spending
$19.95/month after having my list set up free with my hosting
account before. Of course, if you look at the pricing structure
of Topica and Constant Contact, you'll see that as your
list grows... they charge a whole lot more than 20
bucks!
Anyway,
I decided to "go for it"... and that was the best
decision I ever made. Like I said, I didnt realize how many
people werent even getting my emails... but when I started
publishing my newsletter through Aweber - my response
rate went sky high!
People
were replying to my newsletter, there was a huge spike in
sales, etc - it was a BIG difference! Aweber is the industry
leader in mailing list management... it IS their 'job' to
make sure they stay whitelisted, and they continue to boast
"the highest delivery rate in the industry".
That
initial experience got me hooked - but it's all of Aweber's
features that have kept me as a loyal customer.
They provide very detailed stats, including
how many people opened your email - or which links were
clicked on in your message. They also tell you where each
subscriber came from (which page or which link they used).
They let you split-test subject lines,
to see which one gets the highest "open rate"
(which one gets more people to open the email). It's unreal
what all they offer...
Of
course, as already mentioned, you can set up as many lists
as you want in one account. That is newsletters,
autoresponders, you name it - it's unlimited.
And
now they have a brand new feature in our accounts called
the Feed Broadcaster - anyone who has a blog
will love this!
I
have a post about it and an example on my old blog, which
you can see here: http://clicknewz.blogspot.com/2005/12/feed-broadcaster.html
Click
Here to learn more about Aweber,
test out their Free Trial offer, or set up
your own Aweber account -->
Latest News from Aweber:

Lynn
Terry, Site Admin
Lynn@SelfStartersWeeklyTips.com