Autoresponder Services

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Choosing Your Autoresponder

The first thing to decide is whether you will host your own autoresponder, or use a third party service to host it for you. The differences will be in how much technical knowledge you have in setting it up, how much control or flexibility you want, how many lists you will have and how much money you are willing to pay for it each month.

Not all autoresponders have monthly fees. There are free autoresponders and those that you purchase to run on your own website. The autoresponders that cost a one-time "ownership" fee will have the highest initial cost, but can save you money in the long run. Take for example Varpro (see below). You can purchase it, have it installed on your website for you by the programmer, then learn your way around the management side, which includes flash videos for each section.

Once you get comfortable with the massive options in Varpro, consider renting out accounts to others. Since you can have unlimited accounts within Varpro, your potential for having it not only pay for itself, but generating monthly revenue is greater. That is something that the fee-based autoresponders also include though the use of their affiliate programs. The difference here is the amount you would generate each month. Do you want a small percentage of the monthly fees, or the whole amount?

There are some things that Varpro currently does not offer that the others do - a preview of the letters before committing them to the delivery system. The preview should be added in a future version though.

If you have your own affiliate program, having your own autoresponder on your website can save your affiliates a ton of cash by offering it to them as a free or small fee add-on to your affiliate program. At $17.95 to $19.95 per month for the paid services, you could save your affiliates $215.40 to $239.40 per year.

Hosted and Third Party Autoresponders

Hosted Autoresponders

Hosted autoresponders are those that you install on your website. You, your webmaster or designated support team will keep the software up to date, contact email hosts when there are delivery problems, and generally keep them running properly. When you choose one of the autoresponders below, look to Website Managers for your Autoresponder Hosting.

Auto Response Plus is a good option for a single user to have multiple lists. It allows you to create as many follow-up campaigns as you want; lets you send as many broadcasts to your lists as you want, such as seasons greetings, special notices or limited time sales specials; gives you the flexibility of sending plain text or HTML messages, with your chioce of email, RSS (news feeds) or both; Measures your results, allowing you to build on your successes, by letting you know how many people opened your letters (HTML/RSS letters only); gives you the ability to attach files to your follow-up messages or broadcasts; includes free installation on your website. Your one-time cost: $195. The AFFREF Newsletter is now run by Auto Response Plus
Varpro is fast, powerful and gives you complete control over all aspects of running your own autoresponder service. You can have unlimited clients, create multiple groups with each having its own set of permissions for importing lists, sending individual mail blasts, set up ad tracking, including ads in the email header and/or footer, plus much more than can be listed here. I manage multiple sites using the Varpro autoresponder software and have grown to rely on its dependable scheduled services. Varpro will run on any PHP-enabled website. Your one-time cost: $495
Maxsponder is CGI-based and will run on Unix-based servers. Maxsponder is a good option if your website does not allow PHP scripts. It has many administrative controls including word filtering, paid and free accounts, works with popular payment systems such as PayPal, Worldpay and others, Ad Tracking module, account and subscriber management and a customizable interface. Your one-time cost: $497.
Autoresponder Unlimited is easy to install on your website, has a user-friendly administration area, allows you to run multiple autoresponders and mailing lists from one place, view message history and mailing status, is in compliance with FTC Anti-Spam regulations with an unsubscribe link being automatically inserted into each message sent out, allows you to receive a courtesy copy of each mailing to your admin email, gives you a quick stats of all your subscribers, and includes free installation. This is the autoresponder to choose if you do not require advanced subscriber tracking. Your one-time cost: $147.
ListMail Pro is a mailing list manager with automated timed follow-up capabilities. You can have unlimited mailing lists; send each one immediate emails; personalize the letters in plain text or HTML; also includes Link Tracking, Double Opt-in, Custom Fields, Bounce Handling and a built-in form builder that helps you create a form for your website. Great for newsletters!

Third Party Autoresponders

Third party autoresponders are those that are hosted and maintained on websites other than your own. Those that normally charge a monthly access fee do not include advertising in each letter that is sent out, unlike the free autoresponder services that do put ads in each letter. That is your cost of using the free autoresponders - the ads are paid for by their sponsors.

Monthly Fee-Based Autoresponders