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E-Mailing Services and Software

There are three main types of e-mailing services and software:

1. Desktop software, which is installed on your desktop computer and sends out e-mails using your Internet connection. This sometimes limits the number and speed of e-mail transmission, since ISPs often severely limit bulk e-mail sending.
2. CGI Software installed on your webserver. This gives you a fast connection to the Internet, but may give you deliverability problems if recipient ISPs think you are sending spam.
3. Hosted ASP (Application Service Provider) E-Mailing Services. The software resides on their servers. You usually pay a monthly fee for these. There are hundreds of good ones, but I can only recommend a few. One advantage is that your service provider will work for you to get your e-mails through spam filters, delivered to the recipients.

Now let me recommend a few in each category.

Desktop Bulk E-Mail Software

There are a number of good solutions. I'll only mention two:

Gammadyne Mailer is the one I like and use. It is very powerful, allowing me to not only read but write to lists contained in MS Access databases and Excel Spreadsheets. You can access any ODBC-compatible database -- I even access an online MySQL database. This software is modestly priced and has been under constant development for several years. The downside is that because of its power, it is not very user-friendly.

Infacta Group Mail, Personal Edition. This software is excellent if you only need to maintain a newsletter database and simple enough to use fairly easily. Modestly priced.

CGI Software

AutoResponse Plus 3. I use and recommend AutoResponse Plus 3. It is written in Perl with a MySQL database, installs on most Unix servers, and can handle lists in the millions. It has a very powerful autoresponder function as well as the ability to send out newsletter broadcasts to subscribers. Note a new version arpReach is being released in May 2012, now improved and written in PHP. I'll be using it, you can be sure!

ASP Hosted E-Mailing Services

Among the many good ones, these are some stand-outs. Their pricing varies and so do their services. All have a good reputation.

iContact is the service I used to publish Web Marketing Today each week to subscribers. It a powerful tool that's also easy to use. Highly recommended.

Constant Contact starts at $15 per month. They are known for their simplicity and user-friendliness for those a bit intimidated by the power of other services. A number of templates are available, and a WYSIWYG editor will be available soon.

Campaigner from Got Corp. (formerly GotMarketing) prides themselves on "the highest deliverability in the industry." Fees start at $25 per month and are based on the number of e-mails sent. They also serve enterprise size clients. This is a company to watch with an excellent feature-set.

Vertical Response begins at $19.50 for 1,500 e-mails. Pricing is based on the number of e-mails sent per month.

AWeber stores up to 10,000 e-mail addresses for $19.95 per month. It offers both e-mail broadcasts for newsletters as well as a powerful autoresponder system.