BusinessPoint

Congratulations! You have decided to launch and online business and publish an e-newsletter. In order to send the message out and comply with CAN Spam requirements, you need to send your newsletter through a service. Before you choose a service, you need to think about your longer-term business plans. Switching lists often requires that you ask all of your subscribers to opt-in to a new list and you might lose customers with each switch.

Some questions to ask yourself are:

1. Do I want to be able to automatically send emails to people who register for my classes, etc.? Do I plan to offer an e-course?

2. Am I going to be offering something for sale? Do I want to set up an affiliate system?

The answers to these questions will determine what type of e-newsletter service you use. There are basically three types of services.

* a straight newsletter service
* an autoresponder
* a shopping cart.

Here are descriptions of top products in each of these categories to help you decide which is best for you.

Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a great newsletter system — that is all that it does. You cannot personalize the messages nor can you automatically send out a series of messages to a subscriber (think about an e-course with a new “lesson” coming every few days or simply a message that says “thank you for contacting me”).

Advantages:

* You already have a list in this system
* Cost ($15 per month)
* Can easily import from Outlook (without asking people to double opt-in)

Disadvantages:

* It isn’t an autoresponder.
* No personalization
* No ability to take payments

Aweber (http://aweber.com)

Aweber is the autoresponder used by the “big boy” internet marketers. You can send out e-newsletters and series of e-mails. It allows personalization and split tracking on ads.

Advantages:

* This is the very best autoresponder. Easy to do an opt-in form that leads people to an e-book download page, etc.
* Cost ($20 per month)
* Best deliverability (into Inbox instead of Spam folder) rate (Aweber has a 98% rate vs. 93% for 1ShoppingCart)

Disadvantages:

* Double opt-in is a pain
* No ability to take payments
* Does not automatically move people from “prospect” list to “buyer”

1ShoppingCart (http://1shoppingcart.com)

1Shopping cart integrates all of your online marketing needs into one system. It allows you offer items for purchase online, it does autoresponders, e-newsletters, affiliate programs, etc.

Advantages:

* Everything is in one integrated package
* Buyers are automatically removed from prospect list
* Can manage affiliate programs

Disadvantages:

* Double opt-in is a pain
* Cost - “whole enchilada” version is $79 per month — can buy smaller packages with fewer features.
* Delayed delivery of messages (sometimes takes an hour or two)

About the Author:

Meredith Eisenberg is a virtual assistant and owner of Yellow Highlighter Virtual Assistance. Yellow Highlighter works with coaches and others to help them expand their businesses online.