Anyway, in my hunt for what’s good in AutoResponders and getting rather disappointed in my findings, I’ve revisited GetResponse and have been delighted in their offerings.
As I stated in my review of ListWire, one of the things I look for in an AR is the ability to pass a users information back to my Confirmation and ThankYou pages as it makes for a much nicer experience and if you have a few programming skills, a few other little tricks.
I’ve just discovered that they let you choose between using $_GET and $_POST which for us mad programmers is grand!
They’ve also totally revamped their user interface… It’s looking very nice but more importantly – useable. Although I did find a few little gremlins where they’ve not updated things across the site. Nothing major, more niggly things if anything.
And now you can get upto 1000 Subscribers for their base rate of $18 USD per month. Which doesn’t make them the cheapest, but I think if you start penny pinching too much you’ll get yourself into strife.
Now one little beef is that their live support is only available during business hours. That’s ok but I’m on the other side of the Pond and that can make for a fun time when I’m scratching my head looking for answers. But when they are available, their support is exceptional. So that’s always a big bonus when it comes to customer satisfaction.
Their lowest package is $9.95 USD Per month for up to 250 subscribers. So that makes it an affordable entry price for someone starting out.
Now that I’ve been through the wringer , checking out these other AR Services, it all comes back to the big two. GetResponse and Aweber.
I’ve not been through every single one of course but I’ve tried, Listwire ( only if you really really have too) , Trafficwave.net(apart from the lack of being unable to pass any subscribers information back to your pages, it’s a very good option.) , EmailAces ( It’s interface needs to be like its Free Cousin, Listwire, otherwise it wasn’t impressive ) and the rest can wait another time.
The reason I went out looking, again, at the options is because I’ve got a ton of unloved sites that have various AR’s hanging off them and it’s time to consolidate and clean things up and put a system in place. And strangely enough, I’ve got a serious writing bug again! ( which happens in spasms )!
So this probably hasn’t given you any real insight into AR’s and why I recommend GetResponse as a good quality 3rd party AR Service, but it’s given me something to write about.
I’ve had to vent a little tonight after spending too much time on doing this.. but it’s been worth it. I’m now much more wiser! Definitely older anyway!
Remember, the whole idea of using an Autoresponder Service is to build lists and give the subscribers good value information and also promote relevant tools as an affiliate. It’s what makes the world go around. So don’t be stingy.
The two most important things, after being honest and having integrity, is your AutoResponder Service and your Web Hosting.
I’ll be back to looking at Webhosting again soon, which is another thing I have to consolidate.
Have a grand one and happy ARing ( if that’s the right term… or it should be!)
[Update:]
I’ve set up a new campaign using GetResponse. I’ve now set it up such that when my new subscriber clicks on the “Sign Up” button, they are sent to my own custom Thankyou and Confirmation Pages. And I am able to pass their name and email address back to my site so I can Personalise those pages. Which to me, is a great plus.
The only little gremlin, which I have reported to the GR Crew, is you can set the Data Pass Through to be ON and to use the POST Method, which is located in the Webform Setup. It’s in the advanced section, which is a little hidden…
So the Thankyou Page, which is the page the new subscriber is sent to immediately after joining works a treat. BUT at the moment ,the confirmation page recognises it has to pass the subscribers information back via the setting, but it totally ignores the selected method and falls back to using GET.
Another little “trip up” is, is you are processing the webform id on your site, the POST Thankyou Page, it is called webform_id. In the GET for the Confirmation page it’s called webforms_id. A little ‘s’ has snuck in there. So that’s something to watch for. It’s a simple thing to do and it would appear no one has used this so it’s not been noticed before.
The main fields of name and email address are the same for both. As you would hope they would be.
So now I’ve got the system setup the way I like it, with FULL personalisation which makes for a much more pleasant experience for the New Subscriber.
The site I’ve done this on isn’t so brilliant, it’s one where I quickly knocked up the graphics using InkScape and threw it inside a little PHP CodeIgniter framework so I can expand on the system to give more interaction with the E-Course.
I always like the personal touch! Which not all Autoresponders allow you to do!
You can check out my new creation at… http://www.affordablelistbuilding.com
The Web Form Builder:
GetResponses Web Form Builder. It’s a Drag and Drop, click on it and change certain regions. It’s got a few other toys as well, but it’s very flexible and you don’t have to know anything about HTML or CSS. It’s very user friendly. So that’s a big plus over the others that I have seen to date.
So that’s about it. I’ve now got my system in place. I’ve found an AutoResponder Service that gives me all those nice things that I am after and off we go.
Talk soon
Tim
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