AWeber? Don't Be a Mail Chump!

Friday, October 10, 2014

One of the cheapest and most effective ways to connect with your users is via the old standby of email. I am certainly not talking about spam, but rather what it called "permission-based marketing". There are forms of very useful communication that you can provide via email.

There are many ways that email can be used - you can learn all about them via my free course by email, but one thing is clear, you do not want to be sending out mass email via your personal email account. Laws like the notorious CAN-SPAM and technical limitations mean that for most purposes, you need to go with an established email platform provider.

The two most popular are MailChimp and AWeber. While the services are pretty much the Pepsi and Coke of the emailing world. They're similar, except for their advertising. But many websites continue to push AWeber over MailChimp for the sole reason that they pay higher kickback to their affiliates who shill their products.

If you're just starting out, you really should look at MailChimp, due to their lower cost structure. They offer two plans of note:

• For folks who don't mind a small ad for MailChimp at the bottom of the messages they send, they offer a free plan that allows for a recipient list of up to 2,000 people.
• For folks who want to avoid such ads, they allow customers to use a pre-pay price structure that scales with your usage. If an account sends no messages in a given month, it incurs no charges.

AWeber, on the other hand, tries to trick you with a "low introductory rate" and then BAM! Starting in month two, you're on the hook for $19 a month for your first 500 recipients.

Don't be fooled! Check out MailChimp, it's great!

And if you want to learn about email marketing, sign up for my free course about marketing via email