summary so far - Re: [Hidden-tech] Constant Contact, iContact et al

[Rich]

I will add more weight to the 'use a service' comments: don't do it

we are very techie and do run a number emailing services for clients 
(over 100,00 a day in industrial opt in lists)
and I can tell you it takes quite a bit of staff time to make sure all 
the in/out+issues in today's email world
are addressed.  Making sure our servers are not blocked is a daily 
effort and making sure the lists are
kept clean takes many hours of both programming and, at some point, 
manual effort.

To give you a simple example, we have a database base of well over 1000 
email bounce error
messages in 14 or so languages just to recognize an email bounce - and 
that is after pre-coding
the message so it's list source can be known -- then add dozens and 
dozens of inconsistent rules
that a spam checker might use to mis-identify a proper email. 

Just try sending an email message from a industrial newsletter with a 
product from Xerox !
Even this message will be blocked by some of you's spam blockers

Let a service do it for you, they can justify doing all these right, 
even available software to
run yourself rarely does all that is needed -- and that doesn't even 
include the server monitoring,
we have had the HT list blocked by the likes of Comcast and Verizon 
repeatly.

If you do a large volume of emailings (over 50K monthly) , do your home 
work and
find a service that will do the custom work you might need.

Rich

-- And if anyone wants to talk to us about doing large emailings, email 
me off line.


Jonathon Podolsky wrote:
>   
>
> As always, it depends on your particular situations, such as number of 
> recipients, frequency of emails, and how you want to use it.
>
> I can see how implementing your own software solution could save money 
> in the long-run.  However, with all due respect to others who 
> recommend that, I wouldn't consider it unless you're a techie and have 
> enough time or have have very important custom needs. The 3rd party 
> email services must have a higher deliverability rate, since they work 
> out problems with ISP's, follow-up on spam reports, add to white 
> lists, etc. Plus they work right away, instead of loading your own 
> software, troubleshooting if problems come up etc.
>

-- 
Rich Roth
CEO TnR Global

Building the really big sites
       http://www.tnrglobal.com