Free Autoresponders! It sounds to good to be true.
"Free Autoresponders!" It sounds to good to be true. But is
this the right option for You and Your Home Business?
There are three sources of free Autoresponders that might be
considered when you work at home :
[1] Autoresponders offered by your web host
[2] Services like Sendfree and FreeAutoBot
[3] The 'light' versions of Professional Autoresponder
Services
[Ad. 1] If your Autoresponder needs are simple, such as
merely sending a single message reassuring your customers
that you'll get back to them, you can probably use the free
Autoresponders that usually come as part of your web hosting
package. The procedure to set up these Autoresponders vary
from web host to web host, but it is usually trivial,
involving a visit to your web host's control panel to
activate it. I use these free to distribute back issues of
Newsletters and to send my articles on demand. These
Autoresponders do nothing more than 'respond', they do not
capture email addresses and have no personalization
features.
There is an even more important consideration. If you decide
to change your web host, or should your host go out of
business, you will lose your entire system! All of the
Autoresponder links that you've worked so hard to set up on
other websites, in newsletters, on classified ads sites,
etc. will no longer work. You'll lose all the profits and
traffic they were directing towards your website! Free
Autoresponders can be very expensive in lost income and
traffic.
If you need an Autoresponder to send more than one message,
or if you need to schedule messages to be sent at certain
intervals over a period of time, you will either need to
program your mail system on your domain, or use one of the
free (or commercial) Autoresponder systems around (some of
which are listed below).
[Ad. 2] The free Autoresponder services listed below are
third party services. In general, the services are provided
free in exchange for advertising - that is, many of them
place advertisements in your Autoresponders (usually at the
beginning). Visit the sites listed below to find out more
details.
I am sure you know by now that nothing is really "free" on
the Internet, or anywhere else for that matter. However, if
you are willing to have other companies advertise on your
message with their logos and banners, then there is almost a
limitless number of companies to choose from.
I suggest you not use any of them, unless your site is
simply a hobby site or a site to keep in touch with friends
and relatives. If you are in business, you want your
customers focused on your message, not other links that can
distract them and lead them right off your message. You also
have no way of controlling what advertising messages will
appear. Maybe even one from a competitor!
The second reason why you don't want to use these "free"
Autoresponders is because your potential clients will
instantly see that you are using a free service. This looks
unprofessional and cheap. You could quickly lose the
credibility you had carefully built up to that point.
Again, these services are provided free in exchange for
advertising at the beginning of your Autoresponder messages.
In my opinion, if you want to be serious with your business
don't use these free 'light' Autoresponders. However it is
great to use these free 'light' Autoresponders to learn the
features of these services. It is no problem to use these
free services during your system startup and upgrade later
when everything is in place.
The conclusion is that you must be careful with free
Autoresponder Services. When you are serious with your home
business, don't destroy your image as professional by using
an Autoresponder that will add the statement "this is a free
Autoresponder service" to all your messages.
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Albert Hoogendoorn is the publisher of Autoresponder Ezine,
a free bi-weekly email newsletter about Autoresponders and
email marketing. Signup and get four valuable bonusses. http://www.my-autoresponder-secrets.com
