Tracking email subscribers that open html mailings

From a legitimate newsletter publisher

[palmbeacher]

Hello, all.

Here's my situation. I am a newsletter publisher that uses some co-reg services for subs. I want to track which specific addresses are opening each html issue. That way I can dump the non-openers and have a more responsive list.

I have been using clear gifs, but by the posts in this forum, I need to be using javascript for this. How do I do this, like a?userid tag on an image url? And, how do I see the?xxxx in my weblogs? I have tried a few analyzers, none of which show me the?xxxx when the file has been accessed.

I can use a tag in the url that will fill in the user address from my mailing client, like?{userid}. From that point on, I need your help.

Thanks in advance.

palmbeacher

[jatar_k]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld palmbeacher,

try a search for web bugs on your search engine of preference. You can also target them to a script and do the tracking that way. I haven't used this myself but there are some around.

www.hotscripts.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?bool=AND&query=web+bug&catid=all

[palmbeacher]

Thanks a lot, I'll do some searching.

Those ASP applications are a little over my head.

pb'er

[Mardi_Gras]

That way I can dump the non-openers

Just because people aren't opening the HTML version doesn't mean they don't see your newsletter. Do you include a separate text version?

[palmbeacher]

Hello Mardi Gras, and thanks for your reply.

I do mail in HTLM and text, but the default version is HTML.
Right now, my mailing client doesn't tell me how many readers receive text and how many get the HTML, but that may be a feature in a future upgrade (I am told).

The mailing client uses the MYSQL on my website server. Is
there a way to go through the MYSQL admin interface to see how many text versions are actually sent out?

I am just trying to figure out a way to clean my list of non-openers, my open rate (estimated with a 1 pix gif in the html issues) is only around 10%. By reading through this forum, I now see that my tracking gif may be getting blocked by newer browsers and online email services. That's what I'm trying to avoid.

I know you are right, I'm sure some readers are getting the text version (they can edit their delivery preference from a link in each issue). I'm just trying to find a way to track the ones that are trackable (html) that will work around the newer browser's gif blocking.

Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Take care.

pb'er