Mailing List Managers - I need advice

[flycast]

I have a customer that wants to send emails to their customers. They have been collecting customer emails with their customers consent for years and have 1500 addresses.

I am looking for a utility that can do the following:
Allow both html and text based emails.

Import an existing mailing list.

Simple one click unsubscribe.

Tell a friend feature.

Can limit the rate emails are sent (no more than 250/hour or some limit like that).

Has a simple way to remove dead email addresses.

Allows customization of the product to fit the customers website as well as allowing customizing of the kind of information it collects from subscribers.

Thanks for your kind advice.

[kodaks]

>>Import an existing mailing list.
From what type of list would you want to import the email addresses from? A CSV file, or something different?

Also, what type of coding does your client prefer; PHP, ASP?

[flycast]

I can make the list any format so that doesn't matter.

PHP.

[wickedmoon]

I'm looking for the same. I've been using Subscribeme Pro, but I need something with bounce removal. Lyris would do it, but is too expensive. I haven't been able to find a mid-level MLM that removes bounces.

Jason

[decaff]

You might consider an online service provider like Constant Contact...that allows you to manage the whole thing via .csv file uploads and browser interfaces...
(let their servers do all the heavy lifting...and you can bet they are absolutely current on email standards)...
NO - I am not in anyway associated with these folks...this is just a suggested strategy...

[bumpaw]

Google phplist as it could be what you want. I like it.

[wickedmoon]

phplist is perfect, thanks for pointing it out.

[cmendla]

Just a paranoid thought....

When doing mailings, I'm always a little nervous about some people reporting the mailing as spam, even if they signed up for the mailing. That could possibly kill your domain if it got blacklisted. I suppose you could get your client to get another domain.. i.e. if they were widgets.com could they get widgetslist.com and send the mail from there?

I would think that might isolate widgets.com if too many people reported mail from widgetslist.com as spam.

If I'm wrong in this assumption, please let me know.

cg

[cyberfyber]

Originally I used to use YourMailingListProvider (do a search for them)...but that was years ago and although they were great, they didn't handle AOL and others well.

Since then, I've set up a dummy alternative domain though another hosting service which which provided DaDa Mail. Something which supposedly allows one to install onto one's servers separately. Myself not being technically intuitive enough to make use of it this way have been able to make use of it nonetheless using this dummy domain.

This has proven to be wonderfully good for my business and has allowed me to do everything I'd ever wanted. I've yet to have any problems whatsoever. 'Have now used it for well over a year or so now without a hitch. Don't know how much this helps but...good to hear all options I suppose?

[edited by: cyberfyber at 11:58 pm (utc) on Sep. 18, 2005]

[wickedmoon]

You always get occasional spam complaints, even if you use double opt-in. I format and edit newsletters so they avoid all the common spam elements. I've read articles for example, that studied how very slight formatting problems with HTML emails would be flagged as spam by certain email providers. I also stagger list distribution, so everything doesn't go out at once.