A lot of people come to my blogs looking for advice and help to start their own Internet business. In order to help you make more informed decisions, I’m producing a series of reviews of the software, web services, e-books and other online resources I use to manage my business and educate myself.
You can find a listing of all the reviews and links to the products and resources I use in the Resources Section of this website.
AWeber Email Autoresponder
Name: AWeber
Website: www.aweber.com
Purpose: Email autoresponding, list management
I’m starting my review series with probably the most important component, the glue that keeps my business together – my email autoresponder and list builder.
A few people left comments in my recent podcast interview with AWeber CEO Tom Kulzer asking whether the podcast would help them decide to use AWeber or not. It was not intended to be a review of AWeber, rather an insight into the CEO entrepreneur behind the company.
This article is intended to help you reach a decision on whether AWeber is the right email autoresponder for you and whether you need one in the first place.
Before reading on if you have no idea what an email autoresponder is or why you would need one or how you would use one please read my introduction to email autoresponders which you can find at my other blog about Small Business Marketing.
A Brief History
The reason why I first decided I needed an autoresponder was two fold:
- As I educated myself in online business I realized that I needed to build lists of my customers and prospective customers so I could keep in touch and soft-sell my services. Thinking long term, if I wanted to sell my business my customer list would be one of my most valuable assets, so I needed to be collecting the email addresses of my target market from day one.
- My student essay editing business, BetterEdit, was running with a rudimentary text-to-email contact form which I was manually printing to keep contact records. This was not an efficient manner to control my client files and it made it very difficult to email all my clients at once.
I went out looking for an autoresponder and was blown away by Marketers Choice (aka 1shoppingcart). What excited me was how all-inclusive the service was. It includes a shopping cart, autoresponder, affiliate manager, a click-tracker and much more, all linked together. It’s basically the best all-in-one online marketer solution. As you would expect there is a hefty monthly subscription fee broken down into different tiers.
My problem was that I really only needed the autoresponder but I didn’t let that discourage me and figured eventually as my online business empire grew I would make use of all the extra tools. I signed up for the cheapest plan at $29 USD per month and used that for about a year.
A Mini Review Of Marketer’s Choice
I know this is slightly off topic but it should still be relevant for you if you are deciding on which autoresponder to go with because Marketers Choice should be a major contender. There is really only once question you need to ask yourself (and no, it’s not “do you feel lucky, punk!”) –
Do you need just an autoresponder or all the other modules that Marketers Choice comes with?
If you have products you can affiliate sell, if you need an online shopping cart and an autoresponder and you want it all nicely linked together under the one system using the one database then Marketers Choice is for you. It’s a good system, used by some of the top online marketers (including Perry Marshall who I recommend a lot on my blog) and it’s very convenient to have all the services under one roof.
However if you break each module down individually they do have issues. It’s not the most intuitive system to use, although there is extensive documentation and instructional videos when you need help, and I found it a bit “clunky”. As a whole you can’t compare it but when you break it down module by module there are better options out there. This is one of the reasons I eventually decided to switch to AWeber.com.
Why I use AWeber Autoresponders
In a nutshell there were three reasons why I choose to move away from Marketers Choice.
- I wasn’t using all the extra features.
- Therefore I was being overcharged so I wanted a cheaper option.
- I heard good things about another autoresponder called AWeber and I noticed many of the newsletters I signed up for from professional Internet marketers seem to be using AWeber mailing lists. The “street cred” was good.
As usual I did some due diligence first and looked around forums to see what people were saying about AWeber and it was very hard to find a negative comment. Most of it was glaringly positive, in fact it felt in most cases that AWeber was the de facto standard email autoresponder, which only happens when a product keeps its customers very happy.
Email Deliverability
I have no way of proving this, but since I read it in many places from different sources, I’ll mention it here. There is a big concern in email marketing circles about mail deliverability, which refers to whether emails sent (broadcast) to your lists make it through. The problem is a lot of mail servers block mass emails sent out and unless the email responder service provider has pre-arranged to be whitelisted your mail won’t get through. That’s pretty detrimental to any online company.
AWeber has the enviable record of the highest percentage of email deliverability, which means AWeber is doing a pretty good job to make sure your emails make it to your customers. This fact alone is enough of a reason to choose AWeber.com.
Functions
I won’t lie to you, there is a learning curve to using an email autoresponder, but you will find that with any system and you just have to learn your way through. I find AWeber’s system a lot less clunky than Marketers Choice. It’s simple in design with all the core features available through tabs at the top. It took me about an hour of playing with the system to get the hang of it.
One feature that’s not available that I would like to see is a one click back-up of all your mailing lists. I’ve emailed the support crew and it’s apparently on their to-do list, but for the moment backing up is a painfully slow manual process with lots of clicks.
One of the best features is when someone unsubscribes for one of your lists. Yes this is not a good thing but what makes it a good thing is that they are given the opportunity to leave a comment telling you why they choose to leave your list. As a business owner I’m sure you know how valuable feedback like this can be. It’s so nice to know why someone doesn’t find what you do satisfactory and often leads to some big improvements in what you do simply because you didn’t realize there was a problem until someone told you about it.
How I Use AWeber
Currently I use AWeber for all my online promotions and it controls all my email lists. I use it to distribute a Free Report at BetterEdit.com, which collects the email address of any person who downloads the free report and I then keep in contact with a series of autoresponse emails. I also collect the details of anyone who submits the contact form at BetterEdit and of course of all clients that register to use the editing service.
AWeber is behind my latest project, Blog Traffic King. AWeber allows me to distribute my traffic tips newsletter to all my subscribers on a week-by-week basis and I can do once-off broadcasts whenever I need to.
A new feature AWeber recently implemented is an RSS-to-email service. This service is very helpful because I can create an email mailing list for people who want to stay up to date with my blogs via email. I just plug in my RSS feed, tell AWeber how many blog articles to send out in each broadcast and it will automatically control the mailing list. The service is not branded either and I have complete control over the presentation of the broadcast emails which makes it superior to almost all the other RSS to email services out there.
I also have various other small lists to keep in touch with certain groups. It makes it a lot easier to control your email contacts. From a sales point of view it’s a very powerful resource because it keeps you connected with your prospects and clients.
How Technical Is AWeber?
It took me about 1-2 hours collectively to master AWeber. I’m not a programmer but I am very fluent in HTML and online business. AWeber has been built to be as “cut and paste” as possible and you certainly do not need to know HTML to implement it. Most of the interface is simple forms you fill out and once you have a play you will understand how everything works. Of course there is a very good helpdesk and live support if you need it.
If you are not familiar with web basics like online forms you may need help. Read through the instructional materials now and then until you get the hang of it – I did a few times when I first started using the system.
Price
You can find AWeber’s pricing breakdown here. Since I knew I was going to use email lists extensively in the future I chose the yearly option with the heaviest discount (it works out to be $15USD per month). There is a money back guarantee so if I didn’t like the service I knew I could get a refund.
Choosing An Email Autoresponder
I don’t think of email autoresponders as the most complex programs yet they are a vital tool for successful online business. The main considerations for me are email deliverability, reputation and ease of use – AWeber satisfies me on all counts.
I recommend before choosing an autoresponder you do your own due diligence and read forums and ask for opinions from current customers. Narrow down your list of potential providers based on your most important criteria and then test one out. Remember making a purchase doesn’t lock you in, most online companies offer 30 day money back guarantees (just make sure there is one before buying).
*** UPDATE ***
July 2006 – Due to demand AWeber has created a one-step back-up function to back-up all your email list and autoresponder data. Hence the one complaint I had about AWeber is no longer a problem at all!
******
Yaro
Online Marketer
My biggest decision is whether to use 1shoppingcart or aweber; I’ve been holding it off until I’m a little closer to having a saleable product.
Do you think at some point you could do a more extensive review of 1shoppingcart instead of just the mini-review?
Hi Blaine – I’d like to but I’m not qualified to report back on the other features in 1shoppingcart.
I can say quite conclusively if you just want an email autoresponder I AWeber wins hands down over 1shoppingcart.
If you want an affiliate module, click-tracker and shopping cart all linked to your autoresponder than it’s not a comparison, since AWeber only does email autoresponding.
The choice really comes down to your future plans. Remember you can get a shopping cart (I’m using Paypal.com) and an affiliate program (I’m currently choosing this now) and click-tracking (I’m using google adwords for this at the moment) from other sources, it’s just a bit more of a jumble to control this way and you may face compatibility issues.
Since you are just starting you have the luxury of starting fresh. For me, I’m not about to switch companies any time soon because it’s just too much work.
Two Questions:
1. What if one does decide to switch companies, can lists be exported? or at least in some reasonably feasible fashion?
2. Any thoughts on Mailchimp? or knowledge of deliverability? at least for startups with minimal budget…which brings me back to question 1, as startup grows would it be logistically feasible to move?
Thank you!
Carolyn
1. Yes you can bring your list with you, but you should always check with the company you are moving to about their policies importing a list from another company. They may force a double optin again, which is not good, you will lose a lot of subscribers if that is the case. When I moved
2. I’ve never been a fan of mailchimp, but it’s the only service with a free option to get started. If you have a limited budget and AWeber is out of reach, Active Campaign has a $9 entry level service, that is what I would go with in that case.
Yaro
Thanks for the details low down on all of this. I use freeautobot but think I will change having read your review 🙂
Cheers
Dave
http://blog.brightonvibes.com
Great job, Yaro — thanks! I’ll be blogging about your review today in my blog, Attract More Customers.
Here’s a question I haven’t seen answered, either in your review or in AWeber’s Web site. I write and distribute newsletters for several different clients. Does AWeber let me:
(1) maintain multiple mailing lists, and
(2) use a different “from” address for each (e.g., “Bill(at)abccompany.com” and “Frank(at)xyz.net”)?
Thanks again, Yaro!
Tom
Hi Tom, here are some answers…
1. Yes, multiple mailing lists are available. There are some caps but unless you have thousands of lists and tens of thousands of members you won’t hit them. You can always extend your cap if you need to.
2. You can define pretty much all the variables on a per list basis, include the from address and name. You can also control the landing page.
Besides the lack of an easy back-up system I haven’t been left wanting yet with AWeber.
Thanks for the in depth review. I’d used PHPlist on my own server up to now, but it looks like AWeber will probably be a better solution for me, and well worth the money.
I’m a relatively new reader to your blog, so thanks for all the great information.
I would agree that a mailing list is at very important to a long term online busines.
How about the autoresponders that are usually included is the mail by a web host. Do these offer any functionality? How about some of the pugins for blogs?
Continuing with Tom’s question:
I notice you can keep multiple lists and allow people to opt out of one or another on the fly. If you are using two different companies but want only one account, can you make it so that somebody only sees one or the other but not both at the same time, even if they belong to both lists for some reason? And if you can, is it selective or just on/off? Like, I have two lists that act normally with one company but one list I want on it’s own?
James- those autoresponders you get with hosting accounts are very limited. They usually let you set up a bounce message and that’s it.
With a proper autoresponder you can send back unlimited follow up emails at any time interval you desire. There really is no comparison.
Blaine – I don’t understand your question – do you mean only show one list on the unsubscribe page?
Let me see if I can explain it better.
Right now, if somebody unsubscribes from one of your lists, they will be given the option to unsubscribe from your blog traffic king series, or from your RSS to email “series”, or from both.
Let’s say you want to set up another series for small business branding, but for whatever reason you don’t want that series to appear along with your other two. Is that possible?
If it is, can it be set so that you could have two SBB series going that show up together on the unsubscribe page, but which don’t show up with your E-J or BTK series?
Hi Blaine,
AWeber offers users unsubscribe options only for the lists they are subscribed to.
There are a couple of settings you can play with in AWeber to control what unsubscribe options users see but it’s not a very in-depth area of the system – I think you can only choose to make either “unsubscribe from everything you are on” or “only unsubscribe from this list” options…if that makes sense.
Hope that helps!
Thanks, that makes sense and is what I assumed would be the case.
Hi – what I am struggling with for an autoresponder and opt-in list is authentication. When a user signs up for an aWeber list via a web form, aWeber recommends that webmasters require the visitor to confirm their “opt-in” status via an authentication email. According to their phone sales/support, they plan to make that requirement mandatory soon (to keep that deliverability number you talked about in your article and stay off the spam lists I assume).
Anyway, I want users to be able to sign up for the opt-in list when they register as members of my site or forum which also requires email athentication. It would be best if there was a way to integrate authentication for a website membership registration and the aWeber mailing list registration. i.e. doing it with one email. The only way I can think of is parsing the email you get from aWeber when someone joins the aWeber list and using that to confirm registrations on the main website host server. Anyway, maybe I am getting too detailed and speicfic here, but I have been struggling to find a simple, all-in-one solutoin for website/forum/email list registration and authentication.
Hi Leonard – yes I have been grappling with a similar problem regarding how to have people sing-up to an AWeber mailing list at the same time as they join a membership site or similar two-services, one-form needs.
At the moment it’s beyond my abilities but apparently there are ways to parse information through to multiple scripts and get things like this done, however unless you have one system that does it all (and it’s not exactly easy to replicate the level of service you get from AWeber in terms of deliverability) it’s hard.
I think it will only get harder too as autoresponder providers have to work harder to make sure emails get through.
At the moment I’m just having any of my members sign up for the members AWeber list simply by asking them after they have joined. It may be a two step process but it’s a clean solution, and the best I can come up with for the moment.
So it seems, aweber is hands down the best? Getresponse seems to be challenging aweber in terms of functionality, there is a comparison on the getresponse website that makes their service look very very good.
Does anyone have comments/experience with both to reach to a conclusion as to which is “better” of the two?
Thanks.
Yes, I do have the common problems faced by people, either Marketerchoice or Aweber. I just confirm my decision lately to use Aweber due to the fact that I dont use all the features that offer by Marketer Choice for the time being. Although I am convience that I need a good autoresponder or more than just an autoresponder fro long term. I have tried GetResponse before, I don’t like it being the fact they r too much adverts.
Thanks GOD it take me about 2 hours to get familiar with Aweber. I really like about the features in Aweber. I save about $10 monthly, which is about 30% off…. not bad.
I also had the same dilemma between 1shoppingcart and aweber. Cost was a major issue on the 1shoppingcart side. I liked the whole 1shoppingcart system but had to pay $79 a month at 1shoppingcart to use the features I needed. But not only that, because I needed to sell my products in both USD and Australian dollars I had to have two 1shoppingcart accounts. One for USD one for AUD. The AUD one I could come back to Australia through the payment gateway eWay. The USD shoppingcart I hooked up to 2Checkout.com to process the money and put in my Australian bank account to save setting up a USD bank account to do directly from 1shoppingcart. The reason I had to keep 1shoppingcart for this was so I could easily transfer autoresponders and mailing lists etc between accounts. Nevertheless in a quite month USD $189 per month was just too much when I was using one 1shoppingcart account fully and the other partly. Thank you for your article as I now need an affiliate program and email marketing program.
I have found after some research that I would agree that Aweber offers the best *hosted* autoresponder value out there. There are some software (client-side) applications that convincingly say they have more and better features, but they’re not Internet-based.
The question is, do you want to be trying to run an autoresponder, when you’re away from the office, through the Internet, or through software on your computer and some remote access service? There is some convenience to being on the Internet, and being able to manage your programs from wherever you are — regardless of whether your main computer is awake or you’re carrying your laptop with you…
I’m not very technical, so Marketer’s Choice is not a fit for me. Thanks for your confirmation of that. But I don’t want to stitch a bunch of services together, so I kind of like the comprehensiveness of 1shoppingcart.com. A review of that vs. Aweber by someone who’s tried both would be good to find. Any suggestions from anyone?
I personally don’t think it’s valid to actually compare AWeber to 1shoppingcart. AWeber isn’t an all-in-one solution so in that regard 1shoppingcart is far superior.
If you compare just the autoresponder component of 1shoppingcart with AWeber then AWeber is superior.
Thirdsphere I believe is a more fare comparison to 1shoppingcart since it has the same style of features although I have never used thirdsphere so I cant compare.
Yaro,
Great article. I have just one question, what did you mean when you said that you just tell the RSS how many blogs to send out, and it will send to e-mail list as well? How does that work? Are you saying that you don’t have to send out mass e-mails anymore due to using RSS? Thank you!
MJ
Hi MJ,
AWeber has an RSS read function which means you can input an RSS feed into an autoresponder and whenever X articles are added to the RSS feed it will send out a broadcast to the email list. This blog uses the function to power the email subscription service.
AWeber also has the reverse – an RSS feed you can subscribe to for any autoresponder you create.
I hope that clarifies things for you.
Yaro
Gold is in your mailing list, I would definitely recommend aweber as it fits in the budget as well.
re: AWeber has the enviable record of the highest percentage of email deliverability, which means AWeber is doing a pretty good job to make sure your emails make it to your customers. This fact alone is enough of a reason to choose AWeber.com.
The statement that aweber has the enviable record of the highest percentage of email deliverability is factually incorrect. Aweber claims that and nothing more. No reputable third-party has ever verified this. The fact is that using Aweber could do the opposite. For myself, I cannot use any company email to subscribe to anyone’s newsletter that uses Aweber due to its servers being on a blacklist. I have heard the same thing from other people as well. Highest deliverability rate to subscriber’s junk or spam folder is more likely. The fact that major isps use reputation more then content now is another concern as well.
Think about it logically for a second. Do actually think a person can get a ton of spam complaints, use broken html, send irrelevant messages, have a bounce rate of 2-5% or more, and still get high deliverability that aweber claims for all clients? Good deliverability is not just based on your esp. Just some thoughts to ponder. You may want to invest a little more in your email marketing. You get what you pay for when it comes to email service providers.
Here are some characteristics of aweber users including top internet marketers
*misspellings of common spam words or use of other characters in place of letters – long known tactic of spammers
*burying of unsubscribe link with 10 or more line breaks – more spam complaints for those don’t see the unsubscribe link
*misleading subject lines to get more opens – known spam tactic
I have a web developer helping me build a simple membership site. He likes Joomla, and they have an autoresponder program called AcaJoom, which I bought. Previously, I bought aWeber and aMember. I want to have my paid members begin to receive an ecourse by autoresponder once they sign up via credit card through PayPal. There’s also a forum and a blog. Any advice on getting the best results from the programs above? Thanks.
Hey Barry – I haven’t used most of those programs so sorry, no advice here. You might want to try asking around in forums related to Joomla.
I’ve been looking at Constant contact and others. I’ve got a somewhat large, (5,000) mailing list, but it is old, and probably most of the contact aren’t good anymore. I’ve got Gammadyne Mailer, but its a hassle. What I’d really like is to send out an email to the old list and encourage them to re-sign up to my new list and start again on one of my new lists ( I’ve got three blogs)…. Could I do that with this program?
Hey Michelle – Yes you could do that, just don’t expect a huge opt in rate, you may lose as much as 75% of your list.
You can contact AWeber and ask about sending an opt in request to your current list asking them to join your new AWeber list, however it’s smarter if you just send an invite out yourself personally using your current email broadcast software, that way you can tailor a compelling message to get them to opt in to your new list – perhaps offer them an incentive of some kind.
Hi Yaro
Thank you for this article. There is integration option in AWEBER that is from aweber subscription to feedburner. Is is possible to do with any other autoresponder facility?
Ok Yaro, I was soooo resistant to getting AWeber. Really, I didn’t want to spend the money, the time. I kept trying to get my old program to work and figure out a way to get my list going without spending more money. Then I thought, wait a minute, since I’m spending to be part of Blog Mastermind, I might as well follow what Yaro says. sooo….
…..I bought a subscription and I’ve been playing with it on one of my blogs for a couple of days and of course, I LOVE IT!… Totally cool program. Easy to figure out, easy to test. I can’t wait to implement all the features. As usual Yaro – a big Thank You!
Great review as usual Yaro. After using Aweber for 6 months, I have decided to write my own review. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with Aweber. I will try to use it more often within 2008. I’d really appreciate if you can post more about your email marketing experiences, case studies, etc.
Thanks again
Kirtok
I signed up with Aweber and put a web form on my web site. Then I discovered that some people with Explorer 7 were getting a message that my site was a “Suspicious Website”. It depends on their security settings. Aweber says “I apologize, this is not something that we can control unfortunately. It sometimes is caused by placing and external javascript on web pages.”
This is NOT a good thing!!! Is anyone else reporting this problem? Anyone come up with a fix?
I tried Get Response but didn’t like all the self-promotion it put in the web form and popups.
I tried Third Sphere, but they have a limit of 1,000 email addresses.
Any other suggestions? I would really like a web-based all-in-one with autoresponders, digital and affiliate program capabilities.
Thanks
Thanks for the details low down on all of this. I use freeautobot but think I will change having read your review
Zaiful Zin
Aweber or Constant Contact?
Trying to figure out the best solution.
I really like the idea of using AWeber and using an ebook to get some subscriptions. My question: should you just offer only one ebook or do something like Itunes and give an ebook out only to subscribers throughout the year?
I’ve used AWeber myself for a long time and agree with all your points Yaro.
You really can’t go wrong with their service and is well worth the money for all the tools you gain access to.
I have tried about a dozen different autoresponders in my time and Aweber is the winner in my mind. As a marketer I know for a fact that they have one of the lowest reversal rates which speaks volumes in my mind. Still I dont believe there delivery rate is accurate.
I looked at aweber and am leaning towards using it because of this review and because Perry Marshall uses it also. However, I am not sure if it can integrate with a joomla site. Anyone have experience with this?
I agree with Yaro in the comparisons of 1ShoppingCart and Aweber. Having used both, Aweber fits the practicality of my small business.
Thanks for the heads up about the RSS. I’ll go get more info about it. What I’m really interested in is the script(?) that runs at the very top of this page. How is that done?
Thanks.
Houston
http://voicelessons4singing.com/
Yaro I wanted to give you an update which amends your review of 1SC vs 1AW in regards to Email Deliverability. You said that aweber had superior email deliverability and that was a factual statement – in 2006.
However you need to let your readers know that it’s just not the case any longer and hasn’t been for a while now.
It’s true that aweber did have great email deliverability, and still do – but they are not superior to 1SC or 1SC’s partner web sites.
1SC and it’s private label partners because a 2x optin verified provider in early 2007 and the game changed.
Currently 1SC consistently shows confirmed email deliverability rates of 98% on it’s 2x opin servers. Statistically that’s the very best any email provider can achieve.
So while aweber is a great service with great deliverability, they by far aren’t the only autoresponder service out with excellent email deliverability rates.
Thanks 😉
I love all of the comments here .! Yaro, I have purchased something from you a while ago and believe in your products.
Keep up the good work !
David Lee
I don’t have aweber but have been thinking about it. Thanks for an honest review.
I used Aweber for years… and they were fine. There support was always really very good. I was really sad to learn that they do not offer API support so I had to switch. With API support (and a good freelance programmer) you are able to integrate email capture into a *lot* more things than just a newsletter sign-up or opt-in box. You can also call your list from other applications which makes analytics much easier and more meaningful. There are several companies that offer API support. I don’t want to link drop here, so if you are interested Google it, or drop me a line.
Hello Dan Hughes,
Please share with me what other companies provide API support. Truly grateful. Been searching for the best email manager, like aweber.
Blessings,
Kurt Wagner
What about free options for autoresponders–freeautobot, razorbot, etc.? Have you tried using those prior to Aweber?
Aweber has a good system, but like many big companies, they tend to deny that there are any flaws in their service. There were several days that I noticed Aweber’s web site was unreliable. On one of those days, it started having problems right after I imported a large list, about 4000 names. This meant my subscribers couldn’t confirm their subscription. After a week, less than 4% of my list had confirmed. I contacted Aweber, and they admitted the website was having problems, but denied that this had any impact on the service. I understand that errors can happen, but I expect for them to be honest about it and try to make up for the problem in some way. Anyway, just be aware that this is another big impersonal company that is good at appearing friendly, until you have a real problem.
Hello everyone, and especially Yaro!
Thank for all these great tips, I am planning to subscribe to AWeber because of this review. Now my question is: AWeber is a good tool as an Email autoresponder, but is there another automation software that you need to use when a customer decides to purchase your product? Is there a software that recognizes the sale and forwards the product? Thanks for all the help!
Karl
Yes, you can use DLguard with aweber.
All the best,
Franck
Have you found any issues with importing existing lists due to the double opt in policy? Have you had any mass unsubscribes when importing these “older” contacts and needing them to resubscribe?
I am using Aweber, too. I have to say this service is great for email marketing advertising. Nice statistics and analysing tools.
Cheers,
Volksphone!
I am getting spammed through my AWeber email address – I will end up “paying” for these sign ups should they follow through the opt in. Can I make my …@aweber.com email addresses disfunctional/inactive as I don’t use them. This is cause for great concern.
Danie
AT the end of the day, what you pay for is what you get….
my first autoresponder was a free one…
and i was shocked to find that they actually sent XTRA emails with their own ads…
my second cost me $5 – but it was spartan, and deliverability was poor.
then i tried a slightly better one, but still lacked some of the professional tracking that internet marketing requires…
so eventually, aweber was the only logical choice…
just my 0.02c
peter
Four years on and Aweber still dominates. That is an eternity in internet time, and testimonial to how good they are at what they do. I will not recommend anybody else, ever.
I totally agree that aweber is the best among the other Autoresponders.2 days ago i was directed to a mail service(an ads or e-mail,can not remember)they had no autoresponder,just collecting emails and send them.And surprisingly their price was about the sama aweber.So i can say that aweber worths the money we pay.
Great information,thanks.
Between the many worlds of autorepsonders
it’s really a great idea to take advantage of the
trial offers that they offer. But overall one has to
have an agenda and understand autoresponders.
I’ve used Constant Contact, 1ShoppingCart and
Aweber. Just to name a few and they all have
their benefits.
The best benefit to look at when selecting your
autoresponder is your growth. For example, I
believe as your list grows so does your monthly
fees with Aweber. As for 1ShoppingCart it’s a
flat monthly fee with up to 10,000 subscribers.
I’ve seen my colleagues not mail because it cost
them X amount for the number of subscribers. They
don’t want to waste mailings on those who don’t ever
open their messages. Big mistake.
Do your research thoroughly, include growth and
add on fees.
Have an excellent week!
I’m on aweber. However, I got grandfathered in at much lower prices.
Guess what though?
They don’t update any of my features on the old prices. Even though I still pay them every month, if I want any updates I have to pay them 7x as much money every month.
And when I tried to post this annoyance on their blog, they removed it. So… I wouldn’t trust any company that filters negative comments.
Conclusion: Aweber is lame. They treat you bad as a customer.
Well done. I using PHPlist-WP now, and i need using thing just like that yet.
I love this blog also, so thanks for all.
Regards
I finally decided to set up Aweber right today.
Thanks for the info, Yaro.
does aweber allow sending to mail groups or yahoogroups? or generic email addresses such as sales@? i know some autoresponders don’t allow this.
Saw that no one answered your question.
as far as I know, anyone that signs up to your list is able to receive emails from you. I signed up with one of my emails like that and i got emails.
Aweber really is a great service and their email deliverability is excellent. Unfortunately they are very quick to pull the plug on your account if somehow you are perceived as violating their TOS. It has happened to a number of marketers including me. I prefer to run my own scripts and use other paid autoresponder services who seem to value my business more. There is a lot you can do on your own to improve email deliverability. I have learned not to put all my eggs in one basket. Too bad because I really liked Aweber.
I have been looking into Aweber and seems to get positive reviews. I guess the only way to see how good it is, is to sign up and check it out.
Yea I would use aWeber if I were you.. I used icontact for a while and upgraded but after sending out a few email blasts, i ran into a cap where either I stop sending emails of pay per email that i’m sending out.
aWeber doesn’t have a cap on messages you can send out. Of course you have to use common sense when having a list because they will cancel your account. Great way to make money though
i have read and did not understand very well about the opt.. I want to send bulk emails and i don’t have my own smtp..
If we are creating niche websites so that we have multiple domain names to create multiple websites, I am wondering what autoresponder service to use? If I were to sign up for aweber it would cost me a thousand dollars a year to have an autoresponder for each of my five current sites. There must be a solution to this problem, do you have an answer for this? Lee
I have a complaint against AWeber that you should know about. They cancelled my account without warning because of bounce-backs. Bounce-backs are email addresses you put into the responder as given to you by the customer on your website, but bounces back as a wrong/incorrect address. They do not warn you that the addresses are bouncing back. I do not think their policy is just as they cancel your account without giving you a chance to correct the problem. However, what they expect is for you to be able to “read minds” or have “ESP” to know the email addresses were put on your website incorrectly. There is no way for the consumer to win at Aweber. You are cancelled and they refuse to listen to any type of an appeal. Then they assume you would try and sign up with them under a different name. And further assume you would use these names at another autoresponder company. They certainly do not show compassion for the business owner who in fact is the VICTIM not only via the bad email address but cancelled by AWEber constituting being another VICTIM. They then report your email address publicly like a criminal for giving them “bounce-backs”. Definitely going to see about my rights being violated and reporting them to the FTC. No one should be treated like this for something out of their control. Sorry I used to like them until this happened. This is terrible. 🙁
Now i have to change my Mind. I have decided to use MailChimp but after reading your post only aweber and aweber 😀
Thanks.
I have been trying to convince myself to try something like this – turning my passion into business. But I really don’t have an idea and how to start. Probably I can start by using Aweber and your wise advice.
Does Aweber offer list or is it bring your own only? Thanks
You have to build your own Cderoche, by creating value and offering a reason to join your list.
Wow what an awesome review! When I started blogging I have heard AWEBER name regularly but now after reading your review I came to know that what it is and how it works! Thanks for this awesome post. Now, In future I will go with aweber only 😀
Hi Yaro,
What are your thoughts on GetResponse? I have been using this autoresponder for a few years but wondered if I should switch to Aweber as it seems to be more popular
GetResponse has been around for years. They often felt like the little brother to aweber when I first started my newsletter. They were actually a long term sponsor of this blog during the first few years.
I don’t actually know much about the difference between the two services but I doubt there is a major reason to swap if you are all set up with GetResponse.
Yaro
Hi Yaro
Nice blog you have, and great articles, I just landed on your page and now thinking why I was not here 2 years back. Now that I have thought to start blogging seriously and make money as I have seen people around me doing that. Just One question, If I don’t have any email list now with me, then shall I wait for some time and then start with Aweber or just start Now !!!
Thanks
-Subhash
Simple answer – Now!
Yaro
Hi Yaro,
Aweber is so popular but i use Mailchimp. Thanks for sharing.
I am not as yet techno-savvy as you are.Are you prepared to answer all the stupid questions that i might have for you?
Believe me GetResponse is much better than Aweber!
Dear Yaro,
Thanks for the great and in-depth review on Aweber. I got new insights from your review on the product and very helpful. Reading reviews will help us to know about the products and will save our time. Thanks for helping many people via your review. Keep up the great work I will come back to your website to learn more information. Wishing you all success!
Your Friend,
Paul