Comments on: Creating an email newsletter

By: Sign up, sign up: as if you have a choice | DavePress

[...] little while ago I threatened to start an email newsletter service. Well, I am finally getting to grips with [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:45:04 +0000

@Shane – very kind offer, might take you up on it. Maybe you could show me it at Bathcamp

@Matthew – have signed up for a Mailbuild account and am having a play – lots of people have kind things to say about you guys!

@Political Penguin – thanks for the tips, will check ‘em out. Interesting blog you have there, btw!

@Paul – will do another post on this I think once I have had a go at a few of the services, will include pricing in the roundup (and I have you on my list!)

@MJ – purely down to my half-assed attempts at researching. Will follow up those leads.

@Michael – thanks for the tips and will add you to the list of course! Let’s hope the content is up to scratch….

By: Michael Waugaman

Michael Waugaman — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:44:26 +0000

a) yes, please add me to the list to receive the crumbs of your wisdom

b) it might be worth having a look at mailchimp.com – easy to set up, quick to learn and pretty cheap to use. also has html/text option and allows recipients to sign up or even unsubscribe v easily

c) as ever your instincts are spot on – content is king, not the delivery vehicle.

By: MJ Ray

MJ Ray — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:03:22 +0000

Why is Mailman the only self-hosted option there? It’s popular, but as you note, it’s not particularly user-friendly and I’d go so far as to say it’s not properly free and open source software (I submitted a bugfix years ago and the bug still exists). I’m using mlmmj at work (simple but easy and it’s connected to my web hosting control panel), but I think sympa, lyris and Enemies of Carlotta are other popular options.

There are also some Wordpress add-ons for newsletters, but I’ve not looked at them recently.

By: Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:56:33 +0000

please add me to the mailing list too. by the way can you give some idea of what the costs are of the non-free options?

By: Political Penguin

Political Penguin — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:19:16 +0000

PHP Mailer/PHP List. Both free open source and can be plugged into Wordpress. Check compatibility with your webhosts settings first though.

By: Mathew Patterson

Mathew Patterson — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:57:31 +0000

Hey Dave,

Mathew from MailBuild (and Campaign Monitor) here. If you need any help with either of our newsletter sending systems, just fire me an email.

The difference between them: With Campaign Monitor you can import a complete HTML page and send it. With MailBuild you build templates and then can add content and send them through the application.

Both are free to try out, and actually pretty quick to setup. Check http://www.campaignmonitor.com/movies/intro.html

By: Shane McCracken

Shane McCracken — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:28:16 +0000

We’ve been trialling Constant Contact. Let me know if you want access to test it.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:54:27 +0000

Andy – Heh, as I read somewhere recently, imagine how stupid the average person is. Then consider that half the population are more stupid than that. How depressing!

Tracey – pleased to be of help. I’ll stick you on my list!

By: Tracey Todhunter

Tracey Todhunter — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:50:04 +0000

I’ve been having exactly the same thoughts regarding the low carbon communities network, currently doing all the mailings manually which takes forever, as a non techie I wasn’t really aware of the other options out there so now I can go and explore. Stick me on your mailing list too please, sounds like it will be really useful to me!