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Are you on an email list you enjoy? Ever wonder how they do that? They are using an email list server. Do you have a list of people you forward jokes to? Maybe you raise dogs and would like to send updated reports on available pet items to your clients. Instead of trying to manage all these addresses yourself, you can start your own e-mail list. An email list can be in the form of a newsletter or sales flyer. It could also be a discussion group where anyone who is a member can post. It basically is a group of people to whom you'll want to send repeat emails, whether daily, weekly or monthly. There are several free services out there that host this list of people for you, and allow you to manage it without cluttering up your personal email program. Listbot.com is one of the oldest, most reliable, and easiest email list managers around. Place a link right on your webpage so visitors can click and join. They do place ads in the bottom of your posts for their service. One downfall is that you cannot add people to your list manually, they must "opt in", or choose to join voluntarily. It will however send out an invitation for them to join with a simple reply form. It also allows you to collect demographics on your members. Yahoo has taken over Egroups.com. It offers automatic subscribing and unsubscribing for your members, a group calendar, polls, and more. Choose colors for your group's homepage on the web. It's one of the more simple to use, and integrates with other Yahoo features. Topica.com is one of the most versatile. You can write the item in your own email program, then send it to your posting address to send it to everyone on your list. Or, use the form available on their website to type up your letter. It allows you to enter a list of addresses from your current email program as well. Freelists.org offers a free mailing list group for technology focused organizations. For example, if your group is about taking vacation photos with your digital cam or your website about stereo equipment, you probably qualify! Host your own newsletters, discussion groups, and user groups all from one place. There are no advertisements on this one, but you must be technology related in some small way. Coollist.com is so easy, even newbies love it. Not too many features but who needs all that? Create a group for your friends to exchange pictures, or join one of the other lists. Many of these services will attach advertisements to your posts. This is how they pay for the cost of running the service. If this matters to you, find out what types of ads will be used before signing up. Also you should send a test message to yourself before opening it up to the public so you can see what your posts will look like. Some will allow you to continue editing your messages in your normal email program (such as Outlook Express) and use wallpaper and special fonts. Others however, only support plain text. There are so many possible uses for mail list software. For even more choices, type "mailing list" into any search engine and scan the results for free hosting services. If you do start one, please let me know about it. Happy computing! |
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