The Business of Software

Hi,

I'm looking at adding the option of having people subscribe their email address to my blog so that they can receive regular emails when new articles are posted (about once a week). I understand an RSS feed can also do this however its not a viable option for me because my target audience is less likely to be technically sophisticaded. Email is probably my best option.

In any case, what do people here use to do this? For example, Joel has this option on his website at the bottom of every article. How does he do it?

Do you use a service? If so which ones do you recommend? Do you send them out directly from email server through a script or some softaware application? If so which one? Did you write the script in-house?

Also, how do you prevent the your newsletter emails from being misinterpreted as spam? I'd just like to send them out with just the title and the article teaser with a link to the article as the content to let them know there's a new article.

Regards,
Stephane Grenier
http://www.FollowSteph.com
http://www.LandlordMax.com

I have never used their service but Campaign Monitor is a well respected name, I hear. The owner of the product hangs out here. 37signals, Userscape uses them for their mailings.

What's their link?

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/

Interview with the Owner of CM:

http://www.workhappy.net/2005/08/interview_with_.html

Aweber.com is a great service.  And if you provide a RSS feed, people can subscribe to that and get it in their email.

I used http://www.campaignmonitor.com/ for all the newsletters I sent out when starting up my business.

It's a great product and the rates are very good.

Joel's site uses http://whatcounts.com

I'm using http://mailermailer.com their free version may be all you need.

im i missing something? whats wrong or hard about doign a homegrown version?

Just look at all the features these other services come with.

I want all these features, and it probably is a bad decision to spend a week or more developing a system with all the add-ons the paid services have.

I'd like to see an article from Joel or one of the other experienced programmers/business persons on these boards about when to go home-grown and when to pay for service.  I know my theories, but I'd love to hear those of others.

http://www.feedblitz.com

pablo:  Its all about cost effectiveness.  For many, why spend the time developing something that you can purchase (or download for free).

Another key factor is the spam issue.  Many of the big services are knowledgable about the spam factors, and they can help send your content to your thousands of subscribers w/out getting you blacklisted.

Rolling your own can lead your host to shut you down. Or get you blacklisted.  Even if your legit, if you don't do things right, you can get in trouble.  Its just easier to pay for someone else to handle things.

Hi,

Thank you everyone for the great feedback! I think that the most interesting solution for me looks like it will be http://www.CampaignMonitor.com

Regards,
Stephane Grenier
http://www.FollowSteph.com
http://www.LandlordMax.com