This resource came recommended by the previous article... I think I'm going to give it a try. Quoting from that article:
What Does it Cost?
Free to setup and comes with 25 free email credits to try. After that 3 cents per email (unless you are sending thousands in which case the price drops). What this means is if you are emailing 200 clients a month you’ll be spending $6 a month. In other words getting one job a year from your emails would pay for all of them!Technical Knowledge Needed?
A very simple interface that you can learn in one sitting. As with any new application there is a bit of looking around but MailChimp provides a walk through and some helpful information. Overall you just follow their wizards and you shouldn’t have any troubles.Advantages:
- Simple Interface providing a LOT of options
- Built in template designer, you don’t need to know any HTML and you can drop in images and make your email look very professional without any design skill
- Detailed Reporting on how your campaign went
- They provide an HTML signup box that you can drop in to your website for people to join your mailing list
- Good Mailing List Management (handles unsubscribes and imports etc)
- Sends multipart emails (text and HTML so no-one misses out)
- …. WAAY More Features than you can shake a monkey fist at
Disadvantages:
- Although you can track ‘opens’ and ‘link-follows’ apparently you have to pay $99 extra for it
- You can’t set up an account without a “Work” email address, i.e. a personalised domain. Addresses like @aol, @earthlink, @hotmail are not accepted. For most this is not a big deal, but it could be an extra hitch for some…
