You may have heard me speak or write about how email advertising still reigns in terms of return on investment (ROI), and you wanted to try making some money from your list of contacts. Please, don’t make the error of using your PC to send your email marketing messages! Same goes for using any web mail service, such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or MSN.

PC programs such as Outlook, Eudora, Apple Mail or online email services may be free to use, but they were not designed to send bulk email messages such as newsletters and e-flyers.

Most Internet Service Providers (ISP), and most online email services limit the number of recipients that you can use in any single email message. This means that, depending on the size of your list, it may take you several sends to complete the “blast”.

If you’re using your own email program to send your e-newsletter you don’t, for the most part, have no idea what happens to your beautiful creation once it leaves your computer. You don’t really know if your audience receives your messages, if they open them, if they click on any links that are included in the content, etc.

If you work in Canada, the US, or any country that has a modern “anti-spam” law, the easiest way to play by the rules of opt in email marketing is to use an Email Service Provider (ESP). All these companies do all day is send permission based email marketing messages on behalf of their clients.

I highly recommend one such service: MadMimi. You can even use their service for free for as long as you have fewer than 100 email contacts. MadMimi’s email marketing software is an online service you pay for monthly based on the size of your list. For example, if you have 1,000 contacts your monthly cost will be only US$10. Their pricing is typically 20%-50% lower than their competition (such as iContact, Aweber, or GetResponse). Admittedly, these other services offer more features, but have a higher learning curve, or cost more, or both.

I’ve used about a dozen or so ESPs over the years, but have been recommending MadMimi for their superior customer service and extreme ease of use. If you’re able to use a computer so send regular emails, you’ll be up and running with MadMimi in minutes.

To learn more about email marketing best practises visit my Email Marketing Blog.

Q: Adam from Manchester, U.K., sent in this note:

“I am having a hard time figuring out how to deal with a high percentage of people who come to my web site, signup for my e-zine but never confirm their email address. Sometimes this is as high as 60% of total subscribers. Since I am using the recommended double opt-in process, I don’t know what I can do to have most of my subscribers confirm their address.”

A: Actually, Adam is not alone in this. I have received messages from several subscribers that are experiencing the same problem.

Let’s first examine why this is happening. When I visited Adam’s web site, and subscribed to his e-newsletter I noticed that after clicking the submit button, I was taken to a generic web page, provided by his Email Service Provider (ESP). The page simply said “Thank you for subscribing.”

Please read the rest of this article on my email marketing consulting blog, or leave a comment or ask a question here.