I'm looking for software to do a task and getting a bewildering number of options.
There is an industry group of approximately 200 email addresses to send individual emails to once a week for a few months. The recipient needs to be able to reply and also download documents linked in the email.
A small group at different locations needs to answer the emails.
On Mon, 31 May 2010 05:36:26 -0500, "Karl Townsend" wrote the following:
I wouldn't want to risk my own hosting (potential spamsuits) so I'd farm it out to a reputable bulk email service. The least spam has come to me via Constant Contact.
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Bulk Email: Never done it, never will.
-- A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and of vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. -- Ann Radcliffe
Karl, I wouldn't do it at all. Pushing content is impolite and reduces your message to spam, regardless of content value. It invades perceived personal space and invokes exactly the opposite response you seek. I would post your content on a website and ask your intended audience to pull your data. I assure you this method will be far more successful, because no one else does it. Steve
individual emails to once a week for a few months. The
On Mon, 31 May 2010 05:36:26 -0500, Karl Townsend wrote: ...
You could use mailing list software like gnu Mailman, or some of the others listed at
or PHPmailer, and
A "mailing list" as managed by mailman, listserv, or majordomo is not one-way bulk email like spam, but instead is two-way communication. Participants can respond to the list (ie, responses go out to all subscribers) or to the list manager (ie, to the software managing the list, to set options like digest vs individual messages).
Using is also a possibility, and probably would be among the easiest to set up. It provides a web interface and mail options. Eg, has the following "Group Settings", most of which can be changed by the list owner for more or less group privacy. Files, photos, etc can be set for public or private access. * Membership requires approval * Messages from new members require approval * All members can post messages * Email attachments are archived on site. * Members cannot hide email address * Listed in directory and individual-settings options include: * Individual Email - "get each group message and special notice individually and immediately, as it is posted." * Daily Digest - "see all messages but limit the amount of email you receive ... an email of up to 25 messages [at once]" * Special Notices - Receive only important email notices from the group moderator. * Web Only - Don't get notified of the latest happenings. Read messages only on the web.
On 05/31/2010 09:10 AM, Steve Lusardi wrote: (top posting fixed)
That depends on whether the folks in question know it's coming and welcome it. I'm a member of an industry group that has a mailing list, and I welcome the mail because it's all from people I know and has content that I care about.
Even if you're sending out a bulk mailing it's still OK in my book -- as long as you send out one or two emails, and their content is to let the recipient know how to opt-in to the _real_ content!
I've spent a life time becoming well known in my industry. Now, an issue has come up that all members need to be well informed on. I want to give them all the same story by email and have more information available. This ain't spam.
======= If you have a server available, consider setting up a subscription/by invitation only listserv. Old technology but may be what you need.
for some freeware/shareware see:
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was freeware from 1986 through 1993 and is now a commercial product developed by L-Soft, a company founded by LISTSERV author Eric Thomas in 1994.[2] A free version limited to 10 lists of up to 500 subscribers each can be downloaded from the company?s web site.
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-- Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).
You have outlook express. All you need to do write the email with the links to the website. When addressing the email place all the email addresses in the "BCC" box instead of the "TO" box. (BCC is Blind Carbon Copy which means everyone gets the mail but don't get the list of other recipients emails)
On Tue, 1 Jun 2010 09:55:54 -0400, "Robert" wrote the following:
Mass mailings with your own host and email address are a disaster waiting to happen. I strongly recommend against it.
-- A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and of vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. -- Ann Radcliffe
You may want to call your ISP and tell them what you're doing. It is not uncommon to throttle outgoing emails at a couple of hundred a day (for a residential account) in order to reduce the effect of a client's computer having been turned into a spambot.
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